840 mm focal length

Is the maximum focal length I can access out of my entire lens arsenal.

For amateur work, such as here in my Photo Diary / OnMyMind Diary, this is really good enough while keeping a high quality on the images shown here. I am not competing with anything or anyone else, really.

I am just happy that i can get good sharpness on images taken of the sun or moon with a 840 mm focal length.

Craters of the moon - observing at 8400 mm

I showed Sal, how the craters of the moon look like, when you view them on the back of the camera, with 10x enlargement (= 8400 mm focal length ?) He was like "wooooohoooo, wow". I believe he has never seen them though a telescope. Which makes it exciting when you've never seen that.

Berlin 1981

Like back in the days when I was a youngster and got my first telescope which i had saved for. Watching the moon rushing across the view.... looking at all those craters. Seeing Jupiter like a pretty large dis and some of the most dominating clouds bands visible, while also noticing the rings around planet Saturn.

Ah, what a joy !!

My parents however said: "we gave you" the telescope for Christmas. Which was utter BS, because it was me who paid it off from my pocket money ! I had bought the instrument from an astronomer buddy i met after one of those Planetarium meetings back then.

Almost a year later, i was 15 - my parents locked up the telescope into their bedroom, so i wasn't able to use it anymore. They said, i was a lunatic / crazy person. Because I was interested in the stars, planets and moon. How can you not be out and make observations with a telescope, when you are interested in planets and stars ?!

Idiots !

So, there was that.

One door closes. Another opens.

What did I do ? I couldn't do much astronomy at the age of 15. Instead I got interested of clouds, weather systems and their fronts, and charts. I settled over to Meteorology. Shortly later, i ran away from my parents for good still 15 years of age - went to the Authorities at Friedenau Town hall, requesting to be transfered into an Orphanage.

Townhall (Berlin) Friedenau

Three days later

i was suddenly in an orphanage in Southern West Berlin (Lichterfelde) called Wadzeck Stiftung. Very different in style and attitude from what it is today, judging from images about how they advertise them today in 2025. The front and back look pretty much the same like it did in the early 80s, though.

Wadzeck Stiftung

Time after (Feb 1982 - April 1984)

During those two years, I only saw my parents like 2 times, when i visited them in Berlin-Schöneberg. After that, I moved to Stockholm, in the tender confused age of just having reached 18 a month earlier. Arriving via Interflug, the former DDR airline but with a lot cheaper airfares - at Stockholm Arlanda airport on 17th April 1984.

The plane was 6 hours delayed. As I looked out of the window, seeing all those trees just everywhere (as if nobody lived below), I was wondering where the heck am i landing ? I had passed Stockholm a long time ago... unaware that the airport was located 43 km to the north of Stockholm *LOL* Literally flying over what felt like "landing in the middle of nowhere".

Ta-daaaaa.

I've been living in Stockholm ever since.