We had a near disaster with this site. For the past month or so, I’ve been receiving notifications several times per day telling me that the site is unresponsive or offline followed by another notification saying the site is back up and running. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to log into the site and kept getting a database error. Donna looked into the site back-ups in WordPress and Jetpack, but the site no longer existed!

Donna did some research and found several other people complaining of the same issues with their sites on our host provider which is Bluehost. She contacted Bluehost every day for three days and got the same response every time – she was told they had server issues and no time frame for resolution of the problem! I thought all was lost.

This morning, Donna found the site back up and running – no explanation for it, but we’re thankful we didn’t lose nine years of archived posts. Actually, I’ve been struggling a bit with thoughts for posts. We aren’t on the road, so I can’t write about new adventures across the country. We’ve settled into life at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. It seems so ordinary.

Take our basic transportation for example. When we first became full-time Rvers, we had a Kymco scooter for our daily driver. We used it to go shopping and sightseeing. Later we upgraded to a Can-Am Spyder three-wheeled vehicle. It was a fun and sporty ride, but it also had limitations. We followed that with a 1972 MG Midget. Now we had four wheels under us and far fewer limitations. We needed to trailer the Midget behind our motorhome to have a vehicle as we moved about.

Later, we sold the trailer and bought a Nissan Frontier pickup truck which we towed behind the coach. This gave us a reasonably comfortable ride with no concerns over weather conditions – and it was easy to hook up.

Now that we no longer have a need to tow a vehicle, I replaced the truck with a SUV – a Jeep Compass. This feels like a luxury car to us after eight years of compromise with vehicles that would fit our nomadic needs. I like the amenities the Compass offers and I like the styling as well.

My friend, Peter Swingle, posted a picture of a poster that really made me think twice about modern styling. Compact SUVs are ubiquitous and they all look so similar, it seems that automotive styling is dead. Looking at the poster, I had to wonder if the form has followed function to a logical conclusion and there’s no place for innovation, or are we just stuck in a copy cat world. Bicycles come to mind – the bicycle frame settled into a basic format that’s been relatively unchanged for a hundred years – the odd recumbent type here and there notwithstanding.

So, we’ve become quite ordinary. We no longer live an extraordinary life on the road with less-than-mainstream transportation. We are right in there among the average American – although we still have the Midget. That leaves me struggling for topics to post about.

That’s not to say we’ve retired to the rocking chair on the patio. We are still very active. Donna plays tennis on a regular basis, she joined the women’s golf league, she plays clarinet in the Viewpoint Concert Band and she volunteers with the Residents of Viewpoint Association. In her spare time, she helps elderly residents and also does some pet-sitting.

I have fewer activities, but stay occupied. I play pickleball several times per week and coach a pickleball clinic every Thursday. My main interest lately has been astronomy and I’ve been on a steep learning curve. It’s hard to start this hobby – there are so many considerations with regard to equipment and deciding what you really want to see. I did some research, but was still woefully unprepared. Many experienced astronomers recommend joining a club and finding a mentor.

I joined the East Valley Astronomy Club, but I’m not all that gregarious and I’m not the type to get too involved with club activities. When I started out, I thought I knew what I wanted. I went for a reflector-type of telescope – a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) to be precise. A SCT passes light through a glass lens at the front called a corrector. The light travels to a primary mirror at the other end of the ‘scope where it’s reflected and aimed at another mirror in the center of the corrector plate back at the front of the ‘scope. This secondary mirror reflects the light again and precisely aims it through a hole in the center of the primary mirror at the back of the ‘scope where it is focused into the eyepiece.

Utilizing this mirror arrangement allows the light path to be “folded,” creating long focal lengths in a compact package. Just right for someone with limited space. While I was researching, I kept reading that aperture is king. The bigger the opening at the objective end of the ‘scope, the more light it can gather and the greater magnification and detail possible. So, I figured if bigger is better, I needed as large a SCT as I could afford. I bought a Celestion NexStar 8 SE. This has an objective diameter of eight inches – 203mm. The effective focal length is 2032mm. Magnification of up to 400x is possible.

I soon realized that my interest wasn’t just in observing the night sky, I wanted to photograph it. Astrophotography brings a new set of equipment considerations and lots of learning. It didn’t take me long to figure out that looking at the planets and stars was one thing, capturing images was something else all together. I learned about atmospheric disturbances and “seeing” conditions. Bigger might be better, but greater magnification also means atmospheric disturbances are magnified as well and most of the time, I couldn’t use the magnification available in the eight-inch SCT.

Then I learned about things like field of view and other things to consider when capturing images of the night sky. I went in the opposite direction and bought a small refractor-type telescope. Refractors are the oldest telescope design and are what most people think of when you say telescope. I found a good deal on a used William Optics Zenithstar 73. This has a 73mm (2-7/8″) objective lens and a focal length of 430mm. It’s lightweight and compact. I found it very easy to operate and perfect for lunar photography. It provides excellent views of the moon, even when it’s full. I learned to love the ease-of-use of refractor telescopes and the clear, high-contrast images this ‘scope provided. But, its short focal length restricts the magnification and getting planetary images wasn’t so great – even if I doubled the native magnification with a 2x barlow lens.

So, I had a big ‘scope – the SCT – and a little ‘scope – the Z73. Then I found my Goldilocks ‘scope. I bought an Astro-Tech AT115EDT refractor. This has a objective diameter of 115mm (4-1/2″) and a focal length of 805mm. With a 2x barlow, I can have a focal length of 1610mm and planetary imaging works well.

So, why have three telescopes? They are all different and excel at different things. I think I’m set now. The Z73 with it’s short focal length is great for the moon. The AT115EDT can be used at its native 805mm focal length for great moon close-ups or at 1610mm with a 2x barlow for planets. The SCT can be used at its native 2032mm focal length when conditions allow for planets and star clusters or nebulas or I can use a focal reducer to drop it down to 1280mm. These three ‘scopes cover a lot of possibilities and I think I’ll be using them for years to come. Here are a few of my astrophotography attempts.

The photo above taken with the AT115EDT shows Mare Nectaris – the smooth dark area in the upper right. Ancient astronomers thought these smooth dark areas were water – thus the name Mare (latin for sea). They are actually large basalt fields from volcanic activity millions of years ago. Near the center of the photo, left of Mare Nectaris, you can see a vertical squiggly line that veers off to the right. This is the Altai Scarp – a mountainous ridge with peaks ranging from 10,000 to 13,000 feet above the surrounding terrain!

I have a long way to go with astrophotography, but it keeps me up at night and out of trouble. I plan to keep learning and progressing with it.

Last month, I had three malignant squamous cell lesions removed from my face and head. The dermatologist was concerned about a number of actinic keratosis (pre-cancer) spots on my head. This is the result of years in the sun, starting very early in life. He felt that developing cancers was inevitable and we’d be playing “Whack-a-mole,” trying to keep ahead of it. He recommended photodynamic therapy (PDT). This involves a chemo treatment that sensitizes the skin to light waves. Then, a concentrated amount of light is focused on the affected area. The result is like a sunburn and for the next several days you have to stay out of the sun while the dead skin cells are sloughed off of the affected area. Once that happens, it’s like you have new, smooth skin instead of the dry, rough actinic keratosis.

I went for it once the areas where he removed the squamous cell cancer healed. It involved a technician “painting” a compound on my head, temples and ears. Then I had to wait for two hours before my head was positioned inside a special light box with blue flourescent lights. I think I was in there for 1,020 seconds – 17 minutes. After a few days of recovery, my dome is smooth again and hopefully no cancers develop.

Last Friday, Donna and I flew out of Mesa Gateway Airport to Spokane, Washington. We went there to attend the graduation ceremony for our granddaughter, Lainey. Lainey graduated from Washington State University School of Nursing with a RN-BSN degree. She is following her mother’s footsteps and will work in the ICU at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane. Congrats, Lainey!

While we were there over the weekend, my ex-wife’s niece, Julie, visited. I haven’t seen Julie since she was a little girl. She told me she read this blog and she inspired me to write another post. She gave me what was probably the most positive compliment ever – she said she feels a little smarter after reading this blog! With that, I’ll sign off.