"Dave & Janelle" wrote in message
...


But, deep down, all amateur astronomers
are romantics; if we weren't, we'd stay indoors and download Hubble
pictures
rather than drag the scope out and look ourselves.

Actually, I like to curl up with a natural science book on just about any
subject, but lately, about stars.

While I really enjoy being outside day and night, and while I like to look
at everything from earthworms to distant galaxies, my "love interest"
includes not just looking, but on understanding what we know about life and
the universe itself.

I am also totally facinated by my own existence and the fact that one day it
will end, as it has for all those who came before me, and for all those who
will come after. It is a great thing to participe in the universe of human
intelligence. That we understand what we are, how long we will live, where
we are in the visible universe, and that we have the ability to analyze the
untouchable through the energy it creates is simply fricking amazing.
Spectral analysis is, to me, the single most ingenious science ever set
forth from the lobes of human gray matter.

Kudos to all you guys and gals who take the time to consume the knowledge of
your predecessors, and advance our understanding of all things great and
small. Not all of us had the means, opportunity or psychological well being
to participate in this when we were young, and now that we are managing our
lives as best we are able, our brains aren't particulary well wired for the
task.

That is why I am an amateur. I'd _be_ a professional, if I were able, 'cuz I
not only love it, I am fascinated by the very thought of it.

Stephen Paul
Shirley, MA