Calling all Astroholics!

[sheeny (Al)]

You know you’re an astroholic when:

• The stools at your home bar are Stellar Observing Chairs.
• Your outdoor furniture reclines, swivels, and has binocular mounts attached to the head of the chair/seat, and a gimballed drink holder on the armrest.
• Your computer’s clock is set to 24 hour format universal time.
• Your skin is a pale “moon tan” from sleeping during the day.
• You have a red light in the kitchen so you can come inside to make a cup of tea or coffee without destroying your night vision.
• Your umbrella stand is an old Newtonian telescope tube.
• Your door stop is a counterweight.
• You watch more NASA TV than movies.
• You listen to more astronomy podcasts than music.
• The back seat of your car has been replaced with a custom made scope cradle.
• Your telescope is worth more than your car.
• You plan your holidays around eclipses or shuttle launches.
• Your letterbox is a pier mounted SCT with the corrector plate and mirror removed.
• Your letterbox is polar aligned.
• Your letterbox has Goto.
• You use binoculars or a telescope to read your rain gauge.
• You bought a cheap weather station to have an alternative interest when it’s cloudy.
• You refuse to sleep if the sky is clear no matter how tired you are.
• You own a 12V hair drier (and have short hair).
• The ladder you clean out your gutters with is the one you use to view through the eyepiece of your dob.
• You can see into the backyard 2 doors down if you look around when viewing through your dob.
• Base jumpers queue to look through your dobsonian scope.
• Birthday party photos are HDR processed, stacked, levelled, curved, deconvoluted, and high pass filtered to reveal the subtle details in the candle flames.
• You spend more work time surfing Ice In Space and Cloudy Nights than working.
• Your spouse calls you by your IIS or CN username.
• Your garden shed has a roll off roof, but your mower rusts outside in the rain.
• Police have approached you with large bright lights held out to the side, to see what you’re doing in the dark, and you refuse to open your eyes because it will spoil your night vision.
• You have a parallelogram mount and large binoculars set up beside the outdoor spa.
• Your frizbee has the constellations marked on it.
• You have a spectra of your kitchen light.
• Your computer has an afterimage of photoshop burned into the screen.
• Your DSLR camera has a sticker: “My other camera is an SBIG”.

Do you qualify? (You only need one!!!!)

Got any others?

Al.

[TrevorW]

Your know your an astroholic when you consume a bottle of red while observing or waiting for that phot session to end, then trip over your case drop your camera lens, thank the gods when it's not broken and vow never too drink again while observing.

[erick (Eric)]

Help, I ticked too many of those!

[astroturf (Bryan)]

I think I could own up to a lot of those
but not the polar aligned letterbox
I;m having trouble just getting the telescope aligned
At present EVERY image I have ever taken is being Photoshopped

Bryan

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Birthday party photos are HDR processed, stacked, levelled, curved, deconvoluted, and high pass filtered to reveal the subtle details in the candle flames.

How did you know???
It's uncanny!!

[madtuna (Steve)]

oh geez... I thought I was so clever putting a red bulb in my kitchen and my trips to the US are planned around the shuttle launches.

is there a self help group anywhere on here?

[Garyh]

Geesh...I`m in trouble too!
Have to tick a few of them..
Including reading the rain gauge with the bino`s..lol

[leon]

Hmmm, yep, I could say yes to a few of those myself, and I suspect that every one of these would apply to one person or another at some time during their Astronomy years.

leon

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by madtuna

is there a self help group anywhere on here?

This is it, Steve! You are among friends...

We'll help you be the best astroholic you can be!

BTW I must confess to being approached by 2 Police men one night while observing with binoculars at the local lookout. If only I was smart enough to close my eyes!

Al.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

I'll add a couple

• You own a 2.5l thermos
• Your most valuable item of clothing is a freezer suit
• You keep forgetting that a 'newt' may be an amphibian
• Friends know to only invite you around at full moon
• You have >100 astronomy sites bookmarked
• Your idea of eye relief isn't a sweet young thing (or, at least, that isn't how you usually use the term).

Guilty on all counts. (Oh, OK, most counts)

[madwayne (Wayne)]

Guilty of way too many of those and how about adding;
Having your favourite astro vendor/s on speed dial.

Great thread.

Cheers and beers.

[spearo (Frank)]

hahahahaah
hilarious and so true , i've ticked off many

Myself and the better half (she actually agreed to this) have all of our monthly ADOs (Accrued Days Off) at work planned for the next year for Fridays closest to the New Moons so I can go to the observatory from Thursday nights.

it's sad but true....
frank

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

I'll add a couple

• You own a 2.5l thermos
• Your most valuable item of clothing is a freezer suit
• You keep forgetting that a 'newt' may be an amphibian
• Friends know to only invite you around at full moon
• You have >100 astronomy sites bookmarked
• Your idea of eye relief isn't a sweet young thing (or, at least, that isn't how you usually use the term).

Guilty on all counts. (Oh, OK, most counts)

Yep, yep, yep.... valid symptoms!

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Your know your an astroholic when you consume a bottle of red while observing or waiting for that phot session to end, then trip over your case drop your camera lens, thank the gods when it's not broken and vow never too drink again while observing.

I can relate to that! I don't remember doing exactly that but I have pretty much resolved not to drink and operate the scope. I remember a very frustrating session trying to show a friend how good my scope was but the goto wasn't gotoing very well, and my trouble shooting skills were inhibited by the alcohol... fortunately, he was drunk, so he didn't notice too much... I think I got away with it...

Al.

[Lester]

Yep, me to.

And loving it.

[spacezebra (Petra)]

What does this mean!!! What are you trying to tell me!

• Your computer’s clock is set to 24 hour format universal time. Yes
• You watch more NASA TV than movies. Yes
• You listen to more astronomy podcasts than music. Yes
• You plan your holidays around eclipses or shuttle launches. (Plan holidays around Star Parties)
• You bought a cheap weather station to have an alternative interest when it’s cloudy. Yes
• You refuse to sleep if the sky is clear no matter how tired you are. Yes
• You own a 12V hair drier (and have short hair). Yes
• You spend more work time surfing Ice In Space and Cloudy Nights than working. Yes
• Your spouse calls you by your IIS or CN username. Yes
• Your frizbee has the constellations marked on it. No - My umbrella has constellations on it!

Cheers Petra d.

[sheeny (Al)]

You are an astroholic when:

• You have a red light on top of your dob to warn aircraft.
• You use a green laser pointer for Powerpoint presentations.
• You read ephemerides more than the newspaper.
• The rear window of your car has a centre spot so you can collimate the rear view mirror.
• Your sleep is broken into 2 or more sleep periods based around astronomical events or imaging runs.
• You cringe when someone mentions a shooting star, and then nonchalantly name the meteor shower it belongs to.
• You surf Google Earth when bored looking for launch sites, observatories, or impact craters.
• You've visited Coonabarabran while on holiday.
• You eat dinner before astronomical twilight is finished.
• You take batteries out of your torch to make your laser pointer work.
• You close your eyes while working on your scope during the day.

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by spacezebra

• Your frizbee has the constellations marked on it. No - My umbrella has constellations on it!

Wow! Now that's a serious symptom!

Al.

[spacezebra (Petra)]

• You use a green laser pointer for Powerpoint presentations. Yes
• You read ephemerides more than the newspaper. Yes
• You cringe when someone mentions a shooting star, and then nonchalantly name the meteor shower it belongs to. Yes
• You surf Google Earth when bored looking for launch sites, observatories, or impact craters. Yes
• You've visited Coonabarabran while on holiday. Yes - in January!!!!
• You take batteries out of your torch to make your laser pointer work. No - took batteries out of torch for the fan on my scope!

This is really scary - Is there an association that I can call for this ailment? Which Dr can I call?

Cheers Petra d.

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

I just came up with a few myself,

What about when:

* You drive down the M4 and wonder where the Antares turn off is?

* Your favourite beer glass is FPL51 ED with a 2x barlow built into the bottom

* On a clear night, you gaze up, see a satellite and refer to it by name.

* You get PMT every two months just before the AS&T is due in the letterbox (Pre Magazine Tension)

* On clear nights the neighbours see you outside with two sets of binoculars, a laser pointer and a massive telescope and no longer call the police or bother to close their blinds when getting undressed.

* You wonder why the kids school photos dont have "diffraction spikes" in them.

* You scour the Crazy John's and Telstra Shops looking for a mobile phone with a 6MP modded long exposure camera with T-thread and IR filter removed with peltier cooling and has a Vixen style dovetail bar as an option.

I am sure I will come up with more.....

Cheers

Chris