08/05/2008, THO
'S been a long time since I spent time out under the stars, Life, and sometimes the weather has gotten in the way.
Last evening, I caught the moon, Saturn, Mars and Venus a little after sunset, in the binocs from work...Mercury was out too, but to shy to play.
Perfect seeing last night when I walked home the dark way from work at 10:30 sparkling , clear, weeknight so the neighborhood was quiet.
When I got home, I popped out the screen in the west window, shut the door and had a stroll through Bootes, CB, Serpens, and the western edge of Hercules with one of the tabletop 50mm refractors, an older Tasco, parked on the windowsill. Not much in the way of deep sky object mentioned on my Serpens Caput map in Planetarium, but it reveals some lovely loops and groups of stars in a small scope. Super nice views in the amici-adapter prism and an old 50mm Jagers eyepiece. That makes the sweep about 11 times magnitude.
Didn't get to bed till 130 am and slept over slept till 630 this morning.
Tonight the Swift comes out!
Clear skies and plum torte!
Carol
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01/22/2008
Juggler's romance
With a toss of the hand
He tested mass and matter.
Found center and tilt
of one orb, then another.
Who sent a clowning assemblage
Into play around the fire
Manages both spin and wobble
Of their independent courses.
Long in spangled tent of night
Eye attentive to their dance,
The Master's pact with gravity
Whole worlds in his hands.
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01/16/2008, Hicks Valley
The treehouse is out of commission for the winter, but thats ok....
Monday night I was going bonkers with the clear weather, but all the neighbors had their lights on, so viewing was dismal out the west window. With all the murky weather, Ive been baking instead of observing. and trying to design some sort of lightweight "fliptop shed observatory for the balcony
was the night!
Wrestling through equipment, simplicity won the day, the 50mm Micronta, camp stool, Deepmap, moonmap and sketch book, with the astrobag to carry the periferals. .Remember the 1.25 " adapter diagonal to finally try out my new Pentax zoom eyepiece.
Simple to load the car when you observe with a 50mm refractor. left the tripod assembled and packed Calliope in her case, The smaller Sky&Tel laminated moonmap is justabout perfect for this scope. It would be an early evening, but D. had plenty of music to listen to, and doesnt mind sitting in the car. What a sweetheart! O:-)
D. and I picked up and headed out of town. Hills to the east block the SF bay area lights, and the Pacific Ocean takes care of the light domes from Japan We toodled out west of town, past Stafford reservoir and over the hill to Hicks Valley. A little ways northwest in the middle of the valley near Marin's last remanining one-room schoolhouse. We parked off
the road nearby the pond there and had a warm burritos for suppper by moonlight.
Seeing, for anything other than the moon, would have to be considered dismal, but this was the first time out for weeks, so I was happy. I
set up the scope by the red taillights of the car and aimed at the just-past-halfmoon overhead.
This Pentax zoom eyepiece I think was built for a spotting scope of shorter focal length. With my only 1.25 " adapter being a 45 degree amici prism, it was too bulky and ghosty for this little refractor~ back into the boxes!
The star prism and a new little 12 mm.965 konig from Scopehed on ebay, all of 13.95,
turned out to be the fitting lunar eyepiece for this evening's cruise. I could not star-test the Konig due to the high thin clouds,, but used it on the moon. Nice wide flat field, no ghosting or flashing, no color on the edges ofthe moon at all. Sharp contrast all the way across, definitely a keeper! The silly thing has a camouflage housing, I imagine from some
military or hunter type binoculars, and well
matched to Calliope . She's a delightful observing buddy.
Plato shone like a ring on the plains of the north, the Appenines ,a sentinal wall anchored by Eristhothanes.
The terminator sliced neatly through Copernicus, The scope drifted along in Sinus Aestum, and south. A line of placid craters from Sinus Medei along the left side of Mare Nubium basked in the cold
sun.
Tycho popped into center field, a study in symmetry and contrast, half dark-shadowed along the cliffs and the center mountain stark and
reversed . Lower down, Clavius's sharp rim protected a gentle flat valley with two small craters on the lower left. The scabby south polar region buckled inhospitably, turning the areas around Blancanus,
Casatus and Kalproth into pits of dispair.
Cirrus clouds were closing ranks, ignorable before, but now shading the face of the moon. A wide double lunar ring must mean good fortune for the Asian New year, half the sky aglow with moonlight and silver.
Dairlyland smells, sharpened in the nose with the cooling air, conversational geese and and early corral of frogs settled in for the night. Don had a dvd on his player in the car, I could have stayed out
all night, but I'd forgot my gloves, and we did have to be up at 430 for work in the morning.
Medicine for the midwinter blues....
Clear skies and apple pies!
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01/01/2008, THO
Worked till 10 tonight. D practiced to jazz cds on the bass while I suited up for some star time. God bless whoevr invented those flip-top thinsulate mitten-gloves!
the key to the shed was not on its hook by the window, and I didnt feel like turning on the lights and rummaging for them. I stepped out the back door to the balcony with the 7x35 binoculars and unfolded a beach chair. What a lovely night, clear and holy, flung with diamonds from the dog star through the south and west to Casseoipea.
The binoculars were fine company for the lazy stargazer, bundled up against the chilly 35 degree evening. Again, no specific path, just another wander, through the fields that originally cought my heart for the skies, Hyades, Pleaides and the Peseus clusters.
Orion stood at attention in full battle dress to the soutn, his sward polished and spangled, the old show- off...
All settled down to a nice peaceful gaze, till the neighbors turned on their kitchen light right next door.
Time to head in. D came out and we toasted the in the New year 5 minutes early with a draft of Matrinelli's finest cranberry-apple cider.
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Douglas County Missouri
Mt Tamalpais, California
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