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The best thing about stargazing is....(enter your opinion here)


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...the feeling of total insignificance amongst the size and beauty of the universe. 

...sharing my journey with friends, colleagues, kids, and their school via outreach sessions I've done. 

...inspiring such people to invest in their own equipment and start their own journey, or simply start looking up and wondering. 

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Finding new targets splitting doubles get the right height pick one constellation you can just sit there quietly very cathartic. Going to star party's meeting new people more experienced than yourself making new friends.

If I hadn't done so I would have sold up now instead I've just bought my 4th scope 3 of which I have 1 reflector and 2 refractor. It was a friend who got me into Fracs and double and multiple systems with clusters I am eager to see more thanks Nick.

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Difficult to sum up in one sentence, there are so many reasons I love it, here are a few:

  • The anticipation of the search
  • The thrill of the find
  • The sheer beauty of the object - even a humble double is a beauty to behold
  • The connection with the cosmos - calming, reassuring, everyday problems melt away
  • The comfort gained from visiting old friends and the excitement of meeting new ones
  • The enjoyment of the equipment
  • The satisfaction of sharing with others and pride in my knowledge

Being out alone under a dark starry sky is humbling, exciting, slighly scary and makes me feel alive.

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Some really good responses here - I've enjoyed reading through them, often nodding in agreement as I do.

Good community of people, astronomers. We might have some little disagreements / preferences on small details but on the bigger picture, I sense we are all pretty much on the same page :icon_biggrin:

No wonder star parties work well as social gatherings as well as practical ones !

 

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It's just me-time. Well my cat likes the company outside and she is a good sentry for any strange noises or motions. 

Night under the stars is another world, in a bubble of quiet, private thought, emotions, calm usually uninterrupted enjoyment. 

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It's a HOBBY! And (frankly) such things seems to be a bit uncommon these days?
I think the world would be a happier place if a few more people had hobbies! ?

For us OLDuns, it surely it I beats (endlessly) washing your car, or mowing your
lawn, sweeping driveways... looking for "jobs" to do for LAZY neighbours etc. ?

It reassures me that (at 60+) my brain still hasn't quite yet atrophied yet... ?

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What a lovely thread. Personally, I agree with the silence and peace most of all. I'd also like to say that the forum has helped me achieve the peaceful pleasures of stargazing. When I got my first telescope, I just wanted to see the disc of Jupiter and the Orion Nebula. The people here have shown me what else there is in the sky from finding doubles to seeing their different magnitudes and colours, to trying to resolve stars in clusters. Without the forum I would have stopped looking. Also, it bridges the gap between solitary and sociable.

Sorry if I've gone off topic. It's definitely the peace and sitting under a big dark sky.

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Not much I can add to what has been said so well, but the mystery and sense of being drawn in, for want of a better expression,  in what I'm looking at doesn't go away. Whether I'm looking at the moon, (even the same place on the moon) or Jupiter or Saturn or  a globular or open cluster or what ever, that kick remains. I cant think of many other things that will do that; maybe the growl of a Merlin engine  but that's another matter.

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My love affair with the Universe began many many years ago. That love has endured, and I still find that immersing oneself in the wide field traversing of the stars fills my whole being with a sense of wonder, and also,many why's.   Nothing ever stayed Same Ol Same Ol, there are  always discernible differences. When an extended object entered the eyepiece, moon, or planet, my reaction was, it didn't fit into the grand vistas way out there, the great untouchables. The objects tethered to our stars gravitational influence, were vastly remote from the endless tapestry of the distant Cosmos.  I think when ones senses become one with all that wonder, you will never desert it, and you will return again and again.  

 

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  • The anticipation of the search
  • The thrill of the find
  • The sheer beauty of the object - even a humble double is a beauty to behold
  • The connection with the cosmos - calming, reassuring, everyday problems melt away
  • The comfort gained from visiting old friends and the excitement of meeting new ones

Surely there is, and can only be one answer for all astronomers, and this must be it. 

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Escaping

Relaxing after a hard day or week at work, getting away from al the boring adult stuff and enjoying the universe stretched above us.

Waiting till the streetlights go off (1:15am currently) and taking in the Milky Way stretching from Cygnus all the way over to the Teapot of Sagitarius :) 

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Anybody else find it bizarre/surreal how us on the forum obviously appreciate the beauty of the night sky, yet many people out there could quite easily walk somewhere on a clear night and not be at all bothered about the cosmos above them?

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25 minutes ago, Dragon_Astro said:

Anybody else find it bizarre/surreal how us on the forum obviously appreciate the beauty of the night sky, yet many people out there could quite easily walk somewhere on a clear night and not be at all bothered about the cosmos above them?

We all have our thing. I could not care less for knitting (although i can..............in,out,over and through), or train spotting or many other things.

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