My husband, David, and I joined NOVAC in February, hoping to increase our understanding of the stars, moons and planets.  We have always had an interest in the sky above and the constellations and the great photos we see in magazines.  Being an avid photographer, I thought we could learn about telescopes before making a purchase (the new Nexstar looked pretty neat) and I could make a new exploration into astrophotography.

We attended a few meetings and a few viewings at Crockett Park to learn about the different telescopes and to see what everyone was using.  One night there were so many telescopes set up, we could not believe how much interest there was in the heavens above.  We also couldn't believe all of the 'extras' we would probably need (or want?) once we decided on a telescope - tables, chairs, red lights, books, coolers, etc.

Knowing that this was probably more involved than we first believed, and not wanting to buy a lot of equipment we wouldn't use or need, we started to reconsider our new hobby.  While viewing one night, we came upon a telescope for sale by Ed Karch.  It was handmade by brother Maurice Flood, a Trappist Monk in a Monastery in Berryville.  Though not as fancy as the Nexstar, it was more in line with our price range and comfort level at that point.

We paid for the telescope, got home, and waited and waited and waited for a clear night to view the stars.  We only knew a few constellations and stars, star maps were difficult to get oriented and with some light pollution in our neighborhood, we were getting discouraged quickly.  Where were those great pictures we had seen in magazines?  Yes, that was a star, that's nice.

One night, there was a half moon.  Interested to see what could be observed with our new telescope, we aren't early birds or night owls and wouldn't see a planet for awhile, we decided to view the moon.  Even with all the books we had read and magazines we bought, we didn't learn about moon filters until after a few nights of viewing.  We were amazed and fascinated with how large the moon looked and the detail was just unbelievable!  Seeing how bright the moon appeared, I wanted to try an experiment and ran inside to get my point and shoot digital camera - an Olympus D-320L.  No interchangeable lenses, no locking down the shutter.  I held the camera to the eyepiece and David would look at the camera lens from the front to see if I had the moon's reflection in the lens.  We couldn't use the LCD as the moon was too bright.  We also had to turn off the flash to avoid overexposing.  I took a few photos that I have included here.  They aren't the magnificent photos in the magazines, but I used simple equipment and the photos were pretty exciting for us.  Hope I didn't bore anyone with a CCD or more sophisticated equipment!   I have only sharpened the images a little and deleted the annoying reflections.  No color changes or digital manipulation.
 

Well, I hope I haven't duplicated anyone else's ideas.