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That is a good point Carol. There is a lot more night in the winter. But yikes! How cold does it get where you're at in the winter? Don't entire lakes freeze over in the winter there? We get warnings here when there is a chance for frost.

You have my respect for going outside at night when its so cold.

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I've noticed that the stargazers who have most trouble with winter are the ones in Arizona and Southern California. The reason is pretty simple, I think. Whether first, second, or even third generation, these areas were settled largely by people from other parts of the U.S. who moved specifically to avoid cold weather.

This leads to a culture of winter-denial. Particularly in a place like Tucson, which is at fairly high elevation, it actually gets quite cold in the winter. That's particularly true at night, because there's a huge swing in temperature from day to night in the desert.

However, in the Standard American Lifestyle, where people are rarely outdoors longer than the time to walk from home to the car, it's easy to pretend that winter isn't happening. That's especially true during the day, when the Sun is blazing down. So both psychologically and physically (clothing and acclimation) people aren't prepared for winter.

If you live in this culture and then start spending many hours outside at night, when it's coldest, often at higher altitude, where it's colder still, you're likely to have problems!

In the northern U.S., fewer people try to pretend that winter isn't happening. In the best places, like northern New England or Minnesota, the winter culture is still alive and well -- the advent of the first snow signals joy and playtime. So people here are both psychologically and physically prepared for winter. It's much easier for a stargazer in Vermont to deal with -10F than for an L.A. stargazer to deal with 40F.

An extreme case was "Ben in Vegas", who announced: "I don't know how all of you northerners stargaze in the winter ... I refuse to buy a winter coat."

Me: Winter stargazing is really no problem at all if you have appropriate clothing.

Ben: I refuse to buy a winter coat.

Me: Why not? For the price of one premium eyepiece, you could get a complete set of clothing that would keep you toasty warm well below freezing.

Ben: I refuse to buy a winter coat.

Me: How come?

Ben: 'Cause I don't want to.

Shortly after, Ben abandoned the hobby of astronomy.

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Tony Flanders

eyeglasses
6x15 and 8x32 monoculars
8x25, 7x35, 10x30 IS, 10x50, and 15x70 binoculars
70mm and 100mm achromatic refractors
4.5", 7", and 12.5" Dobs

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