Thursday, September 22, 2005

Hurricane Watch

It's official: there is no bottled water left in the city limits of Austin.

There's been a weird sort of pregnant tension in the air today. Something's gonna happen, but what and when still remain to be seen. I don't have anything to add to what's been on the news, except I don't think it's going to be a big deal *here*. We'll get some (needed) rain, and maybe some limbs down, but if the lights even flicker I'll be surprised.

You wouldn't know there's a huge storm around the corner from the Clear Sky Clock. Check this out:

I mean really, 0% cloud cover & better than average transparency? I wonder about their forecast model. On the other hand, the clock's usually pretty accurate.

I'm weirdly excited about a big blow, and a little disappointed that the storm seems to be turning east of us. Don't misunderstand--I don't want death and destruction, but it's kinda neat to get a break in routine.

In astro news, we had good seeing last night. I had Mars in the 6" DSH @ 300x--supposedly the theoretical limit in that scope (and my limit on eyepieces)--and it looked like it could have taken more magnification. Dave Rivenburg of Dam Astronomers posted this picture. My view wasn't quite that good, but it wasn't that far off.


I'm really starting to get the itch for an better astrophotography setup before Mars's opposition at the end of October.

No comments: