Someone drew an analogy between the star-hopping/GOTO debate and fishing. He wrote, "Asking an old star-hopper why he doesn't use GOTO would be like asking a fly fisherman why he doesn't just use dynamite."
Err, I don't quite agree. After all, GOTO doesn't render the observing target unsuitable for observing, whereas with dynamite you run the risk of completely obliterating the fish. It might be more like asking him why he doesn't just go buy the darn fish at the seafood market.
Starhopper: Casts line for fish.
GOTO User: Buys fish at seafood market.
DSC User: Uses sonar to find fish, then catches it.
Binocular Observer: Buys fish at aquarium store.
Astroscan User: Drops bowling ball on fish, then picks it up.
Big Dob User: Shoots bowling ball out of cannon toward fish at 50 miles, then picks it up.
APO User: Admires bowling ball. (Just kidding! Don't shoot!)
Astrophotographer: Admires wall-sized fish he caught and stuffed.
CCD Imager: Admires 16 wall-sized fish he caught, stacked, unsharp-masked, and stuffed.
Coffeetable Bookreader: Admires wall-sized fish someone else caught.
Average Discovery Channel Space Program Viewer: Eats at Long John Silver.
Armchair astronomer: Reads about the Big Fish; how you can't always tell whether the fish is little and close up, or big and far away; why you should stop polluting the water; and so forth.
Carl Sagan: Tommy Sanders.
Sky and Telescope: Field and Stream.
Astronomy: Fish.com. (Log in now!)
Astronomy Now: Fish.co.uk.
Occultists, astrologers, kooky theorists, et al: Bait.
Copyright (c) 2000 Brian Tung