How supportive is your partner?

[wingman]

Mrs W has the odd look at the moon and was quite impressed by Saturn but she doesn't do cold so leaves me to it most of the time.

She was very interested in the distance learning courses I did with LJMU though and she hardly ever queries the various packages that arrive on the doorstep, bless her

[SeedyF]

My wife is a legend. Bought my first scope as a present without any prompting. Never queries any new purchase - although shes always consulted on big purchases. She willingly buys stuff off my wish list with absolutely no idea what it is or what it does. She put in a third of the funds for my upgrade last year without any prompting. And recently she made a 2 hour journey to stay at the seaside so we could get up at 4am to sit on a cold harbour in the pouring rain in the tiny, vain hope we would miraculously see the transit of venus.

I take as much care of her as I do the dob - cos I sure as hell doubt there is a replacement available

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

[JamesF]

Mrs F gave me my first scope as a Christmas present and she doesn't make that much of a fuss about all the bits of astronomy gear cluttering up the house, but other than the occasional look at Saturn and the moon she's really not that interested. On the positive side, both the children are interested and we have enough telescopes that we can all be out using one if necessary.

James

[Daniel-K]

my wife is very supportive but has no interest she doesn't moan when i buy new stuff or decide to build an obsy all she asks for is for the odd night out together

[Moonshane]

my wife is amazing. despite being completely uninterested (apart from the odd glance at Saturn) she's very supportive of my hobbies present and past - I do get reined in a little every now and again (usually too much time on SGL rather than observing) but she's great.

like some other other halves she really likes sitting looking up and spotting shooting stars and satellites. if she had a preference it would be wide field mooching with a glass or two and a little warmth in the air - she doesn't do cold. she sometimes uses star parties to let me know she's gone and done something - last time while I was at PSP it was, 'by the way we've now got a dog'

[Beulah]

My wife is a legend. Bought my first scope as a present without any prompting. Never queries any new purchase - although shes always consulted on big purchases. She willingly buys stuff off my wish list with absolutely no idea what it is or what it does. She put in a third of the funds for my upgrade last year without any prompting. And recently she made a 2 hour journey to stay at the seaside so we could get up at 4am to sit on a cold harbour in the pouring rain in the tiny, vain hope we would miraculously see the transit of venus.

I take as much care of her as I do the dob - cos I sure as hell doubt there is a replacement available

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

She's amazing.

[Davey-T]

Mrs T has no interest in standing outside in the cold and is not keen on me leaving her alone while I do. So much so if I'm imaging I use Teamviewer once I get it going and monitor it from

the settee.

She will come out for a summer meteor shower if I get her a blanket and cup of hot chocolate but complains loudly if there isn't a steady stream of meteors, like it's my fault.

She watches S at N with me and thats about it.

Also averse to me spending "her money" on equipment.

Hey ho for better or worse did they say.

Davey-T

[Marki]

Mrs Marki has been very supportive so far. She actively enjoys the Prof Cox programmes (got 'em on DVD for me too) and S@N - she really enjoyed the transit one last week. She has been very tolerant of my cluttering up the house with several telescopes and assorted kit, leaving mounts set up in the front room etc. She's never questioned cost ever (we keep our cash separate anyway), but does (try) and keep me to a self-imposed 4 scope limit , and she offers constructive advice and criticism on prospective purchases.

She loves the moon most of all and will hog the eyepiece for hours if I let her to look at it. She quite likes planets, especially Saturn - first time she saw that in the 8SE she had tears in her eyes (so did I to be honest ). She even let me take her on holiday to the Galloway Astronomy centre, and was really impressed by the view of M13 in Mike's 16" dob. Generally though she's not a fan of "faint grey blobs". She feels the cold a bit more than me though so doesn't stay out too long, but she's agreed to come to PSP with me . I think she'd quite get into imaging if she had more patience with the software. She'll spend quite a bit of time taking pics of the moon afocally and sometimes in prime focus too.

All in all I count myself very lucky to have such a wonderful partner

[Double Kick Drum]

My wife is supportive up to the point that she cannot see why I need another telescope (dob) but i'll grind her down eventually.

Please Lucy...No

Please Lucy...No

Please Lucy...No

You can work out the rest.

[laser_jock99]

My missus thinks I'm barking mad- spending all that money (probably best she doesn't know exactly how much) to stand outside in the cold.........

[laser_jock99]

My other half chuckled to herself and remarked the canadian mozzies,black flies and no-see-ums must prefer english blood...

whilst we were out at the dark site last night

Got myself an Aussi Mozzie hat this year. The damp summer seems to have been unusually good for midges in the Welsh Uplands. I've waterproofed it to keep the rain off too.

[knobby]

Interesting thread!

My Mrs along the apparent majority here is only interested in the stand outs ... Saturn on a night of good seeing, she looks occasionally but only if its something new or an improvement ... new EP or scope etc.

She's great though, strange thing is, it was her that got me into it ... she always wanted a scope when she was a kid, so I bought HER a cheapie impulse buy Christmas present (which is still in the garage and still horrendous) ... she lost interest but I got hooked!

[Hals]

My missus is supportive of my astro hobby but not interested in it herself. Likewise me with her horses and crafting.

In fact, she's about the least scientifically minded person I know.

In fact, after 25 years we had our first proper discussion on astronomy only recently. I was explaining how we see stars etc as they were x amount of years ago.

Me: "So you see that, we're seeing it as it was when the Roman's lived in Britain"

Her " Oh, can the Roman's see it too..."

Bless.

[rory]

my other half doesnt mind me spending the small amount i have on my set up ( mostly 2nd hand) ,but also likes to let me know she thinks im turning into some sort of geek !

my drum throne arrived today . the misses laughed, shook her head and said " you dont need that to look at stars ?"

to be fair to her i was sat on it in the living room with the scope testing heights ( mental)

[WaveSoarer]

My wife got me my telescope as a Christmas present. She helps me get it set up in the back garden but she doesn't do well in the cold so she likes to nip back in the house while I polar align and find something interesting. She even has a little folding step so that she doesn't have to stretch up to the eyepiece, which I tend to have at a height that's comfortable for me. As my eyes tend to be better dark adapted (not so much nipping back into the house to warm up) she doesn't get the best out of DSOs but we both love looking at Saturn and the planets. She is a scientist too and that probably helps also. When we were on holiday on St Agnes in the Scilly Isles, she worked out when the ISS was going to fly over and, sure enough, there it was at exactly the right time and tracing out the path she'd expected. A good moment that. As we didn't even have binoculars with us we contented ourselves identifying the constellations using the Philips planisphere - which she also bought me. Thanks Michele

[Richardisgreat]

Mine said "what's the point in sitting out in the cold looking at some stupid old stars" difficult to know how to respond to that I couldn't even tempt her with Saturn. However I did get a "oh that's good " with a moon photo I took. Give it time Im sure I can turn her to the dark side

[nightfisher]

My partner, Karin, is very supportive, im lucky to be with her. I have shown her a few objects in the eyepiece, and she has been very impressed, but she really does not like the cold, so only has a peek at stuff then leaves me to it

[skywatcher250]

ant i think you described my wife perfectly !!! completely and utterly couldn't give two hoots and thick I'm wasting my life away instead of sleeping... nice hey !

[stevetynant]

Not strictly astronomy but fairly typical I would guess lol - last night the wife went out with friends for a meal - I thought great I'll put together my new amp, guitar , Microphone and stand and have a first blast with all my new gear when she's not home. Got everything together and plugged in - played my first song and in she came from the meal - typical - first words - what the hell is all that, second sentence - where are we going to keep it all (even though I've had it all since Christmas just hadn't got it together yet), third act - turned the washing machine on where I was playing - end of sports - I give up.

Cup of tea dear ? lol

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

When the mozzies are out I always spray myself with industrial strength DEET-based repellant. Used it in Uganda to keep them at bay, works a treat here too.

[JB80]

I'd say mine is pretty good, she got me my first scope as a present and the PST too as another present and she doesn't seem to mind the bigger purchases but I'll always tell her. As someone else mentioned the wishlist is a good idea too and she often gets things from that for me. She had no problems in organising the family holiday around the Venus transit and doesn't mind if we go away for a weekend to see things like meteor showers.

She is interested by it all as well and has done an astro course but rarely comes out to have a look but that's mainly because the kids are still pretty demanding and she is exhausted by the end of the night which is understandable.

All in all I'd say she isextremely supportive for which I am grateful for and if it wasn't for that I may not be able to follow through on all the things I'd like to.

[DazC]

My partner has no interest in astronomy what so ever. She thinks i'm wiered for wanting to stand in the garden or in the countryside in the pitch dark in minus temperatures for hours whenever the sky is clear enough.

She has however looked at the moon, saturn, jupiter and M42 through the ep. The first three she was quite impressed with but M42 got a response of "oh, right, very nice" and then she went back indoors. I don't think i'll waste my time showing her any faint fuzzies!!

On the other hand, she does just let me get on with it and if i do happen to leave any of my kit (eps/filters) lying around on the dining table she knows how important they are to my and doesn't move them or let the kids get anywhere near them so i can't grumble.

D.C

[Shibby]

Well my Fiancée, much like the partners of most people here it seems, is totally uninterested (apart from the occasional peek at a planet) but very supportive. To a point; she's not the hobby type, so gets bored if I "telescope" too much, so often I will get started when she goes to bed. But she did buy me a coma corrector for Christmas and still has no idea what it is!

[sallystar]

No partner, no problems!

[lulu57]

I met Ian at SGL4 (under the stars - it was very romantic!), so we are lucky enough to share our interest in things celestial. However, we are both shockingly apathetic at times and have been known to prefer snuggling to viewing Saturn. Ah well...gather ye rosebuds while ye may, eh?!