Exploring my childhood interests..

When I was a kid, I loved space. I loved space shuttles - in fact I could recite the mission designators, payloads and crews of practically every mission until about 1990. I'd probably have given you useful tidbits about the significance of many of those crew members - especially those who'd perished on Challenger. 

Space was my sense of wonder. How to get there. A sense of the infinite. 

I think the the concept of aliens got me there. I recall seeing a drawing of a "Grey" alien in the newspaper as an 8 year old as the Knowles family recounted the events of their journey across the Nullabor in January 1988. 

As far I can recall that started me thinking about the possibility that space is infinite, unknown and full of mystery. Why would we be alone in the universe? Why would all of that exist only for us to be alone?

The space shuttle of course was the new way of making it into space. Limited of course given it could only make it into the Earth's orbit then return, but still.. what a cool machine. It was like an aeroplane for leaving the planet. My heart broke when they finally ended the space shuttle program.. and rejoiced when Elon Musk's SpaceX took on task of literally reaching for the stars. 

I developed my own beliefs of the Universe and what it contains and where religion fit based around research into lesser known pieces of history ignored by those whose own beliefs it contradicted. The core of what I believe hasn't changed much since. It at least makes far more sense to me that what others have attempted to have me believe. A sensitive issue for many, so I won't descend down that rabbit hole further. 

Yes, I was indeed an unusual child. My mother reminded me recently that I could have a political conversation with her at age 5. 

When I was 9 I really wanted a telescope. Of course at the time, like most things, it was out of reach. We lived in a small town in the middle of no where. Even going to the nearest "city", one would not find such things in a shop. Saving cents at a time for something that would cost hundreds of dollars was not achievable. Especially when there were books to read. And I was also into electronics, and such a thing was far more accessible. 

Recently.. over 30 years later, I finally brought that telescope. It's a 114mm Newtonian reflector. Hardly a high end model, but comes complete with a phone app to help me rediscover the Universe above me. 

It was delivered on Sunday (crazy huh?). Sunday night was the first time I ever got to use it - my first attempt at driving a real telescope. And I enjoyed it. The clouds stayed away long enough for a nice clear view of the craters on the moon. 

My eyesight has never been terribly compatible with lenses in view finders. I suffered in biology at high school when using a microscope - the teacher would focus on something to show me what it looked like, and I wouldn't see it. I'd find what I thought he was showing me, and he couldn't see it. My glasses distort things in the telescope too. I can try to focus without them, but then who knows what is being seen? My eyes are a bit slow too; which has also made photography interesting given the bulk of my efforts have always been race cars.

I discovered that it's possible to hook up a camera to my telescope with the addition of a particular Barlow and an adapter for my camera. 

I own 2 Nikon DSLR cameras. And they'd old. A Nikon D70 I purchased when they first were released in 2004, and D60 I was handed by my father in law a few years ago when he upgraded. Neither is much good for this task. The D60 is higher resolution but slow. The D70 is a faster camera but low resolution. Neither has Live View, and that's what I really need. 

Adding a camera to the telescope will turn it into a very, very large telescopic lens. That's going to make it very sensitive to fine movement. It's also a lens that will have a great chunk of new weight hanging off the side. 

So, I decided to buy a secondhand D7000. 16.2MP, so a lot more resolution in a camera that was raved about as a "pro" camera that sat nicely been the mid level and high level cameras at a fraction of the cost in 2010 when it was released. It's an old camera yes. It's also an old camera that will work with the collection of Nikkor lenses I already own (essential), and at the end of the day, it's a camera I paid $400 for, and it will be attached to the side of a telescope - something that I need to use outside, at night, in the dark, with bugger all support given its attachment to the scope is on the side of the scope via the lens mount. If it hits the deck and breaks, then I'm down $400, and still have my old trusty D70 and his son the D60 (though their grips are sticky these days). I'll take that over spending $1800 on something new and risking it.  There are better cameras for the job, but there is a limit to how much I can spend on something that will get used so infrequently.

It's only taken me 30 something years, but I've at least got the telescope. I'm hoping with the aide of the camera, it's something I can get the kids into. 

2021 is the year of new things. Some are things that I've just come back to after a long absence. If we keep doing the same old thing, we'll keep getting the same old results.