How to Interest a spouse in astronomy?

Jon, thanks for a thoughtful and poetic answer.
I did look at your wife's web site , which is fascinating and profound. I had
no idea before about bamboo flute playing and the tradition and philosophy behind
it.
I don't think an interest can be implanted in someone; the inner spark has to
be there, but if it is there, .it is a question of letting it flourish by fanning
the spark with a brief gentle breeze.
The work of John Dobson and the Sidewalk astronomers impresses me, the effort
to briefly fan the spark of interest if it is there already. Public star parties,
presentations at schools and Scout meetings and community groups- my small town
had a star gaze recently -- are in the same tradition. Sometimes a look at Saturn
or M13 fans the spark of a lifelong interest. Participation, rather than passive
reception, seems to help a lot. I find that people like to do things themselves,
which helps them make the activity their own. Museums that have hands-on exhibits
take account of this need.
If a friend family member seems to be developing a real interest in and
curiosity about astronomy,, and I have several telescopes of my own (as many of us
do), I would seriously consider giving that person one of my scopes. Then the
person can pursue the person's own interests independent of me. FOTO, our local
astronomy club, has several loaner telescopes for this reason.
This is just my own thinking on the subject.
Bill Meyers


Jon Isaacs wrote:


Hello, all,
I am wondering what people's experience with this has been.
Bill Meyers

If it is not too cold, too windy or some such thing, my wife enjoys looking at
the stars with me for a while. But it is not a passion with her so spending
hours under the night sky when it cold and windy (it gets cold in the mountains
here and when we travel to Monument Valley in January it is often in the teens)
is simply out of the question.

We each have our own passions so we try to share them and make them work
together.

Fortunately she does like to travel and likes to spend nights in the mountains
so we often take the motor home up somewhere dark. I look at the stars for
most of the night, she will look for a while. Then she goes inside and plays
her Flutes, this is her passion. (See her website www.shakuhachi.org) I
enjoy viewing the night sky while hearing her flute sound faintly flowing over
the mountain.

I think having a spouse that shares a specific passion is unlikely unless that
shared passion was something that brought you together.

Otherwise, being able to appreciate and enjoy the passion of your partner seems
like a reasonable situation/hope/expectation/goal, something that can
definitely enhance the relationship.

----

Beside, consider this:

1. Who needs a spouse who can effective argue the virtues of GOTO vs.
Starhopping. Just one more thing to get into a family huff about.

2. Your astro budget will have to double or your supply of new toys will
suffer.

3. Telescopes generally come in two colors, Black and White, with a few green
ones thrown in. These are colors male colors, nothing to sophisticated, gets
the job done and looks OK.

Now my wife happens to like Purple, imagine being at a star party where your
eyepieces, mount and telescope all need to be color coordinated.

"Sorry, I can't take that Nagler that Uncle Rod wants to give away, the green
clashes with my purple telescope."

"But nobody will know, its night time, dark, no one can see."

"But I will know and thats what counts."

G
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Back to reality. I am glad my wife encourages me to pursue my passion for
astronomy and that she can enjoy it in small doses.

I don't think one could ask for any more.

Love you Francis/Mary Lu

jon