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

L iza had an appointment yesterday so she stopped by our house before the appointment to drop Ace off here so he could spend some time with Gee and Papa.  Gee took a few hours off from work and emerged from her home office so she could take full advantage of this opportunity.   As with just about all babies, Ace immediately took notice of the camera clicking away a few feet from his face.  This is actually a good thing because it makes it very easy to keep their attention for a short while.  Since the camera has their attention, they also will naturally look directly at the camera as the shutter is clicking away.  The other great thing about photographing newborns is that they don't dart around and scurry about in fast unpredictable directions like a toddler does.   Although these photo sessions with newborns can be pretty easy to accomplish, time is extremely limited so you need to have a plan and move quickly.  Within minutes, hunger, pooping and naptime happens and then everythi

We've been without the use of a dryer for about three weeks now.  It wasn't the end of the world though.  I set up a couple of clotheslines behind the house so we could continue to do laundry when it wasn't raining but I like absolutely nothing related to hanging clothes outside on a line so it has been a long, frustrating three weeks. First, I really hate seeing clothes hanging in someone's yard or over a railing.  That is not the place for clothes.  Next, drying clothes is then dependent upon the weather and we get a lot of rain-days here in Waterbury.  Worse yet, all the clothes turn out flat, stiff, rough and I think some of them have gotten moldy due to the lack of high heat that a good dryer would apply to each load.  When we would bring clothes into the house to be folded, we could just stand them up in a corner because they were stiff as a board.  If they had that freshly pressed look, that would be great but they looked like they spent the afternoon drying in