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what do you do,

starship trooper

By starship trooper
in The Astro Lounge

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Slangers

Slangers

Posted
Posted

I find the summer especially difficult. I am a university professor. My job needs me to be sharp and on the ball so that I can focus on research, teaching and managing a department with 50 staff. I really can't stay up too late, so tend to do most of my observing in the autumn, winter and spring. Extended sessions tend to be rare for me as a result. It's too cold to stay out late in the winter and in the summer I manage an hour at best.

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Earl

Earl

Posted
Posted
I set up at around 11pm if the forecast is for clear skies all night. I set an imaging run going and set my mobile alarm on vibrate and go to bed,

wake up at 4am and nip out to the garden in my pants and close the obs roof then back to bed until 7am for work.:)

Mike.

nice vision lol

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Si W

Si W

Posted
Posted
I find the summer especially difficult. I am a university professor. My job needs me to be sharp and on the ball so that I can focus on research, teaching and managing a department with 50 staff. I really can't stay up too late, so tend to do most of my observing in the autumn, winter and spring. Extended sessions tend to be rare for me as a result. It's too cold to stay out late in the winter and in the summer I manage an hour at best.

caffeine, that the answer, lots of it :hello2:, a few years ago I worked part time teaching at my local college in the evening, just to top up my wages, I used to drink them crazy high caffeine coffee's, I was wired out of my tree :), but switched on :).

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Bart

Bart

Posted
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Its true, i used to be a real BBQ and late evenings man. Now since took up astronomy in Jan, strangely find myseelf kind of wishinig the long evenings away. I'm sure this is a 'first astronomy summer' thing and i'll resign myself to a lean summer, astronomically speaking, next year.

Bart

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Beulah

Beulah

Posted
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When I first got a telescope, I was out pretty much whenever it was clear, up until 2am, even waiting until midnight before I would consider dragging the scope out - But I have to be up at 5:30am - 6.00am most days of the week and cannot keep it up! It is not fun having a sleep deficit with so many demands in the daytime.

This year I may put the scope away until the nights draw in a little.

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SallyR

SallyR

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I find the best way to deal with summer is to give late nights/early mornings a miss and do solar observing instead. I appreciate that this requires appropriate filters or dedicated solar scopes ,which can be pricey, but once you have the right kit then it's easy to get an observing 'fix' during the week if the weather co-operates :-)

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
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I do this for a living so I'm out there! I love it but I do get into siesta mode to make ends meet, sleep wise. The big victim is my cycling so I really struggle to find the discipline to get a couple of hours in every other day over the summer. By the time I'm out of bed it can be 30/35 degrees C which is a bit of a killer.

Olly

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Si W

Si W

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I rely on caffeine under normal conditions. Would need something stronger to support all-nighters and work. As I get older I just don't have the stamina.

Try Hot Lava Java, extreme Roast :), it's only £3 at Asda. That stuff will keep an elephant up all night .

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Si W

Si W

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I read in SaN that caffeine reduces night vision... :-(

I must confess i have never noticed, mind you i image most of the time, never had crazy coffee and done visual.

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Porl

Porl

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Im with you Bart, I used to love and really I still do the late evenings and stuff. When I was skateboarding and BMXing i would be out till 11pm most nights because of it being warmer and brighter.

Now I've got the astronomy bug I keep looking up at the sky with a slight grumble that its still too light at 10:30pm haha. How the worm has turned :)

And with me being a lightweight sleepwise I cant hack it during the week to be up super late. I slowly turn in to a zombie it seems if i attempt the late nights during the work week haha.

I tried observing a few weeks ago before the cloud curtain dropped and observed Saturn okay but I couldnt find any DSO's i'd found in the past or fainter stars to use as guide points.

Im curious to know from the hardcore peeps that are out observing in the summer months, what kind of time does the sky get dark enough? less sun and blue in the atmoshphere?

Porl''

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RikM

RikM

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It never really gets dark enough :) I just stick to observing the brighter objects in summer. I put more effort into white light solar at the weekends as well.

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Jack123456

Jack123456

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Posted

Working late shift quite a lot(2-10pm), i find i am late nights aren't really a problem for me.

I can get home from work at 10:30, set up by 11, view until 2, 3 or even 4am then sleep until lunch time.

It seems i'm in a better position for summer viewing than most people here.

Luck me!!!!:)

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