It All Gets Started (an introduction)

        I'm writing this as an answer to all the tech-heavy articles I find when scouring the web about my new Great Interest. Also as just a way to share with regular folks how much fun this is. Stick around if you'd like to read my blathering. 

        So....

        I'd always had a passing interest in astronomy. In 4th grade, I created my own DIY planetarium for school by punching holes into the bottom of Styrofoam cups in the shape of constellations. Then I stuck a flashlight into the rim to project the light in a rough shape of those groupings. The flashlight was dim and the cups leaked a lot of light, but it was good enough for ten-year-olds. Over the years there were lunar eclipses and a few comets, but as I got older my attentions went elsewhere. 

        Early in the aughts, there was one of those "gotta-see" meteor shower events. My wife and I packed our two young sons into the pickup and went to a nearby park at 2am. I will always remember the sight of them under blankets in the truck bed looking skyward. But this was Illinois, which is notorious for capricious weather. It didn't rain, but the clouds seemed to wait until we were in position and then they quickly covered the sky. Any other night would have crystal clear skies, but in Illinois, all astronomical events are heralded by heavy cloud cover. 

        In 2020, we moved to Tucson, Arizona. That winter was the big Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. Standing outside for that, I was struck by the number of stars visible in the sky over our backyard. I later learned that Tucson has a dark sky ordinance which limits the effects of outdoor lighting. Add that to our clear desert skies and you have a dream recipe for stargazing. Kathy and I would sit out by the fire at night and marvel at the sheer number of stars. A while after that during one of our walks, I saw a telescope in someone's backyard. 

        The following year when Kathy asked if there was anything I wanted for my birthday, I immediately said I wanted a telescope. I knew she would deliver, but I wasn't prepared for what arrived. I expected a desktop model with a modest aperture, but I came home and found she ordered what could be called an advanced beginner scope on an equatorial mount with a 5-inch aperture. 

        

        I took it out to get a glimpse of what was out there, but not before I purchased a grip which fastens your smartphone to the eyepiece; I had already shifted into the realm of astrophotography. The first night's results were very rough, but exciting for this guy nonetheless: 

My first shot of Mars as it sank into the west before it's next approach. The black spotting I mistook for Dark Matter.

Venus waxing into a full disk. I had no idea how bright it would be. I would later try to learn more about exposure settings and filters. 

I often thought of the moon as astronomical low-hanging fruit. But the detail when seeing it through the scope will fascinate me for hours. 

        And so this is how my new obsession started. I have not felt this way since getting my first guitar in 1975. I've been a musician since then, and have had varying degrees of success. But last week I found myself putting musical equipment on Craigslist to raise money for astronomy. I have found it to be much more fulfilling and rewarding than the subjective pursuits of music. There's so much to see, it's an eternity out there. And I'm just getting started. 

4/4/2023