One of the reasons was being limited to walking 1000 feet. I suppose if I was one of those retirees who does not cover 1000 feet between refrigerator; car, and TV remote, this might be tolerable
Another is cold air. I just came in from looking at the Orion Nebula. It is still an awesome sight through Big Bertha. One Thanksgiving several years ago, going out in freezing weather led to me calling 911 at 2:00 AM because of left arm pain. It was nothing critical but calling 911 before waking my wife got me in trouble. There is an unwritten rule (hence why it was unknown to me) that you should never wake up to paramedics in the living room.
It is really cold out there but even dressed in a dress shirt, khakis, parka, and hiking boots was okay. It was not really pleasant; more like bracing. You appreciate both gloves and why you would prefer being able to make adjustments without them.
One little frustration which is I think this the first time I have noticed enough to take note of it: mirror collimation really needs one bright flashlight .
The first step in collimation a Newtonian mirror is putting the laser collimator in the eyepiece tube and making sure the beam hits the center of the mirror. This almost never happens right at the start. You turn the collimation screws on the diagonal mirror holder until the beam hits either the red dot of nail polish or more ideally a round notebook paper reinforcing circle at the center of the mirror. But the laser is almost always red and seeing if you are at near the center in low light is really hard. A bright white flashlight does wonders.
"There is an unwritten rule (hence why it was unknown to me) that you should never wake up to paramedics in the living room."
ReplyDeleteThere are a few corollaries about other unpleasant surprises. Though that is a guess on my part
My father had a triple bypass in 1979? 1980? at age 63. He was already on a medical retirement due to heart issues.
ReplyDeleteAfter it was done the docs told him to exercise and he took it seriously and started walking. A lot. He improved enough that he then learned to ski, and actually became a ski instructor for beginners at our local, very small ski resort. He also became very active in our small town’s community. People were surprised at the turnaround in his activity and said “Look at what a bypass did for old Bob! I’m gonna get one!”