I KNOW i wont be missed.

Not really sure what to say. This is an astronomy board. It's for Astronomy and that's what we do here. There is somewhere on the net to discuss just about everything. There are places for random stuff, places for knitting, for movies, for football, for bonsai making, you name it. This is a place for Astronomy. If you don't want to be part of an Irish astronomy community on the net then don't be. It's your call. We're not changing!

Also, I've been on a billion and one message boards* and not once has an "I'm leaving because you don't do things my way" thread like this one changed anything. If you want to go, go. If you want to stay, stay. Threads like this are just a waste of time.

Bart.

* may be a slight exaggeration**
** this is an understatement

Paul
Fair play to you.
I have been watching these posts for about two years now with a kind of horrified fascination.I would not agree that the site should have the kind of social side to it that you refer to but I totally agree that there is a hard core of contributors to this site whose level of pursuit of this hobby is obsessive and compulsive.
The impression given is that to pursue astronomy meaningfully you have to spend every living minute thinking about it,spend ridiculous amounts of money on it,that you have to have every and any piece of new gear that comes on the market,that you sit around on bad nights waiting for breaks in the clouds and that you are somehow deficient if you let 5 minutes of clear sky go by without getting out.
I dread to think of the number of people considering taking up simple stargazing,with or without equipment,who have been put off by these fanatics.
I have little doubt that they will even take exception to the term stargazing,they see themselves as some kind of Astronomers.
I get no sense of the enjoyment and wonder to be got from just looking at the sky with affordable,acceptably good equipment or with none at all,plain and simply,WHEN YOU ARE IN THE MOOD.
There are people on this forum with equipment that would put you in the poorhouse,who not only do not understand what they have but who know nothing about the sky.The guy with the "11" CAT who had to ask how to find Mars springs to mind.What will someone like him do if he finds out that he is really not that interested after all.Some other urchin was on lately who thought he would see Uranus with the naked eye.
I have little doubt that the manufacturers of this gear must be having a quiet laugh to themselves at people in a climate like Ireland's spending the kind of money involved to perhaps get 50,at most,nights in the year when the the equipment can be used to anything approaching it's potential.
As far as I can see,what we have here largely is a bunch of equipment freaks who find expression in Astronomical gear.
Anyway enough said.
Once again fair play to you.

Paul
Fair play to you.
I have been watching these posts for about two years now with a kind of horrified fascination.I would not agree that the site should have the kind of social side to it that you refer to but I totally agree that there is a hard core of contributors to this site whose level of pursuit of this hobby is obsessive and compulsive.
The impression given is that to pursue astronomy meaningfully you have to spend every living minute thinking about it,spend ridiculous amounts of money on it,that you have to have every and any piece of new gear that comes on the market,that you sit around on bad nights waiting for breaks in the clouds and that you are somehow deficient if you let 5 minutes of clear sky go by without getting out.
I dread to think of the number of people considering taking up simple stargazing,with or without equipment,who have been put off by these fanatics.
I have little doubt that they will even take exception to the term stargazing,they see themselves as some kind of Astronomers.
I get no sense of the enjoyment and wonder to be got from just looking at the sky with affordable,acceptably good equipment or with none at all,plain and simply,WHEN YOU ARE IN THE MOOD.
There are people on this forum with equipment that would put you in the poorhouse,who not only do not understand what they have but who know nothing about the sky.The guy with the "11" CAT who had to ask how to find Mars springs to mind.What will someone like him do if he finds out that he is really not that interested after all.Some other urchin was on lately who thought he would see Uranus with the naked eye.
I have little doubt that the manufacturers of this gear must be having a quiet laugh to themselves at people in a climate like Ireland's spending the kind of money involved to perhaps get 50,at most,nights in the year when the the equipment can be used to anything approaching it's potential.
As far as I can see,what we have here largely is a bunch of equipment freaks who find expression in Astronomical gear.
Anyway enough said.
Once again fair play to you.

I don't mean to start an argument but you seem to have been reading some other site and confusing it with this one. What I see here is people regularly telling people NOT to get a telescope when they're starting, NOT to spend big money, and to get a simple pair of binoculars instead. Time and again that's the advice that is given out here. Each Christmas without fail we get mothers coming on here asking us which big telescope to get for junior and time and again the advice is the same, don't buy him expensive kit, it won't do him any good, get him a good pair of binoculars and a good book to help him use them.

Yes, there are people here with some serious gear, but I have never seen any of them tell anyone that you need serious gear to do Astronomy, ever. There are lots of people here like myself with almost no gear at all. My total expenditure on Astronomy in the last five years has been ZERO!

Also, you seem to have missed PJ's point just a tad. His point is that we keep the topic here to Astronomy and don't allow discussions of Turkeys failing to sing or EU Treaties failing to pass.

Bart.

JaySea, Paul has posted more posts in such a short time than ANYONE ever has on these boards.

To post nearly 1600 posts in 6 months which paul has, is obsessive!

Originally posted by Jaysea

Some other urchin was on lately who thought he would see Uranus with the naked eye.

That was actually Paul himself IIRC Jaysea and there ain't nothin' wrong with that. Now he has another fact learned, that Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not really naked eye objects. No one here would look down on him for not knowing that.

I agree with everyone elses posts. Paul is a character that would be missed. I just hope this thread wasn't just started by him to have his ego massaged You see that quite often on forums.

.Some other urchin was on lately who thought he would see Uranus with the naked eye.

Which is possible from a dark sky.