Time Change

Our "fall back" time change is coming - next week. I never really cared for it before, but I'm looking at it in a new way this year. It will give me an additional hour to visit the cosmos in the evenings, and not have to sacrifice so much of my sleep. It won't help my early morning sessions a bit, but I will get more opportunities in the evening after work.

Over the weekend, I had a few more successes with my astrophotography. In addition to getting some good shooting of the Orion Nebula, I found and photographed two more deep space objects: the NGC 891 galaxy, and the Triangulum Galaxy.

(NGC 891, 30 million light years from Earth)

(The Triangulum Galaxy, about 2.8 million light years away)

I many never find a cure for this "disease".

-Dale

Apartment for Peggy Sue

Last winter, we kept our camper (Peggy Sue) in the driveway and covered her with a tarp. This year, we rented some inside storage space to keep her in - for the winter months anyway. (I took her to her new "apartment" yesterday.) Should we decide to go camping, it's easy enough to go snag her and enjoy! No tarp to pull off and fold up, and she's protected from the elements. We kind of miss her sitting there in the driveway, though. *sigh*

 -Dale

Spaced Out

Back in July, I started pursuing a photography tangent that I find interesting and awe-inspiring: astrophotography. I bought a telescope capable of tracking a celestial body (star, planet, galaxy, nebula, etc.) as the world turns. Get zeroed in on it, flip the drive switch, and it stays right there where you put it. When I first got it, it either rained or was just cloudy - for a week or two. Figures. Unbox, assemble, and here come the clouds. As I understand it, it happens to everybody. Good ole Murphy!

Astrophotography is a different kind animal. It requires multiple long exposures of a single target. It requires special adapters to couple a DSLR to the telescope. It requires clear skies - dark skies. The darker, the better. And let's not forget that the object you're wanting to snag on "film" has to be visible. Star charts have to be consulted to find the exact position in the sky - especially those not visible with the naked eye. After the images are collected, the processing begins. There's a lot to astrophotography - more than I realized when I started.

I've been taking advantage of every decent night I can, as long as my desired target(s) is/are available. Sometimes I'll stay up well past midnight, sometimes I'll be up at 4:00 in the morning. I welcome Winter and the longer nights. Getting back to Standard Time will be a blessing, too. I won't lose as much sleep.

Here are some samples of my work.

The Orion Nebula (M42) and smaller Nebula above/left (M43).

The Lagoon Nebula.

The Great Nebula in Andromeda (Andromeda Galaxy) and smaller galaxy below/right - M110.

The Pleiades (Seven Sisters).

The moon is an exception to the above routine. It can be done quite suitably with a single frame.

Very nearly full Moon.

Apennine mountain range and Apollo 15 Landing site.

I didn't know the Apollo 15 landing site was in this image until later. Pretty cool!

I will post more about my spacey adventures as I have something to post. Winter will afford me more opportunities with the colder, drier air and longer nights - if the clouds cooperate.

  -Dale

Peggy Sue

I can't believe it's been over a year since my last post here. What a slacker I am! A lot has happened since. Probably the biggest thing has been Peggy Sue.

Peggy Sue is a small travel trailer we bought on Craigslist back in August of last year. She's a 1988 Sunline T-1350 - native to Pennsylvania. They are pretty rare West of the Mississippi. You just don't see them much over here.

When we first got her, she was a bit worn and needed some sprucing up. A couple of guys (dad/son) used her like guys would - not too concerned with decor. Oxidation was trying to take over her paint job. The good thing is that she was road ready, complete with a new axle that was put on the year before.

We had no trouble making use of her while giving her a bit of a makeover. We must have been on a dozen or so camping trips to date, enjoying every minute of it. We gave her a new inside paint job, new curtains, reupholstered the cushions, gave her new stripes on the outside, and a general clean-up. Here are the results:

Last year, we even spent Thanksgiving in Palo Duro Canyon with her - complete with the whole Thanksgiving Dinner, fixins and all. We're looking forward to many years of enjoyment with her.

-Dale