Orions Belt

[paul schofield]

I was out in my back garden last night with my better half. She is not much an astro fan. She asked me what "them 3 stars in a line are ?" I proceeded to tell her the names of the 3 stars, constellation etc etc. Before I knew it I had been going on for about 5 minutes with info like distances (light years) Orion Neb, Betelgeuse, Rigel etc, why its known as the hunter etc.

She then said, "I only wondered what the 3 stars were" so i said Orion's belt, will you remember that ? to which her reply was "yeah cause that's in Men In Black. I do despair. Happy gazing all.

[661-pete]

Perhaps it was a case of "TMI"? Give it another chance when next you're out under a dark sky together.

I suppose the link between MiB and casual stargazing is rather tenuous ("Orion" was a cat or something IIRC). Perhaps you could steer it towards the MiB angle on things (whatever that is - I can't remember much of the film)?

[shellfish]

I'm feeling what your saying Paul LMAO

[kenmyers]

hehe

My missus used to hate stargazing. Like... really hated it.

10 years down the line and she's lining up targets visually now, knows four constellations and the locations of the planets

give her time. This hobby becomes amazing over a very long time.

(I feel your pain lol)

[eddy]

I tell my fiance something amazing and i get the response "Oh right..."

At least you get a somewhat reasonable response that shows a minor interest!

So dont worry too much she'll grow to love it! Just like mine is..... lol

[richbyers]

my favourite astro tid bit is to explain how light from the galaxies is from years and years ago as it takes time to travel here....this is one of the most fascinating things i find about astronomy, but anyone i tell just doesnt get it

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

At least my other half was (quite) impressed when I told her I had spotted something so distant its light had been traveling for more than half the age of the Earth before reaching my retina (quasar 3C 273). Not nearly as impressed as I was, but still, a bit above, "oh, that's nice" level I often experience.

[eddy]

I have to admit, like me, my fiance is more interested in the photos rather than the observing side of things, its warmer (Which is a huge plus on her side) and its more visually appealing, although she gets baffled by the physics side of it when i start ranting on about light taking so long to get here etc etc

Best thing to do IMO is try an explain it as simple as possible, even use props or images to illustrate what you are trying to say....its not easy to understand that light takes 1000's of years to reach your eyes from distant objects, maybe for you it is, but the likes of none scientific minds, its quite baffling!

Light is light to most people, turn it on, and its there it doesnt take years, the lights they see in the night sky (stars) get turned on an off with night and day (this is to the eyes of a none scientific person) the stars dissapear (or dont exist) in the day time, and turn themselves on at night and the light is instant

If only it were that simple.....

[Charon]

I do not even get a reply!!

[Viv]

I sometimes tell my other half & come & look.

My son is showing an interest, which is promising. He came outside & asked what I was looking at that night.

MIB 3 is out soon - wo hoo !!

[paul schofield]

On the plus side, she was extremely impressed when I got her out of bed to see Saturn, luckily she had only just gone, she kept asking to see it again for the next few nights. I secretly think there may be a budding astronomer in there somewhere.

[stevetynant]

put yourself in her position Paul - what do you tell her when she asks what you think of the latest handbag or pair of shoes? Hmmmm thought so lol

[Peter Drew]

:D! Good one.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

put yourself in her position Paul - what do you tell her when she asks what you think of the latest handbag or pair of shoes? Hmmmm thought so lol

I always show suitable interest, and often comment on how the new shoes match some item of clothing she recently made or bought. I make a point of remembering colours, cuts and patterns of clothing/shoes. I suppose it's a particular survival instinct that kicks in

[Dan Watts]

The response I get is as follows:

Do you want me to get all my shoes out and tell you about them? Haha...Oh well, maybe she will come round...in a million light years!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The response I get is as follows:

Do you want me to get all my shoes out and tell you about them? Haha...Oh well, maybe she will come round...in a million light years!

I have heard a story about each and every one of her shoes, dresses, etc. That argument would not work.

[661-pete]

This touches on what is perhaps a very deep subject: what makes couples 'tick'?

I'm not going to begin to answer that one: what I do know is that, as far as Mrs P and I (together 30+ years ) are concerned, yes we share quite a few common interests as well as some that we have apart.

Yes she does know quite a bit of her way around the night sky - that's probably down to me over the years . But I appreciate that won't work for all couples.

She is quite an accomplished poet - a subject on which I understand little, but I know enough to appreciate that her poems are good - very good. Well, I would say that, wouldn't I? I'm biased. But there's absolutely no way I could conjure up a serious poem. I leave that to her.

We have plenty of common disinterests - subjects in which we share a dislike. Many concerned with popular culture. But this is not the place to be snobbish....

[paul schofield]

Good point, although can any bloke really show an interest in bags n shoes ? even if he pays for them ha? even if he tries really hard a pair of shoes or a handbag will never provide the awe-inspiring feeling of seeing a deep sky object for the first time. And I think my Mrs would probably agree (well that's what I tell myself).

[kenmyers]

I like it when SHE suggests we take the scope out and find some planets

although I admit I would never be loving enough to persuade her to "get those shoes!"

It just isnt the same.

[ianaiken]

What helped me weirdly was pointing out junk like Cosmos 1939 hurtling overhead, and pointing out those bright stars where in fact planets.

[paul schofield]

Hear hear Ken, or maybe it is the same to the fairer sex, ahhhh I give up.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

There are/were plenty of female stargazers (Caroline Herschel, for starters), but given the small probability p of an arbitrary male being a stargazer, and assuming for the moment that that figure is the same for females, we should not be surprised to find few couples in which both partners like to do stargazing, as the probability is p^2. So if one in every thousand males is a stargazer, in only one in a million couples both members are stargazers. This might explain the reason why having a partner join in is comparatively rare (excepting any romances starting at star parties ).

By contrast, I do believe there is a Y-chromosomal gene which switches off interest in shoes or handbags (or at least down-regulates it).

[richbyers]

its funny with me though....as you say the chances are small, but my partner goes out metal detecting with me, however isnt really interested in astronomy....so guess it depends on the person and on the geeky subject in matter

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Me and the missus went out with the scope a couple of weeks ago... normally i get the "oh right.." responses, but she likes surfing around with the binos.

I took her out to see saturn, and after a 30minute session or so, i nipped to the car and left her with the scope, i came back to her saying "i think i found a galaxy... well... something...".

Sure enough she'd found the leo triplet (which i had previously tried and failed). Now she asks every day if it's going to be clear tonight.

[Caelus]

I'm quite lucky with my other half - she has an enquiring mind and besides tolerating my hobbies she also usually understands most of what i'm rambling on about. She admits to being more interested in the "pretty" things, but also realises that I don't own the Hubble space telescope! I regularly invite her to come and look at things I find and she'll usually have a brief glance, but I have noticed the biggest factor for her interest seems to be ambient temperature! The night it was -9°C I was very much on my own, but when I invited her to check out M3 and M51 last week she was on the eyepiece for nearly 10 minutes