The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'm not usually one for medieval fantasy, so when Sword & Laser talked this book up I gave it a pass. Recently one of my friends impressed upon me just how good it was and that I really needed to give it a read. So with some trepidation I succumbed to the pressure and grabbed a copy on my nook. I'm so glad that I did.
I think back on [b:Shadow and Claw|40992|Shadow and Claw (The Book of the New Sun, #1-2)|Gene Wolfe|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1317791854s/40992.jpg|40575] and see that in Kvothe I have a compelling character who excels at telling his own story. If the story of Severian were told with even half the style that Rothfuss has shown here I might have continued reading the series. I really enjoyed the style, humor, and development of the story.
I highly recommend this book to any reader. It is the first book in a series, so don't look for any closure. However, the story itself is very worth it.
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Review: The Name of the Wind
Review: Necessary Evil
Necessary Evil by Ian Tregillis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A fantastic end to the series! The second book in this series was so dark, so punishing, that I feared what I would find in the conclusion. Thankfully, I found that the tone from the second book is substantially changed as we see the Marsh of the original timeline get a chance to set right a timeline for the world and for the younger self of this new timeline. There is a lot of action here, which lead to a quick read on my part. I feel that this was the strongest book of the three. If you enjoyed the first book, definitely push your way through the second so you can enjoy this finale.
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Review: The Battle of the Labyrinth
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Themes of trust and choice cropped up several times in this episode. I have to say, this was the most engaging of the books so far. It has a darker tone, which may be why I found it more interesting. Overall, it does not deviate from the style of the first three books. There are several times where story elements are made overly obvious after being alluded to earlier. It is a young adult book, but I think some faith could be put in the reader. One final book to go to finish this series.
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Review: The Lightning Thief
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
We watched The Lightning Thief when it came out on DVD, and my kids were instant fans. The books were beyond their reading level at the time, so we didn't get invested in them. Now that my oldest is comfortable with chapter books we picked up the series.
Having seen the movie, much is familiar here, but there are enough differences in the film that I still found it enjoyable and surprising at times. The writing style is geared toward the target audience, which is to say that the vocabulary is relatively simple, the characters one dimensional, and a lot of visualization. That's not a bad thing, and it leads to a very quick read. On the other hand, for an adult reader, I often found myself skimming more than actually reading.
I did enjoy some of the lessons in this book, and I think it is good guidance for my children. Percy is often faced with the choice of doing something rash that is immediately satisfying or taking a wiser approach that sacrifices his personal satisfaction. I hope my kids reflect on that and model it in their own lives.
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Board Game Session Report: Illuminati
I didn't really care for this game. It took a really long time for what was a game that did not have much going for it. Perhaps it was just too late at night to start picking this up, but it really felt like math homework more than a fun game. Each player has a primary group that they control. The group offers an income, power, and transfer power. The power of the group can be used to attack another group, either in the interest of control, neutralization, or destruction. I missed the early note that you could perform any of these against any group in the game, not just those that were in the common pool in the center of the table, so I had a bit of a misplay. Still, the mechanics are the same whichever route is taken: determine the power of the attacking group, subtract the resistance of the defending target, apply any transfer power desired for the attacker to increase the value, defender may spend money to decrease the value, attacker may spend money to increase the value. Once all of this arithmetic is complete, the attacker rolls 2d6 and if his roll is less than the sum and not equal to 11 or 12 he wins. Of course, there are some modifiers as well. Each group has descriptors such as Government or Communist, Weird or Straight. If you attack same you get a bonus, opposite a penalty. Unless of course you are attacking to destroy, in which case the bonus/penalty is reversed (and you subtract the power of the defender, not the resistance). There is a bonus applied to defense depending on how close to the center of your network the defending group is. Money spent from the defending group counts double value. Attempting to neutralize gives the attacker a 6 point bonus. I'm not even getting into the modifiers that groups might have, such as bonuses against particular types of groups.
Doing this math problem with six players for two hours was just not fun. It felt very much like munchkin (and no surprise there, this is an early Steve Jackson game) in that each player raced to their win condition quickly, and then the game stalled as we all sniped each other. At the end I was ready to simply throw the game for it to be over. I think part of the problem was that we had too many players. If this game were a 30 minute rapid romp, I could see enjoying it from time to time. At two hours plus, I wouldn't want to get involved. The humor touches in the game were nice and produced a few chuckles, but nothing that would draw me back.
Review: The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel
The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It has been a while since I finished reading through the dark tower series. I even read a few of the graphic novels that followed. I enjoyed all of it, and I enjoyed this book as well, but I agree with much of the criticism that it shouldn't be considered part of the series. It is hard to create suspense when I already know that the characters must survive since I've already read the following books. This entry in the series includes a brief look at Roland, Eddie, Jake, Susannah, and Oy as they travel along the path of the beam, but then shifts to a story of young Roland on a mission to find a skin-man. This story then leads to young Roland telling a boy a fairy tale that his mother had told him. In the end, we get a bit more detail on Roland's character, but overall it does not add to the DT story arc. Many have commented that this would have been better suited as part of a Tales of the Beam collection of stories detailing other characters in the Dark Tower universe without being considered part of the Dark Tower series itself. I did enjoy this read, and I would recommend it to other DT fans, but with the warning that you won't be filling in any gaps.
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The Wasteland that is the Modern Arcade
What has happened to the arcade? I love games. I love board games, video games, card games...pretty much any kind of game. When I was young I would look forward to trips to the mall so I could head to the arcade with my friends and playing Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and more! We would spend hours feeding quarters (actual quarters!) into these machines and having a great time. A birthday party at Showbiz Pizza meant playing skeeball, basketball, pac-man, and enjoying the animatronic show.
While much is the same, much has changed. I have children of my own now, and they also want to go to the arcade and have pizza birthday parties. My children are getting a much different experience, however. A walk into a modern arcade will confront you with bank upon bank of skill crane and chance games intended to eat tokens for the scant chance of a payout in tickets. There may be two skeeball machines tucked in a corner, but chances are good they are down for maintenance. Worse, my kids (and their friends) aren't even interested in the rare game we might find. Instead they simply look for who can turn their tokens into the most tickets the most quickly. I haven't even walked away from feeding my $20 into the token machine when the first child is back with an empty token cup and a small handful of tickets. In no time we've run through $60 and the kids are anxiously caching out for stickers, plastic rings, and cheap candy that will probably get lost in the seat cushions on the ride home.
Unfortunately, the only thing that has remained constant about my arcade experience is the quality of the food, which has been consistently and universally bad. We do have a Dave & Busters nearby, and on the one occasion when I took my oldest son we did have a good time challenging each other to top scores in Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, and Centipede. This was all on a small, multi-game unit tucked away in a corner. Walking around there were plenty of flashing lights and cool graphics on display, but the machines could hardly be considered games. There was a Star Wars AT-AT simulator (cool, but it was more of an experience than a game). There was an immersive 'ride' that had fans and hydraulics to augment the image on the screen. There were dance pads, guitars, and lots and lots of guns in various shapes, sizes and colors. Joysticks, on the other hand, were in short supply. The days of button mashing appear to be behind us.
Of course, I do realize that there are a number of factors that have lead to the sad state of today's arcade. The home gaming console really hurt the small arcade in the mall or the unit at the local pizza shop. Why make the effort to get to an arcade and pump quarters into a machine when you can have the same experience in the comfort of your home? With fewer people coming through the doors arcades had to either close their doors or find an alternative to survive. Enter the skill crane. Cheap to maintain and impossible for a child to avoid. So when a game unit needs repair, just replace it with the crane. Too many cranes? Install some ticket vendors and a small booth full of cheap tchotchkes to help parents turn those $20s into ten cent toys. Some, like Dave & Busters, have made an effort to install modern games, but they feel compelled to offer something you can't get at home. Either a simulator or giant apparatus that you couldn't have at home on your console.
The arcade could be so much more. Sure, I could have my friends over to play games on my home console with graphics that rival anything you might find in the arcade. I could play online with millions of strangers. The arcade is the perfect environment to meet new people face to face. To see the look in their eye as you pummel them, or to stand at the side and learn from a master. It doesn't matter if I could play the same game at home, it is the social element that really makes the arcade appealing. Surprisingly, it is the friendly local game store that has taken over this opportunity from the arcade. My local shop has a weekly game night where the public is invited in to try the latest in table top games and meet other people who enjoy gaming. It is a blast! I look forward to these nights each week. I'm sad that arcades have become the wasteland that they are today, but I'm glad to have an oasis in my local game store.
Review: Shadow and Claw
Shadow and Claw by Gene Wolfe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
What. a. slog. I was turned on to this book by The Sword and Laser podcast. The description of a dying earth that contains the remnants of technology that people have largely forgotten or spurned really interested me. What I found in the first two volumes of this series was a pretty aimless fantasy tale. I think it was a good move to merge both of these volumes into a single paperback as I would not have been interested enough after The Shadow of the Torturer to pickup The Claw of the Conciliator.
It is not that the book is written poorly. In fact, the imagery is very good. I'm just not interested in Severian and his adventures. He is a wholly unlikable main character. There is very little plot to speak of. Instead, it feels like a quilted patchwork of scenes with no common design. One of Severian's traveling mates even goes so far as to wonder at what his goal is when he has so many goals at once, yet appears to be chasing none of them.
I don't think I'm going to pickup the next two books in the series. I fear that there is some twist in volume three that will change my opinion (this series has a tremendous amount of praise) but I'm just not willing to spend any more time on it.
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Review: Pump Six and Other Stories
Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow, these are some dark stories. As far as my reading goes, Bacigalupi is unique in that he paints his dystopias not as places where we kill ourselves with guns and missiles but instead with what we eat. I really enjoyed The Windup Girl which is what prompted me to pick up this book, and I wasn't disappointed. Fair warning however: these are dark stories without much hint of hope.
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Review: Gone Girl
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
My wife had finished reading Gone Girl on the same day that I picked up a copy of Old Man's War from the Humble Bundle program. She was insistent that I read it so we could talk about it (she didn't want to give anything way) and so I read through the first two chapters. I immediately found that neither Nick or Amy appealed to me, so I set it aside and spent the next couple of weeks leisurely reading Scalzi's book. Once finished with that I felt I should take another stab at Gone Girl.
First, I'm not typically a fan of relationship drama or crime fiction. I recognize that there are good works in this genre out there, and I can read them and appreciate them, but it isn't my go to genre. So I was already biased against this book. Secondly, the first few chapters of the book are very slow. Amy's diary entries are frustratingly wimpy and Nick narrative is very self-absorbed. We know from the dust jacket that there is some excitement coming, but we need to pay our penance of getting acquainted with our characters before we get to the fun.
Then Amy is gone, and I'm learning new things a bit at a time about each character. Unlikable things about people I already didn't like. Then, around 200 pages in, whammo, major shift.
In the end, Flynn is to be commended on some exceptional writing here. The characters are extremely well done. So my rating here is less about the quality of the book (it is quite good) but a reflection of my own tastes. I wouldn't read it again, because it isn't the type of book I enjoy. On the other hand, for fans of crime dramas, I would highly recommend it.
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Munchkin
Over the past year I've fallen back in love with board gaming in a big way. I've always enjoyed table top games, but finding a group to play with has been a struggle. Fortunately, I've met several locals that also enjoy games, and I've befriended the owner of our local board game store, which has led to lot better opportunities to game. I have had a chance to play quite a few games that were new to me, and picked up my own copies of some games that I've particularly enjoyed.
One such game is Munchkin, a Steve Jackson game. Munchkin is a card game for three to six players that condenses a Dungeons and Dragons campaign to the core elements of defeating monsters and grabbing treasure. Each player begins as a level one plain old human and is dealt four "door" cards and four "treasure" cards. These cards might allow them to become a class of hero, such as a Cleric or Thief, or change their race to something like an Elf or a Dwarf. In addition, some treasures provide armaments that increase the power of the player. On each player's turn they first setup their items, races, and classes as they like, then they "Kick in a door". This means the top door card is revealed. If it is a monster, the player tries to defeat it by using a combination of levels and items to have a higher power than the monster.
Of course, it isn't that simple. Other players can get involved in combat too, and not just to help you out. The other players can offer to help you defeat the monster by adding their own power to yours, but often they will want a bit of the treasure in return. Defeating a monster awards a level to the player who kicked in the door, and the game is won by reaching level 10. This gives the other players an incentive to mess with you, and the game provides plenty of opportunities to do just that. There are cards that allow players to curse one another and demote them a level or steal items. There are powerful enhancement cards that can either make a player more powerful or make the monster more powerful. There are cards that allow springing additional monsters into combat when they are least expected.
The game is given a light feel by the humor found both in the art style and the flavor text of the cards (i.e. Pantyhose of Giant's Strength). In the box you will find door cards, treasure cards, and a dice. It would have been nice if it included something for tracking player levels, but that is reserved for the Deluxe version of the game.
I've had the occasion to play several games now, and it has left me with a distinct impression of the game. Given the right players, this game can be a lot of fun. The right players are people who have been exposed to the concepts of role playing games and likely have spent time, if not actually role playing, at least playing video games with role playing elements such as item management and leveling. The humor is geared towards players familiar with role playing and fantasy tropes. These types of players will quickly pickup on how the game is played and will likely enjoy themselves quite a lot. On the other hand, playing with the wrong players can be a miserable experience. The wrong players are folks who have never been exposed to role playing or fantasy games, rules lawyers, and jerks. A jerk is going to be painful to play with in any game, but this game intentionally provides opportunities to harass each other. This can bring out the worst in people, especially if two or more of your players have some issues with each other. It can be painful to watch them hate on each other during what can sometimes be a two hour game. Rules lawyers are also painful to deal with because the rules of the game are intentionally terse and open to interpretation. A lot of time can be lost quibbling over how cards might interact and timing elements that the rules simply don't cover. This distracts the focus from the fun of the game and leads to constant refereeing of disagreements over mechanics. Finally, players with no background in role playing or fantasy can feel like the entire game is foreign. I've played with three folks who fit this mold, and I felt bad watching them play because it was clear that everything in the game was alien to them and they were having absolutely no fun. These aren't problems with the game per se. Instead, it is best to know your audience when you consider breaking out the Munchkin box. Be sure the players are going to be right for having a fun time. If in doubt, pick something else.
I've enjoyed playing Munchkin, and while I have had some bad experiences, the good experiences will keep me looking for the right group to play this game with again.
Review: Old Man's War
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Old Man's War is a fun read that was a nice fit for a lot of the themes I enjoy. It isn't breaking any new ground as far as profound thought or mental stretching. I could easily see this becoming a summer blockbuster film (and I believe the process of producing a film version of the story is already underway). I really enjoyed the first Starship Troopers film, and this book has a lot of that flavor to it.
The story centers on John Perry, a former advertising copy writer who is coming up on his 75th birthday. The year is sometime in the future, and for our elderly citizens there is an alternative option to simply passing away of old age; you can sign up for the Colonial Defense Force. The CDF is a military organization that takes on elderly recruits and ships them out into the universe for a minimum two year deployment of fighting. John has already lost his wife to a stroke and has heard the rumors of how the CDF has some flashy tech to make him young again. It has to be better than dying old and lonely, so he enlists. What he discovers is that the CDF is much more alien than he could have ever imagined. What follows is the story of John's second life as a CDF recruit.
I enjoyed Scalzi's style and humor from [b:Fuzzy Nation|9647532|Fuzzy Nation|John Scalzi|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316132345s/9647532.jpg|18280046], and there is plenty of that on display here as well. Ultimately this book is an amalgamation of many other science fiction story elements, but that is just fine with me. I'll probably be picking up the rest of the books of the series.
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Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I think these stories probably do a good job of capturing how mad the real world must feel to a child, especially a child growing up in Carroll's time. I don't know that it is as applicable now as it was then (we tend to coddle our children to a great degree now) but it certainly highlights how the lessons we are taught in elementary school and by our parents leave out much of what we might call "street smarts". People will try to hurt you for any reason at all, and even without one. You will never be sufficiently prepared, so learn to cope as you go along. Rules will often make sense only to the rule maker. I get the message here, but for whatever reason, these stories just didn't appeal to me.
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Review: Lucifer's Hammer
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love a good apocalypse book, and this was a good one. I liked how the story was told from a variety of perspectives, and how the same moment in time is retold from several viewpoints in various locations. I think this story may have heavily influenced the screen writers responsible for Deep Impact, but this story doesn't end at the point of impact.
I'm compelled to compare this to [b:One Second After|4922079|One Second After|William R. Forstchen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316728333s/4922079.jpg|4987669], a much more recently published apocalypse scenario that I had previously read. I enjoyed One Second After, but I thought it could have been much better. There are some distinct differences in plot. In One Second After, the population has no warning at all of the apocalyptic event. The population of Lucifer's Hammer has months of advance notice, but are not entirely convinced that the comet will hit. The event in One Second After only disabled electronics, while Lucifer's Hammer sunders the earth. Lucifer's Hammer is better in a variety of ways. I felt more connected to the characters. I felt the science had a better foundation. I felt the reaction of the public was more believable. My only gripe with Lucifer's Hammer is the part that women play throughout, and this is likely due to the time the story was written. The story was written in the mid seventies, and you definitely get the "Mad Men" vibe what with alcohol as tonic throughout, and women largely as bedroom furniture. Even so, there are some female characters with strong, constructive roles (watch for Eileen particularly).
I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend to any other fans of post apocalyptic scenarios.
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Journey
Journey is the third video game produced by independent development house thatgamecompany. I really enjoyed their previous games Flow and Flower. These games stretch the definition of "game", and Journey stretches that definition the furthest. In Journey you play as a...well.. who knows. Your character is an armless humanoid dressed in a robe that covers you from head to foot. Your objective is rather vague: there is a mountain in the distance, and you will journey towards it. Your interaction with the world is limited to just a few actions: moving about, vocalizing, and leaping. The world that you move through is really extraordinary, and it is fun to explore and find out just how much you can do with these limited controls. Still, this limited interaction leaves me wondering if "game" is the right term to apply here. In Flow you battled against other organisms to become king of the depths. Flower was more vague, essentially a finding exercise as you searched for enough flowers to bloom in order to open up the next section of the game. Journey offers even less direction. If you wanted, you could just tape the joystick to point forward and come back in two hours to see the credits roll.
There has been a lot of dispute about whether or not video games should be considered art. Acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert has famously said that they are not comparable to film and books as art, while the Smithsonian Institute has created a traveling museum honoring the art of video games. Journey, in my view, is trying very hard to be considered art. It is an interactive experience that each person is going to react to differently. The gaming press has been falling over itself to lavish praise on this game, but I'm not sure that this is necessarily a good thing. Yes, Journey is beautiful and unique, but the "game" element here is pretty weak. Someone looking for the same sort of release that a game like Call of Duty provides isn't going to find it here, and that could create a backlash by the gaming community. The entire experience can be completed in under two hours, and many gamers might feel cheated by that.
I definitely recommend giving Journey a try, but caution to approach this as a piece of interactive art rather than a video game. Consider it a $15 door fee to a private showing at an artist's gallery.
Review: A Princess of Mars
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Well, now I know what SF pulp is.
I had put this book on my to-read list some time ago, and then forgotten about it. With the movie in theaters and a free digital copy available I decided to finally do something about that. At under 200 pages this is a breeze to get through, and the chapters definitely feel episodic.
A Princess of Mars tells the story of John Carter, a Virginian civil war veteran who headed West to claim his fortune prospecting. He finds himself magically transported to Mars amid barbaric alien races pitched in constant battle.
What follows is combination Axe body spray / Old Spice commercial where John Carter exhibits supreme manliness in the face of danger, dealing death to his foes and leaving a trail of adoring fans in his wake. The story reads a bit breathless. I found the book entertaining overall, but not something I would eagerly recommend.
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Review: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Within a few pages of reading this one I started recommending it to anyone who would sit still long enough to listen. Our image of Jesus is shaped from just brief moments at the beginning of his life and the end. This book provides a humorous back story for the 30 something years we don't know about. Told from the perspective of Joshua's childhood pal Levi bar Alphaeus, also known as Biff, we hear of how Biff and Joshua stumble through adolescence and into their adulthood. The humor here runs the gamut from subtle wink to raunchy blue, and I loved it. It isn't very often that I literally laugh out loud when reading, but I enjoyed several such moments while reading this one. Highly recommend!
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Review: Time Travelers Never Die
Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Michael Shelbourne mysteriously disappears from his home, sending his son Adrian on a quest to find him. What he discovers is that his father, a reknown physicist, has managed to create a time travel device packaged much like an iPod. Adrian and his friend Dave embark on a quest to discover where in time his father has disappeared to, and why he hasn't returned.
Overall I enjoyed this book, and I would likely have enjoyed it more if I were a history buff. There are all sorts of references to historical events and people that I'm hesitant to admit I know very little about. One thing that frustrated me is that there are points in the story where the solution to a plot point or question are painfully obvious, yet the characters trudge on, completely oblivious to what should be right in front of their face. It would be one thing if these were men thrust into a completely unexpected situation outside of their normal pursuits, but these are a college professor and son of a physics genius. This is a minor quibble though.
The sci-fi element of this story is pretty light, so I would recommend this to historical fiction fans who like to dabble in sci-fi before I would recommend it to science fiction fans with a penchant for history.
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Review: Full Dark, No Stars
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
King is known for striving for high page count, so it is always nice to come across a selection of his short (by King standards) stories. As explained in the acknowledgments at the end of the book, these are stories that ask what would a real person do in this situation. There is very little of the supernatural here.
1922
The longest and possibly most difficult to get through of the stories. A study in how the torment of guilt can ruin your life.
Big Driver
This one reminded me of the exploitation film "I spit on your grave". If you were mildly famous and something tragic happened to you, what would you do?
Fair Extension
I think this is my favorite from this book. A man doomed by cancer meets a salesman who can give him an extension on his life at the price of 15% of his salary for the remainder of his years. Oh, and he has to pick someone else to be saddled with the burden of bad luck that is being lifted from his own shoulders.
A Good Marriage
What would you do if, after decades of marriage, you discovered your spouse was hiding a terrible, terrible secret? Would you be able to live with it? Would you be able to live with yourself?
The paperback edition I read also included an additional short story.
Under the Weather
It's hard not to spoil this one as it is so short, but I did like it. Would you be able to say goodbye to the one you love?
Overall, I think this is an excellent collection of short stories. Many are going to feel familiar, but King's storytelling style keeps them interesting. Also, these are told without the usual gotchas and twists. I'd recommend to anyone who is a fan of King's work, or just looking to see how dark the human soul can be.
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Night Sky Photography
I am not a photographer, but I can certainly appreciate a great photo. I'm also not an astronomer, but I enjoy looking up at the stars. Ever since moving out to the country we've had some great views of the night sky. Planets shine brightly and on a clear night you can see the faint glow of the milky way. I'd really like to be able to capture some of these views, but I'm not willing to spend thousands of dollars on a camera (at least not right now). I'd love to have a high quality telescope too, but that is a pretty low priority right now. So I've been trying to figure out if the things we have around the house might allow me to take a passable picture of the night sky.
I did a little reading to see what I would need, and it turns out you can get a respectable picture with some simple equipment. What I had on hand was my smart phone with camera (Moto DROID v1) and my son's toy telescope (Gallileo 600x50mm refractor). The functions on the Droid's camera are pretty limited. For a night image, the most critical feature is the ability to set the exposure time, followed by setting the focus to infinit. The Droid does allow setting the focus to infiniti, but there are only three exposure settings: 0, +1, and +2. We had a clear night and a bright moon, so I tried to get a shot.
Not what I was hoping for. I mean, sure, you can tell there is some light out there, and it is vaguely crescent shaped, but you can't really say whether it is the moon or a flashlight.
Tonight was another clear night so I decided to try taking a picture through the telescope. I got the telescope setup on the tripod and aimed at the moon, which was again very bright and clear. I had a devil of a time trying to get the phones camera lined up with the eye piece, and absolutely no luck getting anything in focus.
I was pretty frustrated with the results. Then I had the thought to try the Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX web cam sitting on top of my monitor. It has a very low resolution (1.3MP interpolated) vs. my Droid (5MP). I found it was quite a bit easier to align with the eye piece of the telescope and I was able to get the image mostly focused.
I was surprised and very happy with the way this one turned out. The software for the camera allows for automatically adjusting the exposure and gain, but I found I got the best image when I turned that feature off and set the exposure and gain to their lowest setting. There is a bit of ghosting here based on how the camera takes a photo.
I have yet to try this with our point-and-shoot digital camera. I think I'll have to try that next.
UPDATE: I tried my hand at using our point and shoot, both unaided and through the telescope.
