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Top 5 signs an amateur astronomer is getting old:
#5.
Their 16 inch primary adjusts to the outside temperature
before they do.
#4.
Humm. . .the Orion Nebula; was it IC 42, NGC 42,
or M 42 ???
#3.
More and more objects appear to be "faint fuzzies."
#2.
Star images suffer from coma but the telescope's optics
are just fine.
And
the number one sign an amateur astronomer is getting
old is ...
o
He is downsizing his scope so he can still carry
it out of the garage??
o
I forget.
o
You give up astronomy for a less aerobic exercise.
o
WHAT?
o
He dozes off in
the middle of a sentence.
o
You find you have
barrel marks on your eye socket from
falling asleep at the
scope after
five minutes of guiding.
o
You buy an APO scope and join the local astro club.
There
you sit
on your
fat ass telling
the younger members how to observe
m31
m42 m31 m42 m31 m42 m31 m42 m31 m42 m31 m42
m31
and not
learn
a damn
thing about the rest of the
sky.
o
You start to miss your 8" solid-tube
o
You go an entire observing session without noticing
that the dust cap is still on.
o
You find yourself spending cold and
clear nights inside your
warm house in front of a computer trying to think
up clever posts for S.A.A.
o
When he finds himself viewing Haley's
Comet at its closest point to Earth in 72 years....
For the
second time.
o
Is that our hearing aids whistling? or someone's
go-to?
o
You use "... it's the most practical vehicle for hauling the telescope!" as a transparent and weak justification for buying a mini-van or station wagon,
vehicles that suddenly
look *really* practical. Just a couple of years ago
you wouldn't even look at one!
o
Your primary develops increasing signs of flop.
o
Your 8" no longer yields satisfaction in DEEP sky work.
o
Your tube is always cool, even at warm weather.
o
You cannot pump up the magnification,
no matter
how good seeing is.
o
You cannot focus as fast as you used
to.
o
You grow fonder of visual work.
o
Continued bad seeing!
o
Oh, hey look, Lawrence Welk is coming on.
o
You
start having false recollections about how
good Tasco
telescopes used to be.
o
Observing chairs sink deeper into
the ground. o Knowledge of your own mortality becomes
a new
motivator.
o
Your spouse encourages you to go
outside on
clear nights.
o
You forgot most of what you ever knew about astronomy.
o
Your spouse
knows more about astronomy than you forgot.
o
Your wife
actually
understands what you are talking
about but you don't.
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