Scattered Thoughts . . .

Last night, we were invited to Lukey and Kenzie's Spring Concert. It was a short but sweet program in the always-too-hot and always-too-dark gym. It's obvious from the photos that the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves and I have to say that they put on a great show! This is always a very dark gym so I've always encountered some minor difficulties with shooting photos and last night was no exception. Last night I was encountering intermittent autofocus problems in the terrible low light so I had to resort to my skills at manual focusing. Fortunately, when I first started in photography, manual focus was the only way to focus so I do have experience with this. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled by years of autofocus so I'm a bit out of practice. Still, I managed to get some nice crisp photos.  The other difficulty I had in shooting photos last night is that Miss Mackenzie has recently been moving into a phase of shying away from Papa's camera. Even last nig

I have a library of notebooks scattered throughout the house but, mostly, on a bookshelf in our bedroom. I'm always carrying one of these notebooks so I can jot down ideas and to sketch these ideas. These notebooks are filled with sketches, lists and sometimes inane musings. Since my illness developed about 18 years ago, my mind can be a bit scattered so I found that a notebook was my friend when it comes to organizing my thoughts and remembering these thoughts. I started having difficulty remembering things and, cognitively, I was struggling with a lot of small projects. My notebooks were and have been a powerful tool in helping me accomplish a lot of projects in recent years. Truth be told, I've always kept notebooks filled with my sketches and ideas. I have notebooks from decades ago filled with sketches and notes of home improvement projects and jobs, boats, airplanes, aerospace concepts, and homes I've designed and built. Back then, these notebooks were just a p

I really enjoy astronomy and viewing the night sky but, damn, I live in Waterbury.  Most of the state could be clear and sunny but if you drive down in between Stowe, Sugarbush and Bolton Resorts... down into Waterbury... we are almost always covered in clouds and, usually, there is some sort of precipitation falling from those clouds. This description of Waterbury reminds me of Harry Connick Jr's "Bluesville" in The Happy Elf.  The clear skies are rather brief. I honestly don't think that Seattle has anything on Waterbury as far as overcast and wet days go.  I've lived here for about 23 years now and my first few years made it obvious that Waterbury was aptly named 'Water'bury for a reason. I keep saying that I'm going to track and record climate conditions daily in Waterbury for a solid year just to see how it differs from the rest of Vermont and, especially, how it compares to Seattle. Naturally, I haven't done it yet. Perhaps I've been

The little bit I was awake today, I spent in Simulation Sessions learning how to use my telescope autoguider. Both Sheila and I have been exhausted for months so most of our free time seems to be spent sleeping but I managed to spend some time doing some simulations within the software for this telescope autoguider.  I'm making some headway with the software package... PHD2... which, apparently, stands for 'Push Here Dummy'. Today I managed to get through about a dozen simulations... most were effective simulations, some simulations were not so effective. Tomorrow, I hope to get through a few tutorials as well as more simulations.  Although I was in simulations today, I did assemble everything in the living room... cables running from cameras to computer and to the telescope mount. Things are becoming clearer and clearer in my mind but I will admit that I don't fully understand every aspect of this software package just yet so, when I do run into problems, I find my

Although I do have an extensive background in aerospace, aviation, astronomy, mathematics and physics, at this point in my life I need to dig into the recesses of my memory to remember what I once knew quite well. Additionally, there is a tremendous amount that is quite new in the fields of aerospace, aviation and astronomy so I've been trying to wrap my brain around all of this too. Right now, I'm feeling like an old dog trying to learn new tricks.  As if I don't have enough hobbies... or enough things to get accomplished around the house... or enough medical appointments... or enough 'down days' due to poor health and being sick as a dog... I've stepped back into the fields of astronomy and aerospace. To be more specific, I am hoping to combine two of my interests... photography and astronomy... to capture beautiful photos of celestial objects that can't be seen with the naked eye.   A lot has happened in the field of astrophotography in the past ten