accept the frustration

Working with the Nikon remote control can be very frustrating. Until I swap out that device for another - not without additional investment - I will have to accept the frustration of the certain bugginess of this device. When it works it works - when burps it drives me nuts. "Serenity now."

All night long when observing the nearly 20 day old Moon, tens, maybe a hundred or more in total, flew across the face of the Moon. I thought, heck, these are going to look great, but not. Of the 75 snaps I got only 1 image that showed one.

Visually this was an orgy of lunar landscape and tiny, perfect silhouettes of migrating birds flapping across the face of the moon from west to east in just a couple of seconds or less. It was a first for me.

Another event was when we were sharing looks with the passersby, I was hopping for the Double Cluster. Passing the Muscleman Cluster I saw flying high a white bird, clearly discerning flapping wings and its body. It appeared very high because of its size, guessing about 5' based on my impression of Jupiter in this eyepiece, and the time it took to cross the field. In fact, after tracking it by twisting the RA and DEC knobs of the equatorial mount, I asked one of the persons standing of they were ready and prompted him to jump to the eyepiece. He watched the bird and commented to others that the bird's underside was reflecting the light which allowed us to seem it against the starry background sky.