Urban observers - why do you bother at all? 2/ 2

Continued from previous message.

regional home astronomy. Subscribe to by sending email to
. (The text in the email is
ignored; it may be blank.) Unlike the generic astronomy egroups, the
focus is on the City.
I do note that it's a holistic egroup! It covers not only the
'nice' parts of home astronomy, but some of the real ugly features,
too. But they're part of home astronomy here and we better face up to
them.
I, being in astronomy for four deecades now, find that my career
in it flourishes precisely because I live in an urban region. I (with
all others) starting going to astronomy activities while in junior
high school on my own, via subway tokens bought from our allowances.
No need to be bound to parents for car rides. We ate out on our won
(learned a LOT about what goes on behind the swinging doors of a
restaurant kitchen!), played in the parks (learned a LOT aobout
alternative lifestyles!), kept time by the SUn and Moon (most of us
had our graduation watches lost or stolen), bought our own astronomy
books, made sure we got home by a timely hour (learned a LOT about
street life at night).
So there is hope, likely on a lesser scale than in New York, but
the secret is not NOT make starviewing the only or ultimate aim of
home astronomy. Keep it as one facet of a fabulous jewel of home
astronomy. If that one gets tarnished, you got lots of others to
glitter.

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