[APML] One Very Important Item Left Behind

["Thomas W. Earle" <twade@bmi.net>]

I was pumped.  We finally got a clear night around New Moon.  The
last time this rare phenomenon occurred was back in February 2005.
A day I can only vaguely remember, a foretelling memory lapse.  I
drove out to my site which takes about 90 minutes.  There was quite
a bit of cirrus so the transparency was not ideal, but, hey, at
least there's blue sky.  I setup the mount and scope and waited
until it got dark enough to use the polar alignment scope.  As the
sky continued to darken, I setup the STV to aid me in accurate polar
alignment.  After a rough start in finding the proper focus, I
finally was ready for imaging.  It was exactly 1108 PM.  On this
particular night, astronomical twilight ends at 1107 PM.  Since
astronomical twilight would begin at 257 AM the following morning, I
had only 3 hours and 50 minutes to do some serious imaging.  I was
especially looking forward to capturing the Milky Way with fine
grained Provia 100F.  I opened the case that houses the Pentax 67
and lenses.  I installed the film into the camera, and to my utter
horror, I notice something missing.  It was the camera release.  I
left it behind.  I thought I had left it in the case; unfortunately,
a lot can be forgotten in a four month lapse since my last session.
This, of course, resulted in an abrupt end to my night of imaging.
I certainly wasn't going to hold the shutter button for 75 minutes.
Even if this were possible, the ensuing twitch caused from a painful
finger cramp would result in catastrophe.  Unfortunately, noticing
her mistake of allowing one clear night around New Moon, Mother
Nature conjured up a never-ending series of cloud producing systems
that will not end until around Full Moon.  

You just gotta love this hobby,

Wade  


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