To continue the theme I began a while back, I’d like to share with you what I did during my surgery recovery to keep my hobby of astronomy alive. In the weeks ahead, I’ll start to share with you the online astronomy I’ve been doing. Today, however, I want to discuss something that was far more important to my recovery mentally and spiritually: Continuing the practice of going outside and being under the night sky.
So… what were the good, the not so good and the really not so good attempts I made at keeping up with astronomy?
Well, my first attempt was what you see to the left. I thought that if I loaded my telescope onto a pull cart I could use it as a walker to stargaze at night. Brilliant!! Right….???
This contraption actually worked really well with one small issue. It’s time to fix the rectory driveway. I never realized how many cracks and mini-potholes there are in my driveway until I took my scope out on a cart. So… kinda brilliant, but I hit some issues i didn’t think through.
So, after a few nights of frustration, I started to get back to using my binoculars, sit on a chair just outside my garage and relax. It was much easier than “walking” my telescope out of the garage.
So… attempt one would fall into the not so good and really not so good based on how much ice, cracks and holes I encountered from night to night.
Still, I wouldn’t consider it a failure. What I learned helped me discover the “good” category of this post quickly!
As I was enjoying the simplicity of binocular astronomy again, I started to get the itch to do astrophotography. I had to overcome one, big problem to achieve this goal – My imaging rig is way too heavy for post-op weight lifting restrictions.
I was able to enlist the help of some parishioners to make my “tele-walker” reality. I didn’t want to have to call a parishioner every time I wanted to do astrophotography.
By God’s grace and good timing, I lucked out and the Seestar S30 went on sale! I purchased one and it has quickly become my favorite astrophotography complement when I do naked-eyed observation.
It’s about the size of small, chuncky box of cereal and isn’t heavy at all. Even “peg-legged” I could easily bend over with the assist of my walker and pick it up off the ground with no fear of exceeding the limits I had to follow post-op.
Some of you who follow me may be asking, “Fr. James, you have a Dwarf II… Why didn’t you use that?” This is a very fair question. So, what happened? Well… I dropped it. When I picked it up, glued the baseplate back on and tried to turn it on I was reminded of a scene from the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
“So ends the story of Fr. James’ Dwarf Lab II. May it find peace in cyber death that it was unable to find once it had fallen in cyber life.”
Here are some of the simple images I have been able to capture with the Seestar S30.
Ir always amazes me to think these images were captured with what is basically a security camera on a very good tracker and utilizing excellent stacking software. The Seestar has become a nice naked-eyed “sidekick” to my evenings. I can set it up with my smart phone, let it run and then get back to using my binoculars and just find some time to decompress mentally and spiritually under the night sky.
And I think this is the main faith insight I’ve found on this journey: Astronomy helped me heal, but it just as easily could have created more issues. As I shared before, a quick insight I learned after surgery was that physically and mentally stressful things we do get amplified. I still feel the impacts of that stress and, despite the fact I know I’m getting better, still experience struggles. Working with telescopes and astrophotography gear is mentally stressful. I knew immediately I needed to find a “new normal” to keep my astro-passion alive and not have it just create more stress.
Therefore, if you ever find yourself literally knocked on your back, but want to keep gazing at the heavens: Go simple. Return to the simple process of exploring the sky naked-eyed. Dust off the old binoculars and remember the basics of how to find deep sky images without a computer drive. And if you want to image the night sky, there are wonderful tools that can help you get basic images that don’t replace your night observing, but can enhance it.
I pray that all of you reading this are doing well. However, if you are not, know I will be saying a prayer for you tonight before I go to bed. I will pray for your healing. And I will pray that God helps you rediscover joy and peace through the night sky.
