Conversation with my wife

[nakbrooks]

ASA 400mm reflector, DDM85 mount and DDM85XL pier delivered to the observatory site today.  Conversation with my wife went something along the following lines:

 

Wife:  Wow, that's big, when will we get to look through it?

 

Me:  You don't look through it.  It's for astrophotography, astrometry and possibly some spectroscopy.  You use a camera.

 

Wife:  You mean you can't actually look at the stars through it?

 

Me:  No, at least not without me taking a load of equipment off it.

 

Wife:  But if you only want to look at photos of stars there's loads on the Internet, and I bet the quality will be a lot better than yours!

 

Me:  [mumbles something about lifelong learning and hoping to contribute to science]

 

Wife:  How much did it cost?

 

Me:  [quickly changing the subject]  But it will be totally robotic, it will work automatically - I won't have to spend the nights outside anymore.

 

Wife:  So you won't even take the photos yourself, it does it all itself!  How much did you say it cost?

 

Me:  Do you fancy eating out tonight?

 

[RamaSpaceShip]

Hi Nigel,

 

Forget about the money, it's not the problem because:

- it's already gone,

- you didn't miss it for fundamental purposes,

- money which is not used is by definition useless.

 

Now you are an artist, and it does not matter how you build these sets of pixels which make so beautiful images, you make them. It's your vision. Full stop.

 

 

Best regards.

 

Bernard

Edited June 22, 2013 by RamaSpaceShip