Re: [ATM] the future of amateur telescope making and amateur astronomy

[Andy Saulietis <iss@pvtnetworks.net>]

Hello Jim,

>What is the difference between that and browsing the Hubble website? 
>I think (hope) that Amateur Astronomy will always be a hands on, 
>eye's on experience.

You can do both..its just personal preference (mine also). When I was 
at NASA, everything we saw happening
in near-real time was with photographic or electronic imaging (asides 
from the occasional launch or landing). The astronauts were the only
ones who had the eyes-on experiences. Yes, one can browse the net and 
find huge amounts of astro images, but there's that
something about choosing what to see with eyeballs or a CCD camera 
yourself that keeps our hobby going.

Likewise,  a lot of amateur astronomers today don't have easy access 
to a dark sky observing
site and thus don't have a satisfying eyes-on experience..maybe this 
is why the number of
amateur astronomers seems to be dwindling. I have found that my 
efforts to provide dark/high altitude
observing sites have been very gratifying and has resulted in many 
new astro-buddies and friends.

A large fraction of those having lots at Star's End here are planning 
to use them with remote imaging
since they have to live in light polluted skies for employment, but 
are also planning to live here
after they retire.

BTW, I'm in the early stages of planning for a new astronomy friendly 
land development, with sites for lease or purchase.
It's much larger than Star's End and 2000' higher, near Cloudcroft 
NM. There will be annoucements in S+T in the near future,


Andy Saulietis 


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