Chapter 92: Photographing the Moon (Part 2)

The girl was Si Dong, and the man was Uncle Xiang. The two people Lin Nan knew were in a father-daughter relationship.

While looking at the two cars entering the mountain-top villa, he gently replied to his daughter, “They might be going up for something.”

Si Dong nodded obediently, no longer paying attention, turning her gaze to the night sky ahead.

Seeing his daughter turn her head away, Uncle Xiang revealed a trace of a bitter smile.

Of course he knew those two cars definitely were not going up for something; what business would require going to the villa? And it was so late now.

I suppose those two cars belonged to some person of status, coming here for tourism, arranged by the local boss to rest. What a pity for the good astronomical environment here!

Uncle Xiang sighed inwardly.

Uncle Xiang’s name was Si Fang Xiang, an overseas Chinese born in the Chinatown of M country.

But because of the Oriental blood in his bones, under his father’s guidance, Si Fang Xiang had developed a strong interest in China from childhood.

He often imagined what kind of country China was on the other side of the ocean.

Therefore, Si Fang Xiang often looked up at the starry sky, and since he liked reading, he had known the basic knowledge of the universe from a very young age.

He knew that on the other side of the star sky might be China.

Gradually, Si Fang Xiang became more and more fascinated by the beautiful star sky and the mysterious universe as he walked further on the path of astronomy.

His father also strongly supported his interest in this area.

However, Si Fang Xiang’s yearning for China in his heart continued to grow.

So after growing up, Si Fang Xiang resolutely came to China.

Falling back to his roots, Si Fang Xiang quickly fell in love with this place.

He found a stable job, got married and had children.

Even the child’s name was one he had long planned, whether boy or girl, called Si Dong.

The meaning was “contemplation of the East.”

As it turned out to be a girl, Si Fang Xiang changed the name to Si Dong.

Under the influence of his father, Si Dong from a young age had liked reading and astronomy.

Interestingly, Lin Nan still did not know that Si Dong’s current attainments in astronomy were far superior to his own.

Lin Nan had ideas of doing charity work and joining a million club, which could be said to be greatly related to Si Dong.

But astronomy had no relation whatsoever.

However, fate was such a wonderful and indescribable thing.

Some people were destined to have the same outlook on life, dreams, and hobbies.

And destined to meet and walk to the end together.

......

But Lin Nan still did not know all this. He had just gotten out of the car from the mountain-top villa that Uncle Xiang had yearned for.

After Lin Lang and the others got out of the car, Principal Li came over and handed him the villa’s key.

Smiling, he said, “Mr. Lin can stay as long as you like. The villa has everything. Looking at the stars here is absolutely the best place, the highest terrain, and it’s quiet so no one will disturb you.”

“Also, I still have some matters, so I’ll leave first. Mr. Lin, enjoy your family playing here. When you leave, put the key at the ticket office at the foot of the mountain.”

Lin Lang naturally knew he had no matters, but had to admit that this person indeed knew how to handle things.

So he stepped forward to shake hands with him and smiled back, “Thank you very much for Principal Li’s hospitality!”

Principal Li quickly replied, “You’re welcome, you’re welcome.”

After saying that, he drove off.

When leaving, he also helped close the large iron gate outside the villa.

The grand villa was left with only Lin Lang’s family.

Ye Xinlan looked at her husband beside her, who was now so respected wherever he went.

She felt very secure.

Watching his mother hold his father’s arm, Lin Nan smiled happily.

He ran up to take the key from Lin Lang’s hand and went to open the villa door.

The mountain-top villa had two floors, about three or four hundred square meters. Under the night, from the outside, it gave a sense of elegant yet luxurious.

Although Lin Nan had never seen a villa before, he had at least stayed in the InterContinental Hotel at the Capital’s Wukeshu Sports Stadium.

Therefore, he didn’t think the villa in front of him was anything special.

He pulled open the door roughly, and Lin Nan ran upstairs with the big box containing the astronomical equipment.

Just outside, he had seen that the balcony on the second floor should be the best position to place the astronomical telescope.

Lin Nan carefully took out the disassembled equipment from the box and slowly assembled it.

Today happened to be the middle of the month, so the moon in the sky was round and large.

Under the moonlight, Lin Nan’s 2.0 vision without astigmatism was very clear.

No need to turn on the lights, he quickly assembled the astronomical telescope.

Of course, on such a night with very strong moonlight, he could only photograph the moon, because the starlight was covered by the moonlight, the light was too weak, and it was hard to form images in the mirror.

Lin Nan excitedly took out his phone, opened the compass, found true north.

Then he aimed the polar axis of the equatorial mount at true north, and adjusted the altitude angle of the equatorial mount according to the latitude of Xishui County as given by the seniors in the star sky group.

Next, he completed the coaxial calibration of the main mirror and the finder, and rough alignment of the polar axis.

Lin Nan began to use the finder to search for the big round moon in the sky.

Although Lin Nan now hadn’t entered the field of astronomy, he wasn’t a complete beginner.

He naturally knew that finding the target to shoot required the finder, not that such a big moon in the sky needed to be searched for?

For example, Lin Nan with his naked eye could see the entire night sky, but in his field of vision, the brightest point (star) on the far left to the brightest point on the far right, the distance between them could be unimaginable.

Thousands of light years? Or hundreds of thousands of light years?

No one knew.

And the field of view of the astronomical telescope was only so large, if just roughly pointing at the moon, for a novice, it might take a whole night to move the moon into his lens.

And at this time, one needed the finder with its wider field of view.

Lin Nan soon found the small moon in the finder and adjusted the finder to move the moon to the center.

Then he immediately excitedly looked at the main mirror.

In his heart, Lin Nan thought the beautiful moon and mysterious lunar craters would appear in his lens!

However, when Lin Nan looked into the astronomical telescope’s main mirror, he found the eyepiece filled with a blurry white light.

Lin Nan quickly realized this was because of no focus, so the image was blurry.

So Lin Nan, while staring at the image in the eyepiece, twisted the focusing knob, but found it getting blurrier and blurrier.

Lin Nan immediately understood the direction was reversed.

So he turned in the opposite direction.

Soon, the image in the eyepiece became clearer and clearer.

After it was clear to a certain degree, Lin Nan twisted back and forth in a small range to find the clearest focus.

Finally, the “moon” in the eyepiece had a more obvious outline.

And Lin Nan also noticed that the moon in the lens was slowly moving.

This was because the Earth’s rotation caused the moon to rise in the east and set in the west, so it would slowly drift out of the field of view.

This movement couldn’t be seen with the naked eye, but was obvious in the telescope.

It was like you could see the second hand of a clock moving but not notice the hour hand moving.

The moon was just like that.

And Lin Nan also learned from the internet that good equatorial mounts had electric tracking, but the price would be higher.

So Lin Nan could only follow with his hand, adjusting slowly as the moon drifted.

Looking at the “moon” in the eyepiece, it basically only had a circular outline, it was bright but too blurry, and couldn’t compare at all to the photos of the seniors that Lin Nan had seen in the star sky group.

Even someone who didn’t know what it was, looking at this, couldn’t tell it was the moon at all.

Lin Nan’s initial excitement almost vanished completely, with no thought to let the parents with expectant faces beside come over to take a look.

He really felt it was not good enough; the imaging in the eyepiece was not as clear as what Lin Nan could see with his naked eye.

Lin Nan, looking at the round moon in the night sky, squinted and could almost see the black part in the yellow.

He knew that was the lunar craters or the ring mountains on the moon.

But in the eyepiece, nothing could be distinguished.

Lin Nan was a bit frustrated; he had used everything he knew, but got such an unsatisfactory result.

The corners of his youthful face that had been raised slowly became calm.

Actually, if Uncle Xiang were here, he would definitely think Lin Nan was already very good.

Even in the group, he saw that Lin Nan had only been in contact with astronomy photography for two weeks and had bought a complete set of equipment worth seven to eight thousand.

At that time, he had felt Lin Nan’s steps were too fast.

To know, most astronomy enthusiasts started with observation, that is, just taking a telescope to look.

The kind like Lin Nan who immediately got the equatorial mount and camera were very few.

According to Uncle Xiang’s estimation, Lin Nan getting the moon into the astronomical telescope’s eyepiece would be good enough.

He hadn’t expected Lin Nan to be able to adjust the equatorial mount.

But young and full of energy.

Lin Nan had won the champion of the National High School Basketball League in one year, although he didn’t show it on the surface, but in his heart he was very proud.

Lin Nan also knew that in basketball, his father’s help was very great.

And now he had contacted astronomy photography, basically completely on his own.

But Lin Nan believed in his learning ability.

He had thought that photographing the moon was just a simple matter, and he could complete it in a short time.

The colorful star sky was his goal.

But the result now...

Lin Lang saw all of it in his eyes.

Lin Lang had initially seen Lin Nan getting it hot and bothered, step by step, his expression very excited and animated.

Now after several minutes without moving, he thought Lin Nan must have run into a problem.

At first, Lin Lang guessed Lin Nan was being too ambitious, setting a goal he couldn’t complete.

But soon, Lin Lang felt it shouldn’t be that way.

He knew his son very well; now Lin Nan had his own pride, but wouldn’t not know his own level.

So Lin Lang speculated that Lin Nan’s foundation wasn’t solid, there was some problem in some aspect of astronomy, causing the current progress to be interrupted.

Thinking of this, Lin Lang walked up to his son and said, “Nan Nan, do you still remember the story of the big tree growing that I told you?”

The stronger the root, the thicker the branches and trunk of the big tree. No matter what you do, the foundation is most important.

Hearing this, Lin Nan instantly walked out from the frustration and started thinking.

Yes, the foundation is important.

But his equipment should have no problems in use!

Then where was the problem?

Lin Nan thought it through from start to finish.

“Ding!” Lin Nan’s mind seemed to suddenly ring a bell.

He knew where the problem was; the problem was on the moon!