Having lived much of my life in Nebraska (yes, a liberal living among the conservative corn-heads) I have to say that I do miss some of its natural wonders -dark skies at night, for one.
When I first moved to Chicago last fall, I decided to step outside to say hello to all my old friends, many of them 4th, 5th and even 6th magnitude stars and then use them to navigate to my favorite binocular Messier objects.
One look at the light-polluted sky above and I cried (really). Many of my favorite star friends were gone and without them, star hopping to many objects was out of the question. I felt robbed and cheated. I knew it would be bad, but not that bad.
For the first time in my life, I could actually see why a computerized scope could be an asset. No, don't get name wrong, I will never give in to computerization, but now I had to admit that computerization had its place.
Even an old dog like me could learn something, now and then.
If anyone sees my star friends, tell them Joanie misses them.
