https://rogerivester.com/2016/08/
 Archive for August 2016

Stargazing Simplified: The following is a brief excerpt from a Sky & Telescope article by James Mullaney. Something for contemplation!

August 25, 2016

Stargazing Simplified! 
James Mullaney, F.R.A.S.

Stargazing Simplified! Of the more than 1,000 articles on observing I’ve published over the past 60 years, this is the title of the one I consider to be the most important of them all. It appeared in the April, 2014, issue of Sky & Telescope magazine. The opening paragraph appears below. If this speaks to you and you have access to back issues of the magazine, hopefully you will take time to check out the entire article! –Jim Mullaney

Today’s hectic lifestyle, obsession with computers and high-tech electronic gadgets and mantra that “bigger is better” (in TV screens at least) has carried over into amateur astronomy. Witness the Messier and other observing “marathons,” computer-controlled remote CCD-imaging telescopes, and observatory-sized trailer-mounted Dobsonian reflectors. Casual, relaxing stargazing seems to be largely a thing of the past — something practiced by only a few of us purists. To me, stargazing should provide a relaxing interlude from the pressures and worries of everyday living rather than contribute to them.