Well, I do know my way around the heavens a bit, but not with such tremendous detail as the rest of you do. There are a few reasons for that: first, I'm mildly dyslexic and all my life I've had trouble with ordinary directions, like just driving around the city. Then, philosophically, I don't care much about labeling parts of the sky as the water monster, etc., though the history of this interesting. Finally, here is what I do to practice my favorite form of astronomy: take about an hour to pack the Jeep with all my gear, an hour or longer to drive to a dark site, an hour or more to unpack and do a preliminary setting up, sometimes two more hours to get everything operating correctly such as securing the guide scope and balancing the rig. Then I have a few hours of astrophotography, during which I'm usually busy fixing glitches and working on focus. Then half an hour's nap. Then an hour to repack everything. An hour to drive home (make it three and a half hours each way if I'm visiting the Wedge Overlook.) Back home, most of the day to rest. When recovered I like to spend time writing a blog. I'm just too busy to bother with the details of exactly how to find a particular planetary by star hopping. -- Thanks, Joe ________________________________ From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 6, 2011 6:57 AM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Comet Garradd On 9/3/11, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> wrote:
It's just that old adage, to each his own. So let's not mourn a lost art -- it's lost for a good reason. --
Joe, you continute to avoid something that isn't as hard as you make it out to be. There is certainly less to learn in knowing the sky, than knowing your way around the neighborhood you live in. It's not a lost art, it's as basic as learning the alphabet before you learn to read. I knew my constellations at age 8. Don't give up, Joe. I have hope that even an old dog can learn new tricks. ;-) If you're dead-set against it, then yes, to each, his own. But don't advocate not learning to others. I'm kind of amazed you take that stance. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php