I had always wondered just why this hobby was so enduring and exciting, even after years of observing with so many different telescopes. I have been thinking about such things as my retirement from the editorship of Amateur Astronomy was approaching. Even after 23 years since first putting my eye to an eyepiece, the fascination of looking skyward in any telescope is still there. I have to readily admit that my being a "Peeping Tom" has been a lot of fun; the fascination of seeing far beyond what most mortals are able to is part of the draw! I am certainly not bored with the hobby, but my retirement is mainly from the huge amount of work publishing this magazine entailed, even though it was only a quarterly. I recently read an article in the August 2006 National Geographic about the passing of 75 year old Thomas Abercrombie. Tom had 43 articles published in the 38 years he was on staff of National Geographic. He traveled everywhere, learned to speak four languages, and expertly photographed the world for his articles. His life was more exciting than most of us could ever imagine. Now imagine this: Tom spent the last few months of his life spending every moment possible at the eyepiece of his newly acquired telescope. He had just taken up the hobby of astronomy, and even started working on improving his telescope's mount. Unfortunately his own machinery gave up before his telescope did. It is too bad that it took Abercrombie almost to the end of his life before discovering astronomy. Could you imagine what it would have been like to be able to spend a few nights under the dome of the night sky with someone like Tom? Imagine someone like him, someone who has been everywhere and seen and photographed everything – imagine the stories he would have to tell – and near the end he became totally fascinated with astronomy! What could possibly be so exciting to someone who has led such an exciting life? We all have met many lost souls who looked through a telescope once or twice, said ho-hum, and headed back inside to their television sets. It is so easy to feel sorry for such people, for they know not what what they miss. What exactly has been drawing me to the eyepiece all these years? It certainly wasn't the possibility of making some scientific discovery. That has never held an interest to me. It certainly wasn't the idea of converting my photographic hobby to astrophotography. That part of our hobby always seemed to simply be too much work, and besides, I have many friends who are experts in that area and had no desire to compete with them. Being a person who enjoys building things, I loved telescope making, and designing improvements to the equipment we used, but even the mechanical side of the hobby was not my sole interest to the hobby. Astronomy is simply a great hobby! I think the best part of the hobby to me is that it covers a broad area of interest. Just being out with friends under a clear sky, talking about things to observe, things we have observed, and things we are still hoping to see, is fun. Walk up to a total stranger in the dark and ask him or her what they are doing there, what is it about astronomy that draws them to it, and I swear you will hardly ever get the same answer twice. Everyone has a slightly different reason for being there. Many will not be able to entirely answer the question. They are just there… because! Mother Nature calls to them. They all have one version or another of the basic answer that says they just want to be one with the universe, to understand more about what life is, where we have been, where we are going, and what reality is. Astronomy is real, not the Hollywood version of life. Sure, Hollywood movies are exciting, but so is reality, just in a different sort of way. Astronomy allows everyone, if even just for a short time, to escape the more humdrum realities of life. When you are just one of many standing in line at a telescope for your turn to look, it matters not whether you are a millionaire or a pauper, whether you live in a mansion or a small trailer, you are just one more small part of humanity, waiting for your moment to look beyond the boundaries of earth and to look skyward for a fleeting moment. It matters not what your beliefs are, religious or otherwise, you are just one more eye that, for a short moment, is about to see reality. When a telescopic image of Saturn hits your eye, it is stunning. It matters not what is in your head, whether you think that little green men live there, or that some god made that view just for you, is immaterial. The image is real. What you make of it, and what you want to think, is your business. The perversions that we all put into the things our eyes see is personal, private, and quite frankly, no one else cares what you think! It is just enough to be able to share the views with others while enjoying the magnificence of the night under a dark sky. Sharing your telescope with others is a great way to bring new people into the hobby. It's like fishing. Most of the time you just have a pleasant time, but occasionally you catch a whopper! It is personally very rewarding to be able to, after a short time at the eyepiece, turn a stranger into a life-long friend. Jeannie and I have been so fortunate to have met people from all over the world. We can hardly travel anywhere without knowing someone in the area. Perhaps in some mystic ways our telescopes have been multi-function instruments. They have not only let us observe deep into the night skies, freeing our planet-bound minds and allowing us to escape deep into the universe, but then they magically reverse their main function, to become microscopes and let us see deep into the souls of those strangers who have shared our eyepiece. Some have turned into the life-long friends that make life so worth living. Those who I am talking about know who they are. My fingers have struggled over the keyboard, wanting to type out the names of some of the many friends we have met over the years, but on the other hand I realize that their names have already been in the pages of this magazine many times over the years. All you long-time readers know who many of them are. They have written many articles and been featured in many articles over the years. One of the biggest regrets of my retiring is now we will be cutting short the opportunities to continue to add to that list those who we have shared special moments with. I know that there are literally thousands of super people who we have never had the opportunity to share some telescope time with, and perhaps might have made the cosmic connection that turns such strangers into best friends. There were never enough nights to do all that we would like to have done, to meet everyone we would have liked to meet, and to have had the opportunity to have truly made friends with all in the universe. To those who I have never met, I only hope that through the pages of Amateur Astronomy we have felt a tiny connection, and realized what could have been. May the force be with us all as we travel what roads we have left in this life. Perhaps we will still meet somewhere down the road. Until then, I wish you all the best, and may your life be as happy and fulfilling as ours. Thanks for the great ride! We wish you all the happiness that Jeannie and I discovered, and tried to share with you through these pages…

I had always wondered just why this hobby was so enduring and exciting, even after years of observing with so many different telescopes. I have been thinking about such things as my retirement from the editorship of Amateur Astronomy was approaching. Even after 23 years since first putting my eye to an eyepiece, the fascination of looking skyward in any telescope is still there. I have to readily admit that my being a "Peeping Tom" has been a lot of fun; the fascination of seeing far beyond what most mortals are able to is part of the draw!

I am certainly not bored with the hobby, but my retirement is mainly from the huge amount of work publishing this magazine entailed, even though it was only a quarterly.

I recently read an article in the August 2006 National Geographic about the passing of 75 year old Thomas Abercrombie. Tom had 43 articles published in the 38 years he was on staff of National Geographic. He traveled everywhere, learned to speak four languages, and expertly photographed the world for his articles. His life was more exciting than most of us could ever imagine. Now imagine this: Tom spent the last few months of his life spending every moment possible at the eyepiece of his newly acquired telescope. He had just taken up the hobby of astronomy, and even started working on improving his telescope's mount. Unfortunately his own machinery gave up before his telescope did.

It is too bad that it took Abercrombie almost to the end of his life before discovering astronomy. Could you imagine what it would have been like to be able to spend a few nights under the dome of the night sky with someone like Tom? Imagine someone like him, someone who has been everywhere and seen and photographed everything – imagine the stories he would have to tell – and near the end he became totally fascinated with astronomy! What could possibly be so exciting to someone who has led such an exciting life? We all have met many lost souls who looked through a telescope once or twice, said ho-hum, and headed back inside to their television sets. It is so easy to feel sorry for such people, for they know not what what they miss.

What exactly has been drawing me to the eyepiece all these years? It certainly wasn't the possibility of making some scientific discovery. That has never held an interest to me. It certainly wasn't the idea of converting my photographic hobby to astrophotography. That part of our hobby always seemed to simply be too much work, and besides, I have many friends who are experts in that area and had no desire to compete with them. Being a person who enjoys building things, I loved telescope making, and designing improvements to the equipment we used, but even the mechanical side of the hobby was not my sole interest to the hobby.

Astronomy is simply a great hobby! I think the best part of the hobby to me is that it covers a broad area of interest. Just being out with friends under a clear sky, talking about things to observe, things we have observed, and things we are still hoping to see, is fun. Walk up to a total stranger in the dark and ask him or her what they are doing there, what is it about astronomy that draws them to it, and I swear you will hardly ever get the same answer twice. Everyone has a slightly different reason for being there. Many will not be able to entirely answer the question. They are just there… because! Mother Nature calls to them. They all have one version or another of the basic answer that says they just want to be one with the universe, to understand more about what life is, where we have been, where we are going, and what reality is.

Astronomy is real, not the Hollywood version of life. Sure, Hollywood movies are exciting, but so is reality, just in a different sort of way. Astronomy allows everyone, if even just for a short time, to escape the more humdrum realities of life. When you are just one of many standing in line at a telescope for your turn to look, it matters not whether you are a millionaire or a pauper, whether you live in a mansion or a small trailer, you are just one more small part of humanity, waiting for your moment to look beyond the boundaries of earth and to look skyward for a fleeting moment. It matters not what your beliefs are, religious or otherwise, you are just one more eye that, for a short moment, is about to see reality.

When a telescopic image of Saturn hits your eye, it is stunning. It matters not what is in your head, whether you think that little green men live there, or that some god made that view just for you, is immaterial. The image is real. What you make of it, and what you want to think, is your business. The perversions that we all put into the things our eyes see is personal, private, and quite frankly, no one else cares what you think! It is just enough to be able to share the views with others while enjoying the magnificence of the night under a dark sky.

Sharing your telescope with others is a great way to bring new people into the hobby. It's like fishing. Most of the time you just have a pleasant time, but occasionally you catch a whopper! It is personally very rewarding to be able to, after a short time at the eyepiece, turn a stranger into a life-long friend. Jeannie and I have been so fortunate to have met people from all over the world. We can hardly travel anywhere without knowing someone in the area. Perhaps in some mystic ways our telescopes have been multi-function instruments. They have not only let us observe deep into the night skies, freeing our planet-bound minds and allowing us to escape deep into the universe, but then they magically reverse their main function, to become microscopes and let us see deep into the souls of those strangers who have shared our eyepiece. Some have turned into the life-long friends that make life so worth living. Those who I am talking about know who they are. My fingers have struggled over the keyboard, wanting to type out the names of some of the many friends we have met over the years, but on the other hand I realize that their names have already been in the pages of this magazine many times over the years. All you long-time readers know who many of them are. They have written many articles and been featured in many articles over the years. One of the biggest regrets of my retiring is now we will be cutting short the opportunities to continue to add to that list those who we have shared special moments with. I know that there are literally thousands of super people who we have never had the opportunity to share some telescope time with, and perhaps might have made the cosmic connection that turns such strangers into best friends.

There were never enough nights to do all that we would like to have done, to meet everyone we would have liked to meet, and to have had the opportunity to have truly made friends with all in the universe. To those who I have never met, I only hope that through the pages of Amateur Astronomy we have felt a tiny connection, and realized what could have been. May the force be with us all as we travel what roads we have left in this life. Perhaps we will still meet somewhere down the road. Until then, I wish you all the best, and may your life be as happy and fulfilling as ours. Thanks for the great ride! We wish you all the happiness that Jeannie and I discovered, and tried to share with you through these pages…

Return to the Modern Dobsonian

This article was published in Tom's last issue of Amateur Astronomy Magazine. Issue #54 was published in the summer of 2007. Since then Charlie and Margie Warren have taken over, and Amateur Astronomy is still the best astronomy magazine published today. If you are not a subscriber you should be. (amateurastronomy.com)