Episode 69 - First Light 2025

WELCOME BAAAACK to The Astrocast!

THIS WEEK - The biggest, longest Astrocast episode EVER! 

With no further ado...I give you, FIRST LIGHT 2025! 

A veeery SPECIAL THANKS to Mark and Whitney for hosting, and a very special hello and miss ya to Parish, Eric, Jay, Jesse, Hamza, and Marks Pops for making this happen!

If you would like to potentially join us for the next First Light - join us in the Discord! You can join by becoming a member of The Astrocast Society on Patreon. We are also in beginning talks for Euro First Light next year!

Links from this weeks show: 

The Astrocast FB Page

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If you would like to join our members only Discord, and become a member of the Astrocast Society, consider joining our Patreon! We'd love to have you as a member of the Discord. We have a LOT of fun in there and answer most questions that come our way!

The Astrocast is an Affiliate partner with both High Point Scientific AND Agena Astro now, and as such any purchases made through either of these partners using our links will get you the same great prices you would otherwise get, but The Astrocast will also get a small portion of the proceeds from the sale. Thank you so much for your support! Please feel free to share these links with any friends/family who love Astro!

High Point Scientific

Agena Astro

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;17;03
Unknown
Dude, we have got to figure out a way to get everybody together at some point, because I just I feel like we've all been chatting for so long now, and yet for whatever reason, we just haven't been able to make it happen. But like, we just kind of we got to find the right way to do it really is is what we need.

00;00;17;06 - 00;00;38;15
Unknown
I mean, man, I have a cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. It's got beds for everybody. Parrish is here. Eric is here. I mean, if you want to come out, come out. Let's do this, man. Are you serious? Like, we could actually use your spot for the for the first meet out. Yeah, man. It's portal three skies. Oh, we've got a whole field in the hell.

00;00;38;17 - 00;00;53;22
Unknown
We've got a whole field in the back of the cabin. Come on out. I mean, we'll make this work. I love to cook. Whitney loves to cook, will rock, and let's go. You. Let's go to the first meet up at the house. I mean, screw it. Let's do it. If you're down, I'm down. So. Yeah, let's let's go ahead and make it happen.

00;00;53;22 - 00;01;06;12
Unknown
Then we go in and start. In the second.

00;01;06;14 - 00;01;20;02
Unknown
You are listening to the restroom. Yeah.

00;01;20;05 - 00;01;44;03
Unknown
Imagine for a moment this you got into astronomy and astrophotography back in 2020 when the whole world shut down. You found it to be a very fun hobby. But alas, it was pretty much a solo endeavor, except for the couple of times you and your buddy from way back when would join up in a church parking lot, set up because it was so dark.

00;01;44;06 - 00;02;20;10
Unknown
From these places, you could faintly see the band of the Milky Way just barely peeking back at you. So muted and barely there that if you look at your phone screen for even three seconds and looked back up, it was gone. Fast forward two years later, you join a local astronomy club and are growing in every sense of the word with the hobby, you've gone from a four inch Newtonian to an 80 millimeter doublet on a beautiful equatorial mount.

00;02;20;12 - 00;02;46;14
Unknown
You can see firsthand the government spending for hundreds of years. Most of you finally start taking photos of these beautiful nebulas and galaxies that you've been dreaming about for so long as you continue to pursue the hobby, you realize slowly it's become more than that. It's become a passion. You start spending every clear night that you can get under the stars.

00;02;46;16 - 00;03;18;07
Unknown
You aren't content with just getting a picture anymore. You want to take a pods, but you know in your heart of the year to start right there. Yet. That's okay though, it will come in time. After being a member of the club for a year, it occurs to you one night while mindlessly flipping through your phone that you'd love to have and astronomy podcast that you can listen to at night, maybe fall asleep to, but you just haven't really heard of any great astrophotography podcast yet.

00;03;18;09 - 00;03;41;19
Unknown
There are some out there, obviously Neil has StarTalk and then the Jad cast is there, but they haven't put out new episodes in a while. It just it keeps itching at you. And finally you say, you know what, I'm just going to make it myself. And the first episode is really hard to record. It's awkward. You listen back to it.

00;03;41;26 - 00;04;17;12
Unknown
It doesn't even sound like you. You fiddle around with things like spots for commercial breaks and trying to find your voice, and slowly but surely becomes a thing. You watch as one listener turns into two, 2 to 5, 5 to 10, and so on. It starts growing. Before you can blink, 25 episodes are recorded. You're comfortable on the microphone now, and you have a genuine following amongst a small but extremely loyal group of fellow astronomers.

00;04;17;14 - 00;04;44;11
Unknown
You decide to start a Patreon to help pay for the hosting. What's the reward all these members get for their hard earned money? More conversation, and the community. Of course, you already talk with them every week, but so far the conversation has been one sided. So you start a discord or members of the Patreon. After a week, your first member joins, and another and another.

00;04;44;14 - 00;05;32;28
Unknown
And after a few months, you've got a dozen people chatting regularly in the group before a long a dozen turns into dozens. You've created a real community of like minded individuals, and they're awesome. One of those members finally says that we should all get together one day. I've got a cabin up in Wisconsin. What do you say? And just like that, first light the Astro Cast First Group meetup in Wisconsin, of all places, mortal three skies, that same Milky Way you saw back in 2020, but brighter than ever to hop on a plane.

00;05;33;00 - 00;06;04;21
Unknown
So welcome back to the Astro cast. I'm your host, drew. Today is Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025. I am back about a week now. Actually, it was one week ago today, that we were spending our last night under the stars in Wisconsin. And, man, there's just so much to be said about the trip. First of all, I'm not a good flier.

00;06;04;23 - 00;06;32;06
Unknown
I've never been a good flier. And particularly when I have to fly alone, not fun. That said, the flights went over fairly well. I will say the the Pelican case. It held up great. It did fit in the overhead bin. However, it did not fit in the overhead bin for the regional jet, which was the connecting flight once we, landed up in Detroit.

00;06;32;06 - 00;07;01;28
Unknown
So basically, I woke up at 4:00 am in Charlotte, and I was wheels up on my way to Detroit by 6:00 am. No problems really on the initial flight. And once we, landed and got on to the next flight, I got really lucky because I was in the very first seat of the plane. I also wrote glass all over the outside of the Pelican case.

00;07;01;28 - 00;07;25;18
Unknown
Be very careful. Glass inside. And, I think the, the steward took pity on me. The flight attendant, that is, they let me put my pelican case in the closet because pretty much everyone else was having their bags checked, and I just said, like, I cannot check this bag. So I guess if you do want to use one of the Pelican cases, just be very aware.

00;07;25;18 - 00;08;01;20
Unknown
Works great on your full size. Airbus's and seven three sevens. But if you got to hop on a smaller regional jet, try to be first on the planes, you can ask for access to that closet. So I land in green Bay on Saturday. It was about 10:45 a.m. local time. And, Mark, who so very generously hosted this event, picked me up from the airport, so hopped in the car with him, said hello, shook hands, gave a hug, got to know each other.

00;08;01;22 - 00;08;24;23
Unknown
And you know the funniest thing about this trip? That I can tell you is that I think everybody was a little bit nervous going in because while we all kind of knew each other, the reality was that this was just a bunch of people that were chatting in an online chat room for, you know, several months. So no one really knew each other.

00;08;24;28 - 00;08;48;21
Unknown
But it wasn't a huge group of people. Obviously, we didn't announce this on the show. I didn't, you know, have any way of having 100 people show up? Not to say 100 people would, but, you know, you never know what will happen if you put something out there publicly. So we decided to have, you know, a small get together, and, I decided to call it first light.

00;08;48;23 - 00;09;11;20
Unknown
I was lucky I got to get some commemorative pins made. I'm a big fan of pins. I collect them, I've been ordering, like, good Mythical Mornings monthly pin for two years now. When I went to NASA down at, you know, Kennedy Space Center last month, I got several pins from them. So I thought a pin would be the perfect way to kind of, you know, commemorate the very first get together.

00;09;12;11 - 00;09;37;25
Unknown
And everybody who got one, make sure you hold on to them, because obviously there will be pins for future events. And it would be really cool to know that, you guys had one of the first. So, like, I say, not a huge group of people, but the folks who did show up were very, very cool. And as I said, we're all nervous going in and I, you know, I as well as Parrish, who you'll meet shortly.

00;09;37;28 - 00;10;00;06
Unknown
Mark. Eric, everybody, we all kind of figured we would be, you know, a little uneasy around each other, maybe, like during the daytime, do our own thing. And then at night, we would all be out. You know, kind of convening under the stars together. We we all actually got along great from the very first moment that we were together.

00;10;00;06 - 00;10;22;16
Unknown
So not only did I get to do some of the the best stargazing that I've ever done in my entire life, without a doubt. I also got to make, some really, really great new friends, which is kind of the best thing to come out of this if I'm, if I'm being honest with myself. So you get off the plane in green Bay, Wisconsin.

00;10;22;18 - 00;10;41;12
Unknown
So first of all, I didn't realize how small green Bay is. Green Bay is not as big of a city as I had pictured. And I guess just because the Packers are such a, you know, big team in the NFL, everybody you know knows and loves the Packers well, maybe not loves, but everybody knows the Packers. Green Bay was a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

00;10;41;12 - 00;11;05;08
Unknown
So we flew over Lake Michigan when we came from Detroit to Wisconsin, landed in the green Bay Regional Airport there. And like I say, Mark picked me up and we headed north about an hour, to a small town called Privates. Everyone was pretty much already there when I arrived. I was the last person to show up.

00;11;06;00 - 00;11;28;27
Unknown
Harms, immediately came up and said hello to me. Got to make Eric right away. Of course, Whitney was there. Whitney being Mark's girlfriend. Super, super awesome person, was definitely the mom of the crew for the whole week while we were all there. Jay came later on in the weekend. Jesse also joined us later on.

00;11;29;12 - 00;11;53;27
Unknown
Shout out to you, Jesse, new member of the discord and Patreon and very, very happy that you were able to join us for this. Epic weekend. And then, of course, there was Parrish. Parrish was really. He was the person that we needed there. He was the ultimate icebreaker. Super, super cool guy. My first Nepalese friend as well.

00;11;53;27 - 00;12;22;08
Unknown
He's from Nepal. Very, very intelligent guy. Very much enjoyed getting to, to know and meet you, Parrish. And you really did help kind of bring everybody together and get us all into a comfortable place. So I definitely enjoyed, getting to know you. And, you'll actually get to know Parrish a little bit as well, because throughout the weekend, we decided that we would, do a few recordings here and there.

00;12;22;08 - 00;12;45;29
Unknown
So I would think the, the first recording that we did, we had gotten all of our gear set up. So, you know, if you can picture God there must have been at least ten equatorial mounts at one point, all set up on the, porch and then moved out to the field. So this is basically a wood cabin, like a log cabin.

00;12;46;16 - 00;13;13;10
Unknown
It's got a lake right beside it. Beautiful lake. And then if you walk, outside of the cabin and then just into the woods to the very last, house on the road, dirt road, of course. And very long to road, I might add. But you walk out into this field and then you have this huge open area for imaging, and, it really was very, very special.

00;13;13;10 - 00;13;36;16
Unknown
So we all got set up. We all had some issues throughout the weekend. So I knew right away that I was going to be just picking one target and sticking to it. After talking with Justin on the show a couple months ago, he he definitely had an influence on all of this. Like, I wanted to spend a little more effort, right.

00;13;36;22 - 00;13;55;15
Unknown
And have the dedication and passion that he kind of talked about, right? I was like, I just he that's what he did to me. And he inspired me to shoot, man. Like, I mean, when you have the when you have the willpower to just sit and do the same thing every night. Yes. It's like I said, he was traveling right after that.

00;13;55;17 - 00;14;25;21
Unknown
Yep. The dedication itself is like clearly crafted for me. When he talked about New Mexico to and traveling out there to dark skies 41 and high elevation. Yeah. We want to see your photos, Justin. We're talking about you, man. Yeah. If you're here, if you're if you do see this, Justin, like, honestly, you, in spite of all of that, like, we constantly like, you know, you wanted to we felt like we had to do better.

00;14;25;24 - 00;14;42;09
Unknown
Yeah, we had to do more data. And it inspired a lot of the song. I had to find darker Skies. Oh. I don't think how you can. You get darker than the. It depends on the night. Eric Low is a bitch, man. Like you never know. It can ruin a whole day. Even even in the art of comedy.

00;14;42;10 - 00;15;04;27
Unknown
Yeah. You know what I'll say about here? That really shocked me. No. City SkyDome was like. I saw zero light thrown out in that field. Sorry about the, sizzle that you may have heard in the background there. So Mark and Whitney are such good hosts that they told us not to worry about any food at all for the entire weekend.

00;15;04;27 - 00;15;41;00
Unknown
They said, just don't worry about it. And I knew, you know, based on that, that they probably definitely enjoyed cooking. I had no idea that we would be eating, four tomahawk steaks that were thicker than anything I'd ever seen before. So the sizzling that you actually heard in the background there, was after they had been smoking for two hours on the smoker, Mark brought out a grill input cast iron on it and got it just ripping hot and with a soldering iron at stake for us.

00;15;41;00 - 00;16;03;09
Unknown
So the steak was, locally sourced from Wisconsin and without a doubt, some of the best steak I've ever had in my entire life. So, I won't spend too much time talking about the food, but I certainly could, because every meal we had was special in its own way. True hard thing for everybody tonight. Oh my God, dude.

00;16;03;11 - 00;16;22;15
Unknown
So, is the plan to, like, have have a split one? I mean, come on. And I'll probably just have we'll share. We'll share one. Oh my god. And there's a yeah, there's going to have a lot of sides too. There is a chance that another friend might be coming up tonight too. So. Well I'm happy to share.

00;16;22;16 - 00;16;44;21
Unknown
Yeah. I think because and don't get me wrong, I love steak. My goodness. Oh my God, that's just ridiculous as it is. Yeah, that other friend did indeed show up and that was J. Little did I know he would be bringing with him some of the best glass that I had ever seen in my life.

00;16;45;00 - 00;17;14;02
Unknown
He had a 300 millimeter F2 lens, which is just ridiculous. He was a photographer in the purest sense. And, he got a couple of shots that really made me rethink things. And, you know how I go about shooting astrophotography. He seems so staunch and straightforward in his thinking. When I first met him. And then I saw his work, and,

00;17;14;04 - 00;17;43;04
Unknown
Yeah, I had to shut up. So the first night, we were all just kind of, you know, getting our feet under us and kind of finding out, what we were going to image and making sure all of our rigs were working properly. After we talked about Justin, it made me think about what I was going to shoot because all the way up until, you know, I literally got to Wisconsin, I wasn't really sure what my target was going to be or targets.

00;17;43;07 - 00;18;09;26
Unknown
And, I think after having that brief discussion, it inspired me to say, you know what? I am just going to shoot one object all three nights that I'm here and get as much exposure data as I can on a single target. So that's what I did. I think I made it till about 3 a.m. that first night before I was just completely exhausted.

00;18;09;29 - 00;18;34;09
Unknown
Woke up the next morning around 10:00 am and Hamza had to head out. He can only come for a day. It was so cool getting to meet you. So thank you for letting me completely rip your Tesla. As you would put it. I told Hamza that I had never ridden in a Tesla before, and I was like, despite current political leanings, I sure would love to, ride in one to see what it's like.

00;18;34;09 - 00;18;52;15
Unknown
And of course, him being as generous as he is, he said, no, drive it. So not only did it let me drive it, he let me, bring it to a complete stop in the middle of the road and put my foot to the floor. Those things really are crazy, man. They will, throw you into the back of your seat, while you do that.

00;18;52;15 - 00;19;23;03
Unknown
So credit to your hands. And thank you so much, man. And, it was really cool getting to meet you out there. Later on on Sunday, as it was getting late, me and Parrish, started talking about perhaps going out and looking for, a better place for wide field Milky Way shots, because as great as the field was for the targets that we were shooting, it didn't really leave a, a perfect area for shooting.

00;19;23;16 - 00;19;42;01
Unknown
The entire core of the Milky Way. And there's a beautiful spot down by the lake where you can shoot the core. But that was a really tough fight to get down there. And, I learned I'm not in the best shape on this trip. So next time I will be able to get up and down that hike a lot easier.

00;19;42;01 - 00;20;11;00
Unknown
I'm hoping so, Mark. Very generously, gave me his keys, and we hopped in the car, and we drove about 20 minutes north to a place, that was actually a dam that was open all night to the public, and it looked like I had just, you know, a perfect spot to shoot Milky Way. We are tonight up in the, kind of middle of nowhere up.

00;20;11;00 - 00;20;38;12
Unknown
And, I am, sorry about the wind. Noise. Means I can't really do much about that after fact, I'm, currently standing with, Parrish and Eric, and we are officially celebrating the, the first Astro cast meetup. So we've we've very much kept this under the radar. Obviously, you guys haven't heard me talk about it on the show yet, and there's a reason for that.

00;20;38;12 - 00;20;59;21
Unknown
We're really kind of doing like a test, and some of the members in the Patreon wanted to get together. So we did, and and we're out here. So, this is the second night I'm here for three nights. Parrish, how long have you been here? Came Friday night. Leaving Tuesday morning. Okay, so Friday night and staying till Tuesday.

00;20;59;21 - 00;21;23;05
Unknown
Eric, how about you? I've been here since Wednesday evening and I'll be here until Tuesday morning. Perfect. So, yeah, both of these guys get to stay a little bit longer than me. Unfortunately, work precluded me from coming as long as I would have liked to. But I will say, guys, we're having about as good of weather as we could ask for, except for like a few patches of clouds here and there.

00;21;23;05 - 00;21;48;16
Unknown
Like last night up until about 3:00 in the morning, I was up shooting. We all picked a deep space object and have stayed on it the whole time. So we're all hoping to get, like, excellent results. And, tonight was supposed to be cloudy and there's been patches of clouds, no doubt about it. And we can see a few on the southern horizon right now.

00;21;48;16 - 00;22;13;19
Unknown
But the three of us really wanted to go Milky Way hunting. And, Mark, who is hosting us? Thank you. Mark. He just he didn't want to come tonight because he had another friend coming in, also a photographer and opera singer of all things. So the three of us asked if we could borrow his car and go find a place in the middle of nowhere, and, man, we have found it.

00;22;13;19 - 00;22;53;27
Unknown
So we're at a High Falls dam and, what's the name? Creve. It's Wisconsin, so just outside of a town called pound, Wisconsin. And these. Do you guys know what the portal is here? Technically, I think I saw the sky quality meter. That's 21.27, 21.27. That's that's very good. It's like portal three. Yeah. I mean, so for me, having only seen portal two from sea level at the coast, the seeing out there is awful because of all the humidity and the sea air that comes up.

00;22;53;27 - 00;23;20;10
Unknown
So even though it's it's very, very dark, like, I don't know if it looked this good out there, man. This is incredible. But the only downside is the dam that is, directly east of us. It's got like, a couple of lights on it. If they turn those lights off, this would be like, the perfect spot for a star party.

00;23;20;10 - 00;23;49;06
Unknown
So, do you guys want to introduce yourself? Yeah, I'll go first. Hold this. You can cover up the green light with your thumb. And then just introduce yourself a little, So, yeah, this is. Astro. For over ten years now, joined the, roots podcast about, I would say about a year now. I've been actually following him since episode one, so long time.

00;23;49;12 - 00;24;12;02
Unknown
Yeah. Long time listener. And again, like I said, it's an amazing group of people. I'm so happy that I joined the discord channel. We've made some amazing relationships and just deep friendship over the years. With a year last year and, yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for for having me. So I, I can't thank you enough for being here.

00;24;12;02 - 00;24;36;18
Unknown
Parrish and Eric, you guys are awesome. It's so cool to get to meet you guys and, finally hang out with some people from the chat. Because we talk to each other every day, and they're we're constantly giving each other tips, but, like to actually get together with like minded individuals. It's just something special, man. And especially under skies like this.

00;24;36;27 - 00;25;07;10
Unknown
Eric, would you like to introduce yourself? Just say your name for you from. Sure. Yeah. So my name's Eric. I'm actually originally from California. Moved to Wisconsin about ten years ago. So this is only, like, a four hour drive for me over here. I've been doing astrophotography for probably just barely a year now.

00;25;07;11 - 00;25;31;24
Unknown
Yep. And I started listening to, astro cars shortly after that, so maybe I'll stay here now. That's awesome, man. I'll tell you, in one year, Eric has, He's got quite the set up. He's got so, like, a fully kitted out C8. And then what's your other in your other telescope? I have a, Redcat 51, nice.

00;25;31;24 - 00;25;56;17
Unknown
Redcat 51, one of my favorite, refractor, for sure. Obviously, I've got to ask you a 55. What do you ever wish? Which one do you want to know? Well, let's let's hear, it's, I started off with the star 61, shortly after I got A's, and it's star 104 doublet. And following that, I ended up getting a more scientific 127 the carbon fiber.

00;25;56;19 - 00;26;18;18
Unknown
Oh, I love that scope. After that, I think I ended up getting an edge. HD eight. Oh, you got an HD eight? Yes, I do. Nice. And then now I should, Sorry. And then I followed that. I got a Redcat 51, the third gen. And then finally, right now, I have a s scar. 151 Q, which is kind of like a main scope right now.

00;26;18;21 - 00;26;41;01
Unknown
What's the focal length on that? The Oscar, I think native Oakland is like 20, 54, with the reducer. It brings it down to like I think it's like 807 hundred. So I haven't used a reducer yet. Yeah, but hey, it's sitting on top of my astrophysics 1100. Nice. Very, very nice. So. And only with some very experienced, astrophotographers out here.

00;26;41;17 - 00;27;09;22
Unknown
And just an awesome group of, you know, really, really cool people. And, I'm just so thankful to be out here, man. Like, standing under the Milky Way right now, even with that light right there, like, I can see, just countless stars that I otherwise just can't see in Charlotte at all. Like, even down at the club, it's like it's nowhere close to this.

00;27;09;24 - 00;27;35;06
Unknown
I mean, the you can see the northern band of the Milky Way, like, very clearly, in fact. So we were doing a one minute exposure of the northern band. And, as just as the shutter closed, we all saw, a shooting star go by, and it was just it was so beautiful, man. So anyway, we're going to be kind of recording, throughout the weekend.

00;27;35;06 - 00;27;56;11
Unknown
So this will be a little bit of a mishmash of audio, and I'm sure I'll, jump in from the home studio from time to time, but just wanted to, say hello from the, fields of Wisconsin. I guess I should say the waters of Wisconsin are right in front of a a beautiful body of water. And there's a dam less than a football field away from us.

00;27;56;11 - 00;28;27;26
Unknown
So, clear skies to you, I hope wherever you are right now that that you're, happy at peace and enjoying beautiful, clear skies. So. Yeah. Guys, sorry about the wind noise. I didn't bring my little windsock cushion things for the DJI mike, so I ended up regretting that a little bit later. Try to put it through the parametric equalizer and just do, adaptive noise reduction as well as I could in audition, but you know how I am with audio quality, so it drives me nuts.

00;28;27;26 - 00;28;50;16
Unknown
Anyhow, that was kind of the test run for the dam, because we wanted to see if it was something that was actually worth bringing everybody out there for the next night. So Sunday night, we, obviously continued imaging all night long. We headed back home around 1 a.m. after getting a lot of really, you know, great shots of the Milky Way.

00;28;50;18 - 00;29;13;09
Unknown
And, sure enough, the next night we were able to, to bring everybody back. All right, guys, this is Roo, and we are back once again. We are back at the dam tonight. Viewing the Milky Way, and we've got the whole crew with us from, first light this time up here in Wisconsin. We're at the, the high Falls Dam.

00;29;13;09 - 00;29;37;17
Unknown
So immediately, to our east, we have the the dam itself with just one light. And that one light was off. This would be probably the most incredible place to have a star party, because it's a complete 360 degree view of the Milky Way. And it's it's so dark and clear that you can see the Milky Way all the way to the north.

00;29;37;17 - 00;30;03;27
Unknown
So the band just goes directly overhead another shooting star. And we've seen five shooting stars in the last ten minutes. Like it's it's just un real. So what I like to do is, I just want to kind of pass the mic around and let everybody introduce themselves and say hi. And if you want to say something about yourself or about this trip, feel free to.

00;30;03;27 - 00;30;22;10
Unknown
So, Mark, I'm going to, I'm going to hand it to you first. This is Mark, who was on the show a few episodes back. I want to say thank you first, Mark, for hosting, this incredible event. My pleasure. Yeah. We couldn't have done it without you, man. So. Hi, everybody. This is Mark. Back again.

00;30;22;12 - 00;30;45;27
Unknown
Just checking in with some, new friends who really feel like lifelong friends at this point. And, we've had a really, really wonderful time, and I don't really have anything much to say right now, because, honestly, I'm just appreciating this moment with my girlfriend, Whitney. Let's say hi. Hi. And. Yeah, yeah. Life is good. I'll leave it at that.

00;30;45;27 - 00;31;12;25
Unknown
It truly is. Paris. Say hi. Hi, everyone. First of all, Mark Whitney, thanks for having hosting us. Like, it's just been the amazing couple of nights. So it's just been like, Whitney Sandwich's holy crap. Like, she's been making amazing food, and she's been, you know, she's an artist. So, so thank you so much. Yeah. No, it's like like Ruth said, right where the.

00;31;12;25 - 00;31;34;04
Unknown
Damn. It's just an amazing view. You got a 360 clear view of the sky. And right now, Ruth was gracious enough to lend me his move, shoot, move. Because my sky guide approach just ran into issues. So I'm just shooting, a couple of shots of the Milky Way through carrying the lead, though. What kind of camera do you have?

00;31;34;05 - 00;31;56;12
Unknown
I have a canon EOS ra that I grabbed a R8 are a the Astro, the Astro version of the canon camera that they released, a couple of years back. And I grabbed it as soon as it came out. And yeah, I was actually about to sell it. Andrew and Mark were like, hey, hold on to that. That's a collector's item.

00;31;56;15 - 00;32;16;01
Unknown
And more aggressive. He said, yeah, yeah, man. Yes. Guru basically said, you know what, if I had that, I would have sold my house before I sold my camera. So but now it's been an amazing time here. Like I am so sad it's going to end tomorrow. It's honestly it's going to be depressing going back to work after the last.

00;32;16;01 - 00;32;34;03
Unknown
It's kind of after the last amazing couple of nights we've had and again, once again with me, Mark, again, you've been so amazing. So thank you so much and thanks to for getting all this together. Of course, man, I couldn't have done it without Mark and Whitney. They're really like the true heroes of this adventure. Let's see if we get a loon in the background.

00;32;34;05 - 00;32;44;10
Unknown
We've we've second ago, we've got. Let's let's just be quiet for a moment.

00;32;44;12 - 00;33;17;12
Unknown
Hopefully the stuff I really I'm going to I'm going to crank that and audition because there are literally loons singing over the lake right now. It, you know, I've said this before and I'll say it again, I'm not a religious person, but when I'm under the Milky Way like this, with people that I love and care about so much, I can't help but feel spiritual because it's just so special.

00;33;17;14 - 00;33;43;11
Unknown
Eric, come say hi my friend. Hi. I'm so. Eric is, He's come out of his shell a lot on this trip so early on. Eric was quiet and kind of getting to know us all, and I've had. I I'm I'm not trying to sound like a jerk when I say it, Eric, but I've had friends like you in the past that are very reserved at first.

00;33;43;13 - 00;34;07;26
Unknown
But the more you get to know them, the more you realize you know that they have a heart of gold. And that's kind of what I'm starting to see come out of you. So anyway, tell us about how you feel about the trip, man. Yeah, I mean, it's been great. I was, aside from Mark and Whitney, I was the first one to show up and they probably thought I looked like, a dog with, my tail between my legs.

00;34;07;26 - 00;34;36;15
Unknown
But I mean, that that's just me. I, I when I'm around new people, I, I'm, I don't even know how to describe it, but, they have been very welcoming. Truly. And you're welcome here, man. I mean, I mean, really, it's just been crazy, like you told me three months ago, I was going to be standing under the Milky Way with a bunch of people.

00;34;36;17 - 00;34;59;12
Unknown
I never met up until this week. I don't know that I. I don't believe it. You yes, I, I would I would totally reiterate that. And, I guess this is as good a time as any to say it. So first light is going to be our first run of the get together for the, the Patreon members and members of the discord.

00;34;59;12 - 00;35;23;01
Unknown
And, we hope to do it again. And, we certainly will, you know, have everything continues going this way? I couldn't imagine going a year without seeing you guys again and doing this again. This cabin's always open, man. Yeah, that's what it's here for. Such, such a special place. So we found the, honorary home of the Astro cast.

00;35;23;01 - 00;35;48;12
Unknown
The first charter, if you will, up at Mark's place. And, this is just been like, man, such an amazing trip. So have a nice time each day. Yeah, we do. So. So Parrish actually gifted Mark and. And the cabin, for that matter. You could say. Let's say he gifted the cabin a, beautiful aperture, a ten inch tub.

00;35;48;14 - 00;36;13;28
Unknown
And we had it out the other night, and Mark was just star hopping and just seeing so many doubles after doubles and clusters. And we we actually brought it out to the field tonight, where we've been imaging from for the first time. And we're hoping when we, when we get back in a little bit to maybe check out Saturn and the Pleiades and see some of the really great targets that you can with a big job.

00;36;13;28 - 00;36;30;06
Unknown
So we stay up late and I laid up the there. We stay up late enough. We might be able to catch Orion rising in the east. Oh, man. This is going to be an all nighter for me. So I haven't had an all nighter. This weekend, I think 3 a.m. is the latest that I've made it thus far.

00;36;30;09 - 00;36;53;07
Unknown
But, if there was ever a perfect night for astronomy, this is it. Yeah. This is for a variety of reasons. The people are with you guys for helping me out. When my, ACR was going nuts a second ago. I mean, this is what it's all about, man. So it really so Rick told me something when I interviewed him very early on in the show.

00;36;53;07 - 00;37;20;25
Unknown
It was like it was before I hit the 20th episode. And I sat down with Rick, from Dark Dragon, the sponsor of the show. Shout out to Dark Dragons. But he told me that when he got into astrophotography, it was such a solo endeavor. And it wasn't until he joined a community that he realized the what an amazing group of individuals astronomy can bring together.

00;37;20;28 - 00;37;48;03
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely. And you know what a group you've got here. You can say that again, man. So this, this dam, just to give you guys some context, is about like 20 minutes, from Mark's cabin. And I think, what did the sky quality meter read last night at 21.87 21.87, which is which is pretty much better than anything I can get in North Carolina or South Carolina.

00;37;48;03 - 00;38;16;27
Unknown
Down at the club in Kershaw. High ball three low. Yeah you know and it just it's making me want to go out west and see ball one from high elevation. Because I just have a hard time imagining it getting better than this. But it does man. It can always get better. Man. It's kind of the magic of it too, is every night, you know, we were chatting about, chatting with Kelly about, I think she said that she was going to Big Bend at some point.

00;38;16;27 - 00;38;35;23
Unknown
Yep. And she was like, well, it's not the out of cone. It's like it is because you know what? You sky conditions can change so much on any given day. Oh yeah. You know there is no best. It's just an ever evolving thing. And any special on any night can be special like this. It really can be. So you know, it.

00;38;35;26 - 00;38;59;14
Unknown
It's it's almost like captain intervened or something because the weather has gotten, like, better and better every night. Yeah. I finally showed up. And he's such a jerk. Yeah, man. He finally showed up. So thank you, captain, wherever you are. We've certainly got clear skies tonight. This is. It's like winter viewing is the best, and you know it.

00;38;59;18 - 00;39;20;00
Unknown
Honestly, like, this feels like winter in North Carolina tonight. It's very chill. Yeah, we're easily in the 40s. Right? Okay. So I mean, we're at 45 degrees north just to give you some perspective. So we're we're pretty high up there. Right on. Like, you know, just east of Lake Michigan is where we are. And we're in a town called pounder Fritz.

00;39;21;04 - 00;39;41;05
Unknown
And it's it's a really, really special place. And I never thought I'd be up here. I mean, like, I can see the Pleiades reflecting off this body of water and the Milky Way reflecting and Mark has a lake by the cabin that we walked down to on the first night. It was. It was a nightmare to walk down that.

00;39;41;05 - 00;39;58;14
Unknown
Oh, my God, it's so good. It's so bad. I had it, had a few cocktails and Mark's like, let's go check. And I was like, yeah. And I'm in my flip flops and oh man, I had no idea what I was getting into. But but I will say the view was certainly worth it because amazing view down there.

00;39;58;14 - 00;40;20;02
Unknown
So guys, we're going to, check back in in a little bit when we, are back at the home site under where all of our scopes are. But I definitely wanted to make sure that we, captured this moment. So, Mark, thanks again. Dude. Well, thank you so much. You guys are amazing. So thanks so much.

00;40;20;08 - 00;40;44;00
Unknown
Our pleasure. And we'll catch you back in a bit, man. Sounds good, brother. So that night, I was able to capture the best Milky Way shots that I believe I've gotten so far with a 14 millimeter lens. So I had my, R5 on the move, shoot, move, which was my secondary mount that I brought in addition to the three.

00;40;45;02 - 00;41;07;16
Unknown
Let me just say that move, shoot, move is awesome. And I think I convinced, at least a couple of people to purchase one, on that trip, because Parrish actually had his Sky Guider pro, which I also own, longtime listeners of the show, probably. No, and he was having, you know, similar issues to it that I have had in the past.

00;41;08;12 - 00;41;33;22
Unknown
He had an I polar before, and that worked great for lining things up. He doesn't have it now. And because of that, he ran into issues, and it seemed like he wasn't going to be able to to get any Milky Way shots. But luckily, I wrapped mine up in about half an hour, and then Parrish was able to to put his camera on the move, shoot, move, and get some really awesome Milky Way shots as well.

00;41;33;22 - 00;41;55;29
Unknown
So I did get a picture of, everybody who, you know, was talking in these clips, together under the Milky Way, looking up at it. And, I love for you guys to check it out. So if you get a chance, feel free to visit the Facebook page. And, I will make sure to put it there along with the, the final image that I was able to capture.

00;41;55;29 - 00;42;24;20
Unknown
So, after we wrapped up at the dam, we actually headed back, to the field, where the cabin is. And, it was just perfect seeing conditions that night. The temperature actually dropped drastically. That day. We went from I think it was 60, 65 degrees. And in the daytime, all the way down to 33 degrees that night.

00;42;24;20 - 00;42;55;06
Unknown
So thankfully, we all had two heaters. They were all running. So our rigs just kept imaging all night long. And after we saw how great the ceiling was, we all just kind of knew that we were going to be up until sunrise for sure. One other thing I want to mention, too, while we were at the dam, just a really, really cool moment in time, when I was taking the foreground, shot up all of us looking up at the Milky Way.

00;42;55;08 - 00;43;20;11
Unknown
We were, standing there with our backs to the camera for a 32nd exposure, and literally all of us were just staring at the sky and trying to stand perfectly still for this exposure. And as that's happening, we see two shooting stars, very bright ones, at the exact same time, going in opposite direction. So I'd never seen that before.

00;43;20;14 - 00;43;39;28
Unknown
I surely haven't seen two at the exact same time. I don't know if it was one that maybe broke up. They kind of appear to come from the, you know, same area in the sky. But I was actually able to capture that moment in that foreground shot. So it was a 32nd exposure. And obviously the shooting stars are just a split second.

00;43;40;16 - 00;44;07;19
Unknown
So, you know, they don't show up super bright. But I was able to capture it nonetheless. So we headed back, to the field. We had all our gear set up. We went ahead and pulled all the chairs out. I think I played some Pink Floyd animals throughout the night. Always a great track to have all your, out under the stars and, I, I sat down with a few of the guys and just kind of started asking them about astronomy.

00;44;07;21 - 00;44;30;06
Unknown
So this is a pretty in-depth conversation, that you'll be hearing. We speak with parish first, and then we speak with Eric, and then finally, we wrap up things with Mark. Who who gets to tell us a little bit about the history of the cabin and what it means to him. And, to me, this was really the highlight of the trip.

00;44;31;15 - 00;44;56;12
Unknown
It was so clear that night and so cold to actually, it was very glad that I brought a hoodie, because I ended up needing it quite a bit, because it got down to like 33 degrees that night. So it definitely got chilly. Definitely had to have the do heaters running. But at the end of the night we had, what I knew was going to be we are really, really awesome episode.

00;44;56;12 - 00;45;20;25
Unknown
So I hope that you guys enjoy these, interviews. And, I'll check back in with you afterwards and get together. Thanks for listening. I've made lifelong friends this weekend, and I'm not even remotely ashamed to say that. You know, we've all talked a lot about this weekend about, like, how important it is to be able to be honest and open with yourself.

00;45;20;25 - 00;45;42;08
Unknown
And it's it's like it's okay to get in touch with your feelings. And when you're hanging out with friends, people like, don't let anyone not allow yourself to be vulnerable because you've become so jaded to life. So just a little personal advice for me, on this weekend, but I'm sitting here with one of those new friends, parish, who you may have heard from earlier.

00;45;42;08 - 00;46;10;02
Unknown
Or maybe I'll put that at the end. I don't know yet. We'll find out in post, but. Parish, how are you doing, man? I'm doing good. Underneath the night. Stars like, dude, life couldn't be better. I couldn't agree more, man. So what got you into astrophotography? So I've always been interested in astrophotography. Astrophotography. Right. But, I've always thought that beyond my reach.

00;46;10;07 - 00;46;35;14
Unknown
Right. It's very expensive to get into. And I think that was the, point that a lot of folks just hammered on and on was just at how expensive and how awful a rabbit hole it comes down to. But I started off with visual for a long time. That's a long time. I had a 127, mark about in 2012 or so.

00;46;35;15 - 00;46;54;10
Unknown
Oh, wow. So you've been doing this for a long time? Yeah. Yeah. So we'll take it out with some friends. And, yeah, that's what got me into, like. I mean, my my love for astronomy starts way early, right? So I remember a time back home where, I'm from, Nepal. Nepal. So originally from Nepal.

00;46;54;22 - 00;47;13;15
Unknown
I grew up in a town called Brahmagupta. And I moved to the capital city, Kathmandu, when I was about 15, 16. Oh, wow. Okay. And I remember a time when I was back in my hometown, we used to have, what we call loadshedding, which is basically you'd have power cuts for, like, hours at a time.

00;47;13;22 - 00;47;36;26
Unknown
Okay? And my earliest memory that I can distinctly remember, honestly, is just, sitting on the roof one night and just then we had about an hour or whatever was my brother and myself was sitting on the roof. We had a load shedding, so the power went out for the entire city and after a little while, I can't remember how long.

00;47;36;26 - 00;47;52;27
Unknown
Right. And you could just see the Milky Way show up, right? Because there's no light. No light at all for a long time. And you could just see the Milky Way showed up, and I was just fascinated. Not are we talking like no light in the immediate vicinity, or do you mean, I think it's a it's like a as far as I can see some.

00;47;52;27 - 00;48;09;22
Unknown
Yeah, it's a, I mean, at a time like Kathmandu. No, no, this was back, and I'm in my hometown. Okay. Okay. Right. So. Yeah. So you would have, like, it's a, it's a significant like I would I think. Yeah. They did like blocks and blocks but it was not enough for the Milky Way. Yes yes yes yes.

00;48;09;22 - 00;48;28;23
Unknown
Oh man. So yeah. So that was my earliest memory and I was just fascinated by it. And I think my dad fed my addiction. He kind of really got us into it. And I started really diving into it. But yeah, back in 2012 I got my first Mac, and I would I would go out with friends and just kind of take a look at the night sky.

00;48;28;23 - 00;48;49;03
Unknown
And I was like, I did visual for a while. My friend and I, my friends and I used to go camping and we would dig it out and then eventually got the job, saw a few uses, but that was about it. Right? And I'll be up in front of yes no. Yes. Okay, so just to fill you guys in, Parrish brought his, 12 inch, ten inch, I'm sorry, ten inch aperture, a dobsonian.

00;48;49;03 - 00;49;13;05
Unknown
And we've been using it all weekend. It's it's incredible. But anyway. Go on. Sorry. No worries. Noise. So. Yeah. So after a while, I think it was back in 2017. I started, getting into Astro, at that time. Both. I follow Trevor. Right. Trevor Jones of Astro Backyard and, Peter Zelenka. Yeah, right.

00;49;13;05 - 00;49;30;20
Unknown
Oh, I love Zelenka, man. He taught me some of my earliest techniques. He's he's amazing. He's amazing. And he goes so in-depth into some of the things as well. It's just amazing. So, yeah, this year was not around. I think it was around 27, 28, 2017, 2018. Okay. Because that's when he started, right? Yeah. Yeah. On that.

00;49;30;25 - 00;49;49;07
Unknown
Yeah. We're both very early. Yeah. And I started off like honestly like I started following them probably like, very early. What kind of camera did you have at first? So I started off with an unmodified D750 Nikon D750. And then I used to use my lens for wide angle Milky Way shots, and I had a 50 millimeter little shot.

00;49;49;07 - 00;50;10;03
Unknown
Right. And I started following Trevor, and I think, he, he kind of. And both him and Peter Zelenka, if I'm not mistaken, started off with the sky. The pro right. The eye from Sky got the pro. Wow. Me and you both own. Yeah, by the way. So. So yeah. So I got into it, so I, I got the sky, got a pro and I was like, oh I kind of want a little more aperture as well.

00;50;10;03 - 00;50;36;21
Unknown
So I ended up getting a William Optics and then it's star 61. What year was that? Was that like 2018, 2017, 2017, 2017 2018. That's the OG of the new class of refractor. And then yeah. So basically ended up taking it out and like, you know, there's a learning curve to this, right. And everybody, people almost everybody says, hey, your first picture might not turn out the way it did not turn right.

00;50;36;24 - 00;50;57;16
Unknown
But honestly, I don't know if I got lucky. Right? I spent a lot of time reading up on, like, how to set everything up and everything else, but my first picture was of the Andromeda Galaxy, and I got about a good five six hours of data and it came out perfect. Oh man, that is. And I think we shot.

00;50;57;16 - 00;51;17;15
Unknown
Yeah, for my first shot. Right. For my first shot unguided, it was I think it was 62nd exposures of Andromeda for about five, six hours. And what was the the focal length? I think it's like 360. Oh, right. Oh, yeah. Well, on that 71. Yeah. That. Okay. That makes so. Yeah. So yeah, it just came out perfect.

00;51;17;15 - 00;51;39;28
Unknown
And I was just like blown away and pretty soon, like, you know, I, I was taking a lot of pictures. I think my next, picture was of the, the Seven sisters, the Pleiades. Yeah. For a while, they just rose. Yeah. And then. Yeah. So. And before I knew it, I basically blew up my entire savings, which I was seeing for our house at the time.

00;51;40;00 - 00;51;59;19
Unknown
But I basically went through my savings, and I just started going, like, all in, and I got a, 294, because I wanted to. I kind of wanted, astro dedicated Astro camera. So I ended up getting a 294, and then soon after, I think, I started I mean, one of the things about Sky got as well.

00;51;59;19 - 00;52;17;17
Unknown
It only tracks, and it doesn't track in our. Yeah, right. So framing becomes a little challenging. Inara not in deck. Oh, sorry. Oh yeah. Sorry. Yeah. The other way. So yes. Only in our not in the deck. Right. So and then framing started to become a little difficult. Yeah. Oh yeah. So wait up until this point you were not you had no assistance with framing.

00;52;17;17 - 00;52;34;15
Unknown
You were were you? So honestly, I was just kind of pointing and I was like, hey, I'm pointing to the general vicinity and take a little short exposures and kind of frame it that way. Right. Andromeda is bright enough. So honestly, it's like an exposure distance in the core, right? So like, yeah, some of the brighter objects was easy, but some of the fainter objects were really difficult to frame.

00;52;35;15 - 00;52;53;26
Unknown
And then so yeah. So I saw I was like all right I need something that can track both in RA and deck. So after a lot of research, I ended up getting the six hour pro. Oh that's legendary. That. Yeah. And that's, it ran smoothly. It was heavy because honestly, like I said, that's what I've heard that.

00;52;53;26 - 00;53;12;06
Unknown
Yeah, it's a beast. And honestly, like you said, I used to live in an apartment, on the for I like I was since, like, the first floor and it was a pain in the butt to kind of tell a lot. So if you were in an apartment on the first floor, where would you actually image from? So I would drive, I would drive to a doc's, side.

00;53;12;13 - 00;53;32;18
Unknown
Okay. Okay. So. Yeah. So. But you had to lug it out. I had to lug it out. I mean, like, I would put it in my back with my, my car and just kind of drive. And luckily enough, there's a, there's a park relatively close by which is called the same guy State Park. Okay. And it had a, basically a horse campground, right, with full trees, 60 degree views.

00;53;33;04 - 00;53;55;00
Unknown
And I would just, I called him up at the first time and say, hey, I just, I want to take pictures. And they were okay with it. So so let's pause on that one moment, because this is something I want everybody to hear. Any time that you want to go somewhere that you've never been before, even if it's like a business, like, for example, that I'm not going to call a church a business.

00;53;55;00 - 00;54;23;21
Unknown
But, you know, I mean, it's it's private and, and business takes place there. Call them, just talk to them and see like, hey, man, I, you know, you have a wonderful location. It would be perfect. I'm working on an astronomy project. Like I did that at the very first place I went to, which was a church parking lot whenever I very first started and me and the pastor actually became friends, he actually gave me a book about how, God wrote, you know, chapters of the Bible essentially in cars.

00;54;23;22 - 00;54;47;04
Unknown
And, you know, it might not like tied with my belief system, but it was an incredible gesture on his part. And that sparked a friendship. And then he let me go whenever I was honestly more receptive to the idea. Right. Like, I've like, I've come across so many people that I'm more than welcome to say, hey, you know, over the years I've met friends and they were like, hey, if you want to take a shot, like stop by my place or like, you know, hey, my farm is open to you.

00;54;47;05 - 00;55;06;12
Unknown
Is that right? So, so yeah. So, so, yeah. So I used to go to the house, gram ground and, lug everything there. And soon after, like, I got the, I had the 61 and the 24 auto, 86 hour pro nights, and that kept me going for a while. And then again, you get up, you auto guiding head at this point.

00;55;07;06 - 00;55;23;26
Unknown
Not yet, I think. Not yet, but I think within a month or two, I did end up getting, auto guider. Right. And, Yeah. Kept me going for a while, maybe a couple of months before I was on a laptop and like, yes, yes, yes, I was using a laptop and I was using a bit of the time.

00;55;23;26 - 00;55;39;19
Unknown
Yes. That was what you used. So. Yeah. So at the time and I think, if I, if I'm not mistaken, I think Nina started chemo around the same time, but it was very basic at that time. Right? I didn't have a lot of functionality, but I couldn't be mistaken. But I did try it once, and I was like, all right, you know what?

00;55;39;19 - 00;55;55;28
Unknown
If it was a lot more refined product at the time and it was so much easier. So I instead of using that for a while. And then came the aperture fever. Yeah. And I was like, all right, I need to get something else. And then ended up getting I love the William Optics. They are right. They're they're phenomenal.

00;55;55;28 - 00;56;12;24
Unknown
Right. I mean like just kind of set the standard early on. You know they have not blinked. Yeah. And I mean the the glass quality is really good. Like I mean the finish the finish is really good. And again this is double it. But again like I said it's the double double can do. It is amazing. If you have a really good double it honestly.

00;56;12;24 - 00;56;31;22
Unknown
Like it's better than a crappy triple it just in my opinion. Right. So yeah. So I ended up getting A's in star Z, all three. Was it 1 or 3? Sorry, 1 or 3. So much larger. What is 103 that's supposed to, for instance? Yeah, I think so. Yeah I am not. Yeah, yeah. Don't ask me.

00;56;31;23 - 00;56;48;07
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. But yeah I think it's about four inches. And I think I had like a full, a native focal length of about 760mm. You have to reduce it. Yes. I use the use of the William flat, I think the modern 60 with the no, I think it comes down to like 565. Okay. Yeah, that sounds about right.

00;56;48;09 - 00;57;17;01
Unknown
And so, so yeah. So I use that for a little bit as well. And then again aperture fever hit again. Again. Got to warn you, if you're getting into this hobby do do do do control your just, I'm not that very good at controlling urges. But. Yeah. So. No. So I for this, I got a bridge fever again, and I saw, a, I think an ad somewhere for the Explore Scientific 127 the carbon, the carbon fiber.

00;57;17;01 - 00;57;34;09
Unknown
They said you want to list listed off, long. Yeah. So I ended up getting it from, I think I, if I'm not mistaken, I got it from B. I think Buffalo Bridge being naturalized, I assumed to be an affiliate. So yeah. So I ended up getting it from there. And, I was like, absolutely loved it.

00;57;34;09 - 00;57;56;21
Unknown
And that thing was just amazing. And then. So. Yeah, so that's how basically try and try it on. And like I said, it was like six. I was still heavy, to log on. And then when they announced the M five. Right. Oh I, I just jumped like I think I don't know if I preordered it, but I was I pray to God I was very early I was an early adopter for that.

00;57;56;23 - 00;58;17;28
Unknown
And I get like I said, same way classes almost, almost the same weight classes like six are. Yep. Right. Without having to worry about counterweights and light harmonic mounts. Man, there's such a revelation. Honestly, it made asked. It made me sense. Like, you know what? The hobby a lot more fun. I mean, I, I know of some people complain about harmonic amounts and so on, right.

00;58;18;01 - 00;58;38;17
Unknown
But honestly, I've had nothing but good luck with that. And it's like, it's so light, right? You can just set it up. Is man. Like that's that's one thing I have noticed. Like I know this is only like my third time taking this rig out with the AM3 on it and I've got the 85 or 120 mini. And, Parrish actually gifted me a new William Optics guide scope.

00;58;38;17 - 00;59;01;10
Unknown
Thank you so much for that, man. I really oh, it came with, I think, free with one of my red gets what I already have more than enough cat scope, so it's a valuable piece. So thank you for that. But what I've noticed, though is like when we came down here, like, you know, we're probably a football field away from the cabin out here in the field, and both of us just picked up our rigs and carried them over our shoulder.

00;59;01;10 - 00;59;20;21
Unknown
And at no point did I feel like anything was in danger. I walked carefully and I balanced it well on my shoulder so it wasn't tipping over. And I think I put the, the, altitude way down. So it's, you know, more even, but like, it's just so light, man. Oh, it's just everything, like. I mean, I remember having to just take out the car with the X6.

00;59;20;26 - 00;59;38;18
Unknown
I mean, like, you have the you have the tripod, right. That weighs about I think it, I mean, 30 something pounds, I could be mistaken. But then you have the, the amount of riders like about 40 pounds or so and then the counterweights you have like I think it's like a to 11 pound counterweights as well.

00;59;38;18 - 00;59;54;21
Unknown
Right. I mean, all in all like you're talking like 70 to 90 pounds. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it adds up, right. And then plus well then you have to have like a battery. And at that time, I think initially I started off with like a deep cycle marine battery. Right. And though I mean like it is it. Yeah.

00;59;54;21 - 01;00;11;02
Unknown
Those are heavy. And the good thing was like with the horse you can just park your car in the sun loaded right there. But if I wanted to like even walk like ten feet 20, I like let's say 20, 30ft away. It's it's a chore, right? Yeah. So what we did is like you mentioned, right? Like we just scattered it off straight from the cabin.

01;00;11;02 - 01;00;27;16
Unknown
Right. And it's light enough that you can just have the entire rig in there. You know, you have that flexibility for when you do get the aperture fever. You just pop on the counterweight bar. Yep. You know, and put on what is the, the spot counterweight with the M5. How much I think I could be mistaken, but it could be 10 pounds.

01;00;27;16 - 01;00;44;26
Unknown
So it's very, very. Yeah, it's very light oriented. So it's 10 or 11 pounds, something like that. But but I mean, honestly, I've had I've had, what you call my. Yes. 127 on this as well with the counterweight, like, dude, it works like a charm. Right. So sweet and. Yeah. So, so. Yeah. Got started with that.

01;00;44;26 - 01;01;07;13
Unknown
And then, ever since I got to the hobby, I've been dreaming about an astrophysics mount. Yeah. And it's. You know what? It's the it's it's the best you can get, for the money. And I know it's a really pricey, and I really struggled with it for a long time, but I really wanted to get. And I think I got on the waitlist a couple of times as well.

01;01;07;14 - 01;01;20;13
Unknown
Right. And every time was like, oh, that's so that they only make enough to wear you. You have to get on a waitlist to get one at that time. Yes. I think you had to get on the waiting list because they do production runs like once a year, and then they'll call you if, if, if you're up for it.

01;01;20;13 - 01;01;40;11
Unknown
So. Right. So, so yeah. So, they so yeah. So I got on the waiting list and last year, I think, early, early in the year, my turn came up. But at the time I was back in the fall because my dad had passed away just recently, so no worries. And then I was like, all right.

01;01;40;11 - 01;01;57;21
Unknown
So I already had a lot of expenses that I time. So I just said, yeah, again, or this one, I just gave up on it. And then when I came back, around October and November ish, shortly after I came back, they reached out to me. I actually, I think, I don't know if they reached out to me or I just saw, something available.

01;01;57;21 - 01;02;11;24
Unknown
I reached out to them and said, hey, do you still have one? And I was like, yeah, they're like, we have a couple in stock. Oh, wow. And my mom and my mom was very encouraging. She was like, hey, this is your hobby. Yeah. This is all you talk about, right? It was like, work hard and I work hard.

01;02;11;24 - 01;02;24;19
Unknown
Very hard for this one as well. Right. So she was like, yes. Like, you know what? I just read yourself, right? And I had a lot of friends of mine as well. They were very encouraging about this. And I'm like, you know what? It's a it's I mean, like, forget this. Mom's like, I don't have to worry about it.

01;02;24;21 - 01;02;43;16
Unknown
I'm on the mount ever again. I don't have to worry about it. Right. And it's like it's the sport, right? So I was like, all right, so I call the astrophysics up, man, and I'm getting it. And I want to see, like a it's just been a joy that mom did. They have like a fancy unboxing experience when it came there was like 6 or 7 boxes that came with it really?

01;02;43;17 - 01;02;58;00
Unknown
Yeah. Because I mean, this decent amount in one box, they have the I got the peer as well. The peer came in out of the box. Right. The amount that I think there's like a 48 amount that came out of the box and then the counterweight comes in on the box there. They're like the electronics comes in out of the box.

01;02;58;00 - 01;03;18;14
Unknown
So there's like 7 or 8 boxes. And so yeah, no I got that set up as well. And then I had for a quick I think for I think before, right before I bought that as well actually, I had also bought a CD 800. Right. And I wanted to use a, I wanted to get into battery. So I was like, hey, I can get this and I can probably throw an F, what do you call it?

01;03;18;14 - 01;03;36;27
Unknown
Like, faster on it as well so I can convert it to enough to, so I can get it at like 300. I think it's like 300, and I'm, f2, so. But I wanted to get that as well, so I was like, it fit perfectly. And so. Yeah. So I threw that on top of that. And the I mean like the first time I can remember the first time, just remember the first time I actually got it pulled aligned.

01;03;37;00 - 01;04;09;09
Unknown
And you know, with some even with the, port alignment is so much easier, with the in recent months now. Right. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's like, it's it's again, even with like the M5 end. Right? I mean, it's easy, right. But it it feels a little sometimes it feels a little stiff sometimes. Right. But the astrophysics mount student rock, it's like I mean he's used the same amount as well as it does have a like I think they have like a big like captain's we kind of thing for the altitude and it's amazing.

01;04;09;12 - 01;04;31;07
Unknown
So you can make like really fine. Oh you can make really fine adjustments. And then as soon as I got a line I started like my calibration and everything else and I dude, I, I was getting like 0.110.0 on the Rmse as well. And that was it was just I. So I actually don't know too much about the astrophysics mounts.

01;04;31;07 - 01;04;49;12
Unknown
Like what are some of the like like what are some of the reasons you would want to buy in astrophysics. So one of the things was weight. I think the capacity as well. Right. So I wanted something that could last me forever. Right. And, the astrophysics, like the 1100 GTO, has a 110 pound capacity. Wow.

01;04;49;16 - 01;05;10;14
Unknown
Right. So I'll handle everything I could potentially either for you in the future as well. Right. And, one of the other thing that really interested me was, well, they can actually track pass the meridian as well. You don't actually have to do a gradient flip. As long as everything's clear, you can actually just keep going. So I've had so many nights where I just haven't even bothered with the meridian flips.

01;05;10;16 - 01;05;27;21
Unknown
Right. And it just keeps shooting as long as you have clearance. Yeah. As long as just. Yeah, I mean there's not like there's no yeah. It's smooth. Right. So cool. And then so yeah. It's it's something that if you end up getting it let go, honestly, it's just a, it's got a very nice community as well.

01;05;27;21 - 01;05;46;05
Unknown
Right. So there's a, there's a couple of, I think groups that you can join and Facebook or kindred, I think it's Group de Mayo. Okay. Okay. Right. Yep. So they have a couple of astrophysics owners, group as well. And again, like I said, I got there and the community was so welcoming. Right. They were like, hey, like, hey, I was a part of a special.

01;05;46;05 - 01;06;02;15
Unknown
Oh yeah. Exactly right. And I was like, I'll stream it so well. And I even have actually, Roland, who is the owner of astrophysics, actually commented on one of my post. Like, yeah, he was like, oh. And I was like this excited. That was a static. And the best is that, I mean, he he hangs he hangs around there as well.

01;06;02;15 - 01;06;19;20
Unknown
And it's just amazing to see. I'm so involved in this community as well. And like I said, it's like, dude, like you make you you got to be I mean, like, you can't imagine how much joy you brought to people just because he makes some of the most amazing amounts, for the price, obviously, but. Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, do you mind?

01;06;19;22 - 01;06;44;27
Unknown
So I genuinely don't know. What does one go for? I think, but I got it. I paid a little, I think about 11 to 1200. Sorry. 11 to $12,000 for it. But, dude, if you think about it like it's going to last the rest of your life. Exactly. Right. I mean, like, honestly, I, I really debated for a while between, let's say an educator, right?

01;06;44;27 - 01;07;03;03
Unknown
You know, I wanted something that has about 100 something observers. Yeah, something out of the class, because eventually I'm going to build an observatory in my backyard as well. Right. So I wanted something observatory grade and I, I kind of flung around a few options. And. Yeah, I mean, now I have looked at the radar. That is a it is a very good mount.

01;07;03;03 - 01;07;28;22
Unknown
Right. But I will say, yeah, I will say sounds like build quality is what makes the difference on the astrophysics. Yeah. I mean dude, like I mean they, they stand behind the right. I mean, I live in Minnesota, so the, I think their, offices, I mean, they build it in their offices in Chicago. Right? So I wanted something that was U.S made as well, so that I can like, you know, it's the easiest to close by as well, right?

01;07;28;22 - 01;07;47;02
Unknown
If I needed help, specify what kind of money you want to know. Exactly. Exactly. And honestly, the customer service is exceptional, right? When I call them up, they were I mean, they sent you, I mean, initially before you can buy this and you go to a talk to a technician, right? And he kind of takes you need and he kind of guides you for what you need to get like a full team.

01;07;47;02 - 01;08;00;10
Unknown
Oh, exactly. Exactly. And it was like I had some amazing conversations with like they were like, oh, so they would recommend. So yeah, you don't need this. Oh, actually you would need this and stuff like that. Right. So there was a couple of things that I was kind of thinking about that they were like, oh, you will need it.

01;08;00;10 - 01;08;17;23
Unknown
Right. So they actually saved me money from recklessly buying certain things. Right. So again, like I said, I mean, the customer service is just exceptional and that one's the one there. And one of the best things is like they stand behind the product like 100%. Right. So so I know you've you've known you've seen some of other like I've heard a lot of complaints about AI.

01;08;17;23 - 01;08;39;20
Unknown
Oh yeah. You know, it was like, yeah, you have I mean like four bands, but you, you you but yeah. And look, I mean, that's a trade off. Like you're going to get a good amount and it's going to be for a fair price, but exactly. And it's not I mean, it's gone through a lot of water to check is because I know, I know for a fact that, they actually do, scam, I think I'm not sure if the PMP, PMP Pro or something like that.

01;08;39;20 - 01;08;56;26
Unknown
Okay. And they actually test it out thoroughly before they actually ship it. So when you get the, the graphs, they're actually real. Yes. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Right. And so so that's one of the reasons why I was like, all right, you know what I wanted something that will last me forever. This would be something that I could probably use for myself.

01;08;56;29 - 01;09;12;12
Unknown
I don't have to worry about mounts ever again. I get it, I completely am. I mean, like I said, right? We've I started off with the Sky diver. I got an eagle six AR 15 years, man. I started with the Sky guard, went to Daegu six R and then got to a harmonic drive. So I've already spent a lot of money on the mounts anyway.

01;09;12;12 - 01;09;30;07
Unknown
Yeah. So I was like, well, if I buy this, I don't have to ever think about a mount ever again, right? I'm I'm catching up to that kind of, oh man, I'm getting there. So I completely understand. But yeah. So yeah. And then, buddy times have you used it. Oh, I it's it resides prominent in my backyard right now.

01;09;30;09 - 01;09;45;28
Unknown
Okay. It's resize but I'll tell it gizmo cover. And, I throw an extra cover underneath that as well. Just what we were talking about. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We both have 12 gizmos covers, and we both, So I put, like, a, I put a towel over my mouth just to soak up any, like, possible moisture.

01;09;45;28 - 01;10;18;04
Unknown
And we were talking. So real quick, let me mention this. We were talking about desiccant, earlier this week, because if you guys remember, I don't know, a month or two ago on the show, I had mentioned that I was trying to find a solution for the humidity because North Carolina summers are so humid. And I went on like Amazon and I tried to find a, really small dehumidifier that I could power because I thought the ones that just had desiccant in them, I thought they were like one time use devices.

01;10;18;10 - 01;10;36;17
Unknown
I was, very wrong about that. So apparently, like the little tiny silica bowl in it, you can, you can dry them out in the oven right? Is that what you guys? Yeah, that's the one I ended up getting from Amazon. Was like a Iva dry. They're not they're only like $15. Yep. And basically it's like rechargeable as well.

01;10;36;17 - 01;10;55;08
Unknown
Right. So you can just oh so it is power. I mean it's not exactly powered. So it basically a rechargeable. You mean you can put new desiccant. No no, no. So basically it has desiccant already inside it. Right. And once it starts to soak up moisture, it starts turning green. Right. And and once it gets to a certain point, you just stick it out.

01;10;55;08 - 01;11;15;10
Unknown
You plug it into a power outlet, and then it actually heats it up and brings it back to you. That's genius. Okay, that is very cool. So I'm definitely, definitely getting one of those is my point. And it's only $15. So it's cheaper than any humidifier that you would get. Exactly. So and I've shown this like I said I've, I got this amount early in the summer and I've literally thrown this.

01;11;15;11 - 01;11;33;25
Unknown
I've had my mount reside continuous in my backyard. It sits under I tell you guys my power, like I mentioned, and every time I just dig it out, plug it in and then, I'll throw it back out whenever it gets. This was like like it's an amazing one, right? And I've never had, like, a humidity problem or whatsoever.

01;11;33;25 - 01;11;49;19
Unknown
But I mean, yeah, once. Yeah. I've had enough. Yeah. Exactly. I mean oh I, I'm, I live my first winter with this one as well. I probably might get the halogen bulb as well just to kind of deal with the heat ones. Yeah. Moving. Yeah for sure. So have you gotten have you captured anything on it yet that you really dig or.

01;11;49;21 - 01;12;18;14
Unknown
I did, so I, during the Galaxy season. Right. I had made excellent use of the HD, and I ended up capturing a couple of galaxies right there. And it was amazing. And again, like I said, I mean, I think I struggled with getting OAG working. That's tricky, with the SD, but honestly, like I said, the mountains, it's so it's so good that, honestly, I didn't even need the edges, but I did slap on a 200 millimeter guide scope on it.

01;12;18;14 - 01;12;43;04
Unknown
And that. Yeah. So that's something you can do with the cuts in the edge HDR. It's an 11. I mean you with Lori. Yeah I mean they normally have like a 50m 50 or 60 right. I mean you want to minimize flexure as much as possible. Right. True. You, you they don't normally recommend, guide scopes. And once you get past like, once once you get past, like a thousand, maybe ten focal length, right?

01;12;43;04 - 01;12;58;02
Unknown
You know, what people start to say is like, it's better to use an OG. Yeah, right. But again, like I said, the benefit I had was because the mount is so sturdy. Right? And like I said, I've even shot at like in 20mph winds without an issue as well for that thing is a build like a tank.

01;12;58;02 - 01;13;16;18
Unknown
It doesn't move, man. So crazy. But yeah. So I ended up shooting a lot of galaxies, and then, I think what again, like I said, aperture fever. I mean, it's not aperture fever, but, I think there's, I wanted a very good refractor as well. And, I think I saw the Asgard come up of, as well.

01;13;16;20 - 01;13;44;05
Unknown
Yeah. I ended up getting a NASCAR 151 askew. And that that is so. And that is the one that, like, it's almost as big as a human woman. Like, I, I've seen a photo. Which of it is pretty huge. It's pretty huge. But yeah, I know I got that. And honestly, I was planning a like normally I would just shoot, like, let's say I would put around like 8 to 16 hours on a target drive.

01;13;44;07 - 01;14;03;12
Unknown
And then I heard the episode that you had with Justin, and honestly made me rethink the way I approach this hobby. Right. And I was like, oh, you know what? I'll start to capture more data on it. And then, yeah, so I basically started going down. I was like, all right, I need to put at least 20, 30 hours on my targets.

01;14;03;15 - 01;14;23;14
Unknown
And then I think the first target that I really started to shoot with that was the M, sorry, the M16, the Eagle Nebula. Oh. Which is what actually which is what actually got me into Astro in the first place. Right. And so I got about 20 hours by the. Oh, yeah. Yeah, man. My dad showed me that picture when I was a kid, and I was like, all right.

01;14;23;16 - 01;14;42;05
Unknown
I was like, I can't believe that I'm taking something similar from my backyard. It's, oh, it's. And then we're able to capture things like that are similar to what the Hubble was getting 20 years ago. Exactly, exactly. I mean, dude, like the entry entry barrier to the hobby as, like this single. Yes. Why? To what open do we have?

01;14;42;05 - 01;15;00;03
Unknown
Zwo. Exactly. I honestly like I know it sometimes gets a bad rap with some folks, but honestly, like if you take a look at the innovations that I've done over the last couple of years, like, I mean, I don't like it, it's unbelievable. But yeah, no, I put like around 20 hours on the I wanted to I actually wanted to get it on like 50 hours.

01;15;00;03 - 01;15;25;25
Unknown
But the weather hasn't been really good. Yeah. Oh I get it. It's been a rough it's been a rough summer. Like, it's like if it's not cloud or rain, it's, it's like smoke from the wildfires. Right. So. And then. Yeah. So then I also shot I also started shooting, I think and again, like I said, the M16 after, the where I have my, look at, sorry, in my backyard after I think about an hour after the South Meridian, the M16 hide behind streams.

01;15;25;27 - 01;15;42;18
Unknown
So similar situation. Yeah. So. And then I was like, all right, so I'll shoot Bubble Nebula for the rest of the time, right. So I basically used to switch targets and then so yeah, I started and in Cepheus. Right. Yes, yes. So then I started basically shooting the Bubble Nebula as well. And I think I had about 30 hours on that as well.

01;15;42;18 - 01;16;11;11
Unknown
So night you showed me or. Yes, it, I was so surprised of how Chris the bubble comes out man. It's it's perfect. Yeah. And also hesitant about honestly I was like I was really, like very, very, apprehensive about getting the, ask 151. Right. Yeah, I understand, I understand. I was like, yeah. I was like, I started I started going down the Cloudy Nights forum and you would see some people, I was like, oh, there's like, oh, like cube glasses and stuff like that.

01;16;11;11 - 01;16;38;12
Unknown
But honestly, like, man, that is amazing. So here's the thing. I was one of those people who said that. And then I got the scar. 55 I no longer say that. Yeah, they've come a long I think they've come a long way in a short time. And I think that stigma probably got them early on when they did have like genuine genuinely some of and it is still some of the most affordable glasses on the market is like I mean dude, but it's not cheap.

01;16;38;12 - 01;16;56;00
Unknown
It is not, it is not. But I mean, if you really think about it, right, 151 millimeter of aperture, right, for about 4K, it's absurd. And I mean, like do it like a deal. It's so difficult to find something like, I know the I think William Optics has a floor star. 156 right. But I think that's more like some dude.

01;16;56;00 - 01;17;19;18
Unknown
And I would honestly, I would take the ACR over that. Oh I yeah, I'm definitely like it's a, it's an it's an is technically an astro graph right. Special design. Right. So it's flat field quadruple it. I, I think one I do have when I got it from telescopes at night woodland. Right. Okay. So I got that I got and they actually had a promo where they gave you the, radius of a free the what?

01;17;19;23 - 01;17;37;07
Unknown
The reducer. Oh. Very cool. Yeah. So the reducer came in. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think it was like 300 something dollars, but I mean, like, they'll give you for free. So I ended up getting it from there. And I haven't used the reducer yet. Yeah. What's the native focal length on it? You said, I think it's 2052.

01;17;37;10 - 01;17;58;22
Unknown
It's f seven, f 7050. Do that. Right. So that's two for us. Yeah, 70 for 40. Exactly. Right. So I was like all right. So and but yeah I mean it's I mean the image quality is amazing right? I mean it's crystal sharp clear like spot like pins. If the stars have to make a request, you got to send me a photo of that till I'm sure you've got one.

01;17;58;22 - 01;18;16;25
Unknown
Yeah, the telescope on the mount. Oh, I will, I want to put in the mission. Oh, definitely. Definitely will do. Yeah, definitely. Remember me. I will definitely send you that now. It's it's it's it's amazing scope. Right. And honestly, it's it's been so much more fun. Just kind of lecturing and it's, it's in our backyard. It's in our cover.

01;18;16;25 - 01;18;34;15
Unknown
So I don't have to pull a line all the time. Right? It takes that thing out so I can just get, like, honestly, I can get up and running within a couple of minutes. That's so awesome. Right? So cool. So but yeah, it's been amazing. And then. Yes. Or here actually I think I'm shooting my with my Redcat in the M5 right.

01;18;34;19 - 01;19;00;25
Unknown
It's is it the 51, the 51, 51. I'm shooting mono. Also I'm using the is I 2600. Right now with my seven years. So Paris is been working on convincing all of us to go mono and it's, he's making a very convincing argument I must say. So I will say so I know so I know like, hey, processing you can process some of the colors like narrowband normalization and so that you can actually get they've come in, they form a long way.

01;19;00;25 - 01;19;18;08
Unknown
Right. And but one of the things that I think when I, when I wanted to switch to mono was like, well, I mean, you're shooting like, let's say five hours with an OSD, right? But oh, well, if you wanted to get the same data, you would actually have to shoot with different filters, right? So you're only getting like, let's say an hour or an hour and a half on each federal, right?

01;19;18;13 - 01;19;43;09
Unknown
Yeah. So, but honestly, I think there was a time where I wanted to test this out. So I did take like a four hour shot of the, of the Orion Nebula, my one shot color camera. And then a four hour shot of the Orion Nebula through my RGB filters. Right. An hour on each. And honestly, I think I honestly believe that the RGB just came out way more better.

01;19;43;09 - 01;20;06;10
Unknown
Wow. Right. So, I mean, it makes sense if you think about it, because, I mean, you're getting the same amount of photons, but you're isolating them exactly to specific bands colors. Yeah. And again, it's it's a reflection. It's a reflection overlay. So I honestly I think I might be prejudiced in this, but one of the big things about this is like, well, now I live in a like, let's say a bottle five, six, okay.

01;20;06;10 - 01;20;22;11
Unknown
Right. Five items like, oh, you just be a five. Now it's a six. And I mean, you had the option of even during full night, a full moon night. So yeah, that's that's very true, man. Right. So I was like, you can't do I mean like if you if you haven't always see. Right. I mean, and even with Dawn there, I'm sorry.

01;20;22;11 - 01;20;38;16
Unknown
But like, maybe if you're like 40 degrees or more away from the moon, you can get away with it with dual narrowband, but it's not going to look as good as not. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, exactly. And especially with the noisy. Right. And then so but with a mono camera you can theoretically shoot like a hydrogen alpha. Right? Yep.

01;20;39;07 - 01;20;55;00
Unknown
A man like it's, it's amazing. Suck up. It's just was just like yeah. Yeah. The only thing is like, yeah, you can shoot, all three. I mean, if you, if you're farther away from the targets, like, I think normally people recommend about 60 degrees, but I kind of kind of go to 90 degrees. So I'm shooting all three.

01;20;55;00 - 01;21;12;02
Unknown
Right. But I mean, I tend to avoid all three during, full moons anyway. Yeah. Yeah. But so yeah, but I honestly I but yeah. Like for a I've shot as close to about like 15 degrees or whatever. Right. And it's just comes out well so that's awesome. What do perish. Thank you so much for coming on. Oh thanks.

01;21;12;05 - 01;21;27;22
Unknown
Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me talking with you, man. And likewise, this is such an an incredible night and I can't wait to do it again, man. Yeah, honestly, thank you so much for having us. And again, like I said, I so want to give out a shout out to Mark and Whitney for hosting us here.

01;21;27;24 - 01;21;50;23
Unknown
They've been incredible. It's been incredible. And honestly, they've been the most gracious host and, like I said, it's the food has been amazing, right? The food has been so good. And honestly, man, Mark told me he loved to cook. I was not ready. Honest for her. The two of them, dude, they're like. They're like frickin Willy Wonka in the kitchen.

01;21;50;26 - 01;22;06;10
Unknown
And honestly, I mean, honestly, it's just been a joy to kind of see them, right? And they get along so well. So I feel like that are like the perfect couple. And so yeah, it's been fun. And like I said, having all of you folks, you're right. I mean, like I said, there's there was a some appreciate, apprehension on my part when I first came here.

01;22;06;10 - 01;22;18;21
Unknown
Right. We all had it, right. I was like, it's the first time we're meeting, right? We've talked in the discord for about a year now. Right? But I mean, this the first time, we're actually face to face, but honestly, like, you know what? As soon as I saw you folks, like, it was like, hey, I've known you for years.

01;22;18;24 - 01;22;36;02
Unknown
That's exactly how I felt to men. And I think, I think I've probably said it to all of you guys at this point. But like just the moment I arrived, it felt like I already know that. Exactly. Yeah. It felt to me like, yeah, I honestly, I was surprised, like how quick we just just kind of got along right and like right into it.

01;22;36;02 - 01;22;59;03
Unknown
We started talking. I started as soon as we started talking about Astro. We just kind of like just I guess time just flies by when you're having fun, like, it really does, man. And three nights is, how long I've been here? This. I think this will definitely go down the last night as the best night. And, the weather has gotten better and better each night, and I just,

01;22;59;08 - 01;23;15;06
Unknown
I can't wait to see you guys again. Oh, definitely. I'm definitely like. I mean, Mark has been so gracious to kind of say, like, you know what? You can come up to the cabin every time, and I'll probably take him on his or the. So Mark. No take back backseat. Yeah. All right, guys, well we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

01;23;15;06 - 01;23;38;21
Unknown
You're listening to the Astro cast? Thanks. Thanks, Parrish. So, Parrish, it goes without saying, but I really enjoyed meeting you. Thank you for sitting down with me on the show. And, kind of telling me all about your experience in astronomy and astrophotography. I particularly love the story of the blackout happening in Nepal and being able to see the Milky Way.

01;23;38;21 - 01;23;58;13
Unknown
That sounds so incredible. I think it's something we all dream about at one point or another. Like, you know, if nuclear war happens, that'll really suck. But maybe it'll blow up a couple emps first, a few hundred feet in the air, knock all the power out, and then it'll be incredible. Portal one skies with with our luck, that would happen right during the full moon.

01;23;58;13 - 01;24;21;13
Unknown
But thanks for sitting down with us, man. Hope to see you again very soon. And, we'll get back to our conversations with the new friends. And, we'll be speaking with Eric. But I'm standing here, with a new friend, Eric. Eric, how are you doing tonight, man? Pretty good. Yeah, he. So you finally have a blanket on?

01;24;22;04 - 01;24;40;21
Unknown
My man has been in shorts and a t shirt and flip flops the entire time. My wife would be. She would be thinking you or me, you know, because I'm such a polar bear else. But you. You have definitely showed me up, man. I got a hoodie on, and I started shivering when I was sitting down, so I had to stand up.

01;24;40;21 - 01;25;01;29
Unknown
It's. Man, it's gotten cold, hasn't it? So, Eric, tell me a little bit about yourself, man. Where should I start? Well, what do you what do you, how did you get into the hobby? And what year? Is actually a year ago this month that I got to do that. Yeah. Very cool.

01;25;02;06 - 01;25;26;18
Unknown
Just a year ago. And I'm looking at your, years set ups, and I'm in. My God, I guess I'm going into my sixth year next year. You've got quite, quite the rigs, man. Tell me about them. Yeah. So, my main imaging is, Redcat 51, mounted on a star adventure GTI. Such a great little mount.

01;25;26;21 - 01;25;43;20
Unknown
Yeah, for what it is, it really is. I've got mine, and I absolutely love it, man. I use it all the time. It's so easy to bring with you to like. And, you know, I've got people that have said they have an an Vive and a GT, and they prefer using the GTI like, dead serious. What are you shooting?

01;25;43;24 - 01;26;09;05
Unknown
This weekend? I am shooting the Cedar region. How, what's the focal length? 250mm. Oh, so wide on cedar. I like what kind of camera I have. The, AC 2600 MC Pro. Dude, you've got you're putting me to shame. Like I'm over here with my my two nine, four, and I'm five years in and you're like, you're crushing it, man.

01;26;09;05 - 01;26;30;16
Unknown
You're doing such a good job. So, like, do you have any, any goals that you want to learn in the next year of your astrophotography experience? I mean, to be honest, I just I just go with it. Yep. So you just let it kind of take you where, where it goes night by night. Have you? Exactly. You've been working on any, specific projects over the last few months or anything cool.

01;26;30;20 - 01;27;06;07
Unknown
Like, what have you been shooting lately? Lately, I haven't been shooting a whole lot. Just in fighting weather. Do. The summer has been so bad, right? Yeah. So you do dealing with the wildfire smoke, too? Yep. The, few clear nights that we've had recently, we just get smoked out. Oh. That's so, so it happened in North Carolina, a little over a year ago, where we had wildfires, actually, from Canada blow away down to Carolina.

01;27;06;10 - 01;27;30;19
Unknown
And I just remember going outside, and it was a clear night. In fact, we, we took a dark sky trip, me and my, sister to. We went up to the Virginia mountains, where I talked about on the show. I went to see the aurora borealis in May 10th of 2024. And the smoke was so bad, like it almost looked like my backyard portal seven.

01;27;30;24 - 01;28;04;03
Unknown
Like it was crazy, man. I mean, I actually grew up in California and I remember the days when the smoke was so thick from wildfires. I don't remember where they were specifically. I've been, but, like, I'm not suggesting you do this, but it was so thick, you could look directly at the sun. Wow. That's crazy. I've seen, like, videos of the California wildfires, and that's, like, legitimately some of the scariest stuff I think you could see on Earth.

01;28;04;03 - 01;28;30;18
Unknown
Like, did you do you ever have any of them, like, get close to, you know, that's good. When did you, So where do you live right now? I live in Wisconsin. Now. What part? Just about an hour north of Eau Claire. Hour north of Eau Claire. So from here, I'm trying to think so. Green Bay is kind of my point of reference in Wisconsin now, and we are currently about an hour north of green Bay with Lake Michigan.

01;28;30;26 - 01;28;53;15
Unknown
Due east of us. So where would you be from here? So from here, I would be about four hours west and a little bit north. Dude, four hours west. Then again, in North Carolina, if you want to drive to the Outer Banks, which is a place I love to go, it's about a six hour drive, so it's it's pretty long out there as well.

01;28;53;25 - 01;29;12;14
Unknown
So you have any goal for the remainder of the night here while we're wrapping up the last couple hours before sunrise? I'm, I did a little bit of star hopping with my, car. He's got the car it out, man. We were, checking out Saturn earlier, and it was so freaking cool, man. I love it.

01;29;12;16 - 01;29;39;28
Unknown
And I'm thinking I might see if there's any star clusters that are out right now. That's a great. I mean, the Pleiades is literally rising right above that tree. Right now I'm looking directly at Pleiades. And man, the Hyades is crazy looking here. Starting to come up. This is man. This is going to be an epic sunrise. It's so dark out here, I love it.

01;29;40;00 - 01;29;54;07
Unknown
Well, any anything else that you want to say? Before, we take a break? Not that I can think of. All right. Cool. Well, thank you for coming on the show, Eric. Man, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Another, great friend to have and know. And, I can't wait to see you next time, man.

01;29;54;12 - 01;30;19;13
Unknown
Yeah. For sure. Cool. We'll be right back. Thanks, guys. Eric was such a unique guy because whenever we all first got there and got together, he was very quiet and reserved. And I've had friends, like, in fact, one of my best friends or growing up was very, very similar. And there's a little bit of a shell that you kind of got to crack, to get to that person.

01;30;19;16 - 01;30;36;23
Unknown
But once, he started to open up, he definitely fit in with the gang. He's just another one of us. Just like, you know how all of us felt on the trip. So it was really, really cool getting to meet you, Eric. I look forward to, to seeing you again. Thanks for, sitting down and chatting with us.

01;30;36;23 - 01;30;58;04
Unknown
And then, I guess to close out the morning, as it were. Us was it was about 330 in the morning by this time, me and Mark got together to, to chat one more time to, to close out first light of 2020 that this is such a good episode in gray. I've never gotten a good episode like this.

01;30;58;04 - 01;31;03;02
Unknown
I mean, I've done on site, but, like, not like this. You know what I mean?

01;31;03;04 - 01;31;26;24
Unknown
All right, who's left? Skew and just me. Now, would you will you give me a few minutes of your time? Sir, I know you're probably ready to pass out because it's. I know it's getting late, but let's take our time on here. Welcome back to the Astro cast on site in Wisconsin. I am standing here with our, lovely hosts of these astronomical events.

01;31;26;24 - 01;31;51;13
Unknown
Will co-host. Co-host. Let's thank Whitney and all opportunities. Gentlemen, let's all think with me. Has been like the mom of this trip. And she has been so phenomenal. Man, what a cool girlfriend you have. Yeah, I'm a lucky man in many ways. I look, I'm going to say this, and I don't know if she'll hear it or not, but I'm telling you now, Mark, if you're still lucky enough to be with her in six months, you better buy her ring.

01;31;51;13 - 01;32;18;12
Unknown
Dude, I'm just saying. So anyway, man, tell me about this cabin that we're at, man. Can you can you tell me about it? Yeah, absolutely. When I was on your show last night, I brought up a poem, you know, a story about how this was the place that my dad built. You know, this has been in our family for about 30 years, and, it was the place that a long time ago made me fall in love with astronomy.

01;32;18;12 - 01;32;40;05
Unknown
And later in life, rekindled that. And here I am with a bunch of brand new friends. Some old ones, some new ones. And it's been wonderful, man. Having old friends meet new friends, too. You know, we had, my dear friend Humza was up here. The guy drove across, you know, he drove here from Maryland in his Tesla.

01;32;40;08 - 01;33;00;02
Unknown
We let everybody rip. Everybody. He let you let me get it. And I told him, I'm like, I've never even rode in a Tesla. And he's like, oh, do drive my just drive. My man. Take it 100 miles an hour, man. I don't care. I literally do it like, oh my god, so freaking cool houses. Awesome man. Very cool guy.

01;33;00;03 - 01;33;16;17
Unknown
I have great friends, I have great old friends and I have great new friends. And that's really been one of the best parts of this trip is it's been the best part. And like, to be honest, like the stars are awesome and they're incredible and this is probably the best I've ever seen them. If I'm being honest with myself.

01;33;16;18 - 01;33;36;19
Unknown
That makes me so happy, man. I would trade it all just to spend the time with you guys because it's been so great. But what's really epic is we get to have both. Yeah. So more about the cabin though. Well, it's in Wisconsin for any cruise locals as we have a crew of it's local. Shout out to Jesse who joined us one night, by the way, too.

01;33;36;19 - 01;34;00;21
Unknown
Yeah. So this is about an hour north northwest ish of green Bay, and, my parents are from Marinette County, which is this area. They were from further north, and my mom was from even further north, before that. But my concern, but up against Canada. No. Okay. Okay. So does it does Michigan overtake it in the north or.

01;34;00;22 - 01;34;22;23
Unknown
Yeah, you get into the U.P. if you had enough the Upper Peninsula for not for non Midwesterners, you get into the U.P., around shoot I'm spacing on this. Yes. Yeah. It's 3:00 am I. Yeah. But you know you would have to end up the boundary water areas, which is the far north of Michigan is where you would start to run into that or Minnesota.

01;34;22;23 - 01;34;42;13
Unknown
So not biggest concern. Yeah man. It's so cool up here though man. It really is. It's a peaceful place. That's what my dad always wanted you know. And it's like I said, you know, we, had a nice dinner. You, we've had a lot of nice dinners, but we sat and chatted, about all the things that we were grateful for.

01;34;42;14 - 01;35;01;07
Unknown
The other night. And I really wanted to tell everybody how grateful I was for my dad for building this place. Because I could have never imagined later in life that I'd have, like I said, old and new friends here, just all appreciating something that I never, ever imagined would be as big of a part of my life as it is now.

01;35;01;08 - 01;35;19;17
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. You really can't picture those things when you're a kid. And I just. I'm going to take a moment and say thank you. Is it Mr. Lindley? Yeah. Mike Lindley, say hi and say hi to Mike. Say thank you Mike, so much man. Because we literally not be standing here right now having this incredible moment in our lives without you.

01;35;19;17 - 01;35;41;13
Unknown
So thank you for everything. Yeah he'll love to hear that. Yeah for sure. So I know we haven't had like the most success tonight, but you have got a really cool rig here, man. I after like it clicked tonight earlier when you showed me the ball head. Yeah, I got it. So, like, why don't you describe for the listeners what we're looking at?

01;35;41;15 - 01;36;05;23
Unknown
Well, you you interviewed me and we talked about this, so I have well, actually, no, we didn't talk about this. Is this you kind of did. But this is a new iteration. There's a new iteration now. So the last time I was on, I talked about how I've now been able to adapt as 0585 Mic Pro to my canon 100 to 400 millimeter, l usm to I think I got, I think I've got it all in there.

01;36;05;23 - 01;36;26;10
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. But it's the newer iteration of, Canon's lens. That's specifically the F version because it's just much easier as far as adapting goes. Focusing. So the thing with the RF glass, just so we can point out for the listeners, is and I wish I would have known this before, but me and Mark weren't friends long enough.

01;36;27;03 - 01;36;50;25
Unknown
RF blast currently, you can't really adapt it to a zwo camera. I will say Mark's friend Jay gave us some ideas that I am certainly going to try when I get home. Yeah, but as things stand, you cannot like, in any way connect a, canon mirrorless camera or. I'm sorry, mirrorless lens, RF lens to a Zwo camera or any cold camera for that matter.

01;36;50;25 - 01;37;24;27
Unknown
I think the thing is, is achieving focus is is the big thing, you guys, because, I mean, I'm sure you can find ways there's adapters for anything, but it's achieving focus because it's focused by wire. Yes. Which is electron contacts physical moving of the glass. So but but go on. Sorry. No no it's fine man. Yeah. So the, the what I have now is I do that but I also will on Father's Day appropriately for this conversation said to my dad, you know, I've been seeing a lot of these like dual saddle, like, you know, astro rigs where you can have two things at the same time.

01;37;24;27 - 01;38;00;19
Unknown
And I was like, why can't we do this? So, on Father's Day, we made a nice little dual platform. Oh, man, you guys made this together. We made it on Father's Day. So much cool with his grandson, which is another little generation on Father's Day in the woodshop. And, yeah, it was special. It was nice, but, what I ended up doing is I have one, you know, side of this dual platform dedicated to the 100 and 400 millimeter in the center is where I have the guide scope, which, we had was fine earlier in the week, but apparently I had some issues with it tonight.

01;38;00;19 - 01;38;17;28
Unknown
We'll see how that ends up going. But then on the other side is is just a ball head. And I mean, I not not just well okay. But I was going to say initially my idea was I'll just do a ball head and I can just do wide field on one side, do wide fields, 16 millimeter lens. Yeah.

01;38;17;28 - 01;38;41;29
Unknown
Yeah. But but then I was kind of like, yeah, you're going to get a ball heads this is do you get a ball head yet. So I have a get. So and they're an Italian company and this one is, rated to 64 pounds. So it's, it's a beast. It's like, the size of the ball. If you remember, when we were kids, they had something called everlasting.

01;38;42;10 - 01;39;08;20
Unknown
Gobstoppers. And they were huge. And they would get so gross that you'd want to throw it away like, four days after Christmas. We make it last for months. No. So if you had the will, it's massive. And, dude, you can you can really put some weight on because of that I did. Yeah I can't and it's again it's part of the fun thing about this is normally I would just do my R6 with either, my canon, our, RF 2870 F2.

01;39;08;22 - 01;39;26;22
Unknown
That's a great lens. Yeah, it's a beautiful lens. I recently just got, new Zeiss Novus, 50 millimeter F2 eight lens, and I got a little bit of wide field done on this trip with that, too. But the fun thing is that my friend Jang Hye who, I don't think he's out here, so I think.

01;39;26;23 - 01;39;49;11
Unknown
I think he's in the house. I mean, it's Jang Ha. He's been an awesome addition to the crew as well. Yeah, absolutely. He showed up and we said, we're you. I know you're a photography enthusiast. Bring your stuff. And he has this beautiful 200 millimeter. It's f 200 millimeter, XL one point. Yeah. Yes. This is the 1.8 200 millimeter f 1.8.

01;39;49;11 - 01;40;04;29
Unknown
Yeah. So I was it's and then I was like, hey, man, you mind if I throw this on my rig tonight? So we'll see how. I mean we were out doing our thing. We went to, we went to a little, area that we'll talk about. We went to the, the High Falls area. Yep, yep.

01;40;04;29 - 01;40;25;24
Unknown
So I didn't get to spend quite as much time with this guy tonight. But to me, actually, I don't really care, because the fun thing that's so fun when I was, like, messing with it and figuring it out. And you will, you'll get this to where it'll be perfect every night. Well, absolutely. And but I agree it. I was going to say even further, the fun thing is knowing, yeah, I can throw whatever I want on this.

01;40;25;24 - 01;40;57;15
Unknown
Now, if you've got a ball head that takes 64 pounds, like you can throw pretty much whatever you want. Man is not a small child. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I mean, it's it's been fun for me to play around with this new iteration of what I'm doing, but it still fits the same bill, because obviously I've got Holmes's lens on here now, but I can fit all this outside of the tripod stand in a carry on case in a backpack, and your carry on cases even smaller than my Pelican, which, by the way, let me let you guys know the Pelican case.

01;40;57;18 - 01;41;15;02
Unknown
It did an excellent job. At the airport, I rolled it nice way. I had to carry, like, two luggages to my plane. I needed a big suitcase to bring the tripods. I originally just wanted to bring a backpack in my pelican, but I ended up having to bring a suitcase because of the tripods. Anyway. You will. That's the thing to expect for sure.

01;41;15;02 - 01;41;35;22
Unknown
Yeah, and the only thing I'll say about that Pelican case is I had to get on a regional jet for the second flight, and the overhead bins were much smaller, and they wanted to pink tag it and have me put it under, but I just I walked up to the, the person at check in and I explained to her, like, I have glass in this, it's very important to me.

01;41;35;22 - 01;41;55;14
Unknown
And they actually let me put it in the closet of the plane. So if you ask nicely, if you're in that situation, they'll usually work with you. It's funny how being a reasonable human being gets you far in the world. Yeah, it's almost like people. Like when you're nice. Yeah. But, you know, to your point, I mean, you interviewed me a while back about the Atacama and about traveling, astrophotography.

01;41;55;14 - 01;42;12;20
Unknown
I mean, you're just solidifying a lot of what I said is just be reasonable, and they're not going to make you throw your glass in the bottom of the compartment. I mean, like, why would they. Right? Yeah. So. Sure. So do you mind? And I know I asked you about this before, but if you don't mind for, for just a minute.

01;42;12;22 - 01;42;34;11
Unknown
Yeah. Could you go over the various focal lengths that you're able to hit with this setup? Even if you just give me a broad this to that. Yeah. Be cut and just kind of like explain how it works. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, eliminate the lens on here, right now because this is one that I'm borrowing. But so with different cameras, you obviously have different fields of view.

01;42;34;11 - 01;43;05;13
Unknown
Yes. Full frame is kind of the de facto 36 by 20:04 a.m. I? Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah. 36 by 24. Millimeter sensor. Thank you. Yeah. As you get smaller, you know, you do technically get a smaller field of view. You're not gaining resolution. There's there is a both misconceptions on both sides of this argument that always bother me because with the smaller sensors, they're generally more pixel dense.

01;43;06;01 - 01;43;24;06
Unknown
So, you know, we were talking about like, I think you and I were talking about this a couple weeks ago, that if you have like a canon R7, for example, that's a 33 megapixel camera that's extremely demanding, and the equivalent on a full frame would be 80 megapixel. Wow. So which is like an A7 are. Absolutely.

01;43;24;06 - 01;43;46;27
Unknown
Yeah. So you're getting into medium format territory at that point. So I mean there's there's a bit of a, it's a misnomer about effective focal length where people think, well, why don't you just shoot for lunch? Just crop. Yeah. Because it's it's not the same thing for stars and nebulae or anything for that matter, because you're pixel density, you're not getting the same resolution, pound for pound for what you're putting into it.

01;43;46;27 - 01;44;08;11
Unknown
So I'm sorry to digress. No, no, no, you're right. But I have, three cameras. I have a canon R6, I have a canon R7, and then now there's, five, eight, five Macpro and the fields of view, you know, from a full frame standard of 36, 24 and R7, the Aps-c or APS, which is, you know, I mean, well, I shouldn't say universal because I'm Canon.

01;44;08;11 - 01;44;34;23
Unknown
It's a 1.6 crop. Yep. The 585I 3.2 is a 3.2. I was mistaken the last time we talked. I thought it was a 2.2, but it's actually 3.2. So if you're at 100mm with A585 MK Pro, you are effectively getting the same field of view of 320mm, but at a much higher pixel density. So you're not losing near as much resolution.

01;44;34;23 - 01;45;15;11
Unknown
This sort of thing for sure. So because of the three lenses I have, you know, the the 15mm Zeiss, the 2870 F2 and then the 100 to 400, I can go from 15mm on true full frame basically to if I threw the 585 MK Pro on the 104 millimeter, 400mm, took it to 400 layers, then threw a teleconverter on it to 2X2X yes, two x Teleconverter two x teleconverter with the 3.2 crop on a 400 millimeter lens takes you to, I think we said, what was it, 2680 okay.

01;45;15;14 - 01;45;44;18
Unknown
It's this this is this is ridiculous, man. Like you. It you can have so much fun with this light little setup man. And like and it fits in and it fits in a carry on and it all fits in a carry. That's crazy man. So like the next time you know. Well I'm not going to say if you're new and you're getting into astrophotography you would be doing yourself a huge disservice if you didn't take a real hard look at lenses.

01;45;44;20 - 01;46;13;03
Unknown
Yes, they they are. You know, canon has been making good glass for a long time, you know, and yes, there are some differences. But at the end of the day, man, to have that kind of flexibility, it's hard to beat. Well, you know, we've talked about this. Yeah, this these are f lenses that I have to use for this, but it's like, do you want RF lenses or do you want to take a vacation?

01;46;13;06 - 01;46;38;26
Unknown
Yeah. I'm sorry. Bad like I mean I know what decision I'm going to make every time. And I think that this week is really solidified. That has it has man. So and you know I'll, I'll just briefly mention we were, going around the table tonight. Whitney has done us all the honor of, having us have a table question each night, where we ask ourselves, you know, a real thought provoking question.

01;46;38;29 - 01;47;08;19
Unknown
And the thing that came to me and I have to credit you for you credit you for this, Mark, is that I am going to take a hard look at my, materialism and really stop buying the next cool thing every time it comes out. Because if I were to just take that money and put it into travel, the memories that I make, there's no there's no dollar amount that you can put on this.

01;47;08;21 - 01;47;32;21
Unknown
Like. Like if you told me I could relive this next week for five grand, I would be all in. But you don't have to do that. You know. So thank you for that, man. Oh, man. That's that's very, very considerate. And I, it's very I mean, look, we all love our toys. Yep. You know, we wouldn't be here.

01;47;32;24 - 01;47;51;26
Unknown
Yep. And anybody you've spoken to tonight wouldn't be here if we didn't love our toys. But, there really are things that are a lot more important, you know, like, being able to share space and share a beautiful meal with the people that you, you know, that you're that you really love, like, you know, I mean, that's that's everything.

01;47;51;26 - 01;48;14;22
Unknown
And it's been an absolute pleasure getting to know you as a friend and having all of you here. Really. It's, It's everything I want, and I. You really know that. It's everything that I wanted to sell. And my God, I mean, you know, we like to be good hosts, but the generosity and the the graciousness has been repaid.

01;48;14;26 - 01;48;41;06
Unknown
Ten full, just putting it out there again. That, my dear friend perish, has literally left the freaking ten inch dobsonian is to this cabin. You know what they did with the case, will I? Pieces that I what? What man? It's really special, man. It's very special. And I want to. I'll say I share the sentiment of you know, the best skiers.

01;48;41;06 - 01;48;59;10
Unknown
The gear that's being used is, that gear is going to be used a whole lot around here, as it already has been. So, thank you to Parrish. And, you know, thank you to Eric and, Hamza and all my friends. Oh, my God, Jesse. And thank Whitney. My God, you're just the most amazing woman in the world.

01;48;59;10 - 01;49;25;28
Unknown
It's so cool, man. We've all we've all been very, very blessed to have her here. I think in many ways, I don't think this weekend could've happened without her. Not. Not the way that it has. Not as decadently. That's risky. No. Certainly not. Certainly not me. But, you know. Yeah. No. Go out, make some memories, man. So, guys, I mean, what more is there to say that the Pleiades is rising?

01;49;26;00 - 01;50;00;08
Unknown
I can see the eye of the ball the Hyades is chasing and Orion is coming up. So thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. We will certainly be returning. There's more news to come on the future. If you would like to take part in something like this in the future, look at the Patreon and go to Patreon.com forward, slash the Astro cast, and we don't know yet what the future holds, but undoubtedly there will be more get together.

01;50;00;08 - 01;50;18;05
Unknown
So we're trying to get Astro cast version two in Europe going mad. I mean, I want to do a Euro cast this year. People in there like a slight shout out to Doctor Schweizer and Tim is Tim is freaking building a zone harmonic mind. You got Ben in the AC five. He's making a mount in your honor, man.

01;50;18;05 - 01;50;38;23
Unknown
So I don't know if you're supposed to say that yet or not, but. Well, it's been. Yeah, it's too bad. Now it's out, but. So man, you got an Astro Castle mount being made for your podcast. I, it blows my mind like what this has become in such a short time. The fact that, like, dude, without the show, I wouldn't be doing this right now.

01;50;38;23 - 01;50;59;27
Unknown
I wouldn't have met you like in me. And you are like good friends now. All of us are good friends now. And like, I don't know, man. It just it really solidifies every day that continuing to do the show is the right thing. Because, you know, there's been times where, like, my wife will tell you one time I was really struggling and I was like, man, I don't know if I should.

01;50;59;29 - 01;51;17;18
Unknown
It was, you know, honestly, it was it was a really rough patch where it was like three months of, like, just nothing but clouds. And. Yeah, like, my neighbors at the time were just leaving their lights on every night. And it was just it was so frustrating cause I was, like, working so hard and I couldn't get out and sleep.

01;51;17;20 - 01;51;37;18
Unknown
And then she says, but what about the community that you've built and I like it kind of stopped me that in my tracks. When she said that. And, well, here I stand. So well. We owe you a lot and hope to see you all again here soon. For sure, man. Thank you guys so much. For listening to the Astro cars.

01;51;37;20 - 01;52;05;18
Unknown
I'm your host, drew. Thank you. Mark. And, we'll we'll talk soon. Clear skies, clear skies. And, you know, 30 minutes after that took place, the, the sun started coming up. So we packed in the gear and headed back in. The next day was kind of a mad scramble. My flight wasn't until, what, 5:00? 6:00.

01;52;05;19 - 01;52;28;13
Unknown
Wait a minute. 6:00. Actually, I was I did wheels up at six, but I had to be at the airport at, like four. Actually, I think it was was up at five. But again, green Bay was such a tiny airport. I was in and out of there no problem. So I got through security and and checked a bag and under five minutes I want to say, but man, what what what an experience that truly was.

01;52;29;10 - 01;53;05;15
Unknown
I can't wait to do it again. We've already, all been in conversation, obviously, in the group chat, talking about, you know, what's next. Obviously there's talks of, Europe already happening. I actually have a trip to Europe next summer, with family. And I'm, I'm looking in the I'm exploring some possibilities there. We'll have to wait and see, how it goes, but, man, it's it's, it was beyond meaningful to be able to, have an event like that for this awesome group of people.

01;53;05;18 - 01;53;29;02
Unknown
And, I guess all I can say is, you know, we're going to do more of these at some point. That was obviously a small event. One cabin we couldn't bring in, you know, 100 people, like I said earlier in the episode, but in the future, if there is enough interest, then we might, you know, look into renting an area with several cabins or several houses, something along those lines, or go somewhere where we can camp.

01;53;29;02 - 01;53;46;21
Unknown
You know, there's a million different ways you can make it work. All you need to do is have people show up and, you can have a great time. So, I just want to take a moment to once again thank Mark and Whitney, for hosting. I want to, say hi to everybody who stopped by on the trip again.

01;53;47;03 - 01;54;12;28
Unknown
Jesse. Jay. Eric parish. Homs. Oh, God. Who am I forgetting? There were so many people that showed up. And thank you guys for, sitting down with me, obviously. And, just having that talk. And, you know what? What recommendation could I possibly give this week other than to go out and be with family and friends?

01;54;13;09 - 01;54;44;24
Unknown
While you get to experience this incredible hobby? And I'm using air quotes. Because there's nothing like it, man. When you can get together a group of, like minded individuals for several days, with the prime focus being on getting amazing shots, you will have some of the best times of your life, no doubt about it. So I ended up with 12 hours of exposures on the Dark Shark Nebula.

01;54;45;12 - 01;55;02;19
Unknown
It wasn't perfectly framed. That's my fault. It was a bit of a rookie mistake. I should have super stretched the image and seen exactly where it fell, but I didn't. But I'm very happy with it overall, and I was able to get some really cool nebulosity up in the top left corner because of the framing.

01;55;02;25 - 01;55;27;16
Unknown
And you can still see the whole shark. So I am, just thrilled with the whole trip. The photos are really just a nice little added cherry on top, because honestly, if I had come home with zero data from that trip, I still would have had just a phenomenal time. You know, visiting the, the waterfall in the middle of the day, like we did.

01;55;28;00 - 01;55;49;26
Unknown
I almost lost my DJI neo drone. I was showing everybody how it works, and my, genius self decided to fly it out over the water. It doesn't have a controller. It's just all AI comes back to you and lands in your palm and had a hard time finding me. I had to, pull the phone out and go to manual mode and bring it back.

01;55;49;26 - 01;56;08;16
Unknown
Luckily, I've flown many drones in the past, so I was able to recover it, but things were looking dicey for a minute there. So yeah, man, it was, it was a great time. Wisconsin, way up north. It's a beautiful place. I got to see bald eagles. I saw wild turkeys on the side of the road.

01;56;08;18 - 01;56;30;04
Unknown
I saw a really cool little snake outside of Mark's cabin. A red belly, something or other. Ring snake, maybe? I can't remember. Lots of great wildlife. We saw a ton of deers at one point, when me and Parrish were driving back to the cabin. We just stopped in the middle of the road, and I think, like, ten of them walked by, you know, you see that North Carolina, too.

01;56;30;04 - 01;56;56;03
Unknown
But there was something special about seeing it up there, for sure. So, what else is there to say? Guys, I think that's pretty much it. Again, the recommendation for the week is to get with your family, get with your friends, get together. And if you would like to, to join us in our journey, feel free to go to Patreon.com forward, slash the Astro cast, and I'll send you a link to the discord shortly thereafter.

01;56;56;03 - 01;57;14;05
Unknown
And you can, check in with us when you're ready and, have a little talk. So that will do it for this week. Thank you guys so much for joining. I realize this is a, pretty long episode, so I hope you all enjoy it very much. I will be back next week with another new episode.

01;57;14;07 - 01;57;29;21
Unknown
But until then, as always, Lee, your Scott.

01;57;29;23 - 01;57;44;15
Unknown
000.

01;57;44;17 - 01;57;59;18
Unknown
000. I'm.

01;57;59;20 - 01;59;35;10
Unknown
So.

01;59;35;12 - 01;59;50;12
Unknown
000000.

01;59;50;15 - 02;00;06;15
Unknown
000. No fear. Made it to the stars. Came on us ten 9876.

02;00;06;18 - 02;00;18;27
Unknown
Oh, you are listening to one. Yes. True God yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.