What the hobby is all about!

Jul 15, 2003

After reading many of the postings over at the Astromart forums (where I usually don’t contribute), I have been struck by the amount of people who seem to think that this “astro” hobby is singular in purpose.  I guess the notion that “enjoying the stars” as the end (as in with a teleological purpose) of the hobby is a noble thought; that discussions about the “peripherial” aspects of the hobby should take second place to respecting the cosmos.

I enjoy hanging around all the forums that discuss astronomy equipment. I suspect many of you do as well. Afterall, there are always more postings in the equipment forums than there are in the stargazing or observing forums.  Have you wondered why?

I think it’s because many of us have other reasons for entering the hobby as well. While each of us obviously has a great respect for the cosmos and enjoys seeing deeply in the past, is there anything wrong with loving other aspects of the hobby equally? In fact, is there anything wrong with loving other aspects of the hobby MORE than the splendor of the cosmos themselves? Where did this notion come from that tries to make us feel guilty for enjoying our equipment too much? Or why do people frown down upon me for spending more time photographing the stars instead of looking at them?

I’ve often said that amateur “astronomy” represents everything that a hobby should be. Nothing else incorporates so many of my other interests into one pastime. At one point in my life or another, stargazing, photography, computers, model toys (robots), baseball, and other gizmos have been a great source of enjoyment, and remain so to this day. What other hobby would let us to look at the stars while doing photography with a camera that is sitting on a telescope being controlled by a computer like a robot while listening to a baseball game and fiddling around with cool gizmos? I can’t think of one!

Truth is, I loved photography, baseball, robotics, and computers LONG before I gained such an appreciation for the created order. Why must I feel bad for loving these other pursuits equally?

So the next time you are talking in the equipment forums with a certain amount of passion and somebody belittles you because you’ve spent ten times more than you should have to see the same stuff, just feel free to tell that person to quit being so closed minded.

We are at an exciting time in the history of astronomy. Whereas entry into the hobby, at one time, required a certain level of curiousity in the stars, newbies can now enter the hobby for other reasons as well. Truth be known, if Isaac Newton himself had access to a Meade LX200, I would almost guarantee you that he would spend more time trying to figure out the miracle of this modern, technological marvel and much less time trying to figure out if the Earth actually does orbits the Sun.

Let’s be excited about the stars, for they force us to think so much bigger than ourselves. But don’t feel bad about getting a little excited about the other cool aspects of the hobby. Those things can cause us to think beyond ourselves just as well.

Oh, I added a shot of Mars I took the other night with my Tak FSQ-106 here. It is a stack of 5 exposures using my Sony Cybershot camera held by hand using an 8.8mm Meade UWA eyepiece.