REPOST: The Fear of Staying Home

I first posted this a few years back and once again it seems relevant in
my life. I hope others can identify with it:



The Fear of Staying Home

If I don’t get out when conditions say “yes� but circumstance says “no,�
I question whether my interest in the cosmos and scopes and all things
astronomy is dimming. At these times I am well aware that when caught up
in the zeal I experienced as a newbie to amateur astronomy I felt almost
forty years ago, there was nothing that came between myself and the
stars. Now I realize that as a youngster responsibilities are relatively
few and once the homework was done I could get the scope out. Even as a
married man in my 20′s and 30′s, I don’t recall much of anything
significant enough to block my view of the sky.

So, when I can get out and choose not to, I find myself wondering how
long it will be until the scope sits indoors, under the roof and not
under the stars, for whole seasons at a time. . .and then whole years!
Had all the money and time spent on the hobby come to an end? Was my
costly scope being assigned the same fate as a department store letdown?

But. . .

When I do find myself scanning the night sky I still experience an
excitement and contentment I find nowhere else. It’s like I’m going
home. . .home to the universe. It is there that the atoms once roamed
which compose this earthbound body and it is there that they will
eventually roam again for all eternity.

Fear/guilt; guilt/fear, whatever. I guess I shouldn’t worry. Priorities
may change, but astronomy is still high on my list. . .maybe not number
one all the time but never that far behind.


--
Martin R. Howell
The Astro Post
www.theastropost.com

On Sep 20, 10:18*pm, "Martin R. Howell"
wrote:
I first posted this a few years back and once again it seems relevant in
my life. *I hope others can identify with it:

Over the years the trees surrounding our garden grew until I could
only just see a tiny little bit of sky directly overhead. Where a dark
cloud seemed to hover all year round despite the almost constant
hurricanes sweeping across our area. Then a neighbour caught paranoia
and installed several hundred kilowatts of security lighting directly
south of me. I wouldn't have minded that, so much, but he fitted robot
machine gun towers along our perimeter fence and my yard became a
pockmarked no man's land.

Then the pair of shire horses, which I used to drag my massive
mounting to the only dark spot seventeen miles down the road, died. So
the axles on the wheels of my mounting rusted up until even a local
farmer's giant, Case II, caterpillar tractor couldn't move it. It just
sank deeper and deeper until it needed another Case II tractor to pull
it out and they both went off in a huff. Now they shoot at me if they
see me on the road. Then a Martian meteorite scored a direct hit on my
telescope and my priceless 30mm f:57 Zeiss APO was no more.

After 13 years of inactivity I used 73 gallons of neat WD40 on the
mounting with the intention of offering it to to the local astro club.
But they disbanded rather than take on the responsibility for
disposing of it as toxic waste. So now I just keep the curtains closed
and ignore the deep lake surrounding my mounting caused by the
tractors. I bought a rowing boat with an outboard motor to go out
there once. Just to see if anything could be salvaged. But the boat
foundered in a storm and was lost with all hands. The huge crocodiles
which had begun to infest the lake cleaned up the mess but the boat
was never seen again. Then the local authority made a compulsory
purchase order on the little island surrounding my mounting and
stacked nuclear fuel rods out there to "cool off". So I haven't really
done much observing of late....

On Sep 20, 2:18*pm, "Martin R. Howell"
wrote:

If I don’t get out when conditions say “yes” but circumstance says “no,”
I question whether my interest in the cosmos and scopes and all things
astronomy is dimming.

An interesting post - and I agree with the conclusion that finding
balance in your life, and not letting a hobby become an obsession is
nothing to fear.

John Savard

Chris.B:
Over the years the trees surrounding our garden grew until I could
only just see a tiny little bit of sky directly overhead. Where a dark
cloud seemed to hover all year round despite the almost constant
hurricanes sweeping across our area. Then a neighbour caught paranoia
and installed several hundred kilowatts of security lighting directly
south of me. I wouldn't have minded that, so much, but he fitted robot
machine gun towers along our perimeter fence and my yard became a
pockmarked no man's land.

Then the pair of shire horses, which I used to drag my massive
mounting to the only dark spot seventeen miles down the road, died. So
the axles on the wheels of my mounting rusted up until even a local
farmer's giant, Case II, caterpillar tractor couldn't move it. It just
sank deeper and deeper until it needed another Case II tractor to pull
it out and they both went off in a huff. Now they shoot at me if they
see me on the road. Then a Martian meteorite scored a direct hit on my
telescope and my priceless 30mm f:57 Zeiss APO was no more.

After 13 years of inactivity I used 73 gallons of neat WD40 on the
mounting with the intention of offering it to to the local astro club.
But they disbanded rather than take on the responsibility for
disposing of it as toxic waste. So now I just keep the curtains closed
and ignore the deep lake surrounding my mounting caused by the
tractors. I bought a rowing boat with an outboard motor to go out
there once. Just to see if anything could be salvaged. But the boat
foundered in a storm and was lost with all hands. The huge crocodiles
which had begun to infest the lake cleaned up the mess but the boat
was never seen again. Then the local authority made a compulsory
purchase order on the little island surrounding my mounting and
stacked nuclear fuel rods out there to "cool off". So I haven't really
done much observing of late....

Do you know of Rodney Dangerfield?

Davoud

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm

On Sep 22, 2:04*am, Davoud wrote:

Do you know of Rodney Dangerfield?

I think he was a couple of years ahead of me at the school of hard
knocks. ;-)

On Sep 22, 9:12*am, "Androcles"
wrote:

hmm... I went to Ardnox, we must have gone to different skules together.

Ardnox? Ardnox ? You had it cushy!

Nobody in our neighbourhood could afford to go to school.

So all the kids were sent to work down a mine in the Adirondacks
instead. ;-)