turn around, bright eyes

[topaz]

I didn't remember until just a little after nine o'clock.  "Hey, guys!" I told the kids.  "Wanna go see a lunar eclipse?"

We ran outside and looked up at the sky.  We got so lucky.  The sky over eastern Massachusetts was completely clear, and at that hour the moon is directly over the clear space above our driveway.  The eclipse had taken a big bite out of the moon already.  "WOW!" Morgan said, gaping.

I ran back inside for my camera, tripod and telephoto lens.  While I set them up, Morgan asked me to remind him how the eclipse worked, and I tried in my fumbly way to explain it to him and Quinn. ("So, see, imagine this rock here is the Earth, and--- no, maybe this chunk of ice is the Earth, and my fist is the Sun, and--- no, see, the earth comes around like this, and....")

The boys went back inside to collect their toy telescopes and binoculars and things.  Then I remembered.

Several years ago, over dinner, beowabbit mentioned to us that he had a telescope, a nice Meade telescope with an automatic directional tracking system, which he was no longer using much (partly because the computerized tracking no longer worked), and it was just taking up space in his house, and did he think our kids would like it?  We jumped at the opportunity, of course, and shortly found ourselves in possession of a very decent amateur telescope.  Of course, we too did not often get around to taking the telescope out, and so it soon fell into disuse in our house too.

Obviously I couldn't pass it up.  I ran inside, brought the telescope down from the library shelf we kept it on, wiped off the dust, very carefully screwed in the eyepiece and took it outside.  Lacking a proper tripod for the telescope, I had to set it on the ground, and we practically had to lie down in order to get a decent view through the eyepiece.

But it was worth it.  It was so worth it.  Through the telescope the moon was about the size of an apple and crystal sharp.  The red umbral edge of the eclipse cut it neatly in half.  I called Morgan back outside.  "You've got to see this," I promised him.  He put his jacket and hat and gloves back on dubiously and followed me outside.  When he knelt at the telescope he nearly shrieked.  "That is so awesome!"

For the next hour we went in and out of the house, checking on the moon, fiddling with the camera and the telescope.  Both boys took several turns looking through the telescope and through the binoculars.

Thanks, beowabbit -- we finally put it to good use.  And it could hardly have been more fantastic. :-)

Comments

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

During one of our trips inside I did in fact google things like "meade telescope camera" and "dslr meade telescope" to see if there's a good way to take pictures through the telescope. What I learned is that you can buy accessories (http://www.opticsplanet.net/meade-t-rings.html) at a very modest price that allow you to attach a DSLR to the telescope, so I think that may be among my next toy purchases :-)

[khedron.livejournal.com]

That will make for some *beautiful* pictures! Combining the telescope's optics with the camera's ability to have long exposures should be a lot of fun.

(Although from my experiments last night, maybe long exposures won't gain you as much as I'd hoped. My camera only lets me take up to 15s for a single exposure, but even with a tripod and a relative lack of wind, the moon wound up a bit fuzzy at that duration. I would guess with a telescope that this would be exacerbated?)