Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of changing jobs, and will probably be working night shift in my new position. I don't want to shift my sleep schedule around every time I have a day off, so I need something to do after sundown!

Do any of you have any night time outdoor hobbies? What additional precautions do you take to account for the night (beyond carrying extra flashlights and batteries)?

Catfishing!

A lawn chair, an ancient Coleman gas lantern, flashlight, munchies, fishing gear, and a cooler. In remote areas, I bring my camp gun.

I'm amateur astronomer.

A lawn chair, a pair of decent binoculars, red light, some books or prints from online charts, perhaps a lightweight tripod if your binocular is heavy and your night will fly away in no time. Weather and city lights are the only problems.

Night fishing, cuddling, decimating the rat population down at the dump with a high powered pellet gun, catching up on the many movies I've missed, stargazing, some of those are easier or more entertaining if you have some night vision equipment.

Sitting around campfires.

Get yourself a really good headlamp and rechargeable batteries. You won't regret it. You can do just about any daytime activity at night (hiking, chopping wood & woodcraft, gardening, repairs/construction/electrical, auto work) with the light of a really good headlamp. I'm loving my big PrincetonTec AA units for this.

Snipe hunting.

Will never forget my Mom out on the lawn with a flashlight and a gunny sack, calling for the snipes.

Snipe hunting? What's that?

I may need to pick up a headlamp and start night hiking. Unfortunately, my main recreation of whitewater kayaking isn't really viable at night even with a headlamp!

I'm not sure how many catfish are in the area (southern Idaho), but I'm definitely going to give night fishing a try. How active are trout at night? I haven't done much fishing in general, but live about 5 minutes from the Boise river and have a stocked lake right next to our apartment. I need to start taking advantage of both of them.

I'd love to give astronomy a try - how much should I expect to pay for entry-level binoculars? I'm a broke college student, so cheap but functional is the goal.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

Take a look at these ones Celestron SkyMaster Giant 15x70 Binoculars with Tripod Adapter - the best price/quality ratio for an entry-level - you wouldn't be disappointed. Also they have a very good performance for low light terrestrial applications.

It would be a good idea to go visit the police and get acquainted. The only nighttime outdoor hobbies they are familiar with are burglary, vandalism and so forth.

You want to be sure your hobby isn't mistaken for those others.

A friend of mine had a big spotlight he could power from his truck's cigarette lighter. He would go drive slowly somewhere in the forest "looking for eyes." I don't know that he found trouble that way and it sounds kind of like fun but just think of it from everyone else's point of view- someone calling the cops on him would be the least dangerous thing that might happen. I lost touch with him so don't know if he ever had trouble from it.

Most folks think of nighttime for indoor stuff. Like Rock Music! Or ham radio. Or surfing the internet.

Do let us know what you eventually do. I find the question interesting.

If you are just starting I would suggest a decent pair of binoculars in the 7x50 range. The lenses are large enough to gather light well and the power is low enough that you can use them without a tripod. 7x35 and 10x50 work OK o but are not as bright so dimmer stars are not as likely to show up.
Higher powers dance around to much when used freehand.
The other point is that they are still useful for other things like boating, sports, bird watching and hunting.

I had a friend who got into night time photography.

Another hobby you might like if you can find the equipment cheaply is shortwave.
DXing (trying to see how distant of a contact you can make) is usually best at night. Even if you are just listening it is a fair start because you learn some of the basics about shortwave radio.
Next up is getting your ham license, which has become relatively easy.
If you shop around and keep an eye out good used radios can be found fairly cheaply.

Start an interesting and entertaining blog about one of your hobbies?
-Blast

+10 on this. Back in the late 80's I worked nights stocking shelves at a grocery store. We didn't have cable or anything like that, and the TV and radio stations we did have went off the air at midnight. I used to spend my nights off just walking around town and got stopped by cops a bunch of times even after they knew me...or maybe because they knew me.

-Blast

Sorry - nonsense.

A good pair of binoculars helps a lot if they are optimized for low-light use. There will always be a role for good binoculars because of their versatility and because they use no power.

But the ever lower prices of good Gen-I night vision scopes has tipped the balance. Used to be Gen-I night vision came in two flavors: expensive or useless. Sometimes expensive and useless. But the average quality has improved and you get more for your money. All but the very cheapest are functional and reliable. They are also far lighter, more compact, and are easier on batteries.

I advise anyone unfamiliar with them, or if you haven't given them a chance in the last five years or so, to find a shop that will let you try out display models so you get some idea of what you're getting.

Good, functional, if not great, monoculars are available for considerably less than $200 and sights are under $400. Catch them on sale or wait for display models to go on sale when they switch models and you can cut the price even more.

I agree with chickenlittle...Coupled with a lightweight chaise lounge chair, the 7x50 is the nearly perfect device to view the night sky without a tripod and on a budget. This power binocuar is also multi-use, being the preferred power for marine use. Not that all 7x50's are cheap, but there are bargains to be found.

Here's a link for more information on use for astronomy.

http://www.observers.org/beginner/j.r.f.binocular.html

I bought a pair of Celestron SkyMaster Giant 15x70 Binoculars for my father's birthday present. They are very impressive for the price (about $90 on sale). Crisp and bright image. I didn't have trouble holding a stable land image, which is surprising for a 15 power. The only caveat is that for land use, their minimum focus distance is farther than other binocs. I want a pair - the moons of Jupiter are calling.

Hey! That was my idea (a lounge chair and binoculars).

Seriously, my point was that 7x50 in anything under $100 (and often even under $200) is usually a so-so performer for astronomy (inadequately narrow FOV, frustrating AFOV, too long eye relief, day time sized exit pupil, roof prisms instead of porro prisms, weak strain light prevention design, insufficient dew shielding for night viewing, and so on, and so on). Again if you're into astronomy - get the above mentioned Sky Master. It's way under $100 and in fact was made by astronomers and for astronomers. The star views with it are really breathtaking. Also it weights just 1.5 pounds.

I second that. Depending on the potential size of the species a pair of gloves may be useful for hand landing. Think about how to land the fish while there still is time. I once had to struggle to get a 5', 45 lbs wels catfish from standing in 2 1/2' of water up a 3' vertical bank. That wasn't real fun.

Another hobby suitable for night time would be HAM radio.

I'm dieing to know - What is your camp gun? :P

With your schedule,"night hiking" could easily be put to use by participating in your local mountain SAR outfit. In my experience most operations occurred at least partially at night. It seemed we were always starting out as the sun sank into the Golden West....

"Snipe hunting? What's that?"

It's a practical joke, setting someone up for a wild goose chase.

Sue

I just wanted to see what explanation for snipe hunting JBMat would come up with! :P

Just a small single shot 12 ga. Theres wolf where I catfish at night, and there are no houses, paved roads or people for many miles.