Deep Sky Person

You know you're a Deep Sky person when...

1. ... you consider the moon a major annoyance.

2. ... you consider Jupiter 'light pollution'.

3. ... you spend most of your time looking at or for objects you can
barely see.

4. ... your favorite objects are objects you can barely see.

5. ... you enjoy looking at faint fuzzies with the smallest possible
aperture.

6. ... you enjoy looking at faint fuzzies with the largest possible
aperture.

7. ... you like to choose objects that are easier to imagine than to
see.

8. ... your observing schedule demands that you search for objects in
twighlight.

From:Jay Reynolds Freeman (freeman-despamifier#NoSpam.netcom.com)

9. ...you keep thinking that if only the stars would go away, it
might really get dark.

10. ...you wonder how your favorite objects missed getting included
in the New General Catalog or the Index Catalog.

11. ...you're not sure that anything in this solar system counts as
astronomy any more.

12. ...you're amazed that anyone needs artificial light to read charts.

13. ...you could do a Messier Marathon from memory, if you still bothered
with Messier objects.

14. ...you can read all the NGC abbreviated visual descriptions without
using the key, but you have to be careful not to cheat by just
remembering what things look like.

15. ...you view a major earthquake as an opportunity for a close-in
dark-sky star party.

16. ... you are attending a major star party (guess which one), and you
ask the organizers to turn down the Milky Way.

17. ...You believe M13 ruined your dark adaptation

18. ... You observe M42 at the _end_ of the sessions because it DOES ruin
dark adaptation!

19. ...Your choice of a new vehicle is determined by the size of your
scope.

20. ...Vacation time is planned around the Winter and Texas (or other)
Star parties.

21. ...Arp is not a funny sound, but the name of one of your favorite
galaxy catalogues.

22. ...You challenge friends by saying .."Lets do something stupid" ..as
you hunt for deep sky objects on a hazy, full-moon nite because you are
faint-photon starved.

23. ...You find auroras a complete anoyance because they ruin sky contrast
and dark adaptation.

24. ...you memorize the NGC, PGC, UGC, MCG, & ESO catalogs and can recite
type and magnitude off the top of your head when asked "What is NGC
3748?"

25. ...Your ideal site would require oxygen.

26. ...Your ideal vacation would be in Namibia, but...

27. ...Your ideal telescope would be immovable.

28. ...You take deep-sky pictures during a total eclipse of the moon.

29. ...You bitch about severe light pollution when the limiting magnitude
is "only" 6.5.

30. ...you prep your eyes by applying pupil dilating drops until they open
to 10mm...

31. ...when you have elective surgery to replace your eye's natural lenses
with f/0.8, oil-spaced, apochromatic triplet objectives designed by Roland
Christen...

32. ...You wear red sunglasses all day in preparation for viewing that
night.

33. ...You wear an eyepatch during the viewing session.

34. ...You paint the LED's on your equipment with red fingernail polish so
that they are dimmer.

35. ...You always set your scope up so that you can't move your car until
daylight.

36. ...You bring a gallon of coffee (or 12 pack of Diet Coke) to the
viewing session. If the caffeine doesn't keep you awake the urge to "go"
does.

37. ...Night lights are a nuisance in your house.

38. ... You talk out loud to yourself all night long to hoping to keep the
skunks away.

40. ... You welcome (and have even considered instigating) power cuts, but
only if they occur on clear moonless nights.

41. ...You pay $3500 for a pupil enlargement operation even though you own
1 1 m light bucket.

42. ... you remove the LED on your drive control panel, because THAT ruins
your dark adaptation!

43. ...in preparation for another DSO bout, you carefully massage your eyes
to make sure all your rods are discharged.

44. ...you actually know how to USE setting circles

45. ...you consider the milky way 'light pollution'

46. ...you actually USE 'uranometria', and can quote page numbers

46 1/2. you frequently disagree with Burnhams, and have seriously
considered publishing your OWN "observer's guide"

47. ...you see absolutely no value in using a Telrad

48. ...your principal finder scope is larger than 80mm

49. ...you consider 15 minutes to be a 'quick' exposure

50. ...you see more DSOs on your laptop screen during an evenings'
observing session than you do through the eyepiece

51. ...you have seriously considered starting up your own anti-sattelite
lobby

52. ...'What meteor? Was it THAT good? Shucks, I missed it again'

53. ...you consider meteors 'light pollution'

54. ...you actually know where to get billberry jam, and make a point of
consuming some prior to observing sessions.

55. ...you've been thinking that a 14th century black monk's hood is a
pretty cool idea

56. ...you have blackened the edges of your eyeglasses

57. ...the domelight of your car is painted red

58. ...You are briefly taken aback by the brightness of a normal flashlight
under "normal flashlight" circumstances (power outages, e.g.)

59. ...You think GM's Daytime Running Lights are some kind of evil alien
scheme.

60. ...You can make ten trips lugging equipment back and forth across a cow
pasture without stepping on a single cow pie (using only the illumination
of that garishly bright Milky Way to guide you.)

61. ...You consider the HII regions of distant galaxies as individual
observing targets.

62. ...You wear sun screen during full moon periods

63. ...You wear sun glasses during full moon periods

64. ...You're caught by the police climbing light poles at night trying to
"unscrew" the bulbs.

65. ...You complain you can't really see the faint stuff because the
Gegenschein is too bright.

66. ...You consider how to blow-up the SUN in order to reduce light
pollution...

67. ...hire a crop duster to spray the surrounding area because
last night the fire flies kept ruining your dark adaptation.

68. ...you keep a cross-index of stuff that you have looked at on 3x5 file
cards organized by object catalog number, so you can easily find your
logged observations of any specific object.

69. ...most of your friends think that is a bit much.
(with apologies to Jay!)

70. ...you have logged M51 and M57 and it isn't even really dark yet.

71. ...you think about how to smash the nearby streetlight without getting
caught.......or you think about how much the penalty would be for smashing
the nearby street lamp.

72. ...you begin to realize that even the deepest red flash light is
affecting your vision.

73. ...if you are a permanent eye glass wearer) you plan to get your
glasses fully multi-coated or get new ones made of ED glass.

74. ...you ask your eye doctor if it is possible to get the lenses in you
eyes fully multi-coated.

75. ... you ask you eye doctor if it is possible to get the lens in your
eyes enlarged.

76. ...You use an infrared flashlight.

77. ...You ask your neighbors over to star gaze, so they will know to turn
out their porch lights.

78. ...while spot checking the collimation of your dob, you note that with
concentration you can just begin to detect spiral structure in the dust
coating your primary.

79: ...You drive a thousand miles with no sleep, to sit in the darkest area
you can find, with no sleep, with a bunch of people who haven't slept for
days either, just to look for the faintest of all fuzzies! ;-)

81. ...You can understand what someone talking with a flashlight in their
mouth is saying!

82. ...You park your car in the driveway because the garage isn't big
enough to store both the car an your telescope.

83. ...You think the best reason to stop smoking is that the glow of the
cigarette hurts your dark adaptation*.

84. ...you look upon a total solar eclipse as an opportunity to break the
current record for the most DSOs observed visually by a ground based
amateur in the daytime.

85. ...Lying on the living room floor you try to pick out detail in the
dust bunnies under the sofa.

86. ...when at new moon all your duties are neglected.

87. ...When you have two Collins I3 Pieces for your binoviewer.

88. When your main criterion for retirement is a dark sky home.

89. ...you print out and keep all the "You know you're a Deep Sky person"
posts for reference!