What are your other hobbies?

[Bricks]

 

And no jokes about taking an arrow to the knee, please ;)

[MTFDarkEagle]

And no jokes about taking an arrow to the knee, please ;)

I was about to make a joke about an arro... Ah wait, sorry :D Nearly did it ;)

[EtherealN]

And where is "over here"? Just curious.

 

Anyway, an 8” scope is a respectable aperture size- I used an 8” scope from 1996 to 2001. It can see A LOT under dark skies. And an 8” scope with tracking- that’s something you’re going to want to keep around for a long time. I assume it’s a SCT? Celestron or Meade?

 

Aye, Celestron.

 

And "here" is Sweden, relatively close (but not north of) the polar circle. Whenever it's not freezing outside we have like 2 hours of twilight but no "night", so most of the "good" observing that can be done happens in -30 to -40 Centigrade. :P

(-22 to -40 degrees F, for americans.)

Edited May 7, 2012 by EtherealN

[Speed]

And no jokes about taking an arrow to the knee, please ;)

 

I used to be an archery fanatic like you, but then I took an arrow to the joint between the femur and tibia/patella. :(

[sobek]

See the album on my profile. :)

 

Also playing guitar.

[EtherealN]

I used to be an archery fanatic like you, but then I took an arrow to the joint between the femur and tibia/patella. :(

 

Dammit, I must spread rep... :D

[cichlidfan]

I have too many interests to spend enough time on them to call them hobbies but reading almost anything, mostly military history, sci-fi and modern techno-fiction is one of the big ones. Animals from pets to things too dangerous to keep (and yes reptiles in particular) have always held my interest too. Of course this has resulted in being bitten so many times I have lost count. I once had a four foot iguana try to remove my nose and a Tokay Gecko almost got away with part of my thumb.

 

Photography, though I am not that good, would have to be where I spend most of my non-computer time.

[EtherealN]

Aside from limited time on amateur astronomy, it's mostly computer-centric aside from things like this:

 

 

I play computer games of course (simulators, RTS and RPG's, a little now and then a shooter but this is rare), but also spend a lot of time reading books (philosophy, sci-fi and history) and watching as many documentaries as I can find. Astrophysics, medicine and history being the main fields.

 

EDIT: Oh, and I watch a good bit of professional Starcraft 2 as well (but usually while doing something else on the other screen). I don't play it very well though. (I'm a European Silver league player.)

Edited May 7, 2012 by EtherealN

[cichlidfan]

Sweet pic, EtherealN!:thumbup:

[Speed]

Aye, Celestron.

 

And "here" is Sweden, relatively close (but not north of) the polar circle. Whenever it's not freezing outside we have like 2 hours of twilight but no "night", so most of the "good" observing that can be done happens in -30 to -40 Centigrade. :P

(-22 to -40 degrees F, for americans.)

 

You don't have to convert to F for me, I'm an engineer... and I deeply despise the Imperial system of measurements and make it a point of not using it as much as possible. ;)

 

Sweden isn't good for exactly the reasons you state, but you guys have some very dark skies in the northern part of your country:

 

Ever been up there? It looks like it's almost inside, or IS inside, the Arctic circle. That said, no matter where you are in Sweden, it looks like there are some pretty darn dark skies (grey zone) not far away.

 

There was a guy on some astronomy forums I used to frequent who lived in Finland and did A LOT of deep sky observing from the very dark skies in north of that country. So it's possible, I guess... just not anywhere remotely as easy as over here. Even on June 21, we get like a little over 7 hours of complete darkness. And the coldest I've ever had to observe in was about -9 or -10 C. I imagine you also have to contend with annoying aurora on some nights too, huh? I've only ever seen the aurora once, during a severe solar storm where the aurora came all the way down to +30 degrees lat.

 

You could look at it this way, though: it could be worse. You could live in Japan. Or Germany. I don't think dark skies exist anywhere at all in those countries.

Edited May 7, 2012 by Speed

[EtherealN]

Lol, yeah, Japan would be horrible for observing.

 

And yeah, my problem is that I live in one of the "bright spots". Far out enough from cities to be acceptable, but still not far enough to be "good". But I also have to contend with a lot of humidity which is a problem - very often, even if the sky is clear and it's dark, I get a thin fog. Not think enough to notice it "by eye" but enough to frustrate observing,

 

But yeah, definitely could be worse. :)

 

Aurora isn't really "annoying" though, it's kinda pretty, but of course not what I actually want to observe, and not why I've got a telescope. :P

 

EDIT: Glad we agree on the imperial system... :D And yeah, parts of the country is inside the polar circle. Not sure I want to move up there though. Get's even colder up there... :P

[joey45]

 

And no jokes about taking an arrow to the knee, please ;)

 

My mate does Archery.

[Bricks]

I used to be an archery fanatic like you, but then I took an arrow to the joint between the femur and tibia/patella. :(

 

:chair:

 

 

:shifty:

[Daze]

Gaming (BF3, CS, COD etc), Gym, Cycling, Reading (only military themed books lol), Football and I'm considering taking up Scuba Diving (you can do a beginners course at a local leisure centre and then continue on out in the water. It may have to wait a while though as I'm looking to buy my first car soon so might not have a lot of moneyz left). Also half way through my PPL but, again, running short on funds...

[hassata]

This is a photo of my scope (25" dobsonian) set up in West Texas.

 

That is all kinds of awesome.

[Depth]

I used to be an archery fanatic like you, but then I took an arrow to the joint between the femur and tibia/patella. :(

I used to be a like you but then I took amazing inspiring courage to my life

 

[104th_Cobra]

I used to climb until an abseiling went wrong and I lost a knee. Right now I'm only trekking. After that I do some freshwater angling and canoeing. I like to read. I can't be more than two days without going out for a drink with friends.

 

I did some archery for a small period of time, also :)

[Bricks]

My mate does Archery.

 

Cool. Traditional or modern archery? I prefer traditional Longbows, but I've also shot modern sportbows once or twice.

[104th_Cobra]

I prefer also longbows or recurves. The compound ones are too much technology.

For a while I was to buy a recurve crossbow (an Excalibur); I like to shot with them but it was mainly for hunting wild boars. Right now I prefer to let the beasts in peace :)

[Bricks]

I prefer also longbows or recurves. The compound ones are too much technology.

 

Exactly my point of view. :)

[Lib]

I shoot the longbow :)

It was first for hunting, but shot after shot, i don't want to hunt anymore, i like shooting in my garden with my two chrildrens, sometimes we go in the forest where we have a round (?) with animal 3d targets. It's very funy :thumbup:

[airea]

Paragliding (summer and fall), mountain biking (spring), scale modelling (winter mostly) and of course DCS stuff (anytime wife permits) :)

[Speed]

Lol, yeah, Japan would be horrible for observing.

 

And yeah, my problem is that I live in one of the "bright spots". Far out enough from cities to be acceptable, but still not far enough to be "good". But I also have to contend with a lot of humidity which is a problem - very often, even if the sky is clear and it's dark, I get a thin fog. Not think enough to notice it "by eye" but enough to frustrate observing,

 

But yeah, definitely could be worse. :)

 

Aurora isn't really "annoying" though, it's kinda pretty, but of course not what I actually want to observe, and not why I've got a telescope. :P

 

EDIT: Glad we agree on the imperial system... :D And yeah, parts of the country is inside the polar circle. Not sure I want to move up there though. Get's even colder up there... :P

 

So you don't travel to remove locations to observe? I gave up observing in my backyard several years ago... about 7 or 8 years. That was back when I actually had a backyard, since I moved to Austin, even that possibility was erased :(

 

Right now, my most common observation site is a two hour drive away. I have darker observation sites 5 and 9 hours away. Back when I lived in Alabama, my most common observation site was 3.5-4 hours away. To me, it's worth it; I'm not interested in planets (3 planets worth looking at vs. like 1 million observable galaxies with a 25" scope? Planets are overrated.), I'd seen all the bright stuff a decade ago, so now, if I want to make any real "progress" I must go somewhere very dark. Also, everything looks just so much better from a dark sky site. Besides, it takes an hour to set up the scope anyway, plus an hour to tear it down, plus half an hour to pack it and half an hour to unpack it. Also, I tend to observe all night long. So in the end, it's worth it. The downside is- I only get to observe like an average of once a month.

 

[EtherealN]

I would travel, if I had the time. Unfortunately that has been a bit of a problem. Especially since I work mostly "on-site" at clients, so when working I can easily be a continent away from my telescope - taking a weekend to head out with the telescope is hard in those cases. :P

 

Whenever I've switched job (or position) to something with a regular schedule and fixed work site I expect things to get better on that department though. :)

[Cornbread]

My girlfriend has gotten big into archery of late. I brew beer and play in a band. And I try to force myself to run:music_whistling: