Spirit

Mars opposition was this week, and we're completely socked in. So here's a comic from XKCD to fill the time.

Lean On Me

I was fooling around on my Ian's keyboard last night when I realized that those three chords sounded like "Lean On Me." I looked up the song on YouTube and sure enough, the song really is that simple. So I sat down this morning with the keyboard and guitar and put this bit together in GarageBand.

I knew those childhood piano lessons would someday pay off!

Lean On Me

Pinewood Derby

I'm afraid this car is slower than it looks. I must have put the weight too far to the rear--the car wobbled all the way down the track. At least we won "Best Paint Job."

Mars 2010.2

I opened the roof on the observatory at sunset, and by the time I got out to shoot this at 1:00 a.m., the scope was covered in frost. I had to hit the corrector on the LX200 with the hair dryer a couple of times to keep the dew under control. What was interesting was how much the heat from the hair dryer would degrade the image. It took several minutes after clearing it for the image to settle back down. Of course by then the dew wasn't far behind, so I had to work quickly.

ClearSkyClock had forecast 4/5 seeing, and that seemed about right. You can see the difference between tonight's and last night's shot.

Mars is still just 13 arc-seconds across in this shot.

Heritage Park Observatory, Cedar Park, TX
Camera: DMK21AF04.US
Scope: Meade 10" LX200, TeleVue 2.5x Powermate
Mount: Meade LX200
Filter: Orion LRGB
Software: AstroIIDC, RegiStax, Photoshop

Happy New Year, and the First Mars of the Year

Has it been two years already? Here's the first shot from the 2010 Mars opposition. Kinda mushy skies for New Year's Eve. It had been cloudy early, but clear after midnight.

Heritage Park Observatory, Cedar Park, TX
Camera: DMK21AF04.US
Scope: Meade 10" LX200, TeleVue 2.5x Powermate
Mount: Meade LX200
Filter: Orion LRGB
Software: AstroIIDC, RegiStax, Photoshop