Finished

[blink138 (Pat)]

raymo i am still trying to get my head around how a spouse (presumably you have been together for a large chunk of your life?) can actually despise you for a harmless passion and hobby? as you have said 29 nights a year is all you get.........makes zero sense to me at all and i know you have alluded to your situation in many of your posts previously
very sad post anyway!
pat

[glend (Glen)]

Raymo PM has been sent with some suggestions. As much as we (IIS folks) might like to help, you may need to speak to professionals about your situation. Hang in there.
Glen

[raymo]

Pat, I think you got the wrong end of the stick. I was referring to the weather.
When I said socked in I meant that it went to 100% cloud cover. All the time
wasted setting up over and over again is, as I said very disheartening.
She doesn't despise me, just hates my astro, maybe possibly because she
has no interest in the subject and feels left out; who knows.
raymo

[blink138 (Pat)]

ok mate, hope you are fine anyhow!
pat

[Atmos (Colin)]

I think you should stretch the hobby out as long as possible Even if you move away from imaging entirely, having a small scope around just for visual stuff is great. The moon and planets are always good to look at, changing night by night (the moon not so much change!).

As has been mentioned, we all need our hobbies, they are what get us out of bed in the morning or for us, keep us out of bed at night hehe

We all need to do things in our life that we enjoy

[raymo]

Hi Colin, definitely out of imaging, and we get so few usable nights here
that I can't be bothered with visual, especially as even the usable nights
frequently have poor seeing. Its not often worth going over 150x with my 8" Newt.
cheers Raymo

[julianh72 (Julian)]

Raymo,

I second the best wishes of all the other IISers - I've never met you, but your posts have always been thoughtful and useful, and were among the first advice that I received when I first registered on IIS just a couple of years ago. I hope your retirement from astronomy works out well for you.

Originally Posted by raymo

I used to collect British Victorian stamps; I might go back to that, but as I said earlier I will continue to try and help newbies when I can.

Perhaps you could specialise in collecting stamps with an astronomy theme? (It doesn't sound as challenging as learning how to knit star charts!)

[raymo]

Thank you Julian, much appreciated.
raymo

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

So..you're knockin on 80's door then Raymo?

Fair enough but as others have said be nice if you could..?..learn to knit scope covers?.. and sell'em? like tepot cozzies, bet your wife would like your hobby then

Mike

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

G'day Raymo,

Sorry to hear that mate. I can definitely understand giving imaging away, although I thought I'd try and tempt you one last time, consider with the new ZWO 16mp camera http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...=144427&page=4 you don't even need a proper alignment, a 2 star alignment with a goto dob would do the trick! check this out, 1 second subs - no guiding or fancy polar alignment required! set up time is almost non existent.

http://www.astrokraai.nl/dump/201605..._Kraaikamp.jpg

If that doesn't fit the bill you can always just go straight to the top, not worry about the seeing or clouds and process some hubble data http://hla.stsci.edu/hlaview.html (I think that is the correct link). I'm sure there a heaps of gems to explore there.

Otherwise please keep atleast some bino's for when you get a crystal clear evening and keep in contact on this forum

Cheers

Rusty

[raymo]

Thanks for your thoughts Mike and Russ.
cheers raymo

[Kunama]

Sounds to me like you have had a wonderful time under the stars, unfortunately when one's partner doesn't share in an interest things can get awkward.
I wish you well in whatever pastimes you end up involved in.

I guess the other half can have reason to resent a hobby that often leaves them alone at night.....
At the moment Jennifer is still telling me: "Why don't you take the scope out and view the stars...... Though why anyone would bother is beyond me"

[raymo]

Thank you very much Matt.
raymo

[Wavytone]

SWMBO ?!

Should have traded her in for a younger model, I'd say !

[raymo]

There could be something in that Wavy, but bit late now.
cheers raymo