brucew29 Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

I have an 8" diameter SCT (Dynamax 8) scope but it is about 34-35 years old but still has a decent image... it is just too heavy to carry back and forth and set up... the Tamron 150-600mm lens is so much lighter and easier to set up... and I can still get some decent Moon photos on occassion when everything turns out right...

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I am age 70 and though I remain active the size and weight of gear do influence decisions. I make my living shooting sports. I walk the sidelines with two cameras for field sports - I get to sit for court sports...but both are becoming harder for me to do "arm strength." I handle all of the sports, activities, and yearbook pictures for a 3500 student high school.....and spend weekends covering Clemson and USC games (home games only) for our local ESPN affiliate. So when I do have a night of imaging......the refractor and the small iOptron ZEQ25 get the nod 9 out of 10 times...and some Sundays covering Carolina Panther games for NY Times....I am getting ready to leave for a night game now. Just look for a white hair old man struggling with his kit in the end zone. I do have some good long Nikon glass used for field sports - my favorite is a F/4 200x400. It is not all that light...but clearly lighter than my other kits. /F4 helps a lot. At 3200 ISO, I do not need to guide if polar alignment is good. I can dial down the shutter to 4 seconds which guarantees sharp stars....or rather the appearance of sharp stars. I hate to guide!! In my experience, the more reach I have the more I need to guide and stay with the kit through the imaging sequence (lose guide star, clouds get in way.....or PHD just does it thing and reconnects only to cost some frames in the process) With each passing year, I plan to retire from sports photography and just shoot "UP." It gets depressing when you look at the number of good nights left in one's lifetime :)

brucew29 Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

We are about the same age... I'll be 71 in November.... what a difference 50 years make!!! :(

You have some great photographic gear... I guess that comes along with your profession... I have always been interested in astronomy and photography... I almost went into it when I was a young fellow... but I started having problems with my eyesight and thought to myself I better not get into a profession that relied heavily on decent eyesight... Mistakenly I thought that I would be blind by now but I can still see pretty good with glasses. I was just too practical as a young fellow but eventually discovered that often our greatest fears are unfounded. In hindsight 20/20 is easily achieved... too bad I was detoured by a fear that thankfully never materialized... I would have enjoyed being an astronomer or photographer or both... they both go hand in hand... photography goes with everything.... it is utilized in every profession under the Sun...

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I can relate to eye issues. I have eye surgery in early December in both eyes to remove floaters. I have had retina tears in both eyes and lucky I have pretty good sight but the vitreous pulled away and debri is everywhere (floaters). The floaters are smack dab in the center ....sorta like looking out of dirty eyeglasses. Also going to remove cataracts. They use a laser to remove floaters. Hopefully I will have my old eyes back. It's a bitch getting old....last January I had a total hip replacement - got an infection and had to go back and have another hip surgery to clean out and replace parts......they did a culture at that surgery. Three days later I was in ICU dying. The old heart stopped several times - 13 second pauses. When the culture came back - I was off to surgery as they were not treating me for ecola...which is what the infection turned out to be. They did another hip replacement - cleaning out and replacing parts. I was on a pic line for 6 weeks getting infusions. I april as soon as the pic line was removed....I got a pacemaker to deal with the heart issues that spawn during the whole process. I was back in they gym a week after the pacemaker (as soon as I got the go ahead to shower again) and feel better than I have felt in a long time. I know no one wants to hear about my past health issues but I am thankful to be here today - I am a non smoker (tried it in college) but have 7 years since having my upper left lobe removed due to lung cancer. Many of you guys and gals have gone through this and more....does make you appreciate and maximise every day you have left.

brucew29 Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

WOW!!! I have been extremely lucky so far but that can change in a heart beat... For my age I guess you could say that I am very healthy... I am not on any meds except for vitamins that I take on my own... I walk about 4 or 5 miless a day by taking my dogs for walks... I work around the house going up and down stairs; I do tons of yard work; I re-roofed my house about there years ago; I painted all of the trim on my house about two years ago; and on occassion when I have time I go on treks at local parks to take photos of birds and insects; I also do what I call "Lazy Man's" photography by taking bird photos through my open dinning room window... when I was younger I just didn't think that I would live this long... that is why I didn't waste time and tried to do a lot of things that I like doing... the major restriction to my achieving many of my interest was the lack of money and time. :(

P.S. About 5 years ago I was diagnosed with having "Narrow Angle Glaucoma" which is a condition where excessive eye fluid is trapped in the eye and the internal eye pressure increase to dangerous levels which can lead to blindness ... I was lucky and had the condition cured by having a laser procedure called a "Peripheral Iridotomy (PI)" to allow the fluid to escape through the iris. An iridotomy is a very small hole in the iris that allows the fluid to pass through when excessive fluid builds in the eye(s). I have a yearly eye exam to make sure everything is alright... so far so good...

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Good news on your eyes! We both have cause to celebrate!

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

I've been tuning in on this and I finally get my cataracts done next month. Can't wait :thumbup: :thumbup:
Craig

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Good for you Craig!

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Thank you Ed.
Craig

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

One of my responsibilities is to make the program covers for each of the home games at Dorman High School. Both the kid catching the pass and Andromeda are my pics. I am now working on Dorman's last home game a week from Friday. This will be the background if approved by school's compliance.

Program Cover

(Download)

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Very very cool Ed, I love it being a football and astronomy fan.
Craig

brucew29 Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

Nice capture and post processing Ed... let us know how it goes on the cover for Dorman High School...

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Adding the font and a "Fall Sports Banner" is all that is lacking. Compliance should be ok. I have added one that they rejected. They thought the player holding the "helmet of the opposing team" was too much.

The attached file was not a program cover but a Flyer for the school facebook page and posters put up around the school. The kid coming out of the water is the Dorman QB, a Colorado State commit. He and his folks signed off on it. I also do a flyer every week for every fb and bb game if schedule permits.

I better get off this topic and back to astrophotography.

brucew29 Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

Well done...

I look forward to your Moon shots, equipment used and EXIF info. All of my Moon shots are single shots with some post processing. I tried a free download of Registax but never had any success with it... I always got better results with a single shot... I probably didn't know how to use the program... I heard others used video clips and did pretty good but I could never get my DSLR jpegs to work properly.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

I too have had the same problems with JPEG's in Registax.
Craig