Scattered Thoughts . . .

I finished my homemade telescope pier extension project today and it seems to be working as planned. There isn't a whole lot in life that is more satisfying than designing something in sketches in a notebook, then building each individual part yourself, then assembling all the parts and finding that everything works just as designed and planned! My primary problem that prompted this project was that my longer telescopes would hit the tripod legs when viewing almost straight upward.  Also a factor in my decision is that my astronomy tripod isn't tall enough for my longer refractor telescopes which meant I would need to sit down very low on the ground to see into the eyepiece.  I needed a pier extension to raise the mount and telescope higher.   Some may ask why I don't just extend the legs fully to gain some overall height but this is a bad idea for two reasons.  First, it will do nothing for me to resolve the telescope colliding with the tripod legs.  And next, the more yo

O ther than preparing dinner like I usually do, I accomplished one small task this evening.  As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I designed a telescope mount pier extension and I am in the process of building it.   When I wrote that blog entry, I had just spray painted the parts and was waiting on them to cure.  I waited about 48 hours and then started on the next step. I have six 1/4-20 threaded inserts that need to be inserted into six holes.  I had pre-drilled these holes before painting but I hadn't double checked the depth of the holes...  I simply eye-balled it.  Well...  as luck would have it...  these holes were not deep enough so it was back to the drill press. This evening, I drilled those six holes about a 1/4" deeper.  These inserts fit perfectly now.   The next step will be to drill holes in the 4-1/2" x 12" pipe that is the actual extension.  I have six corresponding holes to drill in that pipe.  I marked those holes this morning so the pipe is now

A s usual, whenever my health allows, I tend to be working on a few projects at the same time.  At the moment, I'm working on making a couple of aperture masks for one of my telescopes, I'm doing some landscaping around the house, I'm making some small springtime repairs around the house as I come across them, I'm repairing the grill in our outdoor kitchen, and I'm designing and making a telescope mount pier extension.  This particular blog entry is about the pier extension project thus far.   Quite often, especially if I use one of my longer refractor telescopes but it is not limited to this one telescope, I find myself wishing I had a taller tripod for my telescope mount.  Sometimes, even when sitting on a very low stool, I need to get my butt off the stool and sit on the ground because the eyepiece is closer to the ground than my eye in a sitting position.  If I use my longest refractor telescope, the telescope will even hit the tripod legs when pointing at or ne

In addition to using a tripod for these shots, I also used a small flash which can be seen reflecting in the eyes of this tiny birds. I've been wanting to try using a tripod when shooting birds over the past couple of days but the birds around the house disappeared for a few days while we had a hawk in the area. My tripod and camera sat in front of the kitchen window waiting for some birds to return so I could attempt to shoot while using a tripod. This afternoon we had a few very skittish birds out there so today was my first chance at giving this a quick whirl. I only spent about ten minutes testing what it is like to shoot with a tripod but I came away from this short practice session feeling that using a tripod for bird photography is the way to go! The tripod allowed me to shed the weight of the camera which is a tremendous help for my spinal injuries. The tripod also kept the camera rock steady. I should also point out that my spinal injuries are so severe that hand

The kitchen window where I shoot bird photography practice sessions seen in this blog. You can see the tree where these birds are normally perched in the background. As I wrote in a previous blog entry, my next step in bird photography practice is to figure out the most effective way to shoot while using a tripod or monopod. Today, I'm all set up for my next photography practice session... camera is mounted on my tripod using my Gimbal head... and tripod is setup in the kitchen in front of the window... the sun is shining... it is above freezing out there...  I'm all set... there are no birds out there though... it is silent out there... I waited for a half hour and then started looking around outside for a reason for there being no birds around.  At first, I was wondering if there were some cats out there. I moved from the kitchen to the living room to check one of the windows there. As I was peering out our living room window, I noticed some movement in a big tree