Scattered Thoughts . . .

Over the snowy Mother's Day weekend, I spent a little bit of time sorting out and organizing some of my astronomy gear indoors in this warmth.  The priority was to find a way to organize a bunch of eyepieces.   Fortunately, I have been sticking to putting together specific mini sets so it is not like I have a scattered selection of mismatched eyepieces.  I've been purposely purchasing eyepieces that will fit my specific needs...  including staying within financial limits.   I have stuck with a plan of putting together small cases for grab-and-go use.  It will be easy to grab one of these cases and a small telescope if I'm in a hurry to see something.  Each zippered case is approximately 6"x9" and 2" deep.   I put together a small set of GSO Plossls.  These are quite inexpensive but are pretty good eyepieces.  With each set, I included a 2.5x Barlow lens so I only included long, wide view eyepieces with long eye relief.  I wear eyeglasses so my prima

The guide scope and guide camera that I use with my astronomy gear is old.  Actually, by digital standards, the guide camera is considered ancient!  I've wanted to test this guide scope/camera combo again at night so I can determine if upgrading would be worth it.  I haven't been all that happy with the imaging I am getting with that camera.  Last night, we had completely overcast skies so there were absolutely no stars visible but the moon was faintly glowing through the clouds. I quickly mounted my guide scope on my tripod.  Then I attached my guide camera to the little guide scope.  Then I grabbed my Windows tablet and headed outside to the deck with everything in tow.  I pointed the guide scope at the moon and then adjusted the settings of the camera using my tablet...  and here is the resulting image... There are a few things worth noting here.   First, considering how overcast the skies were last night and how the moon was mostly obscured by those clouds, it i