A few thoughts swirling in my head... If autoguiding means you set up the scope and then go in the house and watch "Fear Factor" or some such nonsense for the hour you are taking the photo, I could see your point Chuck. But if it allows you to image AND observe (with your other scope) at the same time, hey, twice the astronomy, more bang for your buck! If you like to make furniture the old fashioned way strictly with hand tools, no table saws or routers for you thank you very much, and feel the satisfaction of having something truly hand made, wonderful; but would you sneer at the guy making his chair with a lathe and a bandsaw, if what he's really after is a beautiful end product, that he also considers "hand made"? Not necessarily. Is a clay pot made on a potter's wheel any less "valid" artistically if, instead of kicking the wheel with his foot to make it turn, he's got a motor and a pulley making it go? That's kinda how I see this debate. If you are building a house and have the choice of swinging a 32 oz hammer all day, or using a pneumatic nail gun for an hour, the choice likely depends on if your tool budget included the air compressor or not. What you are after is the finished home, no? No sense tying one hand behind your back so to speak, though owning the table saw doesn't mean you can't leave the thing unplugged while you carefully cut with a hand saw, if, at the end of the day, that kind of activity gives you greater satisfaction. If I plow my field with a tractor, or pull the old-fashioned kind behind my horse, will the vegetables taste any different come harvest time? Am I off base in my thinking here? Am I missing something? -Rich --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Brent, when you and I started in this hobby, it was for "frustrated scientists". The main goal was to further our own knowledge, and possibly contribute to science. Now it seems that astronomy at the "club" level is a consumer and social activity. Telescope and equipment making have become marginalized and no longer really matter; most ATM's these days build carbon-copies of the Same Old Thing. Even learning the basics is eschewed by most folks.
Has our time passed? Is the advice "learn to walk before you run" no longer valid?
Is it time to ride off into the sunset and let the Social Consumers do their thing?
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