Star hopping is where you use maps, charts, little patterns and pointers in the sky to hunt down whatever you are looking for. Then you look at it. It takes luck, hard work, patience, and time. And it only works most of the time. Then, after looking for a minute or two at your quarry, you spend another fifteen minutes hunting your next object.
Goto is where you set your telescope up just right, and press a few buttons on the controller, and zip, it goes right to the object. Then you look at it. If you have set everything up right (which can be a challenge), it is simple pie, quick, and effortless. And after looking at the object for a minute or two, you zip off to the next object in a few seconds (or go in and warm up with some coffee or something).
What you are looking at in astronomy is pretty much the same whether your scope got there by star hopping or goto.
I like to star hop when doing visual astronomy, but use goto for astroimaging.
For traveling, I like both star hopping and goto. In travel, star hopping is the way I am doing this trip. Goto is the way I do trips with Judy.
When Judy and I are going someplace, we often book a tour with Tauck or somebody. We know where we are going, where we will be staying, what sights we will see, and all that. Somebody tells us where to be to meet the bus. Our luggage magically appears in the room, just as and when it should. Food, clean and edible American food, shows up when expected at the table. We never (or at least rarely) get lost. Everybody speaks English.
Not so when "star hopping," that is, the way I am traveling now. I have to figure out where things are. I have to get maps. I have to guess what the food will be, even as I am ordering it. And sometimes as I am eating it. I have to carry my own bag (even if the little roller things broke way back in Warsaw). North, east and so forth are often not recognizable, and sometimes the map is in a whole different alphabet, not to mention language.
Everybody else knows where and how to get on the bus, how much and who to pay, and when to get off. But you don't.
When I do "goto" traveling, I know I am sharing the room with Judy. So, I know who is snoring. (Me). When "star hopping" type of travel , that is, living in the hostel, I have no idea who is snoring, who did not wash his feet, why that idiot has to have a conversation in here while I am trying to sleep. . . . You know.
But in astronomy, whether star hopping or goto, you see bthe same object. It looks the same. True, the challenge, experience, and for me the satisfaction, is much greater with star hopping. You just get more out if it. (In my opinion.)
Same is true in travel.
If Tauck or Crystal Cruises had arranged this trip for me, I might have seen the same buildings. But I got to walk around them instead of just driving by. I would have gotten to the Ethnographic Outdoor Museum in an air conditioned bus instead of a sweaty shared taxi. But I would have been able to walk around only an hour before being whisked off to some overgrown souvenirs store that the claimed was an authentic local artisans workshop. (You know, they show you how a carpet is made for ten minutes and then you have an hour to shop the carpet store. )
There is more to say here. But the Kazakhs that want me to help eat the dinner they just made here in the hostel and i am too distracted. So I will just save to the web for now.
Continuing later.
And then the guy from Cuba came in and the Kazakhs wanted a historic picture of Cuba, Kazakhstan, and oooesssahhhh together. And so we took the picture. And now everybody took off or something. So I am sitting here with Russian television. Suddenly alone and quiet.
I was saying something about traveling like I do I have more experiences than u get on organized tours. I guess I made my point. Maybe I'll expand in it later. Maybe not.
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