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[Tracy]

He felt bad, I could tell. He had regrets, I didn't shove any of them down his throat, and I think it's what gave him peace in the end.

My dad screwed around on my mother for decades (she was faithful) because that was what he was "raised" in. He also beat on his children (two sets that were 15 years apart) and he was a drunkard, almost burning the house down several times, only saved by us children that he despised. The ONLY child that he liked was the one that ended up "being" like him, and that child beat on his wife and children and cheated on her regularly, resulting in a divorce and the children avoiding their father until very recently, when they realized how much property/funds he has.
I have NO "forgiveness" for him, and honestly believe he's justly roasting away in hell now.. and honestly, his passing was painful for him. I simply look at it as Karma coming home and biting him in the ass. The irony... about the last year of his life he actually realized what a sack of shit he was and tried to make up for it.
Did I speak with him during his life? Yep. Did I "help" him when I was able? Yep... but no more so than I would any other living being. He held NO special place in my heart - due to his self-centered concerns.

 

[Reverie]

My dad screwed around on my mother for decades (she was faithful) because that was what he was "raised" in. He also beat on his children (two sets that were 15 years apart) and he was a drunkard, almost burning the house down several times, only saved by us children that he despised. The ONLY child that he liked was the one that ended up "being" like him, and he beat on his wife and children and cheated on her regularly.
I have NO "forgiveness" for him, and honestly believe he's justly roasting away in hell now.. and honestly, his passing was painful for him. I simply look at it as Karma coming home and biting him in the ass. The irony... about the last year of his life he actually realized what a sack of shit he was and tried to make up for it.
Did I speak with him during his life? Yep. Did I "help" him when I was able? Yep... but no more so than I would any other living being. He held NO special place in my heart - due to his self-centered concerns.

Very understandable. I discovered the person I thought was my dad, he had molested my sister. I was lied to about it most of my life and given different excuses of why I couldn't live with him and etc. I moved in with him when I was about 11 years old, moved out at 19 years old. 8 years of my life involved him. 8 years of mental abuse and lies. I have not necessarily forgiven him. I'm just glad he has his own peace at the end. It was just sad to watch him go and I have nightmares of it occasionally still. The things I endured at his house had me consider a lot of exit plans. I moved on from it thankfully and this is part of what pushed me to be so driven in life.

I will never understand how evil forms and creates these... creatures that look like humans, but I know I will forever push through and persevere what's handed to me.

 

[Tracy]

Meanwhile.. on a more "happy" note (for me)... we had another set of storms come in (that were NOT forecast). I had been working about 2 hours on an image capture process, and had finally cropped and saved the image (but not the master) when we lost electricity for about 6 hours (once more, thanks Texas Governor promise on reliable power).

This was what I ended up with.... but still need to do more work on it. I still have the base processed images, but that's the easy part... it's the "massaging" of those images that can be a pain the the patooie.
This is M101 (Pinwheel galaxy, which I'm sure you can see why it was named such), taken during a full moon.

 

[Reverie]

Meanwhile.. on a more "happy" note (for me)... we had another set of storms come in (that were NOT forecast). I had been working about 2 hours on an image capture process, and had finally cropped and saved the image (but not the master) when we lost electricity for about 6 hours (once more, thanks Texas Governor promise on reliable power).

This was what I ended up with.... but still need to do more work on it. I still have the base processed images, but that's the easy part... it's the "massaging" of those images that can be a pain the the patooie.
This is M101 (Pinwheel galaxy, which I'm sure you can see why it was named such), taken during a full moon.

The fact you can see the "pinwheel" is amazing! That is so astonishing you can capture such vivd pictures within space!

 

[Tracy]

I will never understand how evil forms and creates these... creatures that look like humans

Get into law enforcement for any time longer that 3-4 years and you quickly find how many of them ARE in existence... and honestly.. it's one of the reasons I am like I am, not tending put up with crap from people. You deal with that type of person for 10-15 years... it WILL impact your dealings with others.

 

[Tracy]

The fact you can see the "pinwheel" is amazing! That is so astonishing you can capture such vivd pictures within space!

It's probably one of the reasons that astronomy/astrophotography has been one of my LONGEST lasting interests. I first got started at it in my early teens (and I'm pushing 60), but couldn't afford telescopes and such and had to rely on cheap binoculars. The joy of the night sky progressed throughout my life, considering that over 1/2 of it was spent working a job that exposed me to the night skies regularly, and then a large portion of the rest of my life had me doing it as an enjoyment factor.
It is REALLY amazing what one can find out there with even minimal equipment. Granted, I have a decent camera (but it's WAY from top line) and a decent scope (same thing)... but patience wins out.
I really want to do some more processing.. but the internet (cable modem) is down currently (I'm using my cell phone hot spot currently) and need bandwidth to do certain aspects... so my further processing of M101 and then M92 are going to have to wait until I wake back up and HOPE that Zito Media has been able to fix their network issues.... but even though we pay about $300 a month (internet and cable access) to them, I doubt they will get it done in a timely manner.

 

[Reverie]

It's probably one of the reasons that astronomy/astrophotography has been one of my LONGEST lasting interests. I first got started at it in my early teens (and I'm pushing 60), but couldn't afford telescopes and such and had to rely on cheap binoculars. The joy of the night sky progressed throughout my life, considering that over 1/2 of it was spent working a job that exposed me to the night skies regularly, and then a large portion of the rest of my life had me doing it as an enjoyment factor.
It is REALLY amazing what one can find out there with even minimal equipment. Granted, I have a decent camera (but it's WAY from top line) and a decent scope (same thing)... but patience wins out.

I remember using a telescope and seeing it and was just amazed! My dad had one and we only used it outside like twice. The night sky is such a big wonder because it is huge - and I think that makes us so curious! That's amazing you've been able to enjoy it most of your life! I am curious to see top of the line cameras as well, but I think it's incredible you can get this with just a decent camera!

 

[Ken]

Wow! Congratulations on the progress so far in the weight loss! That's amazing - and sounds like a good dinner! Glad you've also got to enjoy some gaming time!

No prob! I'm hitting the emulators later and play Balloon Fight, Elevator Action and Robotron: 2084.

 

[Reverie]

No prob! I'm hitting the emulators later and play Balloon Fight, Elevator Action and Robotron: 2084.

I really want to play Spyro right now, but then I need to charge my switch to do so lol.

 

[Tracy]

I am curious to see top of the line cameras as well

Top line cameras are in the 10K range... the "good" full frame ones are in the $1800 range for one shot color (add another $800 for decent filters), $5000 for mono (with good filters and filter wheel), .. honestly.. I'm perfectly happy currently with my 1x1 format (one shot color $1500 with filters, mono $4000 with good filters) cameras as I don't have the extra funds to spend on a camera currently (I will take donations!!!! 🤣 ). If I spend more... it will be on a larger refractor/reflector telescope. My current mount will support up to about 44 pounds of weight, which will cover most larger scopes. If I want to go larger, I need to be willing to invest another $10K in a base mount. It's not a "cheap" hobby when you start deep diving into the photography aspect. You can do some nice stuff with simple DSLR and decent lenses (especially if the DSLR is modified).. but to really move forward, you simply need a telescope and a dedicated cooled astrophotography camera if you are doing deep sky imaging.
I have found that the mono cameras tend to a more "crisp" image as every pixel is in use by whatever filter is being used and the one shot color ones are using 1 blue/2 green/1 red bayer filter.
I'm beginning to discover that this hobby is MORE expensive than fishing or hunting!!!!

 

[cynosure.x]

Photography is hella expensive and the biggest reason I never got into it. That and the work you have editing them.

 

[Tracy]

Photography is hella expensive and the biggest reason I never got into it. That and the work you have editing them.

Astro specific cameras can get STOOPID expensive.. especially when you consider they have built in cooling and all kinds of other "crap".
The capturing of the data isn't hard... it's the dang processing of it that can drive you batty. It's not unusual for some people to have over 100 hours of a capture of a target that needs to be processed.

 

[cynosure.x]

Astro specific cameras can get STOOPID expensive.. especially when you consider they have built in cooling and all kinds of other "crap".
The capturing of the data isn't hard... it's the dang processing of it that can drive you batty. It's not unusual for some people to have over 100 hours of a capture of a target that needs to be processed.

I haven't read too far back, just saw the prices and saw camera so I thought I'd jump in but you are particularly interested in astrology photography?

 

[Tracy]

I haven't read too far back, just saw the prices and saw camera so I thought I'd jump in but you are particularly interested in astrology photography?

You could say astrophotography.

Site is in my sig.

 

[cynosure.x]

You could say astrophotography.

Site is in my sig.

Woops I really was quite lazy with reading. I also didn't know how to call it but thanks. Those pictures are amazing. I went star gazing in February while on holiday and saw some interesting stuff, though apparently with the human eye it wasn't as colorful (or maybe it was the lenses? 😅 I don't know anything about astrology but it's always interested me.

 

[Reverie]

The color he captures is pretty fantastic!

I'm excited for my husband to get home soonish to watch The Last Of Us. He might get to leave work early today surprisingly.

 

[cynosure.x]

Ugh I watched the first episode of The Last of Us but I can't watch the others without paying for a streaming service. And I don't want to because the reviews of the service are horrible.

 

[Reverie]

Ugh I watched the first episode of The Last of Us but I can't watch the others without paying for a streaming service. And I don't want to because the reviews of the service are horrible.

What service are they on for you? Could always pay and watch all the episodes and then cancel the service?

 

[Nebulous]

Hey all, hows it going? Hope you're having a great day!

 

[fords8]

Hey all, hows it going? Hope you're having a great day!

Hey @Nebulous ! Had a good day. Now I am just going to hang out and relax.