Wandering through E-Space

This past weekend I spent Saturday night to Sunday morning at Observatory Park for the Perseid meteor shower!  This was my third Perseid overnighter at OP.  I set up just before 8pm Saturday night and my friend Jynjyr joined us for a night of counting meteors. I started officially counting around 9:30 pm and finished up around 6 am. (woo!) Total count for the night: 70.  My record is still 201.  The weather wasn't perfect-the humidity was in the 90s, and it was on again off again clouds.  Also-lightning from Canada-I kid you not!  CANADA.  We started noticing lightning flashes around 11 pm-they were bright enough to wreck havoc with our night vision.  I kept checking the radar and there was a fairly large storm cell around London, Ontario-but nothing on the U.S. side.  It was quite fascinating (and annoying-as I mentioned before-it messed with our night vision).  I was hoping to get some decent meteor shots-and was really excited-thi...

Well, alrighty then!  I really needed to upgrade my blog.  Not sure how I like the new layout, but we'll see if it grows on me.  I feel really bad that I've neglected this blog for so long. I keep thinking about things to post about-the problem is I'm never near a computer when I think of things.  By the time I get home, I'm just to lazy to post. HA.   I miss my old theme, but it hasn't been compatible with Blogger's fancy features for years.  Since the server I was using to house my template (and most of my graphics and photos) no longer exists, I figured it was time to upgrade. I need to gather and repost my links-maybe I'll add a page for them, rather than putting them back on the side bar, like before... It's the beginning of -Con season!  (-Con season for me is March-June)  Last year I attended 4 cons- ConCoction in March, Armada in April, Marcon in May, and Origins in June.  This year I had to skip ConCoction, but the rest are s...

I am not hear to complain about the media's fascination with the "Super Moon"-I think I've tweeting and posted to Facebook enough about that-instead, I'm hear to put my money where my mouth is (is that the right saying?) and to tell you to go check out the moon tomorrow night! :) Saturday, September 6th has been designated International Observe the Moon Night! InOMN is the brainchild of several "Moon Units" (the Lunar Science Institute, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to name a few).  The idea is to generate interest in observing and studying the moon. How to participate?  It's easy!  Just go out on the night of the 6th and look up! :)  You can also join an event, OR create one for the public for yourself!  (unfortunately the only event close enough to Cleveland is Hiram College.  Perhaps next year we can suggest to the folks at Observatory Park to create an event of their own!) ;)  (update: alth...

In the wee hours on Saturday, May 24th, a new meteor shower, the Camelopardalids will make it's presence known! (Image courtesy of Sky and Telescope) This will be the first known time that Earth will pass through the debris left behind by Comet LINEAR. (I say known because there is very little evidence of that the "Cams" have made an appearance before).   The best part is experts believe that we will be plowing through a relatively dense field of debris, with the potential of the Cams becoming a meteor storm!   The peak of this shower is predicted to be around 3am, EST.  If you are in Northeast Ohio and are looking for a place to view meteors, Observatory Park in Geauga County will be open all night long for stargazers!  Camelopardalis is a very faint constellation.  Chris Mentrek, Astronomy Naturalist at Observatory Park suggests looking just to the right of the Big Dipper and just below Polaris, the North Star.  Even more good new...

Happy June!  As usual, I've been pretty busy!!  But I want to try to make more of an effort to post here-as I've neglected this blog (well, all my blogs) quite a bit. Here are a couple of updates in my life. I've played around with the telephoto lens that belonged to my dad-I've been taking pictures of the moon throughout it's current cycle.  I need to learn to focus it a bit better, but it's still pretty cool.   Too bad it's been cloudy the past two nights...  Speaking of astronomical events-the transit of Venus is this Tuesday! At first, I wasn't as excited as I should be-after all, it's not going to occur again for over 100 years.  However, I didn't have any eclipse glasses or arc welder's glass, so I wouldn't be able to see it with my own eyes.  Then I went to storage and brought home a box of some of my dad's camera equipment.  As I was going through the box, I discovered a piece of no. 14 arc welder's glass!!!  Not only ...

Sky & Telescope illustration  Don't forget, the Perseids peak tonight!!! Some observing hints from Sky & Telescope:   "The Perseid meteors appear to stream away from the shower's "radiant" point near the border of Perseus and Cassiopeia. This is the perspective point where they would all appear to be coming from if you could see them approaching in the far distance. In fact we see them only in the last second or two as they streak into Earth's upper atmosphere, and this can happen anywhere in your sky. Under dark-sky conditions, you may see an average of one a minute around the time of the shower's peak." For more info about this year's display, check out Off Year for the Perseids

Hey Blogger, what's up with you today?  I can only access my blogs in draft mode-that kinda sucks. :p At least you still work with dial up (sorta-you're very slow.) *sigh* If this is eventually going to be the new Blogger, I'm not sure how I like the layout of things... Well, after that major hot spell we had back in July, I decided it was time to dig out my A/C from storage.  Hadn't used it since I left Coventry back in 2007!  (My co-worker Brian called me 'hard core'.  LOL)  Yeah, the heat wave was just too much this time around... Now to my main points-the Feast starts tomorrow night!!!  We'll have our usual walk around the neighborhood starting at 6, then we will have a sitdown concert around quarter after 8.  That's the plan for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Monday, the 15th (and the last day of the Feast) we'll have our usual morning procession, walk around the neighborhood in the evening, then the evening procession after 9.  (a...

Well, phooey-nothing in July. That makes it the second month when I didn't post anything at all. Not even a short note to let you know I still have every intention of blogging again. Hmmm...maybe I should consider mobile updates for brief messages. I have a Twitter account for something like that, but not everyone uses Twitter. The only thing is it will only update this blog and not my LiveJournal or MySpace blogs. Oh, well. Tonight is the first night of the Feast of the Assumption! We will be doing our standard around the neighborhood for the first couple of hours, with a sit down sometime after 8pm. Dunno if I'll have the chance to update during the Feast, but you never know-I might try. ;) If you are on Twitter, you can follow me there -as I'm sure I'll update it at least a couple of times this weekend. ;) From last year: Yeah, I know-not many pictures. That's ok-the Italian Band has a, wait for it... Facebook page !! It's set up so you can browse our...

Oooh! I'm so excited! Halloween's tomorrow! I'm actually going to try to give out candy at my own home (normally I help Perseph and Paul on Halloween night-but Perseph is currently on a road trip! :)) I have no idea how many kids I'll get-I'm thinking about being a total nerd and Tweeting the events through the night. We'll see. ;) Until then, I have a few pictures to share: My pumpkin! which will soon be turned into a jack-o-lantern... Some porch decos! I hope my bat lights survive the wind!! And this I took last week-it's totally cool-but would be much cooler if I had a telephoto lens: Can you see it between the trees and the telephone poll? It's the moon-less than 10 percent full! When I first spotted it, I actually thought it was a jet trail (since there were several in the sky) The full size image is much clearer, but, well, that's a pretty big image!! ;) Happy Halloween!!!

Perseids, Day Two: Observation time: 11:30pm-2:00am. Number of meteors spotted: 70. Considering where I live, with the level of light pollution (not counting the moon), I'd say that's pretty good. :) I started out sitting in my lawn chair again, but quickly decided to grab my beach towel so I could lay down in the grass instead. I'm really glad I did-I had a much wider view of the sky, so I was able to catch more meteors from behind than I would have in the chair. The backyard test? Well, when I first saw this place, and looked at the backyard, I thought it had potential-not a huge backyard (although bigger than the one on Hampshire), but the grass was well kept-enough room to spread out, and there are no trees(although plenty of trees in the surrounding yards), so there'd be a wide view of the sky. I first thought, gee, I bet I could watch the Perseids back here...turns out I was right!!! Yeah, there's some light pollution, plus the potential of lights from...

I ended up seeing three meteors last night-two were definitely Perseids, the other a stray from one of the lesser showers. I was facing East/North East at the time, with Cassiopeia to my left, and the rising moon to my right. The Perseid meteors I saw ripped through the sky from left to right (N to S), the other meteor I spotted was more West to East (from my POV). I started out around 10pm-took a lawn chair and my handy can of OFF!, and sat outside for a bit. Not for very long, though-because it was very cloudy. Whatever break in the clouds that I had seen earlier quickly disappeared, frustrated, I went in about 10:30, and decided to give it another hour. 11:30pm I headed back out-it was still quite cloudy, but there seemed to be more breaks in the clouds than before, so I decided to sit it out. After about an hour (and a couple of close calls with a skunk), I went inside to grab a light sweater. (not that it would help with the skunk, but I just wanted to add that. Good think t...

Gah!! It's hot-very hot-hot and muggy. We were spoiled this summer-cooler temps, not as muggy as it had been. Even when I went up north, it was unusually cool. Blah to those who whined about the temperatures never being above 90 degrees!!! I am happy with cooler summers-75 degrees, with the lower 80s tolerable for a time. But I digress... The summer has flown by so quickly!!! Mt. Carmel came and went, the week of many actives flew by. Jerm and Allison got hitched! (Yah, I've got lots of pics, but I need to put new batteries in my camera-wedding shower, staff picnic, retirement party, baby shower, wedding from said shower-I used my camera ALOT in the last month!) And now the Feast is upon us! Oh, my-not only do I need to pick up batteries for my camera, but I could use a couple of extra reeds for my clarinet as well!) I've spent the last couple of evenings (ok, more like later at night) on my back porch reading and enjoying the breeze (strong wind) and other nighttime sounds...

D.W.Q.M.: Duke Juliano: "There's this man in Florence claims that by arranging ground glasses in a certain order, it's possible to see the moon and stars as large as your hand." Marco: "Is that a good thing?" Did you catch the Lunar Eclipse on Wenesday?!?! Amazingly enough, it actually cleared up so we could see it! I was at Foofy and Persephone's for taco night-since there were six of us and the game we had decided to play only played 5, I decided to hang out with MewMew and watch Ghost Hunters: International . MewMew really wanted to see the eclipse, too, so we would peak outside during commercial breaks to see if it was clearing up. It was still pretty cloudy, so we had pretty much given up. Then, towards the end of Ghost Hunters I got a call from the Doctor-I had moved and leaned over the edge of the couch to answer-he said, 'I take it then you aren't outside?' All I said was, 'What, you mean it's clear?!' and I heard MewMe...

D.W.Q.M.: Duke Juliano: "There's this man in Florence- claims that by arranging ground glasses in a certain order, it's possible to see the moon and stars as large as your hand." Marco: "Is that a good thing?" (from the 4th Doctor story, The Masque of Mandragora ) The Leonids peak this weekend!!! Sunday, November 18th, 1:00am, EST. Unfortunately, our weather up here looks to be a bit cloudy, and well-rainy/snowy. Hope the rest of you have clear skies! Leonid meteor shower Also, you can still check out the comet!!! I was at Perseph's this past weekend, and it was clear enough so I could show everyone. :) I also went outside Monday night to observe the comet (my neighbors must think I'm really weird, standing outside in the cold with a pair of binoculars staring up at the sky...) I think it's getting more difficult to spot with the naked eye (although, if it's dark enough, you can still do it...at least at the beginning of the week-been too c...

D.W.Q.M.: Duke Juliano: "There's this man in Florence- claims that by arranging ground glasses in a certain order, it's possible to see the moon and stars as large as your hand." Marco: "Is that a good thing?" (from the 4th Doctor story, The Masque of Mandragora ) So, have you seen Comet Holmes yet? I was able to find it!!! Me!! In my own front yard...in Cleveland !!!!! Ok, I'll back up a few steps. For those who might not have heard, Comet Holmes suddenly became visible to the naked eye when it puffed out a huge cloud of dust on October 24th. Shocked astronomers all over the world. And the best part...it's really easy to find in the night sky!!! To the unaided eye, it just looks like an extra star in the constellation Perseus. Grab a decent pair of binoculars (that's all it takes at the moment!), and you can clearly see it's not your average star. :) Astronomers aren't sure how long you'll be able to see the comet without help, so e...

D.W.Q.M.: the Second Doctor: "If only I could find my recorder, I could play you a little something to pass the time." the Brigadier: "We should be thankful for small mercies." I swear the summer had just started, now it's almost over!!!! I'm really, REALLY sorry I haven't posted much here at all. I think this has been one of the busiest summers in my life. (hmm...I say that all the time now, don't I?) But I really have been busy-I haven't even had the time to finish Harry Potter yet!! (yes, I know! I know!! Bad, Ro!) There is just so much going on...when I get some things sorted out, I'll post about them. Saturday night after our weekly trip to Starbucks, Perseph, Foofy, MewMew and I all drove out to Kirtland to try to see some Perseids. Although it was the day before the peak, I managed to spot 7 of them. :) I miss the days when we could camp out in our front yard (in Minneapolis) and watch the Perseids from there! Growing up, I couldn...

Happy first official day of Summer, everyone!!!! Yay! And, if it's clear enough-don't forget to check out the space station tonight. From my friend DJ: "I heard on the news this morning that (weather permitting) the space station will be visiable tonight starting at 9:38 pm. It will be directly overhead at 9:41. There is only a five minute window to see it. It was pretty cool to see it Tuesday night." Sweet! Oh, that's Eastern time. :)