Astronomy, the loneliest hobby....

[skyhog]

I was doing some work this morning and a clickbait article caught my eye. "the 30 most popular hobbies in the world". I thought to myself, surely our fantastic hobby makes that cut??

Sadly not, the usual suspects present and correct, fishing standing at the top spot, golf, various sports, video games and on it went. Quite how shopping is considered a hobby is beyond me though I did like to see reading at number 2. I suppose, by definition, a hobby is something done for pleasure so who am I to argue what should be on the list. 

I then thought that Its probably a true reflection of my own experiences. I'm approaching my sixth decade now and I'm pretty sure I haven't bumped into anyone I would consider an enthusiast in the way a site like this would define one. I'm pretty well travelled too, so its probably fair to say this hobby is extremely niche, more so than we appreciate. I always find that a little difficult to understand given the ease with which it can be undertaken. 

[westmarch]

26 minutes ago, skyhog said:

its probably fair to say this hobby is extremely niche, more so than we appreciate. I always find that a little difficult to understand given the ease with which it can be undertaken. 

You are not talking about AP then?  😁

[skyhog]

34 minutes ago, westmarch said:

You are not talking about AP then?  😁

Yes, a fairly broad church this hobby. I never come across anyone who regularly uses binos, let alone someone down the imaging rabbit hole. 

[City9Town0]

I'm on a housing estate; two other 'imagers' within 200 metres of me! Only found out whilst walking the dog and seeing scopes set up in gardens!

[Carbon Brush]

At least we know we are solitatry. We walk outside, set up, look up, talk to nobody.
Maybe we go a club - but never more than once a month. I have been to a club where people hardly spoke - not just staying quiet for the guest lecturer.
Maybe the odd star party. But how do we know who we are talking to in the dark? Is it the person you met in daylight?
Maybe go to a trade show once a year?

Now fishing is something different.
You jump in a car with 2 or 3 like minded local friends and drive for ages to get to the right water.
Then you set up camp as far away from each other as possible, and stay there all day hardly speaking.
If you catch anything you have to put it back. Calling at the chippy for your tea.
My theory is that fishing gets you away from a nagging other half🤣

As for shopping. Hobby - you must be joking. Necessity, yes to avoid starving and being naked. Unpleasant activity, usually.

[900SL]

I started an astro whatsapp group in Saudi and we've collected quite a bunch. There's about 30 in the group ranging from RST 135 AP owners to time lapse and astro landscape shooters.

A quick recap of nationalities includes:

Belgian, British, Irish, Saudi, Indian, Finn, South African, French. Hungarian, Lebanese, Turkish. It's like the league of nations out there.

This may, of course, have something to do with the weather here. You've never been anywhere quite like the center of the Ad Dhana (Bortle 1) or even better, the edge of the Empty Quarter. Diamond strewn black velvet horizon to horizon, assuming the wind isn;t up and the dust keeps down

My guess is it would be much more popular if the conditions were better (i.e. light pollution and clouds)

 

Photo from EQ credit Jo

 

 

Edited March 8, 2022 by 900SL

[Paz]

I find this to be a rare hobby. Outside the small club I go to on occasion I've only met one person who does astronomy and there's almost no observing scene. Most people know nothing about it and I would guess some of my neighbours have no idea what I'm doing when I'm out the front observing.

If you go to an observing meet you would probably not recognise anyone you met if you passed them in the street the next day!

However I enjoy the peace and quiet of observing and I enjoy being part of what sometimes feels like a secret society.

[skyhog]

6 minutes ago, 900SL said:

I started an astro whatsapp group in Saudi and we've collected quite a bunch. There's about 30 in the group ranging from RST 135 AP owners to time lapse and astro landscape shooters.

A quick recap of nationalities includes:

Belgian, British, Irish, Saudi, Indian, Finn, South African, French. Hungarian, Lebanese, Turkish. It's like the league of nations out there.

This may, of course, have something to do with the weather here. You've never been anywhere quite like the center of the Ad Dhana (Bortle 1) or even better, the edge of the Empty Quarter. Diamond strewn black velvet horizon to horizon, assuming the wind isn;t up and the dust keeps down

My guess is it would be much more popular if the conditions were better (i.e. light pollution and clouds)

 

 

I suppose the difference is reaching out to fellow enthusiasts via social media, local clubs etc and coming across people by chance. I'm talking about the latter scenario.  

[mikeDnight]

34 minutes ago, skyhog said:

Yes, a fairly broad church this hobby. I never come across anyone who regularly uses binos, let alone someone down the imaging rabbit hole. 

 Although I had a humble 60mm refractor, I really cut my sky teeth using a pair of 60mm binoculars back in 1980 and for a few years afterwards. Those binoculars taught me my way around the constellations and gave me my first views of countless deep sky objects.  I think that back then, telescopes were not quite as easily available as they are today, and were relatively expensive. Even a pair of Swift 80mm binoculars cost in excess of £300 in 1983. How things have changed!  My skies were more transparent back then though, and what I could easily find in my binoculars back then, requires a significant aperture today. 

This is the only pic I have of my 60mm binoculars on my home made binocular fork mount and tripod. The fork was designed so that the altitude pivot was in line with my temple. That meant that the eyepieces remained at the same distance from my eyes as I altered the angle. Genius!! 

  I'm not sure I've ever felt lonely, as I've always had a small number of local observers to help keep me enthused, but mostly I do tend to observe alone. I am aware of several other astronomers in my locality who I've never observed with, but perhaps they like to be alone? I know how distracting it can be when several observers get together. Although it can be a nice social event, it can also be a pain when someone is hogging your eyepiece during a rare moment of exceptional seeing. 🥊 

 

 

[skyhog]

7 minutes ago, Paz said:

I find this to be a rare hobby. Outside the small club I go to on occasion I've only met one person who does astronomy and there's almost no observing scene. Most people know nothing about it and I would guess some of my neighbours have no idea what I'm doing when I'm out the front observing.

If you go to an observing meet you would probably not recognise anyone you met if you passed them in the street the next day!

However I enjoy the peace and quiet of observing and I enjoy being part of what sometimes feels like a secret society.

Yes, my thoughts exactly. Although I'm bringing this up, I actually do like the solitary nature of the hobby. I think my wife has set foot in the obsy perhaps half a dozen times in nearly 20 years. Most of my former workmates think I'm slightly deranged going into an unheated shed during the winter. 

[ONIKKINEN]

I have only had a handful of experiences with other people whilst out with my scope and most of them dont care or know what im doing. Most also dont approach and just sort of glimpse from a distance for a few seconds before moving on, but i think that's a Finnish personality issue rather than a hobby issue 😅.

This one lady stopped by with her car once and asked if there is a good place nearby to try and image the northern lights from (was forecasted that night) and asked what i was doing and i just answered oh im imaging this pair of galaxies in Ursa major (M81-M82) and pointed upwards to where it is. I would have loved to explain everything because talking astronomy with strangers is such a rarity, but she just sort of looked at me confused and didn't say anything? She then just said oh well thanks for the help and drove off to where i recommended a better place would be.

The one time a person has actually come to talk more about what im doing was pretty nice though. They were curious as to what im doing and asked what the giant tube is and how it works (newtonian). They were surprised to see that you dont look through it from the behind and generally didn't seem to understand how the scope works. Newtonians look really strange to people who are not in the hobby it seems, but anyway ended up looking at the Moon at 200x while it was setting. Wasn't the best view i have had, but im pretty sure it was the best view this guy had seen.

Friends and family also dont seem to care or understand that much. If i show some half-acquaintance from work what i have imaged 50% of the time they just straight up dont believe me and think its impossible to image these things without NASA equipment.

This hobby really is quite niche and underground it seems.

[900SL]

2 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

I have only had a handful of experiences with other people whilst out with my scope and most of them dont care or know what im doing. Most also dont approach and just sort of glimpse from a distance for a few seconds before moving on, but i think that's a Finnish personality issue rather than a hobby issue 😅.

This one lady stopped by with her car once and asked if there is a good place nearby to try and image the northern lights from (was forecasted that night) and asked what i was doing and i just answered oh im imaging this pair of galaxies in Ursa major (M81-M82) and pointed upwards to where it is. I would have loved to explain everything because talking astronomy with strangers is such a rarity, but she just sort of looked at me confused and didn't say anything? She then just said oh well thanks for the help and drove off to where i recommended a better place would be.

The one time a person has actually come to talk more about what im doing was pretty nice though. They were curious as to what im doing and asked what the giant tube is and how it works (newtonian). They were surprised to see that you dont look through it from the behind and generally didn't seem to understand how the scope works. Newtonians look really strange to people who are not in the hobby it seems, but anyway ended up looking at the Moon at 200x while it was setting. Wasn't the best view i have had, but im pretty sure it was the best view this guy had seen.

Friends and family also dont seem to care or understand that much. If i show some half-acquaintance from work what i have imaged 50% of the time they just straight up dont believe me and think its impossible to image these things without NASA equipment.

This hobby really is quite niche and underground it seems.

When I'm not in Saudi I live in Lauttasaari, Onikkinen. I'm hoping to find some dark sky sites when I get back later in the year, and Ive lived there long enough to get the Finn thing about not interacting

[woldsman]

Sky at Night magazine circulation is about 23,500. BBC stargazing live has 3m+ viewers. Value of telescope and associated products imported into the U.K. is £30-40 million a year.  This includes research instruments as well as amateur equipment. Over 200 active astronomy societies. Have seen an estimated figure of 80,000 active amateur astronomers in the U.K. but am not sure how it was calculated. There are bigger hobbies, for sure, but also smaller ones!

[ONIKKINEN]

12 minutes ago, 900SL said:

When I'm not in Saudi I live in Lauttasaari, Onikkinen. I'm hoping to find some dark sky sites when I get back later in the year, and Ive lived there long enough to get the Finn thing about not interacting

To be honest im still looking for decent spots myself... The Helsinki light dome extends much further out than one would expect from its population. There is one reasonably close spot with decent skies in Porkkalanniemi to the southwest of Helsinki. Its barely outside the light dome and every direction except north east is decent with bortle 4 skies. The place is often quite windy though and requires a sturdy mount to make imaging possible. For skies better than this im not sure which direction i would drive. Probably north a couple of hours, but no such places that i have found closer than this kind of drive away.

You can check Finnish stargazing spots looking at this map: https://www.taivaanvahti.fi/locations/browse/map

Porkkalanniemi is the lone spot to the south of Kirkkonummi on the map. Accessible by car (its a parking lot) and not too far away. There can be some traffic during normal waking hours, but usually after midnight its quiet. Some folks also know its a stargazing spot and turn of their car headlights once they get close and see there is a guy with a scope.

[Macavity]

Most people "approve" of Astronomy... even if they don't do it.
But, in recent years, popular ridicule is making a comeback? 🙄
But, Hey... I modified a meme! Am I a "Girus"... a "Mirus" or? lol



I fear that Amateur Astronomy (along with science) is now
falling victim to general anti-science (anti "expert") stuff? 😢

I have a feeling Joe Rogan (Who?) or Russell Brand (Why?)
won't be interviewing ME, but proudly: "One of the Few"! 🥳
 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Macavity

[900SL]

50 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

To be honest im still looking for decent spots myself... The Helsinki light dome extends much further out than one would expect from its population. There is one reasonably close spot with decent skies in Porkkalanniemi to the southwest of Helsinki. Its barely outside the light dome and every direction except north east is decent with bortle 4 skies. The place is often quite windy though and requires a sturdy mount to make imaging possible. For skies better than this im not sure which direction i would drive. Probably north a couple of hours, but no such places that i have found closer than this kind of drive away.

You can check Finnish stargazing spots looking at this map: https://www.taivaanvahti.fi/locations/browse/map

Porkkalanniemi is the lone spot to the south of Kirkkonummi on the map. Accessible by car (its a parking lot) and not too far away. There can be some traffic during normal waking hours, but usually after midnight its quiet. Some folks also know its a stargazing spot and turn of their car headlights once they get close and see there is a guy with a scope.

Many thanks for that. I found a place on the south east coast on the LP map that looked interesting, but it was 100km or so down 56 from memory. Looking south should be pretty dark from there. I'll check the map again for a more accurate location

[Ouroboros]

I quite like having a hobby that’s a bit niche. I don’t wanna be one of the masses! 😀

[900SL]

1 hour ago, ONIKKINEN said:

To be honest im still looking for decent spots myself... The Helsinki light dome extends much further out than one would expect from its population. There is one reasonably close spot with decent skies in Porkkalanniemi to the southwest of Helsinki. Its barely outside the light dome and every direction except north east is decent with bortle 4 skies. The place is often quite windy though and requires a sturdy mount to make imaging possible. For skies better than this im not sure which direction i would drive. Probably north a couple of hours, but no such places that i have found closer than this kind of drive away.

You can check Finnish stargazing spots looking at this map: https://www.taivaanvahti.fi/locations/browse/map

Porkkalanniemi is the lone spot to the south of Kirkkonummi on the map. Accessible by car (its a parking lot) and not too far away. There can be some traffic during normal waking hours, but usually after midnight its quiet. Some folks also know its a stargazing spot and turn of their car headlights once they get close and see there is a guy with a scope.

Useful map, the place I was thinking of trying was to the east Porkkalanniemi here  60.039739, 24.148248  but I'd need to recce to see if there are any open areas for setting up

[Alan White]

This Hobby is like many others,  in that it is what you make it.

I Astro Hobbied on my own for years, I then joined a club a few years back and it is far more sociable and enjoyable.

My club meets weekly so lots of chats and very few folks don’t talk to one another at meetings. 
 

I do enjoy my lone observing at home with Norah the Bat and the Owls, Foxes and Badgers keeping me company. 
 

Niche Hobby? Quite likely but I don’t care as it is my Hobby and I gain great pleasure from it.

 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Alan White
Typos

[westmarch]

3 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

Now fishing is something different.

Is it?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-60646570

Western Isles angler catches fireball meteor in video

John

Edited March 8, 2022 by westmarch

[Franklin]

Alone under the stars late at night or early before dawn with just a telescope and wildlife for company does make this a loners hobby. That's why SGL is so important, bringing like minded people together. I feel like I know most of the regulars on here though I've never met anyone. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only one who's nuts 🤣.

[jjohnson3803]

Aside from my local club, I've not met anybody nearby who's interested.  Seems there are many more model railroaders than amateur astronomers.

And that's fine by me.  I definitely prefer being alone under the stars and I never joined a model railroad club or anything like that.  But I'm also 98% Finnish if my DNA test was accurate, so maybe the stereotypical reserved, self-isolating traits are at work here.  😁

Edited March 9, 2022 by jjohnson3803

[Gfamily]

On 08/03/2022 at 16:01, skyhog said:

Yes, a fairly broad church this hobby. I never come across anyone who regularly uses binos, let alone someone down the imaging rabbit hole. 

Mrs G is an almost exclusive binocular user, downloading the @BinocularSky newsletter every month, particularly when we're able to get away to dark sky sites; though she reckons that finding the fainter planets and brighter asteroids from our suburban garden is always a rewarding challenge. 

[Pete Presland]

I love the solitude that comes with Astronomy, i am surrounded by people all day so i enjoy the break 🙂  I also do not know anybody else in my town that is a regular astronomer. 

That is the great thing about SGL, i have met loads of like minded people on here who i would never know about 🙂 

[Orange Smartie]

I think "shopping" normally refers to shopping for clothes and I personally never understood the appeal of that. Perhaps that's why I have a hobby that involves standing alone in the dark where noone can see me!

This is an interesting thread. I've got back into astronomy over the last 15 months or so, and I would argue that the hobby has a fairly universal appeal amongst inquisitive types, but there are many obstacles to getting started. For example, most people I've spoken to are completely unaware of what's up there in the night sky. Everyone knows about the planets, but they typically know nothing of the other things you could be looking at; clusters, nebulae and double stars, for example. I showed the Cambridge Star Atlas to a friend on Sunday and he was completely unware that such things even existed! Equipment choice is another barrier - most I've spoke to wouldn't know what constitutes a good beginner telescope, or appreciate that binoculars are a good way into the hobby.

All this said, nearly everyone I've spoken to about astronomy has expressed some level of interest in looking through the telescope. One of my wife's friends spent about an hour last summer, just looking at the moon. My sister and my boss (plus his son) have both enjoyed observing sessions and I have a small list of others who are planning to have a go when the weather is suitable.

So that's my experience - I think astronomy would be more popular if more people were given a gateway in. Perhaps as a hobby it attracts people who aren't particularly outgoing and aren't that bothered to recruit others to join in - I think that's also a factor.

Pete