How has Astronomy changed you?

[Intergage (Matt)]

Originally Posted by PeterM

When much younger myself, Comet Guy, Greg Bock, Gregg Thompson and several others used to sit around and chat about where we thought amateur astronomy, equipment etc would go, and what we would be doing astronomy wise, well even our best predictions have been found wanting. But one thing I was sure of in the 80s & 90s was that I wanted to find my own supernova..now history for me.

This is what I have been looking for, for so long! I have been trying to get out there and find people with the same interests as me. I have found a girl that isn't as into as me but almost so I'm happy about that!

I'm not meaning to offend anyone here but 95% of my generation are useless drunk drop kicks anyway or have crushed any chance of an eventful life for themselves by having kids to early or something of the sorts.. Know what I mean?

Thanks for the reply, good read!

[Shark Bait (Stu)]

This might sound a little philosophical, but I get a feeling of being 'connected' when observing.

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by Shark Bait

This might sound a little philosophical, but I get a feeling of being 'connected' when observing.

So small, but so big - at the same time!

[Intergage (Matt)]

Originally Posted by Shark Bait

This might sound a little philosophical, but I get a feeling of being 'connected' when observing.

I know what you mean man!

[PeterM]

[QUOTE=Intergage;856389]. I have found a girl that isn't as into as me but almost so I'm happy about that!

Matt don't even worry if a girlfriend/spouse/partner is not as interested in Astronomy as you or not at all, this is not uncommon. "Almost" can be handy though as it may negate the question my wife asks (see below). My wife has no real interest in my hobby other than to ask "and how much did that cost us". I have been married for 30 years and my wife and I are as close as we ever have been as we share much more together. She knows and supports my passion for astronomy. Infact my wife Wendy and my good friend Greg's wife Kathy have become very good friends often going out when we are away at say Astrofest. so there is another example of how astronomy has changed me....life friends we may never have had.

[Octane (Humayun)]

How has astronomy changed me? Made me poor. Refer to equipment list in signature.

H

[Intergage (Matt)]

Originally Posted by Octane

How has astronomy changed me? Made me poor. Refer to equipment list in signature.

H

Hahaha.. I laughed!

[Intergage (Matt)]

[QUOTE=PeterM;856402]

Originally Posted by Intergage

. I have found a girl that isn't as into as me but almost so I'm happy about that!

Matt don't even worry if a girlfriend/spouse/partner is not as interested in Astronomy as you or not at all, this is not uncommon. "Almost" can be handy though as it may negate the question my wife asks (see below). My wife has no real interest in my hobby other than to ask "and how much did that cost us". I have been married for 30 years and my wife and I are as close as we ever have been as we share much more together. She knows and supports my passion for astronomy. Infact my wife Wendy and my good friend Greg's wife Kathy have become very good friends often going out when we are away at say Astrofest. so there is another example of how astronomy has changed me....life friends we may never have had.

Nah, I just happened to meet her when I was out trying to meet more mature people one day haha!
So just happened!

I love your wife's default question! "Cost us" haha

[stardust steve (Steve)]

I remember being about 9 or 10 and laying on my trampoline on summer nights looking up. I would wait, just on dusk when the bats would fly low overhead. Then as the stars became visible i would just lay there and observe with my dad's bino's. I still remember the smell of them.
It wasn't until a few years ago my wife surprised me with a Celestron 76 AZ reflector as a fathers day gift knowing of my interest in astronomy. I thought it was great, having never looked through a telescope before that.
I still have it now and goes alright for a cheapie.
Now the bug has really bitten and am slowly upgrading my gear with some bigger aperture etc... the list goes on. Main thing on the wish list is a tracking mount.
Now i can't seem to imagine what my life would be like if astronomy (even at my basic level) was removed.
I love the challenges it brings, the hunt for objects and the sheer beauty of what is up there. IIS has played a large role in my fast tracked learning of all aspects.
Now i see my interest in astronomy a bit like the Eagle's song "Hotel California"...."you can check in anytime you like...but you can never leave"

Clear skies!

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

For me I don't know, I'm still trying to find my feet in astronomy but the start of my practical interest(ie owning my first scope etc) has coincided with a time in my life that was already changing in a big way by getting married, moving to Europe and well, having kids.
In a way it's kept me a little sane and grounded.
There has been a change in focus and direction in my life that I'm only now realising that I should apply to my aastronomy as well. It's opening up new directions that 10 years ago didn't seem possible.

[Stardrifter_WA]

It changed me, in fact, probably saved me from an early GRAVE!

You see, I was stupid in my late teens, as I took up cigarettes, but then, in my early 20's, I wanted to buy a large telescope. Big problem, didn't have the money. My then wife said that if I gave up cigarettes and also stopped drinking to save for the scope, I could buy it. It was hard, but I did it and bought an 8" Newtonian on an equatorial mount. Great scope too.

The upshot is, I never returned to smoking and remained a very moderate drinker, for nearly 37 years, so far. After saving so quickly for my first big scope, and it was big in those days, I realised how much more money I would have by not returning to the twin demons! In fact, not long after that I bought my first house and my then wife and I both worked and paid it off in 4 1/2 years. But then, she left me for a mate and is now married to him, thank God!

Never married again either, but I now have some nice consolation prizes that I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise!!!!!

So, my interest in astronomy probably saved my life.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Like a lot of people, I started early, lost it during the career and family years and have rediscovered it now I am an old f#$%.

Earliest recollections? At age about 10 or12, I was the terror of our neighbourhood in rural Maryborough - no bicycle pump was safe from me. I used to get hold of sulphur and zinc from the chemist and launch them as rockets in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Making nose-coned in the school machine-shop and putting my brother's radio valves inside on a parachute with my address on them so they could be returned along with my Nobel Prize. They never did come.

All that came to an abrupt end one day when a rocket went backwards and buried itself in our back yard while discharging a massive yellow cloud of burnt sulphur into the back yard and destroying my mother's and several neighbours' laundry. After that I discovered the cheap army-surplus store telescope and was a goner. In between was the chemistry laboratory under the house - that disappeaered after I spilt a beaker of boiling sulphuruc acid down my leg in what might be called a failed experiment.
How I surviced childood is a mystery to me and I am sure to my long-suffering parents.
Astronomy saved me from self-destruction I suspect.
Peter

[shane.mcneil]

Have you ever read Terry Pratchett's books? The ones about the Gnomes I think. It's like being the frog that jumps out of the flower.

[BPO]

It's like the difference between those who read and those who don't. Or the difference between those who travel and those who never leave home. Astronomy opens your eyes and your mind; others just whinge about the price of knowledge, yet justify the cost of ignorance.

[Suzy]

Originally Posted by Intergage

I'm quite the same but completely different!
I was hanging around the wrong people, digging myself into a dead end hole like my mates are and I found I love the knowledge I gain from astronomy and just from removing myself from one scene and basically being accepted into a world wide community has made me change my life and instead of being 20k in debt at the age of 20 and going no where, 5 months of Astronomy and good people I'm 9k in debt and starting Applied science on my way to my Astronomy Masters in 3 days!

Way to go Matt!

I've been into astronomy since I was little, I guess my earliest memory being around 8yrs going on binocular viewing sessions with my father. My father loved astronomy and I was the only one in the family that shared his passion... oh the memories of those early morning wake-ups to see Lunar eclipses etc. When my father passed away, he had willed his binos and telescope to me. I still have the telescope, and I still have & use those binoculars today; I think they'd be about 50 years old now and still going strong.

So how has it changed my life?

Fast forward to the second man in my life- enter the husband ...
It's changed him more than it has me.
He loves the peace & quiet when I'm out observing and soothed with the knowledge there's going to be a few thousand words less that night that he has to hear. Yes, he's never been so relaxed in all his life since he started buying me telescopes.
Sometimes the door is locked and I can't get back in. Thumping and yelling on the door in the wee hours of the morning reminds him of the reality which he has blissfully escaped from.
Did I forget to mention that he likes to buy me astro accessories too- yes, it does mean I'll get to spend more time with my scope... now isn't that so thoughtful of him.
Last month he bought me an Argo Narvis, boy I must really have been annoying - anyway, find what works and stick with it I say.
But jokes aside and on the plus side, he happily accompanies me to every astronomy event and drives me everywhere. So I'm very blessed to have the two most important people in my life right by my side with astronomy.

I think I slightly deviated from the topic of this thread.
I'm a girl, I do that.

stardust steve
Now i see my interest in astronomy a bit like the Eagle's song "Hotel California"...."you can check in anytime you like...but you can never leave"

How true! I think once in you're there forever and despite long absences from it, I think you always come back to it.
Nettie (jjj) once told me (I'm sure she won't mind me quoting her here), "astronomy isn't just a hobby- it's a lifestyle." That stuck in my head to this day. So much we do revolves around it!

P.S. Peter (Stardrifter WA) I've heard part of that story before (re your ex wife)- it's prize gold! I laughed just as hard hearing it for the second time.