I have been away since just before Christmas and came home this past Thursday. Hadn't seen my wife and daughter since
I had talked to both of them a few times on the phone though. My daughter called me on
Then she told me it was supposed to be clear New Years Eve, so she downloaded Stellarium on her phone, saw the Moon would be up, and she was wondering if she could take out my scope and take some shots of the Moon if it was indeed clear. She said if I was at home I'd do that, so since I wasn't going to be...
What, really?
Sarah and I are two peas in a pod. We both have similar interests, same warped sense of humor (just ask my wife), same sheepy hair, though hers is longer, and we both only wear black, dark blue or grey; except in the summer where we both agree a white t-shirt is allowed... We listen to the same music and radio station, watch the same shows; I could go on.
I also taught her how to do basic welding this past summer with my MIG, and she often comes outside when I'm out with a scope. And there's been a few times this year where we've had a fire and we both have a couple beers. The conversations get interesting; she can tell me anything. Yeah, trust me kiddo, your old man has probably been there, done that
The best part is, her grades are always good (very motivated) and I think I've been mad at her four times in her 15 years of life. She's just a good kid, no bragging intended; I lucked out for sure. She once told me she didn't like it when I was mad at her; in her words, "Daddy, you don't freak out which is good, but it's the disappointed look on your face and the silence that I don't like". That's just me and hey, whatever works
Back to her taking out my scope. It's a black 1996 or 97 Celestron C80-HD
The camera, a Canon T2i, was in the scope already, remote shutter hooked up and set to Manual, so she didn't have to worry about that. She wanted to know the ISO and shutter settings (did I mention she took photography last year in school?) for the Moon. I asked her what phase it was going to be at and she said almost full. I told her to go with ISO400 and start at 1/800th sec exposure and go up to 1/2000th. How many shots at each setting? 15 to 20 should do it was my reply.
And please kiddo, be careful taking my scope out... At least it's right at the back door
I also informed her that my red light LED was on the shelf near the scope, in case you need light. I was thinking, she doesn't know the camera buttons by "feel" in the dark like I do.The following Monday, Jan 4th, I briefly talked to my wife and daughter; I was wiped. Sarah was really excited; she said it was warm out and the sky was really clear, and I took a total of 100 shots and the Moon was in all of them! And Daddy, I didn't bang your scope, Mum helped me out with it. Well, I need to get out of here and take a look at all this and hear how it came to pass.... That would be some time in coming.
Fast forward to last Thursday. As I said, the girls picked me up, and on the way home, I got a shot of a small sundog. My wife was driving, I took this with my phone. The sundog is in the middle of the picture, just above the road.
My family with me, a minor sky event, and going home after almost a month. Best day in quite some time!
We got in, and after all the catching up, Sarah wanted to download and even stack her shots if I was up to it. I had to sleep though, and she understood. Tomorrow's another day kiddo, you can tell me about it and we'll download them to the PC then
Friday I was up at about 6AM and felt pretty good, though I knew it probably wouldn't last. Sarah was awake and heard me, so downstairs we went.
As the camera was transferring files, she told me what she did.
At about 9PM on New Year's Eve, with a fairly warm temp of 4C (~38F), her and mum took the scope out the door and put in in the spot I usually do. Sarah said she held the mount and rear end of the scope, and backed out the door with it while mum guided the front and one of the legs. It's actually a funny mental image....
She knew the Moon would be pretty much overhead at midnight, but she said she wanted some time to get used to the scope controls and the camera. She ended up getting my red light LED as well. She said she also remembered I told her once for Moon shots, cheat and point the scope south. This way the
At about 10PM, she said the Moon was coming up over the roof. She waited for half an hour, then went out again and using the
She zoomed in to 10X and told me that everything was a little blurry. That's when she got an almost guilty look on her face and said, Dad, I adjusted your focuser a bit and the moon was a lot sharper....
I replied seriously, kiddo, why the guilty look? Guaranteed you can see so much better than me; if you feel the need, you fill your boots! Your old man is just that, old...
Anyways, she told me she tracked the Moon for about 20 minutes to get used to the controls. She said it took about 2 full camera screens and turns on the
By this time it was just after 11PM, and that's when she went in, warmed up, and at 11:30 she came back out.
She told me the Moon had moved to the right a fair bit, so she adjusted the scope again and said it only took her about a minute to get the large rock back in the focuser/camera view; big smile on both our faces at this moment
Then she started taking pictures. She said the camera was already at ISO 400 and set to 1/800th sec exp. She started with that, and took 20 shots. Then 20 more at 1/1000th, 1/1250th, 1/1600th, and finally 1/2000th.
By now the 100 pictures were on the computer. We took a look at the RAW files, and she was so happy they all turned out. So kiddo, Dad is gonna teach you how to stack and process...
I'll make a long story short... I sat back, told her what to do and had her do the work. Best way to learn. I have options saved in PIPP, ImPPG for monochrome and Registax for color for the Sun and Moon, so that was pretty easy. The only real work was AS3; we tried a few things, and more so she could get a feel for it.
I have to say, all the stacks came out well, though the 1/800th's were kind of blown out, and the 1/2000th were a tad too dark.
We ended up using the 1/1600th sec exposure stack. It was the most balanced for detail and contrast out of the lot. She played with my setting in both ImPPG and Registax with that stack; and I'm happy she adjusted it to the way she wanted after looking at mine. I've saved her settings as Sarah.pof and Sarah.rwv respectively
And this is how it came out, again, her settings in all of this. BTW, the time on the photos was 11:42-43 PM EST.
The RAW files as stacked with AS3:
With ImPPG (a bit sharper):
With Registax (yay, cheesy
She was thrilled, and so was I
My question is, have I created the beginnings of an We're going to take the photos to the local Loblaws (grocery/superstore) and print out the images; she wants to frame one of the three; probably the cheesy
I'm so happy and proud of her. And not even because the pictures she took turned out.
She thought of me when I was away, and went to the effort to try something that she wanted to do and knew we'd both have/had a good time with. She is so my child.
Even if the pics had shown nothing but black sky, I'd still be that happy father. The fact that the pictures turned out is just icing on the effort cake
Nice to be home and good to be back with my family and all of you on here. I started writing this Friday night, and now, almost 72 hours later.... This is probably my longest post ever; man, I can ramble! I just read through this; if you've made it this far, I am seriously impressed
It's just after 5PM here on the Monday and I need to snooze
Have a good night all!
