Return to Skygazing?

My telescope under the milky way... very inviting!  The streak in the lower right is a meteor.
Note the small guide scope mounted above the main tube.

 OK, this isn't a post about a car.  It's about one of my other passions, and it reveals something else about me.  I hope that you, the reader, will find it engaging.

Dad didn't leave my siblings and me a large inheritance, but he did leave us something.  I was able to buy my dear wife a beautiful and comfortable new crossover SUV, and my sister was able to buy herself a premium used convertible hardtop.  Somehow buying cars with "Dad's money" seems appropriate, especially ones that we will enjoy.  He did like cars.

There was enough left over that I started thinking about getting myself something special from Dad.  I thought this seemed selfish at first, since Dad paid for the paint on the t-bird... but there are other things about Dad that I'd like to honor and remember.

I remember when Dad went "half-sies" with me to buy my first telescope in Jr. High.  I had to save my allowance for several months, then we went to Fedco and picked up a Tasco 4 1/2" reflector on an equatorial mount.  I thought it was glorious, and it opened up a whole new world for me.  Dad remembered some of his Boy Scout astronomy, which wasn't very helpful.  I pretty much figured out the telescope by myself.

We would haul the telescope up to the roof of the house and set it up to look at the moon and planets.  We took it to the mountains, and looked at the stars.  I didn't know the sky very well, and I didn't have good star charts, but I had fun.  I think Dad enjoyed it too, or at least he enjoyed my enthusiasm.

I've since moved on through a series of much better telescopes, and I know the sky reasonably well.  I have tried my hand at astrophotography, first with film and then with DSLRs.  Dad never "caught the bug" for astrophotography, but he seemed to enjoy my efforts.

M8 (Lagoon Nebula) on the left, M20 (Trifid Nebula) on the right.  This is a stack of 6 x 5 minute DSLR exposures, requiring me to keep a star centered in the eyepiece of a guide scope for a total of 30 minutes.  Painful.

I realized that I wasn't going to get better at astrophotography without some improvements in equipment.  My Astro-Physics Traveler telescope is very good, but my Vixen Super Polaris mount is very old-school.  It has a clock drive, but it still requires manual guiding using a small auxiliary telescope when taking astrophotos.  Keeping a dim star centered in the crosshairs of a guide scope for an extended period of time isn't really much fun.  Modern mounts have the ability to use an "autoguider", or camera and processor that send drive corrections directly to the mount without human intervention.  Oh, and they have computerized controls and GPS which makes them much easier to set up and align.  I've been thinking about getting a new mount and autoguider for years, but could never justify the cost.

In mid-July a local telescope store held an astronomy expo in their parking lot, and put most of their inventory on sale.  On a lark, I decided to "just see what they had", but deep down I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.  I came home with a new mount, autoguider, and guidescope... and significantly less money in the inheritance fund!

Normally, I really dislike spending money.  Dad clearly didn't like spending it either.  Still, I feel good about this... I feel like the stars are calling me back.  I really did get a good deal on this equipment, and I expect it to serve me well for the rest of my life.

There is something about looking at the stars that calms my soul.  It gives me perspective.  It fills me with awe, and makes me feel closer to God.

Photography is about capturing images that touch our hearts.  It seems logical and right for me to extend that practice to the night sky, which has grown to mean so much to me over the years.  I think that's why I invest myself in this most exacting, most complex of photographic pursuits.  It lets me share something that has become quite dear to me.  I think Dad would approve.