Ladies : Wow a hobby with ladies and pretty ones too

[Catanonia]

Sorry, don't mean to offend.

But every hobby I have had has been a blokes hobby.

Motorbikes (Pleasure and racing)

Remote control planes / helicopters / cars

Fishing

Photography (Mainly men)

But since joining this forum, I am amazed at the amount of ladies young and beautiful as well as older (just a beautiful) that are part of this hobby.

Looking through past Sky at Night programmes, it is the same. Dr's, Professors and space engineers of both sexes.

Perhaps I have lived a shelter life and not opened my eyes. I suppose this hobby brings out the intellectuals in society and explains it as we all know the ladies are far superior to us Even the wifey was sat outside last night with her lappy and Stellarium telling me to image M13 that she say with her eyes.

Your views ?

[Doc]

I think you are really the "Milk Tray Man"

[ashenlight]

Or maybe the diet coke advert man?

[SurfingNeil]

What an interesting thread for a Astronomy forum, to be honest I down play my "night time activity". I think there's a perception of knitted jumpers and beards, so I talk about Climbing, surfing, suba diving the adventure stuff but to be honest the astronomy is more interesting than old "war" stories. Anybody else had this?

[Astro_Baby]

Oh I dont know if its limited to astro - I used to shoot and there were plenty of women doing that.

I must admit though when I got back into astro I kind of imagined it would be pretty well male dominated so its good to see other women doing it as well.

[ashenlight]

Me too SurfingNeil... whenever I've brought up astronomy as my biggest (and only) hobby I usually get a snigger off any males present and something along the lines of "I didn't think women were clever enough for that." It actually upsets me sometimes, secretly, lol! Or if they see me struggling to get something in the FOV (come on, we've all been there) they pipe up with "do you want me to try that" as if they'd be able to do it with no prior knowledge of how telescopes work, as if they have some kind of innate skill!!

Argh!!

This is why I love being a member of SGL so much, we're all on an equal footing and we are all valued.

[SurfingNeil]

Glad it's not just me then lol

[steppenwolf]

Funnily enough, I almost shout my astronomy interest from the treetops and so far have only had interested and surprisingly 'informed' responses.

[ashenlight]

sorry, had a bit of a rant then lol

I feel a gender roles debate coming on

[themos]

But since joining this forum, I am amazed at the amount of ladies young and beautiful as well as older (just a beautiful) that are part of this hobby.

[Catanonia]

Or maybe the diet coke advert man?

lol, you may be disappointed .

Had such a chuckle then sat in garden with lappy, nearly missed my timer for my dark sub

Lovely out here tonight in Cheshire

[Talitha]

Most of the Gents around here are pretty cool with me being a geek. They're not intimidated in the least, in fact we've had a lot of fun with it. Like a few years ago, when the Shuttle did a fly-by on Christmas Eve.. the neighborhood Dads were absolute heroes that night for showing the kids Santa.

Some have popped over for a look through the scope and were absolutely blown away by Saturn and the Moon. Never fails, someone always looks around the OTA at the aperture to make sure it's not a photo hanging there to fool them.

When i started out in the online groups 10 years ago, i wasn't the only woman participating, but the numbers certainly have grown through the years. TBH though, maybe there were women who chose not to reveal their gender, so maybe they've been here all along but are just recently making themselves known.

Actually, there've been women astronomers for quite a long time. Women were the first 'calculators' who did the math needed in the 19th to early 20th century for astrophysics and astronomy. They were hired because they'd be doing the same work as a male clerk, but would be paid less.

Try looking up Caroline Herschel, Annie Jump Cannon, Maria Mitchell, Carolyn Shoemaker, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Helen Sawyer Hogg, Nancy Grace Roman and Margaret Peachy Burbidge.

[Catanonia]

My point exactly. I have heard of Shoemaker cause of the Jupiter collisions (discovery channel is great )

[themos]

Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered pulsars (with Tony Hewish as her supervisor). Leavitt worked out the Cepheid variables distance scale. The only astronomer I've met socially is a woman and she worked on the team that discovered dark energy, Isobel Hook.

[Rhye]

British posters will know the name Heather Couper from the 80s and 90s. She was great, I think she still pops up in papers from time to time.

[Beulah]

Heather Couper is awesome.

This is why I love being a member of SGL so much, we're all on an equal footing and we are all valued.

Well said, Amanda, well said.

I wholeheartedly agree; this is the only community I have found on on the web where gender isn't even an issue - and this is coming from someone who has a lot of "male" hobbies..it is sooo truly refreshing to come on here and not have the usual patronising comments, when my interests have been a big part of my life and as normal as the hands on my wrists... .

Whatever SGL is doing, keep it up. It's become my most visited site on the web.

[661-pete]

I had lectures, for my first-year student astronomy course in the 1960s, from the delightful Madge Adam. I remember, on the first day, having only seen the name "Dr. M.G.Adam" on the lecture list, my surprise at seeing a woman walk into the room! There's sexual stereotyping for you! But I had cause to repent of my prejudices, her tutoring was excellent and part of the reason for my continuing interest in the hobby.

[Catanonia]

Who was the woman that did all the ground breaking work on Spiral Galaxies and linked it to Dark Matter and the Inflationary period ?

I did a long 3rd year paper on this at uni, but was ages and ages ago ?

Very clever lass.

[lulu57]

I like the way this forum seems to understand (or at least welcome) a broadly-female 'talk-about-everything-whilst-still-being-interested-mainly-in-the-hobby' approach. I used to go on another hobby forum and was basically chucked off for talking about other stuff as well.

If I could only talk about astronomy on here, it would feel very false. You wouldn't only talk about one subject if you were face to face with someone - how narrow would that be? I talk about lots of stuff on here, because I am interested in people, but I return to the common shared interest of astronomy, because that's why we're all on here in the first place.

I like the tolerance of diverse communication styles here.

It feels grown-up and well adjusted.

(Careful now...beginning to sound a bit 'up myself'!)

[Astro_Baby]

Actually years ago I was briefly in an astro club and the members did fit the cardigan wearing, pipe smoking, bearded stereotype BUT even though I was very much an outsider I was made to feel welcome and they were very patient with me all things considered.

If you want gender sterotyping an astro dealer in a phone converstaion about a year ago said to me (on the subject of a problem I was having with a scope) "well they are complicated things and a woman probably wouldnt be able to understand"

My response was to say "Its just as well you said that on a telephone becuase if we were face to face part of your anatomy would have suffered a rather sudden change of shape from 3D to 2D":)

[661-pete]

...part of your anatomy would have suffered a rather sudden change of shape from 3D to 2D":)

...and would then require serious re-collimation...

[Catanonia]

...and would then require serious re-collimation...

snigger

[kev 102 42]

i would like to see more woman in Astronomy modelling scopes with very little on JOKE,its great to have the girls on the forum,A big thanks to Helen for showing me loads of DSOs and my first Galaxy and Astro Baby for offering me to share her patch at Salisbury and no doubt showing me how to polar allingn ....kev

[themos]

Ok, I'm getting uncomfortable with all the "pretty"s and "girl"s, now.

[lulu57]

I do a very good impression of 'unattractive old croc' just by not wearing make up and having 2 hours sleep (due to a heavy bout of observing) the night before.

Doesn't take too much effort...