Scattered Thoughts . . .

As most everyone who follows this blog knows, we recently traveled across the country by rail.  While we were in San Francisco, we stayed on an old Army post named The Presidio where I felt more at home than I have since retiring (more on that later in another blog entry) .  There were many interesting sites to see on this old post including many spectacular and scenic views.  On our last day residing on this beautiful, scenic, historic and memorable property, we spent a good portion of the day visiting the National Cemetery which is located within The Presidio grounds.  As anyone would imagine, anytime we visit a veteran's cemetery or National Cemetery, I'm vividly reminded of my Air Force Honor Guard days.  As a team chief, I managed and conducted more than 300 funerals during my three year tour.  I could write a book solely on my experiences with this outstanding team of men and women and many of these colorful yet somber memories flashed through my mind while strolling th

I'm in the process of building a few little (relatively little) things outdoors as the weather and my health allows...  which means, over the course of only a few hours a week...  but at least things are progressing.  I am making some headway so that is good.  One of the things I'm building is a small fenced area in our yard where I can do some astronomy.  Last summer we had too many bears freely roaming around our neighborhood for me to feel safe out there alone in the pitch darkness.  This year, I'm enclosing myself inside a small fenced area that includes a shed.   Rather than constantly lugging a tripod from indoors to the outdoors and then lugging it back indoors again, I decided to build a pier within this fenced area.  I will be able to mount any of my telescope mounts on this pier, electronic or manual, without the use of a heavy-duty tripod.  Having a permanent pier outdoors will give my spinal injuries a little bit of a break.   The pier, itself, is q

I recently picked up a relatively inexpensive larger telescope to help improve my views of the sun.  I say "relatively inexpensive" because a little, cheap camera lens would cost more than this telescope cost.  This new telescope is significantly larger than my previous "large" telescope which should help to see more detail on the surface of the sun...  when and if the skies here ever allow for crisper viewing! Although this telescope is larger, the optical glass in the telescope is not nearly as good as the glass in my other telescopes.  For relatively narrowband viewing of the sun, however, this should not matter.  Since the glass in this telescope isn't "perfect" (to simplify things), it is considered more of a low-end telescope.   When this telescope arrived, I needed to replace the stock focuser.  Most low-end telescopes only come with a single speed focuser, however, it is far easier to focus fine detail when you have a dual speed focuser.