Night Skies

Let's get one thing clear right at the start: I know it's a crappy photo.

I know that the exposure is all wrong and that parts of the moon are out of focus. This post isn't about the photo. This is not a Photo Friday.

This photo of the moon was an experiment. I just wanted to see if such a photo could be captured with my smartphone.

You see, in August, I reached my fifteenth anniversary with my company. It's quite a milestone. With the exception of my relationship with DW and my kids, I've never been committed to anything else for this long.

(Okay, there are hobbies that I've had for decades and friends I've had for most of my life, but you get the gist.)

For this milestone anniversary, my company sent me a catalog of items, from which I could choose one thing as a thank you for my years of dedicated service. There were sets of luggage, tools, watches, cookware, and many more things that were available, but only one thing really stood out.

A spotting scope.

I've always wanted a telescope. I love looking up at the night sky and identifying the constellations, picking out the planets. I've often told myself that someday, I'd have a powerful telescope that would allow me to see Jupiter and its moons, to see the rings around Saturn, or to discern a star cluster in Orion's belt.

I would also be able to see the moon, up close and personal.

With this telescope, I'd also be able to apply an adapter that would allow me to connect a D-SLR and take sharp, stunning photographs of celestial bodies. And while I've always wanted such a telescope, the frugal side of me says that spending that much money is a real luxury, one that I could never justify.

The spotting scope in the catalog is mainly for bird watching, but I imagined that I could also use it for stargazing. It had a 40x to 60x zoom magnification, so I thought I could at least see some of our planets a bit closer. And if it wasn't good enough for night skies, I could always use it for its intended use: watching birds.

If I didn't like it, I could always sell it.

Last weekend, I finally took it out for its first test. DW and I were joining our friend, who owns a farm out near Plantagenet. I knew that there was going to be almost a full moon, and I also knew that both Jupiter and Saturn would be visible with the naked eye.

How would they appear with the spotting scope?

The moon was easy to find through the scope, which I mounted on my heaviest D-SLR tripod. At 40x magnification, it was huge, and at 60x, it filled the scope's circumference. But at maximum magnification, I had to constantly recentre the moon, as it was continuously moving out of the circular frame. At about 50x magnification, I was able to view it for about 10 to 15 seconds before I had to reposition the scope.

The next-brightest object in the sky was Jupiter, which took some searching before I could see it through the scope. The gas giant was extremely bright, but what surprised me the most was that I could also count about four or five of its moons, shining just as brightly. Jupiter wasn't quite sharp but I could at least make out some definition of colours.

Next, and hardest to capture in the scope was Saturn. But when I did get it in view, I was shocked to see the rings so clearly that I could detect a dark ring as well as the bright ones. Again, the image wasn't sharp but it was clear enough to know what I was looking at.

Back to watching the moon, I wondered if I could capture an image if I held my smartphone to the eyepiece. The biggest challenge was moving the smartphone camera lens so that it was centered in the eyepiece. By the time I had the moon on my phone's screen, I'd have to reposition the scope.

I then tapped on the screen to have the camera focus on the moon. I manually turned down the brightness and tapped the shutter release.

Holding the phone securely to the eyepiece, naturally, caused vibration. The chances of capturing a sharp image this way was about the same as hand-holding a D-SLR with a 300mm lens and trying to capture a similarly sharp image. You just can't do it.

I have learned that there is an adapter that I can purchase for my spotting scope that will allow me to attach my Nikon cameras. I just may invest in it.

But I'm also thinking that I just might want to invest in a proper telescope. If I really want to capture sharp images of the cosmos, why shouldn't I do it right?

Stay tuned.