[hprotagonist]

https://www.cleardarksky.com/others/FAQs/how_to_buy_a_telesc...

> So, I suggest people don't buy a telescope. (How un-commercial of me.) Instead I suggest attending star parties, joining an observing group or club and looking through many scopes before you spend any money.

> .. But before you buy a scope you never looked through, you should probably know the meanings of the words: dobsonian, apochromatic, equatorial, servo drive, periodic error, star test, collimation and shipping damage claim.

[LeifCarrotson]

That was great advice when it was written in 2006. Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a pandemic, so parties with strangers are right out; I'm booking camping sites for the summer and want to bring a scope with me!

[silicon2401]

Are you booking camping sites for the summer now? How do you handle unforeseen changes like inclement weather? I've been trying to get more into camping in recent years, but haven't found a way to balance booking early enough and not having plans fall through

[brudgers]

For me, one of the deep pleasures of camping is the "you'll live" revelations. Or travel in general.

Beautiful places are still beautiful in bad weather. Often less crowded to boot. If things get really bad, the car is dry and has a heater and there are lessons for proper equipment needs for next time.

I mean it's a multi-year project. Statistically, the weather isn't going get much better, nor is six month forecasting tied to a specific weekend.

Camping skill is the only practical area for improvement. The only one in a camper's control...and to be cliche, most of that skill is mindset.

Short of lightning strikes, grizzly bears, and freezing, I'll live through the weather. Good weather is nice, but it's not a need unless I need something to worry and complain about.

There's satisfaction in a tent that keeps the rain out and a bag that keeps the warm in that is harder to find at home with its running water, electric range, and shingled roof. Maybe it's I don't much think "you'll live" there. Because I don't have to pay much attention.

[silicon2401]

That's a fair point. I've been wanting to get into more hardcore camping (compared to the campsite, gravel-lot camping most of the people I know do), and it'll only make things easier from the planning/reservation perspective. I think I'll take your "you'll live" attitude and try to get more serious this year. Thanks for the advice!

[brudgers]

I am not hardcore. I prefer a site with electric in a ground with hot showers...all things reasonably comparable. What I learned is that they are not bright line features.

Same with weather.

Even if it’s not wrong, Yellowstone is still Yellowstone...so to speak.

Anyway if you go to the Hoh Rainforest, you might get rain...I paid the dumb tax on that. I lived.

[danaliv]

I love that about camping. Really pares life down to the essentials, and sometimes you find the essentials aren't what you thought they were.

As for weather, turns out it changes a lot! That's sort of the nature of weather. :) Unless you're mired in a stubborn stationary front, or a deep low that came from the ocean, you'll have different weather on night two.

[LeifCarrotson]

There is a $20 fee to cancel. Campsites are first come, first serve, reserved on a rickety DNR server or over a phone. Predictably, on February 8, when it first opened, said server was hugged to death:

https://www.mlive.com/news/2021/02/cant-reserve-your-favorit...

If you want the good sites, you have to reserve early. The system works great for old rich retired folks who have nothing better to do than call and find open campsites, and for whom the $20 fee for a no-show in their $200,000 RV doesn't matter at all, so I think it's unlikely to change to a lottery system or similarly more fair alternative any time soon.

If you're not willing to deal with the system, more rustic sites are often available. No electric (use solar or a quiet inverter generator), no water (but often close enough to a full-service campground you can fill your fresh tank, drive in, and drive out to empty your grey and black tanks before making the long drive home), but generally less crowded.

[silicon2401]

Well, thanks for the info, it's good to get a realistic description of the situation. In that case I might just start taking a look at good weekends and hope for the best. Also good motivation to get more serious about backcountry camping!

[ska]

Inclement weather is part of the charm!

Seriously though, if you have appropriate gear for the potential range of conditions, you'll likely always be fine. This only gets complicated/expensive/(even risky) at the extremes.

[acomjean]

I would second this. The Harvard Center for astrophyics had a public talk every month[1]. Then after, everyone would go on the roof and the telescope club and some grad students/post docs would stand by a dozen or so telescopes all pointing at items of interest. They're love and knowledge of the universe was infectious.

May this pandemic wind down..

[1]https://www.youtube.com/user/ObsNights