{"id":1437,"date":"2008-10-19T19:01:56","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T00:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=1437"},"modified":"2009-01-25T13:50:17","modified_gmt":"2009-01-25T18:50:17","slug":"new-toys-coming-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/10\/19\/new-toys-coming-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"New Toys Coming Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those that are keeping track, we’re coming up on my 30th birthday this November – a momentus occasion, apparently. And because of that, it seems as though some fun new toys may be coming my way. I’ll give you a hint: the terms aperture<\/em>, focal length<\/em>, and alt-azimuth mount<\/em> have been thrown around.<\/p>\n

In case that wasn’t enough of a hint, I’ll just tell you – I’m getting a telescope, as well as some fun new attachments (filters, lens adapters) for my camera. Specifically, the telescope I’m getting is a Meade ETX-80-TC<\/a>, and for my camera I’m finally getting an adapter to let me mount any standard 58 mm camera attachment. Some of the other things I’ll finally be getting include a polarizing filter and some of those fun ND grad filters I’ve heard so much about<\/a>. I may even figure out a way to use my camera with<\/em> the telescope… but we’ll see.<\/p>\n

I’ve had a wish-list of accessories for my digital camera for quite a while – so I knew what sort of stuff I wanted for that.<\/p>\n

As for the telescope, that was more recent – born from my recent capture of Jupiter on film<\/a>, my photos of the lunar eclipse<\/a>, as well as from a long history of being interested in astronomy from a very young age. I’ve never owned a really “good” telescope – and certainly never one with a proper mount – so I’ve been very limited in what I could see.<\/p>\n

When I started thinking about a telescope, I really didn’t know much about the topic – and once it was seriously suggested as a gift for my 30th birthday, I found out how little I really did know!<\/p>\n

Being the geek I am, I just had<\/em> to learn everything about the topic (how else could I make an informed choice?), and thus I spent hours and hours on Wikipedia and other sites learning about focal lengths, apertures, telescope designs, eyepieces, the limits of magnification, and so forth. It might sound funny, but it really is a lot of fun<\/strong> to learn about something truly new!<\/p>\n

(Oh, and in case anyone is wondering why I chose the ETX-80 instead of one of it’s bigger – and more sophisticated – brothers, such as the ETX-90<\/a>, it basically boils down to two things: portability and price. I wanted a portable scope, and for my budget, the ETX-80 was the better buy – especially when you consider the ever-important factor of “leaving room for accessories,” like additional eyepieces, rechargable batteries, and so on.)<\/p>\n

So, in short, the next few months should be rather interesting! Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those that are keeping track, we’re coming up on my 30th birthday this November – a momentus occasion, apparently. And because of that, it seems as though some fun new toys may be coming my way. I’ll give you a hint: the terms aperture, focal length, and alt-azimuth mount have been thrown around. In… Continue reading New Toys Coming Soon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[202,200,204],"tags":[123,181,92],"class_list":["post-1437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gadgets","category-my-life","category-photography-pictures","tag-astronomy","tag-birthday","tag-photography","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-nb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1447,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/10\/26\/new-camera-toys\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":0},"title":"New (Camera) Toys","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Some new toys have begun to trickle into my hands... starting with this: Not quite a Digital SLR, but it's close enough for what I do. That's my venerable Canon PowerShot S3 IS with my new toy - a LA-DC58E Conversion Lens Adapter (58 mm mount) and LH-DC40 lens hood.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/photography-pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"my camera with new conversion adapter and lens hood","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3009\/2975106768_b927c6aa64.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3700,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2011\/12\/14\/new-year-new-camera\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":1},"title":"New Year, New Camera","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Keith gets a new camera, and proceeds to totally geek out over it, as expected.","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/photography-pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"canon powershot s3 is vs panasonic lumix dmc-g2 - from above","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7158\/6507762599_d902bae9b5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3156,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/07\/31\/why-i-still-use-my-canon-powershot-s3-is-camera\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":2},"title":"Why I Still Use My Canon PowerShot S3 IS Camera","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Why I still use my 2006 vintage Canon PowerShot S3 IS Camera, despite being a bit old.","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2010\/07\/Canon_Powershot_S3_IS-300x185.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1520,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/11\/20\/telescope-tale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":3},"title":"Telescope Tale","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a story about a stupid mistake. I'm sure that many people who read this story will figure out the mistake before I get to the end, but needless to say, I didn't figure it out, and neither did 3 other camera\/telescope experts. So, perhaps there are other people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Life"","block_context":{"text":"My Life","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":885,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/05\/21\/digital-photography-tips-from-johns-adventures\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":4},"title":"Digital Photography Tips from John’s Adventures","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"From the very same person who brought us that wonderful, simple, elegant John's Background Switcher comes John's Photography Tips. Let me just say, these are good tips.","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/photography-pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1551,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/12\/13\/a-little-bit-of-lunar-photography\/","url_meta":{"origin":1437,"position":5},"title":"A Little bit of Lunar Photography","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I couldn't help but notice the other night that the full moon was out - and it was really, really bright. So bright, in fact, that I decided I could hand-hold some photos of the moon! In retrospect, I probably still should've used a tripod - after all, I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/photography-pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"full moon 1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3267\/3105789306_771e098f56.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}