[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: (meteorobs) meteor observations aug 20/21 ZAYG
In a message dated 98-08-23 22:23:48 EDT, you write:
Bill<<
Alright, alright. Please George, Pierre, Mark, and all youse other guys
and gals who report all these sightings. When do you sleep, how do you
hold down a 9 to 5, or in my case a 3-11pm job while you are logging 6
hour teffs for nights in a row?<<
Well Bill...at the moment I'm on vacation. As of last monday I started my two
week vacation. So I have some observing time set aside. I planned this
vacation for this purpose. My wife is a very avid back packer and belongs to a
hiking group. She usually takes the opportunity to do a serious back packing
trip while I'm on an observing campaign such as this. She is presently up near
Bishop, Ca with her hiking buddies at an elevation over 11,000 feet. I'm not
into this walking stuff...I get a lot of that at work often enough to not
raise the desire to hike anywhere with stuff on my back. On my first day of
vacation I observed...the next two days we spent time together at Disneyland
with our youngest daughter (15yrs). Occupationally I'm a firefighter that
hopes to retire sometime in the next year or three. I work an 8am to 8 am job.
When I'm off duty it's scheduled so that I will have available time to observe
and do other things. I have plans of when I will observe too. Like I usually
don't observe within 5 days before and after a full moon. This period I often
devote to the family and the sort.
Bill>> I notice some of you, like Pierre, George, etc. have affiliations
with observatories and astr0logical organizations. Are these you're jobs?<<
In my case, I built my own observatory on the property of my in laws in the
local mountains. As I've already stated, astronomy is not my occupation..dot it's
my playtime. My two daughters has always referred to my observatory as
"Daddy's Clubhouse".
Bill>>How do you do it? What finally provoked my posting this was seeing
GeoZ
is settong tome apart to fish with his daughter which to me shows me that
although his head is up in the stars his feet are also planted firmly on
earth.<<
I appreciate that. But part of how I do it involves a lot of planning and
tolerance. Like the nights when I observe, I plan it to arrive at the site
early enough to get everything set up. When that is done, I start napping
right there for at least 2 to 4 hours usually. The tolerance part is from my
wife. I tolerate her back packing (She's the S. Calif. Back packing instructor
for Girl Scouts and also teaches a lot of boy scout instructors as well.) She
usually back packs at least one weekend per month...sometimes twice a month. I
do sometimes go with her, but not at 11,000 feet. I refer to these hikes as
the Bataan Death march revisited. Mainly because she loads me down like a two
legged mule. It doesn't take too many of these trips to figure this out and
the remedy...Don't Go!
As for the fishing trip with my daughter that I mentioned...Well, that got
canceled by my daughter. She graduated from high school this year and is
leaving in a few days to Prescott, Arizona to go to College. It appears that
she has so many things to do, that a fishing trip would take up too much of
preparation time. So she won't be here for that. I will see her later today
for a couple hours etc. With that in mind, I observed again last night after
all. I will shortly be posting my results. I am thinking about going fishing
by myself tomorrow...perhaps with my father in law? Havne't made up my mind
yet.
George Zay