I can understand your not wanting to do drawing as a job, I really like taking photos but I'm sure that if it became my job I'd come to dislike it. Turning your hobby into your job works for some people, but not for everyone.

Astronomy is an interesting subject. I was really into it when I was younger, but I live in a very built up area and so there's a lot of light pollution, also with all the houses around me my local horizon is rather high. There is a local park nearby, which is really dark, but I'm not sure if it's open at night and anyway it's not a good or safe place to be at night. So I slowly lost my enthusiasm for astronomy, but I still watch astronomy programmes on TV, have all my books and still like looking up at the stars on clear nights when I 'm on holiday.

I wish you well in your new direction in life and I'm sure you'll do well because I know you have a lot of determination.  

9 hours ago, Animedragon said:

I can understand your not wanting to do drawing as a job, I really like taking photos but I'm sure that if it became my job I'd come to dislike it. Turning your hobby into your job works for some people, but not for everyone.

Astronomy is an interesting subject. I was really into it when I was younger, but I live in a very built up area and so there's a lot of light pollution, also with all the houses around me my local horizon is rather high. There is a local park nearby, which is really dark, but I'm not sure if it's open at night and anyway it's not a good or safe place to be at night. So I slowly lost my enthusiasm for astronomy, but I still watch astronomy programmes on TV, have all my books and still like looking up at the stars on clear nights when I 'm on holiday.

I wish you well in your new direction in life and I'm sure you'll do well because I know you have a lot of determination.  

thanks so much! i'm excited to try and learn. Astronomy is something really profound and I want to explore the science. Like how we're all connected under the same night sky, its so beautiful. My dad pushes me to do something involved with people since I'm good at socializing, but I think science can be very collaborative. I also agree that working ur hobby works for some and others not, for me, i've learned my art is something I want to pursue on my own yknow. 

On 11/22/2025 at 1:16 PM, Animedragon said:

Astronomy is an interesting subject. I was really into it when I was younger, but I live in a very built up area and so there's a lot of light pollution, also with all the houses around me my local horizon is rather high. There is a local park nearby, which is really dark, but I'm not sure if it's open at night and anyway it's not a good or safe place to be at night. So I slowly lost my enthusiasm for astronomy, but I still watch astronomy programmes on TV, have all my books and still like looking up at the stars on clear nights when I 'm on holiday.

I've been into astronomy for a long time as well.  I have a nice 10" CAT but I too live in a light-polluted urban area and don't use it much anymore.  In theory I could jump to the other side of the mountains where there's mostly uninhabited desert to get away from it, but the 'scope weighs a ton and I'm not getting any younger!      (I'm also a bit nervous about actually using it or transporting it anywhere.  Now that Orion and Meade have gone out of business if something breaks I don't know how I would get it fixed.)

I've made myself a career doing space however, and I'm still really interested in anything and everything to do with the topic(s).  Some of that stuff coming from James Webb for instance is quite amazing and intriguing.  I've sat through hours of HD video from LRO in low orbit around the moon.  Then there's Juno and all those pics of Jupiter, Europa Clipper to look forward to, the 2 Mars rovers that are still functioning, etc.  People are still studying all the data that came back from Cassini before that mission ended.  At work we're doing testing for Artemis II and Blue Origin's "Mark 1" lunar lander going up in a couple months.