Scattered Thoughts . . .

Introduction T his blog entry is a little different than my usual entries.  Then again, my thoughts are often a bit scattered so there isn't really a consistent theme to this blog.  I do sometimes write about my hobbies including astronomy but this blog entry is not one of my typical short blog entries about viewing this or that or about some small astronomy project.  This is more along the lines of a casual review of my thoughts about a telescope.  If you are more interested in some astrophotography images rather than read about a boring telescope evaluation, then just scroll down to the closing of this blog entry (about halfway down this page). Quite often, people who are wanting to get involved in backyard astronomy for the first time ask other astronomers which telescope would be best to purchase as their first telescope.  This is a very common question that is asked at least once a day.  As a result, I find myself trying to provide advice to astronomy beginners a few times eac

My health is still recovering from the problems I had Saturday but I felt like dragging a telescope out to the front deck to observe the sun this morning. It doesn't require a whole lot of energy to peer through a telescope but I do need to be careful out in the sun or I'll end up with failing health again. I definitely don't have the energy nor is my head clear enough to attempt any home improvement/repair projects so I will probably bounce between the piano and the telescope all morning. It is a bit hazy again today so the viewing isn't great but it is better than the clouds and rain we've had for the past week or longer. At least the sun is shining! Up until today, all my astrophotography has been done using my Sony a6000 with its 1.5x crop sensor. This morning, however, I decided to give my full frame Sony a7 a shot... My Sony a7 worked just fine. This camera will give me a slightly wider view but also should provide smoother gradients and simply bette