Feel "guilty" missing clear skies

[Star101]

Here in the UK. with so few clear nights, I would feel guilty missing a clear night, no matter if I am ill or well! If I did not then maybe I'm in the the wrong hobby. But the practicality of it dictates that if feeling under the weather, don't look up

Glad you are feeling better and hope you have many more clear skies soon !

 

Dave

[Paul M]

Last year my Ying and Yang never aligned themselves for the Mars opposition. I never got one single telescopic view of Old Red. I did feel a bit down about that. Mars oppositions are something that have always (usually (sometimes)) motivated me.

But at at the back of my mind I was cultivating the excuse that the next one will be so much better anyway!

Likewise most clear nights that I don't feel up to turning out for. I'll find fault with it. It's a bit hazy or there is a bit of scud about. It'll be better next time. 

Much of the motivation for acquiring the 127 Mak is that I can take it to work on night shifts and make some astronomical use of my downtime. 

[kirkster501]

I think if the skies and clouds were a bit kinder to us then we wouldn't feel such desperate need to make the most of every second of clear sky.  But for us in the UK, clear skies are like the scraps of food thrown to the starving dogs; they have to be ravenously made the most of!  Winters have been diabolical in the UK in recent years with week after week of cloud.

[Nyctimene]

Both feelings - the feeling of guilt, when not going out under clear skies; and the feeling of relief, when clouds come up, are quite familiar to me, even with > 100 observations 2017 and 2018. I've found, that a short session, even 5 to 10 minutes, can curb efficiently the feeling of guilt - at least for me, as a purely visual observer.  7x50 binoculars or a grab-and-go scope, as the Heritage, or a small frac, do it for me. Being out under the stars - that's the only thing that matters.

Greek mythology tells, that the giant Antaios, son of Poseidon and Gaia (the Mother Earth), could never be defeated, as long as he stood on his mother, the earth. (Therefore, Heracles lifted him up and strangled him to death). I'm sometimes feeling as a kind of "reverse Antaios" - as long as I can look up to the stars and "dip my toes" into the Milky Way stream, I feel always strenghtened and regain confidence and positive attitudes. Even when it's mostly cloudy, I'll go out and try to get a view of some stars. Btw., double stars can be made out quite well even through thin clouds.

Stephan

 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Nyctimene

[szymon]

Of course the answer is to set up your imaging equipment in a dedicated remotely controlled observatory that you can run from an iPad or something -- that way when you're feeling too tired, you can just run it from bed before going to sleep 😉

That said -- it's a hobby!  If you're feeling guilty about not doing it, then you're doing it wrong.  If you're just feeling sad about having missed an opportunity, that's different, but please don't feel guilty!

-simon

[Stub Mandrel]

I plan to recruit a mob of mutant henchmen, ostensibly for protection in the case of zombie apocalypse, nuclear war, brexit, asteroid impacts, super volcanoes etc. an to carry my #grabbag.

As they won't be busy all the time In between existential planetary crises I thought I could train them to set up and operate my imaging rig, but they seem to be more interested in chewing the legs of my mount and hiding from the cat.

Also they won't come out at night, I seem to have mistakenly targeted diurnal, rather than nocturnal mutants with my recruitment literature.

🤪