Equipment, Equipment.

May 19, 2012

I woke up to gather equipment for my first night under the stars. The website I had been using, due to lack of a real mentor to shadow, suggested a telescope was a bad idea for someone new to this; since it cost a lot and  one would not want to spent hundreds of dollars on a fine telescope just to find that it was the wrong fit. I was better off with a pair of binoculars, any binoculars. I scrolled through a bunch of ads on craigslist but this proved to be a disappointment. After another twenty minutes browsing numerous sites for information and pricing I realized I was too sleepy for such an exercise. I had been at work all night til 6a.m. and was gearing up for another long shift tonight so I was in no condition for all this nonsense. I needed something today though since I was getting myself equipped for the big annular eclipse tomorrow. I had decided that since I was no expert on solar eclipses and how far out of range they could be sighted I was going to get myself ready for tomorrow's just in case. I even seriously considered driving to Lubbock,Texas, two hours away,where it would you could see it for sure. I went digging through my stuff and was delighted to find an old Minolta- Maxxim 70 on a top shelf in a closet. There was also an extra lens that could focus up to 300 ft. This was awesome, except for the fact that I had no battery or film for this non-digital 20th century device. After interrogating the spouse to find out everything he knew about the camera (he had originally purchased it for himself during his short lived obsession with professional cameras); I was reassured that it  would produced some really good pictures. By now I was exhausted, so I decided to lower my standards on binoculars for now and headed for Target. Three kids in tow, each whining for some ridiculous toy that we could not afford, made this trip too eventful for my liking. I found the binoculars and settled for a pair of Bushnell 8x21 binoculars. I was proud of my accomplishments for the day and headed home to go nap a bit before I had to head to work and go love on some sick people.