What do your family and friends think of your hobby?

[Amurje]

Hello All,

Recently rgreenberg2000 posted the question, "Do your neighbors think you're nuts?" So far this thread has had over 2,700 views and eleven pages of replies. It has been one of the most entertaining threads I've ever seen.

In a similar vein, I'd like to pose the question,

What do your family and friends think of your hobby?

In my own case, when my wife first walked into our living room and saw my new, 80 pound astronomy cannon looming over the furniture, her jaw dropped and she gasped, "I thought you were just going to get one of those skinny, little telescopes!!!"

When a friend saw a picture of it his response was, "Does NASA know that you have their telescope?"

I look forward to hearing of your experiences.

- Amurje

[Lmeyer718]

My friends listen to my stories of my nightly star gazing. None of them seem interested in joining me. My wife actually loves it, but she doesn't want to hear endless astronomy stories. I like to listen to astronomy cast podcasts and browse earthsky.org. So I like to talk astronomy.

[Bobble]

My wife says the only reason I come home after work is because my scope is there.
Can it be true??
No....A guy has to eat and sleep too!*L*

Regards
Bob

[GrandPrixChris]

Amurje, my story is similar to yours. My wife gave the go ahead to order the scope and I had been tracking it for a good part of the week. The day the scope was to be delivered I was looking at the Orion catalogue viewing other Scopes. my wife sat down on my lap smiling and asked which one did you order? I pointed to the 10" canon and she hit my arm laughing and said "no way". As I was assembling my new scope she would walk by and laughingly say"oh my word".
Whenever I'm observing and have those moments that I feel need to be shared I'll have her come out and take a look. She is great in playing along with my enthusiasm and will come out and view something I thought was very cool...she even came out to the park with the dog where I had set up my telescope with some professional astronomers and viewed the Venus transit.
I have some friends and family that will say or ask some strange questions

[AbbN]

To my wife & kid the stars are a bunch of dots but they've never criticized me for it. Unfortunately a few of my 1st cousins have and in no uncertain terms I've told them what they can do with themselves The only thing that scares me is when I mention to my wife I'd like to get a new scope and she says "get whatever you like' (her exact words and she's said them many times!) it always means she wants to get something and it's usually expen$ive she said it many times before I got my DOB (a new dining room piece came in a TWO days after that scope arrived!) and recently my AR102 (saw a couple of new gowns after it arrived) So now I'm buying accessories (like the two new lenses) and sorta lying about their cost

[neal_mlc]

My family thinks I am nuts because I go out in the desert for hours on end. The last thing thy ask me when I go out is; do you have your gun? My friends, on the other hand, are usually with me when I go out to the desert.

[star2root]

I was telling a friend of mine about my telescope, and he mentioned that he had one in his garage, so I asked if it was in working condition, etc. Anyway, next time I visited, he got it out and we had a small star party in his back yard. Then, I showed him Saturn. It was done. Now we are making plans for when I can visit next when the skies are clear, and what we can look at. He has been... infected...

I keep my telescope carefully adjusted so I can achieve the highest percentage of conversion of anyone who dares to look...

[epeddy1]

My family lives far enough away that they've never seen my scope. It's not huge or anything, but I don't think they have any idea how into this new hobby I've gotten. They think I'm a casual observer checking out the night sky from time to time, watching for meteors, and counting stars. Little do they know I'm counting Messiers while my wife is counting the packages that keep arriving on our doorstep!

[mzu]

Some people in my family had strange looks when they first saw my 12" Dob. The only opinion that counts for me though is that of my wife. She thinks this is a great hobby for me. She is not interested in Astronomy herself but likes to look at Saturn from time to time. She's happy for me and usually listens to my Astronomy stories. When I have to buy stuff for my hobby she's alright with that. She doesn't care if I'm out all night to look at the night sky either. Hope my son will be into Astronomy too when he's a little older.

[RogueGazer]

My wife teases me about it sometimes. She made a joke the other day about me going out to look at a bunch of dots. AbbN, I think our wives might know each other. She does come out and peek through the lens sometimes but it's not really her thing. She would much rather peek at a book than an eyepiece. My kids enjoy it and it's the perfect excuse to stay up late.