female amateur astronomers

I understand completely. Not only did I grow up in a household that had
a 5:1 estrogen to testosterone ratio, but some years back I signed up
for a cooking class hosted at a local gourmet shop and I was treated
like little more than a piece of meat. Although, in my case I actually
enjoyed that.

I laughed out loud when I read this. Women have a particular weakness
for men who can cook!

My brother grew up in a household with a 4:1 estrogen-testosterone
ratio and he was a very good sport about driving to the drug store and
buying us various feminine products and things in the middle of the
night if necessary!


Anyway, something tells me you're posting from the D.C. area,

Actually, no, I am in Hollywood. close enough, i 'spose!

Perhaps you could poach a few females who
are members and convince them to starting your own females-only club? A
catchy club name, like say, hhmm...``200x Girl Power'' might be an
assist to attracting members.

This was a most excellent club name to a most excellent idea!

I meet many women who express a desire to
observe, so I'm reasonably confident you could form this kind of club
with a bit of ingenuity, scouting, poaching and perhaps even advertising
in some local publications or on some web sites.

If they are in southern california, i would love to meet them too. I
have ZERO female friends who are into this. i have a a couple of male
friends who get a kick out of my astro fever. You are right that I
should seek them out and assimilate them into the collective, so to
speak.

On Thu, 2 Oct 2003 09:19:05 +0000 (UTC), (Paul
Schlyter) wrote:

And, to be honest, which risk is the largest do you think?

1. To be robbed, wounded, or killed by some intruder while observing

2. To be wounded or killed in a car crash while going to and from your site

If you are out in an area where people in pickup trucks come to drink
at 2AM and whatever else, both of the above are a risk: e.g. drunk
drivers.

I don't FEEL any safer. Sorry.

---
Michael McCulloch

In article ,
Garney Malenfant wrote:

About the self-defense issue: Do you live in a country where
firearms are legal? If so, I'd suggest getting one and learning
how to use it.

HOLY CRAP!...that is probably the DUMBEST advice ever put down
here. Just picture armed backyard astronomy people all over the
place...sure..lets ARM THE WORLD...how silly can one get?

Well, if everyone are wearing personal firearms, you'll need a
stronger weapon than that to effectively defend yourself. What
about a personal nuke? Even a machine gun would have no chance
against a nuke. And remember: nukes don't kill; people do!

evil grin

--------------------------------------------------------------

It's indeed very nice to be able to go out observing, feeling safe
and not have to worry about wearing firearms for "protection".... :-)

--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter, Grev Turegatan 40, SE-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW: http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/
http://home.tiscali.se/pausch/

I am a passionate amateur astronomer, and am realizing more and more
how difficult it is to be a female in this field. My first
realization of this came when I walked in to a telescope retailer and
they reacted to me like they had never had a female customer before.
They asked me personal questions about my social status, etc. (e.g.
"do you have a significant other? maybe HE can carry the scope for
you") and assumed I knew nothing about telescopes ("this is what is
called a NEW-TO-NI-AN"). When it became clear to the salesman that I
had some knowledge of what I was looking at, he said, "that's not bad
for a girl."

Sounds like he's a bozo. I'd suggest taking your money elsewhere. If
you feel like it, you could make a phone call to the manager
explaining the reason for your decision.

I did end up taking my money elsewhere. I ended up walking out
because I couldnt' take the salesperson any more. Plus I felt like if
I stayed any longer he was going to ask me out or something, i just
felt it coming. I ended up going to OPT in Oceanside (in CA) and just
loved it. The people there were friendly, professional and a lot of
fun, too. I was there for almost three hours, i think, playing with
everything. I bought a nexstar 8i from them.


About the self-defense issue: Do you live in a country where firearms
are legal? If so, I'd suggest getting one and learning how to use it.

I dont' think I can pick up a firearm. That's just me. But your
point is well taken and I think I will arm myself with something else,
like pepperspray or a stun gun or something.

An example of this procedure can be found on the web site
of The Astronomy Connection, a group of California observers, who send
each other observing invitations or maybe it's indications, by email , to
tell each other where they are planning to observe from and asking who
else is planning on going. The TAC web site calls these OI postings.
Their web site is http://observers.org/tac.mailing.list/ so you can see
how they do it and how your club might do it. This helps prevent a
situation where you find yourself alone in a remote location. Many people
fail to realize that there is a great deal of violent crime in rural
areas; somehow they have formed the opinion that it occurs only in urban
areas, an opinion that is mistaken.

This is very interesting. I'm going to check out the site.


5. As for interesting your spouse in astronomy, I started a
thread here on SAA a few months ago inquiring how people thought this
might be accomplished. I have found that people don't like playing second
fiddle on other people's telescopes; they prefer to have their won.
Presenting a spouse with his or her own scope is one way to stir their
interest and appreciation of astronomy, I believe. Possibly this might
work in your case? There is no panacea, I am sure, but it might be worth
a try.

This sounds great. Does it work?

I think it is great that you are interested in observational
astronomy. There are several women observers in our club and they are a
definite asset.

i'm going to try my hand at astro photography soon - working up to it.
in the meantime, getting to knwo the sky has been an awe-inspirign
and humbling experience.

Clear skies to you, Bill.

I didn't see any typos!

ten years ago. He is a "hard-core" kind of guy. (I should have guessed
that when four of our first five dates were thinly veiled observing
sessions.)

This made me laugh!

gender. There are, however, some men who DO go out of their way to
itmidate female counterparts. Happens pretty much everywhere, I guess.

You're definitely right about this one.

viewing. If you don't want to go out alone and a viewing partner is
unavailable, use that night as an opportunity to view planetaries or
the moon from your backyard (if possible). YMMV

The moon (and for the past few months, mars) is the only thing I can
see (and barely) from my balcony (and on some nights i can't even see
THAT). I've gotten to know the moon and mars very well. I live in
hollywood, smack right in the middle of everything, and am lucky if i
can spot ONE star. it's a fun place to live, there's alwys somethign
going on, and my hubby likes the urban lifestyle, but it's hard to
view the sky.

On Thu, 2 Oct 2003 10:54:00 -0700, "Chuck Taylor" ...reflected:

"Trane Francks" wrote in message
...
Colloquially, perhaps, but Strunk and White would whack me over
the knuckles for the first post. By implying the "I am" in the
first post, I actually made the claim that Sue's Small Scope
Sampler was a small-scope owner. Read it carefully and you'll see
exactly what I mean.

That's bad English.

trane

Gee Trane, how could you make such a horrible post? After all, the rest of
us keep a well-worn copy of Strunk & White beside our keyboards. And we
don't need no more of those no-grammer posts. Especcially them ones where
they'd missspell words.

Know what I meann?

I understood him just fine, as 'twas the elation of the moment that had
resulted in his having temporarily abandoned the venerable Strunk & White,
for when the post is read similarly-emotively, I understand him just fine.

Alan

We are _not_ talking about an amatuer astronomer "carrying heat" when
viewing in her own backyard. Her backyard is very secure and there is
little need for protection there. However, she lives in an area that is
severely light polluted, which precludes quality viewing from her backyard.
Therefore, in order to do any serious viewing, she needs to travel to a dark
sky location. Carrying a side arm will give her some peace of mind and will
probably never need to by used. However, if she ever becomes the target of
one of those "wierd ducks" so frequently spawned by our society, the gun is
the only thing standing between her life and a horrible and meaningless
death.

Al



There really is no hope for those who think like you who are so
paranoid that getting a gun is the only solution.


Al,

How do you protect your home and loved ones within?

She recently moved up from a 10" Dob to an 18".

ok, she is the cutest thing ever.

how does she manage the 18"?

Oops. Al, that last post was for Garney. My bad,