After 3 months of observing I might sell up?

[661-pete]

Hmmm.... this is a difficult one, and I have a lot of sympathy with what has been posted above.

I suppose in every hobby there is the risk of reaching its 'saturation point'. For some people and some hobbies it never happens: for example in most sporting activities there is always the drive to 'improve, improve', increase your performance, notch that extra few seconds off your times, etc. etc.

I suppose I have reached saturation in astroimaging: I fairly early on switched from observing to imaging, because I found that pure observational astronomy just wasn't my 'thing'. I felt my eyesight simply isn't good enough. So I moved over to fairly crude imaging (DSLR, prime focus, no guiding), and have probably 'done everything I set out to do' now. The only way I can move into new dimensions is to:

SPEND

SPEND

SPEND

I would need to totally overhaul my equipment, certainly a new mount and autoguiding, probably a new 'scope and probably a CCD. All this means ££££££££££££££s . With retirement looming I'm a bit shy of all this outlay!

But in my case I think there's another, more of a medical, factor influencing me, putting me off the whole thing. Which is why I tend to confine myself to the 'social' side of SGL and shy away from the more astronomical side (sorry!). This I don't want to dwell upon in detail, let's just say 'black dog' and leave it at that .

I'm not therefore in a good position to advise those who are losing heart, how to pick it up once more. But I will say this, I have no plans to sell up, and to those who are thinking of selling their kit, I would urge, them, hold on to it as long as possible! It is far more likely that you will regret having sold something you later wish you'd kept, than the other way around....

[Thirdway]

It doesn't really matter which way our sails surge and bilow, for in the end, whatever the decision we make, all of us are inevitably led back to the same old place - our selves.

.

Namaste

[Qualia]

Thank you, Thirdway.

[paul schofield]

If you are truly losing interest, why not keep hold of your stuff for a while and see how you feel. Must admit that when I see something i have not seen before, galaxy, nebula, cluster etc, that just spurs me on and gives me a boost of enthusiasm. Hope you dont sell up and regret it.

[Thirdway]

Yes, we have decided to just keep hold of it, the investment is quite low anyway. On balance it is probably more of an occasional hobby for us. The video camera seems a possible answer, but then I think we need an GEM to use that properly and the cost is considerable. Great showing friends and family.