Goodbye to 23

 

Bortle Scale chart. I live between 4 & 5

        2023 will come to an end less than a week from now. I won't do a "Year in Review" thing, since if anyone wants to know what I did, just read a previous post. But I will try and look forward to the year ahead, as it applies to my astronomy hobby. 

1. Preparing for a drastic change in location.
   
   If all goes according to plan, we will be moving away from Arizona and back to Illinois. Honestly I can say that with all things considered, what bothers me most is the return to Daylight Saving Time. Sure, the midwestern weather is chancy and light pollution is much more prevalent. But DST will knock my start time into the very late evening. I've heard rumblings of doing away with the twice-yearly change, but the camp who wants permanent Standard Time is even with the permanent DST team.
   
   
2. Keep the personal learning curve on the upswing.
   
   My biggest reason for doing this hobby is the mental stimulation. I'm at a point in my life where it would be easy just to sit on the recliner and watch TV and fight sleep. But working the telescope is very mentally stimulating. Especially finding things the old school method with charts and star hopping. 
   
   The mental challenges will also involve things like embracing much older technology. I just received an astrolabe that I ordered off of Etsy: 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   It will take a lot of reading, practice and the sacrifice of more than a few lunch hours to realize the complete potential of this device. 
   
   I'm also looking forward to going back to my old hobby of making sundials. As I shuffle along, the old school methods and reckonings appeal to me much more. 
   
   
   

   
   
   

   

   
   

   I have the diagrams for both of these someplace, but adjustments will need to be made for latitude.
   
   
   
3. I hope to involve my sons more.
   
   Both my sons have a scientific bent, and over Christmas I was able to bring our youngest outside for a very short viewing session. We came out during the afternoon to have a look at the sun for a bit. After dinner, we came back out to have a look at Saturn, Jupiter, M42 and the almost full moon. That last item is why the session was so brief. But he expressed amazement when seeing the planets and the detail of the lunar surface. I hope to pack them both into the truck and journey to a dark sky location for the evening. 
   
   
4. G.A.S. has leveled off. 
   
   I have just about everything I need, and a few things I really don't. So I don't foresee wanting or needing to buy additional equipment unless something is lost or broken. Maybe. :)
   
   
5. Maybe with more time I can retain more information
   
   I know the planets and there's a couple Messier objects I can recite. But I'm pretty ignorant about mentally cataloguing objects in the sky. I want to be able to remember what's what without consulting a chart or Stellarium constantly. 
   
   Same goes for magnification. I should be able to know if I'm at 130x or some other number. Practice, practice, practice. Maybe if I log that information during the sessions it will retain better. 

        Happy new year and clear skies everyone!