Guilty pleasures

1. People glancing at my telescope as I drive to a remote dark sky
location.

2. Sometimes passing up a night of observing under pristine sky conditions
and watching a good movie instead.

3. Listening to "Coast to Coast" when the subject matter has anything to do
with astronomy or space.
Art's gone but George is plenty interesting.

4. DSCs.

5. Getting as big a kick out of the view through my 12.5 inch dobsonian as
I know others must get through their far bigger and/or vastly more expensive
telescopes.


What are some of your "guilty pleasures?"



Martin

In article . net,
"Starstuffed" wrote:


What are some of your "guilty pleasures?"


1) Observing Mars in the backyard observatory, all by myself, listening
to shortwave radio

2) Not responding to flames

Starry Skies,
Rich

What are some of your "guilty pleasures?"



Martin

Nice refreshing question Martin.

1. Splitting the double-double at 1000X and seeing nice tight airy discs using
my OPT Starhunter 10 that I purchased via Astromart for $240.

The diffraction rings were a bit harder to see as the tracking at that
magnification leaves something to be desired....

2. Splitting Antares with same scope while tree leaves were providing about 50%
central obstruction by area.

3. Reading S.A.A.

4. Playing guitar for Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven and later teaching Otis Rush
and Freddy King how to play the "real blues." When Eric called me from England
and asked if I would teach him, I told him I was too busy learning how to
starhop and that he should just listen to Freddy King records.

The rest of course is history.

Whoops, DID I DO THAT??

1, 2, and 3, no fantasies there. Number 4 might be stretching things a bit.

jon

Jon wrote:

When Eric called me from England
and asked if I would teach him,

If you are referring to Eric Clapton, whom I have seen in concert 13 times,
I guess you could count me as one of his fans. I hear he'll have a new
album out soon with Billy Preston on keyboards.


Martin

People, even seasoned astronomers, climbing the 10 foot ladder to
the 30 inch' eyepiece with a lovely in there....13, 22, 27, 51, 57, etc.
with moderate to high power,
and hearing a loud exclamation like....Oh My God!!, Holy ****!!,
and/or unmentionable exclamations.
Tom W.




Starstuffed wrote:
1. People glancing at my telescope as I drive to a remote dark sky
location.

2. Sometimes passing up a night of observing under pristine sky conditions
and watching a good movie instead.

3. Listening to "Coast to Coast" when the subject matter has anything to do
with astronomy or space.
Art's gone but George is plenty interesting.

4. DSCs.

5. Getting as big a kick out of the view through my 12.5 inch dobsonian as
I know others must get through their far bigger and/or vastly more expensive
telescopes.


What are some of your "guilty pleasures?"



Martin

1. People glancing at my telescope as I drive to a remote dark sky
location.

Being an Sidewalk Astronomer ( Now Stopped Dead ) watching people brake their
necks as they drove by my big dob.

2. Sometimes passing up a night of observing under pristine sky conditions
and watching a good movie instead.

No need for me to do that, if on the TV and WHEN I had a car, I'd set the VCR to
record it.

3. Listening to "Coast to Coast" when the subject matter has anything to do
with astronomy or space.
Art's gone but George is plenty interesting.

To me a TOTAL waste of time, NEVER turn it on.

Right now I have almost no pleasures at all, I've almost been thinking of
putting together my small DOB again and using the wagon to take it to my corner.



--
"In this universe the night was falling,the shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.
But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning
lingered: and along the path he once had followed, man would one day go
again."

Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars

SIAR
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"Starstuffed" wrote in message
ink.net...


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In article . net,
says...
1. People glancing at my telescope as I drive to a remote dark sky
location.

2. Sometimes passing up a night of observing under pristine sky conditions
and watching a good movie instead.

3. Listening to "Coast to Coast" when the subject matter has anything to do
with astronomy or space.
Art's gone but George is plenty interesting.

4. DSCs.

5. Getting as big a kick out of the view through my 12.5 inch dobsonian as
I know others must get through their far bigger and/or vastly more expensive
telescopes.


What are some of your "guilty pleasures?"



Martin





Whoah! Art Bell is gone? Who's George?

and What are DSCs?


Thanks






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"Starstuffed" wrote in message link.net...

What are some of your "guilty pleasures?"

Martin

Finally owning a fairly reasonable (3Meg Sony) digital camera with
128Meg memory. Even handheld at the eyepiece it almost perfectly
matches what I can see through the telescope (& is often better). The
fun of seeing thousands of your own astro shots full screen is
unbelievable. The pictures are so bright and colourful on the monitor
compared with dull old 6x4 prints. Highly recommended though
indecently expensive by my standards. Even if there are no more
expenses once bought.

Chris.B

John Steinberg wrote:
So many guilty pleasures, so little time...

[big snipperoo]

Gee, John, these are your guilty pleasures? What have you got left
for your innocent ones?

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

"Starstuffed" wrote in message
ink.net...
What are some of your "guilty pleasures?"

Just off'n the top of my head...

1) Being able to answer all the questions that visitors ask me at "open
house" nights at our observatory

2) Viewing Mars through a 6" apo refractor (SWOON)

3) Viewing Mars through a well-collimated, 14" Dob with an excellent mirror
(SWOON again)

4) Telling visitors a little about star lore... the ancient Greek and the
Sioux versions (I like to throw a bit of 'variety' into my presentations)

5) Looking at Mars using a great, new eyepiece that I just purchased (for
not much money at all!)

Jackie