Oh Perfect Night

Off we went observing into the night. As twilight was leaving and the crescent moon was going down in the west , the stars became our night lights. It was a perfect night, no breeze, cool temps and at this point no clouds.

We followed the satellite predictions and watched them go over, estimating the magnitudes of the predictions, if they were right or not. A few we missed, as they were too dim, others showed up that were not even on the list . At one point we were looking for Iridium 37 and saw one follow it with the same magnitude, it must have been one that failed, bonus a double iridium

In between the satellite passes, I observed Sagittarius
It was the first time, I had just taken the scope to each of the stars that made up the outline of Sagittarius and the spoon to the upper left of the teapot. It was very relaxing.

Then I proceeded to look for some Messier objects. M57 in Lyra
This is the Ring Nebula. In my telescope, which is a 4 inch SCT (Schmidt Cassigran) it was a small little donut, but magnificient just the same. M31 & M32 in Andromeda (the Andromeda and its companion galaxy) M13 in might Hercules.

The temperature when we started around 9:00 pm edt, was 11.2 C, by midnight, when some high cirrus clouds started to move in and the transparency started to go, it was 7C. This is August, welcome to Canada.

We could see M31 naked eye, and Perseus, and the double cluster

When we came in I looked through my log book, and have observed these objects before. They must be favourites.

As you can see, we had a perfect night............ now today, we are going with our friends, Hank and Di to the Picton area and the local winery's and shopping in Wellington, might even end up at the Taste of Country in Belleville, this too shall be a good day.

Though we are coming to the end of our two week vacation, it has been great. We have done what we wanted, gone places, seen things, someday's just do nothing, others, do to much and the body lets you know. I think it as taken me 1.5 weeks to finally get to a state of relaxation, only to realize, we have to go back.............

where are those winning lottery numbers?????? till later

Its one of those lazy hazy day's of summer

Its one of those days, you know the type, +20 C wind from the south west, its overcast, but the sun is hitting the bottoms of the clouds with a pink and salmon colour. It feels sticky though the breeze is nice and warm........

Got up around 5:45 am and went for my walk. It was still early enough the hear the birds sing and the crickets chirp, but the cars in the neighbourhood were coming alive.

A flat snake on the road, and I actually met a person who was walking towards Kingston for work, no doubt walking to get to his ride.

The neighbourhood is so quiet and calm in the early morning, its the best time to walk.

Today, well, I might get to stripping the coffee table. I tried a bit yesterday, and it worked quite well.

Pulled some weeds (grass) out of the front west garden, and should probably put some mulch on it as well, let you know later if I succeeded. Its coffee time ....

Well, after the coffee, and finishing up some analysis on some solar results, the guilt of not doing anything kicked in, so out I went. I went out to help Kevin dig through the old wood shack pile out back. We pulled the shingles off the old roof, and ripped off the 2 x 4's , which we will be re-using for the construction of the shed/greenhouse. With the price of wood now, its better to recylce. There is still some wood to go through, but the sun started to come out and it started to get hot. After all that hard work, we needed to cool off, so in the pool we went.

The temperature a balmy 24C, but it felt so cold. In there for a bit, along with a beverage (Ceaser for me, beer for Kevin) and then we got out. I did the mulch (2 bags, at the west garden, and one on the "galaxy" garden (mid lawn).

From here, I went and did the solar observing , awesome sun, and here is what we seen today.
Sketched the sun, then well, started the stripping of the coffee table. As I proceeded with this task, Kevin starting adding pieces to the observatory roof to keep out the rain, and more support. This went on for about 2 hours. He completed his job, mine is still on going, only 1/2 of the top part of the table stripped.

In the pool again, gotta love holidays. By this time, it was around 4:30 so I went in to start dinner. We ate, and put stuff away. We laid down for a couple of hours, because its going to be clear for a bit tonight, and we are going to observe the night sky in Yarker.

So off I go to do some satellite observations....................

Its a start

Well, just starting this blog. I was using html off my website, but we shall see how this goes. Got the tip from Tech G4TV, and Leo Laporte- now in Canada !!

Enough for now, I will back post my html files shortly.