Dave47tuc is right - Alcohol dilates your pupils - not good for viewing

davidpretorius · #1 11-02-2006, 02:38 PM

Well, it was my birthday yesterday. plus we had a proam golf day. I had planned to keep it pretty clean as 5am the next morning promised to be pretty good on the astronomy front. So played my golf, played lousy (it had been a year) 21 stableford points to be exact, but enjoyed being out there with my brother. There was a wine tasting afterwards and again i was very clean and only tried a few. 7-30pm, the brother and another guy who is making the trip to melbourne with us to see u2, mentioned that there was a u2 cover band playing at our local yealy food and wine extravaganza, so ring the lovely wife, get a leave pass and off we go.

Well, this cover band in the outdoor arena were great, between losing my voice and drinking beer, i watch orion transit. On the way home in a cab at 2am, i kept shouting to the guys, there jupiter theres jupiter!!!

Fall out of the cab, fumble with the front door for a full 10 minutes and then proceed downstairs to get the scope out. I managed to attach the battery and get it going, but kept banging my eyeball on the 25mm eyepiece. There was no way in hell i could even come close to focussing, the swaying of my head was not helping.

I think that the stars weren't twinkling.. not sure to be honest!

Anyway, leave the scope out to cool, and head on up to dribble nonsense to my lovely wife who was wandering what all the noise was??

Set the alarm for 5am, get up and thank god it was cloudy, back to bed and then fell out at 12.30pm. I am about to attempt a shower.

So, Dave47tuc was right, alcohol is not good for your eyes when viewing....they get hurt as your head keeps swaying and hitting the eyepiece!!!!

mickoking · #2 11-02-2006, 04:05 PM

I,ve tried observing tanked, no good

Grog and stars don't mix sad but true.

GTB_an_Owl (Geoff) · #3 11-02-2006, 04:48 PM

then how do they get all that glass to make our mirrors?
i was told it was from melting down our empty beer bottles!

and being one that likes to contribute.......

davidpretorius · #4 11-02-2006, 05:02 PM

it also has just come to me, i had my secondary out for cleaning and i had bought john b's sight tube, so in that state, i attached the secondary mirror......

when i was younger and drunk, you believe you are gods gift to women, but now i am older, i think i can assemble an expensive piece of optics............

no wonder my wife shakes her head!!!

cjmarsh81 · #5 11-02-2006, 05:17 PM

You lucky you didn't drop it in on the primary in your condition. Could have been a rather costly mistake. Maybe we should use one of those keyring alcohol testers? If you blow into it and it turns red then no astronomy tonight!

fringe_dweller · #6 11-02-2006, 05:53 PM

very hard to focus drunk isnt it David

just watch a drunk trying to put the key in his front door - very entertaining.
Also alcohol (I like to call it by the active ingrediants real name, ethanol - drinkers=ethanol heads

pub = ethanol house: as in 'crack house') strips vitamins from your body real fast - including vitamin A, important to vision.
I guess i am sensitive to this as sometimes on occasions, when i have tried to show aquintances their first view through a scope, they turn up half cut with a drink in there hand, and then go away thinking what the hell at am I looking at in the scopes, and think I am mad! cant win

h0ughy (David) · #7 11-02-2006, 09:15 PM

We are all mad fringy! thats what my wife tells me anyway. I do agree, too much fermented grape juice or hops isn't good for anyone! But in saying that, I nice glass to share with the heavens is ok amoungst friends. then dry for the rest of the night!

DRCORTEX (Lance) · #8 11-02-2006, 10:55 PM

I find a few brews ( well, a lot really ) helps in the search for binaries

ciao

Lance

mickoking · #9 11-02-2006, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRCORTEX

I find a few brews ( well, a lot really ) helps in the search for binaries

ciao

Lance

OH, I get it now

Itchy · #10 11-02-2006, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

We are all mad fringy! thats what my wife tells me anyway. I do agree, too much fermented grape juice or hops isn't good for anyone! But in saying that, I nice glass to share with the heavens is ok amoungst friends. then dry for the rest of the night!

I have to agree hOughy. A good "observers red" between friends is a fine thing.

Cheers

stinky · #11 11-02-2006, 11:45 PM

Cloudy nights are to stop Astronomy interfering with home brew sampling. Hic - pretty cloudy here!