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(05-14-2024, 01:15 AM)Albruic Wrote: Backyard Hobbies? I can say I found a very fun one, though.
Don't worry I am not making the crow population any smaller :-)
It’s very strange from over here to see people with serious weapons. A lot of people here will literally have never seen a civilian weapon other than a farmer’s double barrelled shotgun or something like clay pigeon shooting clubs. Outdoor hunting and shooting game birds is usually only very rich people here. I’m not wanting to get into the politics of it by the way! It’s just a different world. The other thing is we don’t have any dangerous animals left in the uk and ireland. If I lived somewhere with dangerous animals i’d definitely want the option of a gun!
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(05-14-2024, 08:58 PM)alanarchae Wrote: i havent done it in years but I was once big into astronomy /stargazing. Mostly in my late childhood:early teens. Did it with a next door neighbour pal my age. Usually in my folk’s garden as it was darker. Started with just star maps, planospheres,. naked eye and binoculars and later both got small astronomical telescopes one xmas. But to be honest they were rickety and a bit of a pain most of the time and not poweful enough to give really amazing views (though you could see stuff like Saturn’s rings vaguely).
To be honest the nicest way of stargazing is lying on a very reclined seat with a good pair of binoculars. It was mostly an aesthetic or sense of wonder thing rather than scientific. I could never understand people who did stuff like complile logs of sunspots (projections onto paper) or logged the magnitude of variable stars. You probably have to be a serious oddball to enjoy that. My parents house had a rear garden that was narrow but long so at the far end it was really dark due to an old tall wall, hedges etc. Unfortunately my present garden has rather mite light population so it’s not as suitable.
I never had the mathematical brain to realistically consider studying astronomy. So gazing at the cosmos is more of a aesthetic and almost kind of spiritual thing for me. A lot of my interests seem to be things that make you feel very small in time and space LOL
My father is from Montana and we go to see family fairly regularly, and of all the places I’ve been, Montana has the best night sky for stargazing.
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