[AZ-Observing] Re: Veteran Observers - Where did you find the time?
- From: "William R Wood" <wrwood2@xxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 10:50:28 -0700
Mike,
Sounds like you are doing fine, so I think you should hang in there with the
hobby. Observe when you can and, meantime, look forward to the days when
you will have more free time.
I am now 60, retired and have plenty of free time (but not much free money
having spent most of it on telescopes :) When I was your age I was
interested in astronomy but held off buying telescopes because I knew that I
would not have the time to get full use out of the equipment. Like you,
family and job commitments (and several other hobbies) took most of my time.
But I now regret not getting involved in observing sooner. The more you
observe the better you get and I would now be a much more experienced,
skillful observer if I had started sooner. Another factor is eyesight.
When I was in my 20-40s my eyesight was far better than now. I lost all
those years at my peak "seeing" ability by holding off until I was retired.
Don't fret about being limited mostly to your backyard. I observe mostly in
my backyard by choice and with great pleasure even though I could lug my
stuff out into the desert any time I want. And the limiting mag in my
backyard is only 5, at best, so you are doing well at mag 5.6 (of course
your superior eyesight could be why you can see dimmer stars :) Also, for
bright objects (planets, moon, doubles) your backyard is just as good as, or
maybe better than, lugging your stuff out to a dark site. Frequently the
seeing is better in the city than out in the desert.
Have fun and clear skies.
Regards,
Bill Wood
Fountain Hills, AZ
> -----Original Message-----
> From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Michael Wiles
> Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 9:20 AM
> To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [AZ-Observing] Veteran Observers - Where did you find the time?
>
>
> So I have a dilemma.
- snip -
>
> Mike
>
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