Is bad weather driving people away from Astronomy?

[xelasnave]

I think dealing with moisture problems stopped me from getting more sophisticated scope and imaging gear. I had planed going to 16 inch imaging because it is not that expensive these days for scope and mount.
But finally my health became the main reason not to upgrade.
I certainly do more observation these days as viewing windows can be short.

[OzStarGazer]

Is bad weather driving people away from astronomy?
Well, you can't study or examine what you can't see... (OK, of course there are also books, but you know what I mean.)
This all started just a few weeks or months after I got into astronomy... Maybe it's all my fault?

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Nah, just gives me time to DIY more astro stuff and ponder on various problems and study all the technical jargon and concepts.

Really ...

My job these days is a bit humdrum to say the least. I often have longish quiet periods, hours, even occasional days. The current RN 8F8 project has given me immense pleasure working out build details and material requirements, solving complex 3D configuration ideas. I guess I get a lot of my astro enjoyment out of the DIY factor in reality.

It's all good fun I tell ya ...

[uwahl (Ulrich)]

I have just started last year (retired Feb 2014), bought a van and some astro gear. The weather has been extremely frustrating. I can't recall whether its worse than previous years but its really shot my timetable. I thought I would be well past taking my first images and doing some photometry by now - no such luck!!

[KenGee (Kenith Gee)]

Get off the east coast and come west its great over here.

[astroboof (Steve McN)]

The effect at present? Makes me sell old gear, and buy new stuff, an autumnal spruce up for better (ha!) winter seeing.

But yes, I can recall many times when the gear has languished for months due to giving up in frustration over weather, you plan sessions and it was time wasted. So you persue other interests, sports or hobbies for a while, even years.

In the end, you either know you are going to get into it again or you are not. For some drawn into the hobby as imagists only the chances of continued interest seem to be less likely. But others are always around to benefit from that. So the cycle goes on.

[Terry B]

I just tallied up the number of nights I have been able to take spectra or pics this year. I have 19 nights in 4 months. This is pretty hopeless really. Last year over the corresponding time I have 30 nights of observing. Mostly the problem has been cloud although some has been work as well.
Shame the cloud hasn't created lots of rain as well. We still have low dams. Maybe this weekend will help fill them.

[Eden (Brett)]

Originally Posted by OzStarGazer

Is bad weather driving people away from astronomy?
Well, you can't study or examine what you can't see... (OK, of course there are also books, but you know what I mean.)
This all started just a few weeks or months after I got into astronomy... Maybe it's all my fault?

Hah! I was thinking the same thing myself recently. I swear, before I bought a telescope, the sky was always clear whenever I went outside at night and looked up...

Yes, the weather situation is frustrating but it's so satisfying when you persevere and finally catch that perfect night. Wouldn't ever give it up, no matter how infrequent those night became.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Like anyone else I find it frustrating when winter bugs, weather and work times conspire to keep my gear in the garage. But it is never going to drive me away.

The gear is bought, it is paid for and it costs almost nothing to maintain. I was away from the hobby for 20 years so I am not selling up again. Financials would have to be pretty dire for me to sell the gear for that reason. Just like race cars (I have one of them too) the market is relatively limited and usually would mean selling for a substantial loss, so unless it was the only way to get through I would never see the point of doing it.

[OzStarGazer]

I am not going to give up either of course. But it IS frustrating. It was particularly frustrating with the moon eclipses. Luckily I have a good Internet connection, so I watched them live online. But really, I was not able to see a single second of a single eclipse from here!