Partner dancing has been my main hobby for now half of my life (absolutely wild to think about. It’s an amazing thing to drop into flow state and make an ephemeral art piece collaboratively with a friend.
Astronomy because it makes me feel funny. Or simply stargazing. I don’t see a need to differentiate because the vibe changes every time I go out specifically for this.
There’s a convenience. It’s something that I can dabble in just by stepping outside at night, it’s something I can work into a trip if there’s a significantly darker sky within an hour of my itinerary, it’s something I can plan a trip specifically for. As a night owl, it’s also something that occurs during the “bonus hours” of the day, so I can still do all the daytime entertainment activities and still get more fun time. Do I feel tired the next day? I don’t want to talk about it. But I can stay out to 3am if the conditions are good. Hell, last time, I saw the darkest skies of my life yet and didn’t hit bed until sunset. 100% worth it to me.
There’s an overview effect. This is the primary driver of the hobby. I can’t promise it matches the feeling astronauts feel seeing Earth from space, but I have to beleive that the knowledge of that feeling, the knowledge of how distant every point of light is, the feeling of knowing millions of other people are seeing an essentially identical sky right now, just gives me such a twisted feeling. I’m alone, yet we’re all together on this planet, but the planet is alone. I can feel the overwhelming feeling that none of this view is tangible. I can look towards the moon, I can look towards some visible planets, I can use a telescope or binoculars to see them better. The moon has texture that feels tangible, but then I can consider the fact that every single planet in our solar system, the ones that are single-color dots by eye, would fit in the space between is and the moon. Just 400,000 km. Just the space astronauts travel in a couple days. More mass of planets than is even fathomable, more surface area, an order of magnitude or two more area than we have on Earth, fits between us and the nearest body. We’re stuck here. None of the beautiful things we can spot in deep space are tangible, reachable, achievable. They’re not even fathomable in size. Every nebula in sight, every cluster, everything visible is far, far greater than the size of our entire solar system. Unfathomably large, intangibly far. When I’m out in truly dark skies, especially with clear horizons, it’s just an insane feeling because it feels it’s just a solid sky dome because it takes all the same focus. But the focus is at infinity. My eyes just can’t tell a mile from a lightyear because there’s nothing of context. If I’m deep in thought, one of the coolest things to me is seeing a plane fly through. Suddenly, the context clues of knowing 200 people are in the tiny structure overhead make me feel so incredibly small. The blurs and blubs I’ve been sizing up suddenly, scarily, have a tiny plane in front of it, and the scale hits me like a train. Similar things can happen with distant horizon objects and the Milky Way band.
And sometimes I take pictures.
Thanks for sharing! I never thought about using binoculars for stargazing. Which magnification makes a significant difference?
You’re welcome! I happened to have just come back in from gazing a bit. I highly recommend binoculars as an introductory to optics because they’re very portable, very easy to set up, and offer a brighter view for the money than a telescope. The tradeoff is much less magnification.
7x35, 8x42, and 10x50 are the recommended sizes for handheld viewing. If you end up getting a tripod and adapter (the hinge on any of these first 3 will have a threaded receiver too), 16x70s, 20x80s, or similar ones marketed as astro binos are feasible. Leave the 10x25s and 20x50s home for daytime use.
The important thing is the implied 3rd number form those specs. The first number is the magnification, the second number is the outer lens diameter in mm. If you divide the outer lens by the mag, you get the eye-side lens diameter. 35/7=5mm, 42/8=5.25, 50/10=5. This is the real key to night use. Pupils dilate to a maximum of 7mm, shrinking as you age. The bigger the bino aperture, the better use of your pupil aperture. 5mm is where the cost/benefit lines up best in the market, so that’s why those first three are the recommended specs. Meanwhile, the cheap and common 10x25s and 20x50s have just 2.5mm apertures, closer to your daylight pupil size. They’ll be dim. The 16x70s and 20x80s are 4.3 and 4.0mm respectively, so you started losing brightness to cost there as you approach having two telescopes bolted together, but using two eyes is still advantageous.
I’m rusty on the popular model lines, but I was choosing between Nikon Acculon and Nikon Action Extreme years back. Nikon is one of the best lens manufacturers. Binoculars use a prism inside to flip the image right side up and that glass is even more important than the lens, and these two models excel there, too. I paid more for the AE because it has better durability and water resistance. I’m reasonably careful, but I don’t take precautions with mine. I’m often stargazing on a sandy beach somewhere as bodies of water mean no light pollution in that direction. Sand, humidity, salt spray, temperature swings, my AEs don’t care. They’ve been on many plane rides in both my backpack and my suitcase.
But whatever 5mm aperture binos you can find will open up the sky for you. For size, I’ve tried both the 7x35 and 10x50 AEs (so equivalent comparison). I prefer the 10s for notably more zoom, although it’s harder to hold steady. They’re ~50% larger and heavier though. When scouting around for objects like those on the Messier catalogue, they’re all going to be small blobs, so the 40% better mag is worth to me. But either way, the number of stars seen with that brightening effect is magnificent. The 7s let you detect more of our galactic structure though when looking into the Milky Way band. But for that, I built Nikon 2x56s with a 3d printed shell and obsolete ~2003 Nikon 2x camera multipliers from an obsolete 4mp camera model.
I’m northern hemisphere. Andromeda galaxy, Leo cluster, and lagoon nebula are easy targets in the summer. Orion nebula, beehive open cluster, in the winter and I think perseus open cluster. Helix nebula is probably the most defined thing I can spot if the skies are dark (bortle 4 max) in the summer, as an obvious gray disk.
Gonna touch on light real quick. Lightpollutionmap.info is my go-to site. Bortle scale is 1-9. Higher is worse. Class 2/3 is worth my time. That’s the blue regions. I’ll go further for gray class 1/2. Getting to no-color 1 is usually difficult.
Night adaptation. Your pupils dilate in seconds, but your eyes are also doped with “rhodopsin”. It takes 20 minutes for rhodopsin to to fully re-dope your receptors for night vision. This is why indoors seems so dark for a fee minutes when entering and why going outdoors seems so bright for a few minutes. But for this level of dark adaptation, assume you need the full 20 mins. Red light will not affect it, but blue/purple/UV will, which is part of what makes lights and screens white. Phone screen, flashlights, headlights, white street lights will affect it. Avoid all that. Phones with reddish screen settings called various things like low-blue, night shade, f.lux, etc do help. You’ll probably want a phone app to help locate things. SkySafari is my preference
Yapping/gossiping/interrogating people lovingly, and it hits all the spots: it’s information-heavy, gives me a socialization dose and it strengthens relationships. 👍
What are your strategies?
A tiny bit of self deprecation and many compliments and good vibes first to set an environment of trust, I guess? I just talk to people, and wherever I go I end up being part of the group of gossipy girlies, lol. I don’t mind, and my wife doesn’t either. 😅
My hobbies are more for practical function than hobbies.
I design and 3D print things to fit my specific needs, rather than compromise with something store-bought. I recently made a USB cable holder that matches the profile of edge banding on a desk I refurbished.
I made a bed, refurbished a desk and made a dressing bench. I have plans to make an entryway table.
I sewed a cover for the pad for the headboard of the bed I made. I’ll make another one for the bench whenever the fabric shows ups. I also made a t-shirt last year, one that fits me.
sir, I’m a poster,
(depression is coming back and all of my hobbies are exhausting now)
Guitar and 40K, guitar because it just clicked with me, I love music and it does things for me that nothing else can, and 40K because I just love stupid shit.
I have 3 hobbies, Crochet, 3d Printing and Cooking. All 3 are the same “why have lots of money if few money do trick?” vibes
Beekeeping. Every day’s a school day.
I used to have a hive box, my bees were so nice and gave me the best honey ever.
CloneHero drumming on an e-kit. Still suck at it, still love doing it, every day.
It’s a great challenge and a real workout in one.
Bicycling and partner dancing. I spend time in front of the computer for work and for fun, so I need some active hobbies to balance that out. Biking combines the thrill of exploration with the ritual of gear preparation and the endorphins and physical effects of exercise. Dancing is deeply perceptive on both auditory and physical levels. It encourages me to be social and approach people I don’t know. Together, it’s about the balance for me. If I loaded cases of beer onto trucks all day I’d probably be a professional hammock-er when I got home.
LARP, specifically full-contact. It’s a craft-heavy environment where you can smash people with a stick and get beat on yourself, then drink roughly four to eighteen beers by a fire. It’s got crafts, catharsis, sports, partying, camping, and shenanigans built in.
Origami.
It is affordable, fun, can be quite useful and once you reach certain level is an art form.
Music. Because it’s sound, even when I’m at my most lethargic, depressed, and too exhausted to do anything, I can enjoy it just by feeling its vibrations in my body.
Collecting rare and high-quality pages on the internet, especially personal websites. In this age of social media where information flow is manipulated by algorithms, the culture of personal link collections is all the more necessary.
Nice, it’s probably a good idea to collect certain websites. Would you share some of them?
Thx, I’ll check it out!
Do you know about Neocities?
Yes, I know about it. My specialty is personal websites in the Japanese-speaking world, which is my native language, and some of the website creators occasionally use this service.
For example, DJ Telematic Visions does.
Tabletop rpgs are the only artform that merges artist and audience. Telling a story is probably the oldest human artform. With a well-designed RPG and a good group you can tell a story and thrill yourself at the surprising outcome. It’s a unique and timeless hobby.
Quite an oversimplification as far as all forms of art. Definitely an incredible one though! I need to get back in.
Drums! It’s honestly just a lot of fun and a bit zen, depending on what you’re playing. I don’t play in a band anymore, but they’re still a blast. I try to play at least a couple times a week.
