Telescope

My resourceful oldest son took these pictures with my aging digital camera through the lens of the telescope last night. It doesn't show all the details, but it does bring the moon a little closer. He played a little with the color on the second. He and I were both amazed by being able to see the moon's orbit up close. However it made getting shots more of a challenge. If you click on them, you should get a slightly better view.



I wish I could relay the wonder of the moment I looked into the telescope and saw the grey, pitted surface in gritty pocked detail. I'm fairly sure I was twice as excited as Gary and the boys, though there was a fair amount of pushing and shoving and "I want to!" and "It's my turn!" But I reminded Gary that we all had to take turns and he was better after that.

I think they expected the telescope to work and so of course, yes, that was the surface, those were the mountains, and that was one of the seas. So while they were fascinated and then gone within a few minutes, I landed among the craters and didn't want to leave. This is the kind of space travel I can get into.





PS. I received a rejection from the magazine I subbed "Nothin's broke" to last month. The editor said she enjoyed reading it, but they'd have to pass on it. After that, she slid into standard rejection form--It doesn't necessarily reflect the the quality of your work. We reject 750 for every seven articles we publish . . . If it was a standard form letter, it was a pleasant one. I kind of tailored the article for them, so now I've got to decide whether to shelve it or find another magazine to sub it to. Sigh. This is the hard part of this business--deciding whether you're wasting your time with a piece or not.