Back to the PAC Menu
[This letter has been included in our web page because if the timeless nature of the thoughts that reside within it. (originally published in the Prairie Astronomer in December 1992)]
I just got my new telescope no too long ago and am still discovering all sorts of things that I knew existed but also knew that I would never be able to see with only my binoculars at my disposal. When I first got my Celestron Special Edition Ultima 8 I was pretty guarded about the whole thing. Oh, I have a friend, also a member of the club whom I generally share my observations with. He has a Mead LX-6 10" SCT and we've been comparing sights between the two scopes. He pulls down a few more stars than I and can probably find a few more galaxies and planetaries than I, but for all intents and purposes, we can reach nearly the same objects to suit our amateur desires.
Being members of a fairly good-sized and active club has helped our hobbies along marvelously. The people in our club are always helpful in providing assistance when some problem arises during a session, and all provide a unique form of friendship that one only finds when appreciating something as universal as amateur astronomy.
For the most part, I would imagine that most of the club members are like me when it comes to their telescopes. They are extremely watchful when it comes to people who may be walking around the viewing area. They guard their eyepieces like they were gold (and some of them cost almost as much as a gold bar might!). And, unless they know that the persons that they are sharing their views with are amateurs like themselves, they tend to maintain a bit of the protectiveness that infants often merit out of necessity. But that is part of appreciating an investment - sort of second nature with most of us who have had to be and are being overly frugal in order to participate in our own little realm of the universe.
Of course, owning a pair of 11 x 80 binoculars awakened me to the fact that there are a lot of people who have never seen anything beyond what their "unaided" eyesight can comprehend. In the past, whenever I took them to a football game, or set them up in the early evening during the summer, I would invite anyone going by to share a look. Of course, the exclamations I received from nearly all of these people was that of wonder and awe. It made me feel good to be able to show them something that some of them never even knew existed, and the rest had only seen in newspaper clippings.
When I got my telescope, I vowed to broaden even more peoples horizons by sharing my backyard activities, at least with some of the easier objects. Perhaps I got the idea from the "Astronomers" series that was on PBS television last year (1991), perhaps it has a little something to do with my ego, I don't really know. I just remember what it felt like when I was a kid to discover something that should have been obvious, but nonetheless was something new to me.
So, right after I got my scope and learned my way around it a bit, I invited a couple of my coworkers and their children to one of the local city parks on a night when the first quarter moon was visible. They showed up around 9:30 PM, not long after I managed to polar align and get all of the equipment out and accessible. The Oooohs and ahhhs I heard those children exclaim really make amateur astronomy something much more exciting than television. I've also shown some of the sights to my parents, who think that, finally, I have found something they can appreciatively understand. At least it makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile on nights when I'm alone at the eyepiece and logging a rigorous session down to object nomenclatures, times, atmospheric conditions, and descriptions. Of course, those have to take a back seat when you share the eyepiece, at least if the sharing is with novices. But it's worth it!
Last night I had the neighbors, a retired couple, over for a short look-see at Saturn, M13, M103, and some briefs of the Milky Way. I'm sure that I've opened some eyes there. I think about the fact that I'm able to share my experiences with people who probably rarely make an evening out on the town twice a year. It's fun, especially with the older folks, to see them turn back twenty years on their clocks when they first catch sight of an object, and when you explain where the object is naked-eye, and a little bit of the scientific particulars about the object. They probably often wonder why they didn't pursue the hobby sooner. Another thing that at least this couple seemed to convey, was the fact that they never knew that a telescope that you or I could carry around could open so much of the heavens.
I really cherish the facets of amateur astronomy were I constructively draw an object via the eyepiece, take a photograph of something I might be looking at, or simply log details of an object. A lot of people keep their log brief, but mine look like preludes to books, full of speculation. I feel that if I don't put down what's on my mind at the time, whoever might refer to my log in the future would weigh it against any classic catalog and render mine a subordinate piece of work. No, I like to elaborate. It takes time, but its time well spent.
Any way I can share my hobby makes it that much easier to appreciate. With the advent of adding a telescope to my arsenal of viewing equipment, catalogs, and maps, I've expanded not only my horizons, but those of blooming scientists, those of mellowed retirees, those of misled teens and preteens who might in all reality be on the brink of making a rash decision concerning their health or society's laws, and an endless array of humans who grope to understand the things in their daily lives and sometimes fall just a little short. I'm fulfilling a purpose whenever I share my little world. If you can make someone else happy, go ahead and do it. It takes so little time, and the rewards are so great that personal satisfaction takes a "Ride on the Reading" and makes for a pleasant and restful night of sleep after it's over.
To those of you who have experienced the same things I have with their telescopes, I extend my gratitude.
WE KNOW WHERE AMATEUR ASTRONOMY RESIDES!