Why do you observe?

[Stu]

1 hour ago, PeterStudz said:

 

My comments below are more along the lines of “why don’t more people observe” but maybe that’s helpful…

When we went on holiday with friends to a place that just happened to be “dark” the topic of light pollution came up over dinner. Our friend’s teenage daughter had zero interests in simply just looking up. It was almost as if she was frightened of something. I had the feeling that she believed doing so is nerdy and she was cool! She also asked the question:

“does it matter if you can’t see the stars anymore? Does anyone really care?”.

Attempting to answer made no difference. Her mind was set. 

When my daughter enthusiastically mentions to my in-laws the enjoyment she gets out of stargazing the response (not said directly but you can tell) is like “errrr… that’s odd… why on earth do you do that?”

Alice is in an after school club called “Space Club” which includes astronomy. I’ve taken a telescope along. This initially had 11 kids (Alice the only girl) but now it’s sadly down to 4. If anymore leave it could be cancelled altogether. When I asked Alice why her answer was “The boys were called nerds by other kids for wanting to go, so they dropped out” - what can you say!

All very true Peter.

My nine year old daughter attends a Science Club after school which is well attended. I took my scope down recently and gave them a talk for an hour and had loads of questions and interaction.

Interestingly my daughter was very embarrassed to start off with, but one of the boys asked her ‘Why are you embarrassed? This is really cool!’ That made her more relaxed.

The icing on the cake though, was when I used my phone to ask the AZ100 Goto mount to point the FS-128 towards Jupiter (despite us being in the classroom). Lorna had not seen this before and nearly fell over in surprise. The whole concept of controlling the mount with my phone caught their imagination, something I had hoped would be the case.

We did manage a quick look at Jupiter through my FC100DC in the playground later, and as expected they all just had a 3 to 5 second look before rushing off. A few stayed for a while and got a little more benefit, so the challenge is to get them to spend more time and start to observe, rather than just look quickly.

The main issue I suspect, is that the children will never have been under a properly dark sky, or if they have, no one has taken the time to get them to get dark adapted and look up so they  just don’t know how amazing it can be. As a divorced father of two, lack of cash meant that I used to take my two youngsters away camping for 10 days every year in Dorset or Devon. We used to sit around the camp fire, toasting marsh mallows and drinking hot chocolate whilst watching satellites, shooting stars and seeing the Milky Way. That was from when they were very young, up to about 10. I did think that they had forgotten about all this (they are now 22 and 19), but after their holiday in Italy with their mum last year, my boy told me that they really enjoyed sitting outside at night doing exactly what we used to do all those years back so the experience really did sink in and stay with them.

 

[Nicola Fletcher]

8 hours ago, Stu said:

We used to sit around the camp fire, toasting marsh mallows and drinking hot chocolate whilst watching satellites, shooting stars and seeing the Milky Way.

What a lovely story Stu. I was lucky enough to experience the same as a child, when my parents moved to a house in the country (their friends thought they were nuts) and I’ll never forget the skies on clear nights. Whenever we used to come home after dark, we would all stand and look up. I remember visitors doing the same. The skies really were magnificent.

Ive had an interest in the night skies all my life because of that, but I really got into astronomy after I got my first telescope. Since then it’s like an obsession, and I think my continued amazement at dark skies and the peace of sitting outside staring upwards, together with a hankering  for the next wow moment, is my big draw to the hobby. I’m a bit of a nerd, and I like the precision and perfection that the hobby allows. I also absolutely love good equipment, and I enjoy collecting good scopes and eyepieces. There are multiple joys associated with this hobby and I can’t pin it down to one!

Edited February 14 by Nicola Fletcher

[Whistlin Bob]

Some terrific answers in this thread; my own answers are similar to several on here. Astronomy/stargazing was something I discovered in my forties- I keep doing it because it has brought me joy and wonder, and because between observing and imaging there's so much to do, and I barely feel I've scratched the surface.  I've put a lot into it, but it has given so much more back.

I don't share some of the fears about change, though. Yes, the skies are getting worse, and as a hobby for the young, the appeal of sitting in the cold and dark, seeking faint fuzzies in the eyepiece struggles to reach the Xbox/Minecraft/Insta generation.

But technology is touching our hobby too, and over the last year or so I've seen a generation of people join my local club thrilled with their SeeStars and imaging kit and wanting to share the experience with the like minded. They want to learn more about what they're finding and how to get the most out of it. We've got a special interest group to include them and it's growing fast, with an average age much lower than the club as a whole. I think this is all brilliant, and I think we're seeing only the beginning of this- these systems are only going to get better- and hopefully bring many more into our hobby, albeit in a different form to what many of us may be used to.

[PeterStudz]

On 14/02/2024 at 12:02, Stu said:

All very true Peter.

My nine year old daughter attends a Science Club after school which is well attended. I took my scope down recently and gave them a talk for an hour and had loads of questions and interaction.

Interestingly my daughter was very embarrassed to start off with, but one of the boys asked her ‘Why are you embarrassed? This is really cool!’ That made her more relaxed.

The icing on the cake though, was when I used my phone to ask the AZ100 Goto mount to point the FS-128 towards Jupiter (despite us being in the classroom). Lorna had not seen this before and nearly fell over in surprise. The whole concept of controlling the mount with my phone caught their imagination, something I had hoped would be the case.

We did manage a quick look at Jupiter through my FC100DC in the playground later, and as expected they all just had a 3 to 5 second look before rushing off. A few stayed for a while and got a little more benefit, so the challenge is to get them to spend more time and start to observe, rather than just look quickly.

The main issue I suspect, is that the children will never have been under a properly dark sky, or if they have, no one has taken the time to get them to get dark adapted and look up so they  just don’t know how amazing it can be. As a divorced father of two, lack of cash meant that I used to take my two youngsters away camping for 10 days every year in Dorset or Devon. We used to sit around the camp fire, toasting marsh mallows and drinking hot chocolate whilst watching satellites, shooting stars and seeing the Milky Way. That was from when they were very young, up to about 10. I did think that they had forgotten about all this (they are now 22 and 19), but after their holiday in Italy with their mum last year, my boy told me that they really enjoyed sitting outside at night doing exactly what we used to do all those years back so the experience really did sink in and stay with them.

 

That camping story is great. Reminds me a bit of what we’ve done. Although that’s mostly camping in the garden, looking up at the sky for shooting starts etc and also through a telescope. Only had a couple of true camping trips with my daughter but they’ve all, so far, been cloudy But sure it’ll work out one day.

I was being (deliberately) negative with Space Club. When I took a telescope to school back in mid-January it was just dark enough to see Jupiter, the moon and Saturn. Saturn was low and you could not make it out naked eye in the twilight, but fortunately managed to find it in the telescope. Now, for me it was a bit “fuzzy” but you could clearly see the rings and it still got the most “wow”. Even though temperatures were below freezing and most kids had gone home, I quickly got a queue of “non Space Club” members. One comment about Saturn that I well remember was “wow… that doesn’t look real”.

My experience of kids (well, pre-teenager) is that they enjoy observing far more than taking and looking at pictures. Whether it’s in books, the internet or astrophotography. But have a feeling that that can change as they grow up. I know that when I first explained astrophotography to Alice she amusingly started palming them off as “those fake pictures”. Recently she made some drawings of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Even though she’s seen far more images and pictures of the planets from various sources these drawing’s were all “upside down” in “Dob view”. Even Mars had its North Polar Hood at the bottom. To me this suggests that what’s she’s observed through the telescope has made the biggest impression. 

I also think that far too many simply haven’t see a dark sky. Eg a friend of mine didn’t see the Milky Way until his mid-fifties. 

Alice is just as obsessed with the internet, mobile phones and social media as any other kid and as a parent it can be very frustrating. But interestingly when we went on Holiday last year to a place that has a dark sky (we’d been before) literally the first thing she asked wasn’t for the WiFi code (which is more typical) it was if she could go and see the Milky Way. All despite having got up at 2am and been travelling most of the day until 6pm.  

[mikeDnight]

Observing is like fishing. When I see fishermen sitting at the bank of  a lodge or along the canal when walking my dog, I can relate to the pleasure I believe they get. They go fishing, but don't necessarily catch any fish, and yet thoroughly enjoy themselves. Well that's me when I observe. It's just relaxing and enjoyable,  and if I see something new, I've caught a fish, but if I don't, then it doesn't matter because I've had a nice time playing with my telescope.

 A number of years ago I was watching my next door neighbour spend ages patiently rearranging his fishing tackle box while sitting in his garden. He must have sat there for over an hour just playing and enjoying himself, and I thought how similar we were. I mess around with my eyepieces, rearranging, cleaning, and generally just passing my time doing exactly what my neighbour did, except I play with bits of glass instead of fish hooks, flies and floats. It's all just for fun!

[JeremyS]

10 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Observing is like fishing. When I see fishermen sitting at the bank of  a lodge or along the canal when walking my dog, I can relate to the pleasure I believe they get. They go fishing, but don't necessarily catch any fish, and yet thoroughly enjoy themselves. Well that's me when I observe. It's just relaxing and enjoyable,  and if I see something new, I've caught a fish, but if I don't, then it doesn't matter because I've had a nice time playing with my telescope.

 A number of years ago I was watching my next door neighbour spend ages patiently rearranging his fishing tackle box while sitting in his garden. He must have sat there for over an hour just playing and enjoying himself, and I thought how similar we were. I mess around with my eyepieces, rearranging, cleaning, and generally just passing my time doing exactly what my neighbour did, except I play with bits of glass instead of fish hooks, flies and floats. It's all just for fun!

And then there’s the tales of the one that got away 😊

[Xilman]

I'm a sad old geek who grew out of stamp collecting.

These days I enjoy making measurements which stand a reasonable chance of being useful to other astronomers, so I observe variable stars and asteroids.

I also enjoy tracking down elusive objects, especially if they form a collection of some sorts. Hence my images of small satellites in the outer solar system, TNOs, and globular clusters, especially those orbiting galaxies other than the Milky Way.

[mikeDnight]

4 hours ago, JeremyS said:

And then there’s the tales of the one that got away 😊

The White Spot on Saturn c 1990/91, can't remember, but it will be in my notes somewhere. Saw it, didn't report it, then  a couple of weeks later someone shouts "I've discovered a white spot on Saturn. Slippery Big Fish!

[Stu]

15 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

The White Spot on Saturn c 1990/91, can't remember, but it will be in my notes somewhere. Saw it, didn't report it, then  a couple of weeks later someone shouts "I've discovered a white spot on Saturn. Slippery Big Fish!

Was that around the same time you spotted the stone in the HorseHead’s hoof Mike? 🤪🤣👍

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

The White Spot on Saturn c 1990/91, can't remember, but it will be in my notes somewhere. Saw it, didn't report it, then  a couple of weeks later someone shouts "I've discovered a white spot on Saturn. Slippery Big Fish!

That's the only regret I have with my astronomy journey in that I didn't start a detailed journal of my observing sessions. As the saying goes, better late than never as I have just ordered a proper bound journal and was actually brave enough to include some sketching materials. Wish me luck 🤞.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

That's the only regret I have with my astronomy journey in that I didn't start a detailed journal of my observing sessions. As the saying goes, better late than never as I have just ordered a proper bound journal and was actually brave enough to include some sketching materials. Wish me luck 🤞.

I’m the same, have never consistently written observing notes, but I kind of use SGL for that. I can still look back at some memorable sessions which I wrote up on here and enjoy them again.

[Marvin Jenkins]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

I’m the same, have never consistently written observing notes, but I kind of use SGL for that. I can still look back at some memorable sessions which I wrote up on here and enjoy them again.

No time like the present. I had that odd thought when renewal of the house insurance came up.

If the house caught fire and you had time to grab just two precious material items, what would they be.

I thought for a while and realised they would be my observing diary and my Burnhams Celestial handbook.

I would of course look ridiculous outside my flaming house house clutching some books.

My biggest regret would be chosing between the BCH and my first OTA that got me all those first pages in the diary.

I may have to re think this back in a minute.

Marv

[maw lod qan]

For my pleasure!

Is that a good enough reason?

[Marvin Jenkins]

On 23/02/2024 at 13:05, maw lod qan said:

For my pleasure!

Is that a good enough reason?

Yes it is!

[Moonlightbaker]

Intrigue ? Something else for the grey cells to work on ? Bit of me time . And lastly because seeing things yourself instead of online is better.

Edited March 5 by Moonlightbaker

[Jim L]

On 10/02/2024 at 02:01, Second Time Around said:

Following from the stargazer v astronomer topic why do you observe?

…..

 

For mental health, however loved ones have expressed doubts about its efficacy 🙃

[inedible_hulk]

I lost my partner to illness and observing provided me with peace; this forum provided me with some company. 

Years have passed and my circumstances are much altered, but I still mainly observe for the mindfulness aspect. This forum continues to educate, inspire, and entertain in equal measure. Thank you 😊

[VNA]

On 13/02/2024 at 14:43, RT65CB-SWL said:

I observe because it makes me think as to how small planet Earth 

Hello, thank you, yes Call Sagan put us in the right  very small place.

I am in contemplative mood so I can  relish incredible beautiful vistas through my scope..

[saac]

I observe to take the pain away !  Oh no wait, that is something else  

Jim 

[shinebug777]

I like to observe because space has always deeply fascinated me! It's always a bit jarring to see something so strange as a planet, moon, or star closely with my own eyes. It makes them more real!

[jjohnson3803]

I took numerous physics and astronomy classes at uni, but the thing that first got me interested in astronomy was the beauty of the Universe.  As I've gotten older, it's the beauty of it to which I've returned.

When I was in my early 20s, doing spectroscopy with a 1-meter scope was better than beer.  I find lately that I'm appreciating bino or even just naked eye astronomy more and more.