Telescope Reviews: From the Editors Desk: A tale of two astronomers

Fun read. Thanks for posting it.

I think the two examples represent only two of several common amateur astronomer "archetypes".

In addition to the Steves and the Alfred's of the world there are "Daves", "Paulas" and "Cindys".

The Daves start out like the Alfreds "communing" with the heavens, putting the experience of observing first before the equipment, but then morph into astronomers who are akin to ludites. You know, the "if a simple achromatic doublet was good enough for Charles Messier, it's good enough for me" crowd. At star parties the Daves are typically the people who insist on playing and sharing their "space music" through the night for the ambience. I'm all for space music, mind you. I just have the courtesy to use headphones.

The Cindys of the world start out somehwat like Steves, learning everything they can about optics, quality, technique and the like, spending, evaluating critically, selling, buying new, repeating the cycle over and over again, but unlike Steves they don't get frustrated and give up. Instead they achieve a state of quasi-Nirvana reserved for the imagers among us, and sicover that they really do NEED that $11,000 f/6 oil spaced flourite triplet APO. Without engaing in a little anally-retentive Steve-ish behavior early on, Cindy couldn't learn (1) that she needed that uber-scope to pursue her newfound love of astro-photography, and (2) we would all be the poorer for it as we would miss out on her superior astro-photography handiwork that makes the university observatory curators hang their heads in disgrace by comparison.

Then there are the Paulas. They are the saddest of our lot. They are the ones who transit through Steve-ism into a purgatory-esque state of reading and posting endlessly on astronomy forums. This activity becomes their sole nexus to the hobby - by the time the clear steady night falls, they are too tired to set up and observe, having expended much energy and emotion during the day debating minutae with similar Paulas.

Paradoxically, many of us are simultaneosly Alfreds, Steves, Daves, Paulas and Cindys to some extent. I for one travel in an orbit that causes me to periodically conjunct with each of these archetypes for a time. The key to my happiness and an amateur astronomer has been never wedding myself permanently to any of these archetypes, and being open to seeing and sharing in the merits and weaknesses of each.

The worst thing anyone can ever do in any life pursuit (transending the hobby of astronomy) is close one's mind. Except that it is always okay to despise the Daves of the world for blarring Vangelis at star parties --- if it disturbs you, just ask me to turn down my boom box.

One final thought in defense of Steve: 20 years ago there was a huge gulf between the junk at the low end and the premium equipment at the high end. If you wanted a color-free refractor for astro-photography, for example, you had no choice but to drop some serious coinage of the realm. The number of amateurs with the financial oomph to absorb that kind of punishment was very small. You wanted a reflector over 10", call your bank - it was going to cost you about 50% of your annual income and require a crane to move. Steve-ism was a syndrome more isolated in the upper eschelons of astro-expenditure. It wasn't as obvious of a condition then because by economic necessity there were fewer sufferers.

But the world has changed. Now there are color-free apochromats for the rest of us (like me; check my siggie - very little shi-shi-glass there) that don't break the bank. There are go-deep 12" Dobs that cost half the price of a new Lazy Boy recliner, making Markarian's chain a topic of dinner table conversation with the kids rather than something only whispered about in the science wings of some ivy-covered institution or other.

With the ever-widening abundance of better, more objectively performant stuff for less cost, more and more of us are able to experiment, and experiment we do. Just check out the vigorous used gear economy evidenced by CN's classified and other astro-classified sites on the web. When we aren't satisfied that we've attained the level of perfection dictated by our moral compass, we re-sell. While at a given point in time, there may be a lot of greenbacks tied up in gear, it's pretty easy to stay balance-sheet even. That is, if you wanted to or needed to, you could liquidate the lot on the ready used market and recoup a large portion of your investment.

Given this environment, I can't entirely blame Steve for wanting the best he can get for his intended use and budget given that he has such a wide range of options and choices. As long as Steve doesn't stay Steve too long and eventually starts the migration toward the Cindy or Alfred poles, it's all good to me.

Regards,

Jim

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"The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries." - Carl Sagan