what?

so... blogs, huh? always seemed kinda stupid to me.. but as everyone is doing it, maybe i'll try..

I have a few hobbies, and thought maybe i would find a spot to post my progress on. Astronomy being the main one, and i have recently decided to try my hand at astro-photography. the thing i have learned the most is that i suck at this! over 300 shots, and only a couple reveal any detail at all!

i started with jupiter, and as all i could get was a blurry light, i decided to attack a larger target, and went with the moon... all this has done is reveal that i am completely clueless as to how this is done. so far, all i have attempted is the afocal method, as i don't currently own a camera that has removeable lens so as to mount it directly to a telescope, and the afocal mount was only $35.

however i haven't given up yet! (i'm not sure if this is determination or stupidity, but I really hate to get beat, especially by an inanimate object). Hopefully i will see some progress soon. I am a member of the Las Vegas Astronomical Society, and at the last meeting, I was looking at some work done by our current club president, with a device called a "mallincam". it is a camera you can attach directly to the scope, and he had some awesome pictures! so of curse i went online to research this piece of equipment, and saw that it will set me back around $1200. So that is a purchase i probably won't make any time soon. But i am hopeful that sometime soon I will be able to attend a star party, and someone there will be able to give me some advice as to what i am doing wrong, or what it is i need to do to obtain some decent images.

the one consolation i have is that everyone tells me that the afocal method is the hardest to perfect, and it is quite common to spend a night and come home with only a couple of viable images. with my work schedule, i am almost never able to spend more than a couple of hours after sunset before i need to go to sleep.

Also, i doubt this will be an astronomy only blog. i have many interests and can be quite moody, so I am sure whatever i choose to enter here will reflect my current mood.

anyway... enough of this pointless nonsense,, i have things to accomplish today, as it's my last day off before returning to that obnoxious grind we must all endure to assure our survival.