Hi Jim,
Those show promise, so certainly don't give up. That moon shot is very cool. You might try downloading the free version of Neat Image to clean up the noise and that shot would be very nice.
Living in Nebraska and your son goes to ISU. There's gotta be a story there.
But, since your handle is CycloneBandDad, I'm guessing you are Iowan at heart and just live over in the Evil Empire. I felt the same way about living in Texas and I'd certainly not let my children go to school there.
-E