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WEEK 34 2021
Last Week- Sun- Mon- Tue- Wed- Thur- Fri- Sat- Next Week
Saturday - Not too hot. Kind of a blah day.
I didn't water the tree's for a change: I've been wanting to cut back on that, and sub-100 days are the time to start.
I did go out and fiddle with the paver area around the back steps. Dug out a bit more, placed some chicken wire, compacted the earth a bit. In a perfect world I'd dig another four inches for more base and sand...but since I'm matching what I did before, and that matches or exceeds what was there...good enough I guess.
Knocked off a bit after noon, had lunch, a shower and a nap.
Did some reading.
Book #45 was The Assassins of Altis (POR #3), by Jack Campbell. Third in the series. Mari remains a Mary Sue. One is left to imagine the series if it were written in the style of, say, Glen Cook's Instrumentalities of the Night Series.
Went out to observe around 9:30pm again, this time with the XT10.
Since I kept it in the house, no cool down period was needed, it was 70F at best outside.
Bizarrely it was reasonably good seeing here, after a mediocre day.The brighter stars were only just visible - it's a full moon, and there was smoke.
But Jupiter presented the best views this summer that I've seen! It was 'swimming' fairly rapidly (5-10hz), but mostly clear otherwise, multiple belts and some white ovals (maybe) present, two moons in conjunction.
The 11mm Televue Plossl with the contrast booster gave the best views, 1200fl/11mm=110x. The 8mm hung in there reasonably well at 150x, but the dobsonian azimuth bearings are so sticky that it was hard to track at that magnification long enough for a clear glimpse.
I even tried the 11mm with a Orion shorty 2x Barlow, but that was too much, it just wasn't a 200x night.
The XT10 is massively out of collimation, the out-of-focus star and planetary images are weird, and there is discernable right-to-left blue-red colored edges at high power (tho that might be the shorty barlow). I do need to attend to that. In my defense I wasn't expecting the seeing to be that good, it looked horrible to the naked eye.
I went to bed a bit before midnight, thinking I'd get up before dawn...but I didn't.
Anyway, color me pleasantly surprised.
Friday -Warm, a bit windy. Smoky, of course.
Bob texted that the Caldor Fire has flared up, and they are expecting major smoke tomorrow from it. Zero percent contained.
Worked on various things - started trying to lay out the pavers around the step and pad for the french door. Puzzling, because nothing is square or level. Really it should all be torn out and redone, but not this year. But how much effort do I want to put into it?
Worked on the app a bit.
Went out around 9:30 and observed for a bit. But the fires in the Tehachapi's (I assume) are so bad that the air actually smelled of smoke. Vega was the only visible star (with Polaris being an averted vision object). I looked at the Moon and Saturn and Jupiter with the 5se, but was limited to a blurry 80x or so. And I couldn't use star-align because there were no stars to align to.
I did, however, get to use the Baader "Contrast Booster" filter, and it did seem to make the belts on Jupiter "pop" a little.
And the new observers chair seems nice. I can actually sit and look, rather than be hunched over all the time.
I did try to use the little 70mm refractor, but the slow motion for azimuth has failed completely and the one for altitude barely works.
Annoying I discovered that it's mount does not use a dovetail, but some weird rectangular block thing that is part of a casting with the rings. I assembled it (the 70mm scope and mount), but I had forgotten that. So the little dovetail clamp I've ordered will be of no use at all. I suppose I could screw the block and rings to a piece of wood and attach that to the Super Polaris mount.
I guess at some point the President made a brief announcement that we weren't leaving anyone behind in Afghanistan, and then went and hid again. But it's probably a lie, the reports are that the generals won't let the Marine's and Army on the ground leave their compound and help anyone, even though the Brits and French and Germans are doing so.
Thursday - Warm, but the winds were less.
Worked on the app for most of the day, since I didn't do much yesterday.
A couple of astronomy related items arrived, which is nice. There is an observers chair, which is sort of an adjustable thing, and a used Baader Contrast Filter.
The cats all liked the box for the chair.
Wednesday - Mild temps, but EXTEMELY windy, about 50mph or so.
My trees just can't catch a break.
I did pull a few weeds out front, but that did a number on me, so I didn't do much else.
Rather tired, and my hands hurt, so I didn't actually do all that much.
Tuesday -Warm and windy and smoky.
I did some basic chores in the yard, but it was just not a day for outdoor stuff.
I found a better tripod on Craigslist and bought it - a Vixen Super Polaris for $30. It's in pretty good shape for it's age, but it will need a dovetail saddle or adapter to use with modern scopes. I'll have to see what's available - the astronomy stores seem to be getting things back into stock and that will also help with the used stuff, but it's hard to say what will happen with the current trade disruption.
Worked on the new app a bit, there are TWO new "canvas" things in Swift, and they are different.
Talked to S for a while about it, she sent some new info that she'd generated.
I guess the President showed up for a brief speech and then scuttled back to Camp David. Wow.
Monday - Warm and windy, temps in the low 100s but winds well into the 30mph range.
Also smokey all day - the sun was barely visible in the late afternoon.
I did a little bit of yard work in the morning - pulling tumbleweeds, but not much. That's a chore that really takes it out of me, for some reason.
The moon in the evening was a nice yellow color, there were only a few stars visible at the zenith, and Jupiter and Saturn had a distinctly orange tint.
It wasn't worth pulling out even the binoculars, let alone a telescope.
My new diagonal for the old C8 arrived, and I put it on over the weekend.
I can't remember if I mentioned that I was so disgusted by the condition of the old multi-ocular turret on it that a while back (a month?) that I took the diagonal off the 5se and put it on the old C8? I was amazed by the difference, even in our horrible seeing! So I ordered a new diagonal, the Celestron 2" direct attach. There are probably better diagonals, at 2x and 3x the cost, but it isn't bad for visual use from what I can determine. And 2" diameter mostly just because - you get about 30% more field of view from what I read, than the 1.25", and the cost difference is only about $20.
Did some research on drawing to the canvas with SwiftUI, and started reading her notes on the new app. Not really a spec, but it's early days.
She'd left the documentation on the google drive, but I had to update that app before it would sync with the old MacBook.
Sunday - Hot, but not as bad as Saturday.
I went shopping with S in the morning, got just a few things, mostly vegetables.
I picked up about 3 weeks worth of canned catfood, since the shelves are looking bare again.
It looks like Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban, including Kabul. No surprise there, except for the speed of the collapse and the complete incompetence of the US Government in handling it. Though I suppose that's not really surprising.
I guess we are leaving thousands of allies and supporters to die, just like Vietnam.
The president is hiding at Camp David and hasn't said a thing.
Did some laundry, watched some TV, tried to take it easy.
I had to run the mechanical air, since it was about 108 out. And water the ash tree every couple of hours. It's lost about half its leaves, I kind of doubt it was make it through to this fall. The fruitless mulberries are stressed, but don't appear to be in any danger of death.
