Sponsored By:

Subject: Re: [M]: Practically A Religious Experience
From: Gregory Donohue
Reply To: mapug@shore.net
Date: Wed Nov 26 00:33:38 1997

Fred:

Amen :) to the "religious experience"! Thanks for this post of yours.
This group posts a lot of excellent technical help, and I really appreciate
the interaction. But it is refreshing once in a while to take a step back
and reflect (or refract?) on why we go to all this trouble....

I have a 10" LX200 with 416 cam, and am just getting started into imaging.
And as multitudes of others have found, it can be quite frustrating. But
every now and again, when the sky is clear, I set up the scope but don't
bother with the camera - I just want to LOOK at stuff.

I am a real novice at amateur astronomy, but I have already started a
little astronomy club at our local elementary school. There are 11 kids,
and they (we) are having a ball learning the fundamentals together. And
their parents come to our little star parties, and enjoy it as much as the
kids. Several of the adults tell me that they have never looked through a
scope before. It's a thrill to hear the kids/adults say "Cool" when they
see Saturn's rings, or M13, or Albireo, or the Ring Nebula for the first
time! I can hear the sparks go off, igniting the flames of their
imaginations. These kinds of experiences help see me through the headaches
of the technical side of the biz.

Anyway, just wanted to thank you for the post. It was very timely,
appropriate, and encouraging! And good to be reminded that it's okay once
in a while to just enjoy the night sky....
Greg Donohue

"... eppur si muove." - Galileo Galilei, to the Inquisition (reputed)

Senior Solutions Engineer, Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (San Jose, CA)
Home: Woodinville WA (NE of Seattle) 47d 44' 31.3" N, 122d 06' 29.0" W
10" Meade LX200 SCT f/10, Pictor 416xt, 616A Color Wheel

HomePage <http://www.geocities.com/~donohue>