Stop making excuses, get out and observe!

I have a 8″ Celestron Ultima 8 PEC Schmidt-Cass telescope that I have owned since about 1995. This scope has brought me many enjoyable nights of observing, whether at a outreach public observing session, or at our club’s dark-sky observing site. I started to make up any number of excuses for not going out and observing during the weeknights because of trees obscuring most of my sky, light pollution, my scope is just too big and bulky, my optics are not world-class, yada yada. For the last 6 months, I haven’t used my scope at all from home for these reasons. But the strangest excuse is when I started to blame the telescope. Now I’m an equipment freak, I love to read about new telescopes, their reviews etc. I keep reading in magazines about a variety of instruments from computer goto SCT’s and MCT types to the more portable high-end retractor’s. Even the big light buckets, you name it. I kept trying to convince myself that if I had one of those telescopes, then I would observe more ofter.

Well thats bull. I decided that although having a more portable scope would be nice, and sure, who wouldn’t like a goto scope or a 12″ dob? But my scope is darn good, and there just isn’t a valid excuse NOT to get out and start observing! What has help me rejuvenate my enthusiasm to “Just Observe It”? Check back soon!