I shared the preliminary data with Charles on the 10th, emphasising that joining the RASC Toronto Centre was good, for me. It got me observing. A lot. A lot more! OK, here we go...
Here's a snapshot of the complete dashboard. Used Google Docs and Excel 2003 to produce and reduce the data. Google to aggregate; Excel for the PivotTables, graphs, and full-formatting control. Now let's dig deeper...
The graph above shows the number of observing sessions per year. Everything starts arbitrarily at 1990 as that is when I procured my first telescope and serious observing began. If you can call it that. Recorded observing sessions were 7 or less each year. Rather low. Partly because, in general, I would only take the telescope out when camping. Another factor was dew. I had a dew cap in 1997; it wasn't until 2000 that I had heaters and portable power. Then started to waver, wondering if I should stay in the hobby or not.
Mom received her 'scope in 2003 and in 2005 I finally took a lot of interest in it, wanting to sort it out and get it working. Joined some astronomy Yahoo!Groups. And, at last, joined RASC in January 2007. Sessions jumped from around 25 to about 80 to 90 per year. RASC city observing sessions and star parties initially and later going to the Carr Astronomical Observatory.
The next big jump, in 2010, I attribute to a couple of things. Being a CAO supervisor. And photography. It was in August that year I began to very actively use the MallinCam. I learned it thoroughly, found control software for it, acquired accessories, maintained it, improved our documentation, used it for solar and deep sky imaging.
Observing sessions have been holding fairly steady since then, around 146 per year.
The above graph shows the same data but is now broken down by type of astronomy session. I record observing details when viewing the whole sky without optical aid, when I use binoculars, when I use a telescope. I also note when I make sketches and when I've captured images or photographs.
It is intriguing to me that everything increased in 2007. I was doing everything, all types of observing and sketching and imaging, more. And I continued to do a little more each year. Again, in 2010, there was a big jump overall. It is clear now that about half of this increase was due to imaging. But my telescopic observing increased a lot too.
Looks like 2013 telescope time dropped while naked eye increased.
A slightly unsettling trend is seeing the sketching decreasing. It was at its highest in 2007 but has steadily decreased. Photography is stealing away from this, no doubt.
Now we depart from the year-by-year analyses; the graph above shows career (through 2013) observing sessions by month. And this should really not come as any surprise to the Canadian astronomer. November and December data points reveal the least amount of observing while July and August are the best. Winter sucks! Or, perhaps, it is that I don't like winter.
The chart above, again, shows the splits by type of observing. Again, not surprising, to see that telescope time and sketching is higher in July and August, when it is comfortable at the eyepiece (or screen).
The chart above shows aggregated, career observing sessions by type. My logs are mostly from sessions at the telescope ocular.
I am a little surprised by the amount consumed by naked eye observing. More than I expected. But I attribute this simply to looking up. When I step outside, I look up. It's usually the first thing I do.
Again, I'm a little disappointed to see sketching at the low point.
The chart above is showing the affect of the season, the month, once again. Clearly July and August are the big months, November and December the smallest. But then all the other months are roughly the same.
Considering this pie graph and the stacked column by month, it looks like there's a steady climb out of January, probably the result of some cabin fever, but then April showers grind us back down.
§
This was an interesting exercise. And something I feel strongly about, all things considered, is that I want to sketch more... And take great advantage of long winter nights, when possible.
