Frustration, then satisfaction

Randy Muller wrote:

I suspect Paul liked it almost as much as the cars going by on the road and coming into the parking lots with their headlights blazing as he was trying to take photos.

Randy is right - my frustration this past weekend was pretty high. My main objective for the weekend was astrophotography, and I figured that I had three nights to get some good photos.

First came Thursday night. There were frequent headlights, some directed straight at my scope and cameras. Then later came the distant, unseen lightning, which seemed to light up the entire sky briefly. The good news was that focusing, a frequent gremlin for me, seemed easy that night, and my ST4 was indicating good polar alignment and guiding. Still, I was certain that the fog from headlights and lightning would have ruined all my frames.

On Friday night, I decided not to bother with the photography on account of the cars. Of course, there were far fewer cars. Then later, when it clouded up around midnight, I went back to my tent, only to look up and see a glorious, clear sky. But I figured that getting a relatively full night's sleep would be good for the photo marathon planned for Saturday night.

On Saturday night, I had a good time showing the visitors plenty of showpiece objects. As the small crowd thinned out, I began anticipating with pleasure the photography to come, but unfortunately by then I was feeling pretty sickly, so I retired to my van to try to sleep it off for a short while.

It only got worse. I barely had the strength and energy to pack up my scopes, mounts, etc. The drive back to the campground seemed to take forever. Once there, I grabbed a pot from my cook kit and dove into my tent. Suffice it to say that it was an unpleasant evening. More importantly, I didn't take any photos. Three nights wasted!

Or so I thought. I had the photos developed today at a quality 1 hour place near my work. Much to my surprise, they turned out well. Very well. In fact, possibly the best I've ever taken! I'm thrilled. It was even worth getting sick for.

I'll try to scan them tonight at home, but the results will not be good due to my scanner. It will be several days before I get a chance to scan them on a decent one. (BTW, I'm in the market for a slide/negative scanner.) Check 'em out from my home page:

http://members.home.com/psterngold

They should be posted by 11pm tonight. I'm satisfied. Or is it "satiated"? Or "sated"? <g>