I think I haven't been out since then, either.
My problem is that the 10" Dob is cool and all, but it is a royal PITA to lug out and around. Even out into the driveway.....fucking thing is heavy and awkward. I'm thinking one of those poor-man's electronic scopes may actually be the way to go (not that they're cheap, they're just super easy to use. Hell, it points itself FOR you.)
See, there's the rub.It's what you have to do to enjoy the hobby. I was a member of the ATMoB, and there are some incredible people who are in it. If I learned one thing, for us folks who do astronomy for fun, it's all about finding and seeing stuff that's up there. Star parties are a very cool thing. Remember when SL 9 impacted Jupiter? I got to see it live. For the first impact, there were perhaps 10 of us out at our clubhouse/ observing site. We had all manner of scopes set up from simple dobs, to an award winning (at Stellafane) homebuilt 10 inch F/15 Gregorian. Plenty of room to move around. That was on a Wednesday or Thursday IIRC.
Fast forward to Saturday night, and we had to move the log in book outside the house, we had so many visitors. MIT's Haystack radio observatory is right up the road at the top of the hill, and we had people from up there coming down to look for themselves. FYI, Haystack is one of the earliest installations where they first started tracking satellites on orbit, and they also developed a huge amount of stuff in the microwave radio sphere.
The observing field got so packed that we were forced to escort groups around the property in an effort to protect people and expensive equipment. So instead of being out for a personal observing session, those of us who were on the 'clubhose comitee' became chaperones. Wasn't all bad, because after most of the earlybirds went home the guys from Haystack came back down the hill for a return visit. After looking at a couple DSO's through a meter class dob, they asked us if we would like to come up and see some of the stuff THEY had been looking at.
I have never seen the clubhouse shut down and buttoned up so fast in my life. We rent the place from MIT, so we have to make sure it's secure when we leave. What normally took 15-20 minutes went by in a blur. So we went up to the big Radome and got escorted inside. The dish itself is huge, 120 feet or so. The viewing room was crammed with gear, but it was nicely lit and climate controlled. Being a radio facility, all the data comes in on computer screens & printouts. We got to see what a few DSO's look like at radio wavelengths. We also got to see some of the initial processed data from a solar 'disturbance'. The telescope was built for studying stuff like this, how the solar environment can affect poeple & technology. A CME occurred about a week before, and there is always concern about blowing up the power grid. They had made a time lapse movie of what the CME looked like when it hit the ionospheric bubble that surrounds us. Pretty damn cool.
I would say this... quit making excuses and get out there when you can. If the embers are still burning, all it takes is a gentle breeze to ignite the fire all over again.
hmy:
