Scattered Thoughts . . .

A s I mentioned in a previous blog entry, last Saturday was my last day of imaging with what was, at the time, my best telescope mount (see photo, at right).  At the time, it seemed like the electronics were toast so that put an end to this last imaging session within a short few minutes.  Then I spent the next few hours trying to figure out exactly what was wrong with this mount. Even after a few days, I still had not fixed the mount because I still had no idea what could be wrong other than perhaps a piece of obsolete and no-longer-available electronics failed so I ordered a new mount.  The mount I ordered was the newer and significantly improved version of this older mount.  The advantage of purchasing the same (but improved) mount is that I wouldn't need to purchase any other associated accessories because this new mount would fit everything I already own.  It would fit every tripod, it would fit my telescope pier with no adapting necessary, and all my associated accessories wo

One evening, while Gee went to pick up Lukey and Kenzie earlier in the week, I wandered around our yard with one of my cameras in hand.  Most of our flowers are now in bloom so it was time to try to capture some nice images of the landscaping around our house.   We get a lot of compliments about our home as people walk by our house.  Actually, almost everyday we get at least one compliment.  Even while I was shooting photos on this particular evening, a neighbor walked by and told me she loved the house and that "it looks like a little paradise".  I must be doing something right with our landscaping and the exterior of the house. Here are a few photos. First, here is a photo looking toward the road... Here is our covered outdoor kitchen...  one of the most useful and nicest additions to our home... We used to cover this tree in Christmas lights every year until it grew to about 30 feet tall.  Now it is probably more than 50 feet tall... Another evening of S'mores... Two o

I had previously written about a morning of solar observing .  This time, I am going to write about a morning of solar imaging . I was excited to do some imaging because my previous morning of observing-only was exceptional.  The atmospheric conditions (astronomical "seeing" as it is rather unscientifically and rather ridiculously called by the astronomy community) were well above average when I was observing the previous day.  Those kinds of seeing conditions are rare so I was hoping that this morning of imaging would have skies that were just as good.  Sometimes good seeing lasts only an hour, other times it will last for a couple of days.  It was clear on this morning, there was a deep blue sky, and the weather was beautiful.  Above average seeing conditions would be awesome for imaging.   After about a half hour of setup time, running in and out of the house collecting the necessary gear and assembling it all, I was ready to fire up the computer and point the telescope to