I Think He Hid It In The Tubes

Sen. Ted Stevens declared his innocence Tuesday after his indictment on charges that he concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and services from a company in his home state.

I think he hid it in the tubes.

Why I love my Golden Retriever

Why our next dog will be a Sea Monkey | Dooce ®

A Pretty Good Joke

What do Winnie The Pooh and Alexander The Great have in common?

>>>They have the same middle name.

(Highlight the text to reveal the answer.)

M57, the Ring Nebula Again

A definite improvement over my 2006 attempt. This is the center crop of the full frame. The DSLR @ f/6.3 may not be the best camera for this small object; some day I'll try the DMK @ f/10 on it--if I can keep my guiding running smoothly enough.

30 x 240 sec, 10" LX200 @ f/6.3, 350D @ ISO 800, Astronomik CLS, guided with ST80/DSI/PHD Guiding

M27, The Dumbbell Nebula Again

Shot this for the July Digital Astro challenge. 30 x 240 seconds @ ISO 800, Astronomik CLS filter, Rebel XT, 10" LX200 @ f/6.3, captured & DDP with Nebulosity, guided with PHD Guiding. Definitely a step up since my 2006 attempt. The amazing part is that I shot this under a full moon.

Third Jupiter of the Year

Jupiter at 35°. Pretty good seeing at 1:30 this morning with just a moderate ripple. Jupiter was far enough west that it wasn't directly over the roof of the house. LRGB with the DMK21AF04 in the LX200 @ f/25.

Copernicus Crater

Click for full size.

Not the first time I've shot this crater, but definitely my best results to date. Mosaic of five shots, best of 2500 frames each with the DMK and a green filter through the LX200 @ f/25.

Plato and Vallis Alpes

Click for full size.

This may not be the smoothest, sharpest photo I've made of the Moon, but it does finally show the rille in the floor of Alpine Valley!

Second Jupiter of the Year

Should have shot this the night before when we had some 4/5 seeing, but tonight's not all bad. Call it 3/5. Best of 1000 frames each LRGB in the DMK through the LX200 @ f/25. Jupiter is at 36° altitude.

Feel The Excitement

Life Lesson #53

Never date a girl whose daddy calls her "Princess." Odds are, she believes him.

NGC 6888, The Crescent Nebula

Man, I had everything working--dead on focus, great tracking, and good, clear skies. How come this always happens on Sunday night? So I only shot NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula for an hour, when it could probably stand about five. First run with the new Moonlight focuser and Astronomik CLS filter--I'm happy so far with both.

20 x 180 seconds, LX200 @ f/6.3, Canon Digital Rebel XT (350D), ISO 1600
Capture & processed with Nebulosity 2 (beta), guiding with PHD Guiding.

Happy Birthday To Me

Here's a real groaner to help me celebrate my birthday:

A couple lived near the ocean and used to walk the beach a lot. One summer they noticed a girl who was at the beach almost every day. She wasn't unusual, nor was the travel bag she carried, except for one thing; she would approach people who were sitting on the beach, glance around furtively, then speak to them.

Generally, the people would respond negatively and she would wander off. But occasionally someone would nod and there would be a quick exchange of money and something she carried in her bag. The couple assumed that she was selling drugs and debated calling the cops, but since they didn't know for sure, they just continued to watch her.

After a couple of weeks the wife said, 'Honey , have you ever noticed that she only goes up to people with boom boxes and other electronic devices?' He hadn't -- and said so. Then she said, 'Tomorrow I want you to get a towel and our big radio and go lie out on the beach. Then we can find out what she's really doing.'

Well, the plan went off without a hitch and the wife was almost hopping up & down with anticipation when she saw the girl talk to her husband and then leave. The man then walked up the beach and met his wife at the road.

'Well, Is she selling drugs?' she asked excitedly.

'No, she's not,' he said, enjoying this probably more than he should have.

'Well , what is it then? What does she do ?' his wife fairly shrieked.

The man grinned and said, 'She's a battery salesperson.'

'Batteries?' cried the wife.

'Yes', he replied - 'She sells C cells by the seashore!'

Texas Star Party Panorama for Starry Night Pro

I've posted a horizon panorama for the Texas Star Party for Starry Night here.

Refer to the Starry Night documentation for instructions on how to copy the .txt and .psd files into the Horizon Panoramas folder.

I Don't Think I'll Be Applying For This Job

I'm not really looking for a job, but I still get listings in my email. This one's been showing up for a while now; I wonder why?

Responsibilities - Doing the bidding of the Lead Artist, no matter how ridiculous his demands

First Jupiter of the Year

There are forces larger than myself conspiring against me. Here's the deal with planetary imaging. (Bear with me, it'll maybe make sense in the end.) I hope you already know that the Earth is tilted on its axis--that's why we have summer and winter. The plane of the solar system is called the ecliptic; it's the path that the sun and the planets appear to follow across the sky. In the summer, the sun is very high in the sky. The opposite side of that is that at night, when we're facing away from the sun, the planets are very low in the sky. That means that taking a picture of a planet in the summer requires shooting through miles and miles of turbulent atmosphere. It also means that from my back yard, shooting over the roof of my house, as it radiates heat like a blacktop road. All that to say I'm stunned this photo came out as well as it did. The moon to the right is Europa, and the black spot is Ganymede in front of the planet. The Great Red Spot is just visible on the lower right.




1000 frames each RGB with the DMK in the LX200 @ f/25. Processed with AstroIIDC.

M13, The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules Revisited

A little tighter than last year's shot, and maybe nicer color.

10" LX200 @ f/6.3, 19 x 120 sec, EOS 350 D @ 800 ISO

Euwww

Came across this on a message board today, talking about measurements:

Up here in canada a metre is a metre and a foot is something you find in the ocean!

Final Night at TSP

I had already packed everything except my chair and binoculars for the last night at Texas Star Party, so I wasn't too upset when clouds started building up that afternoon. By 11:00, it was pretty obvious we weren't going to get any astronomical observing in that night. (Which is OK, since I was trying to leave by eight the next morning.)

First time I've seriously tried to shoot lightning. Man, it's hard to find focus in the dark!

NGC 6992 & NGC 6960, The Veil Nebula

NGC 6992, Veil Nebula (East), aka Network Nebula. The modified camera shows a lot more detail than my stock Rebel. The extra stars I attribute to the dark West Texas TSP skies.



NGC 6960, Veil Nebula (West), aka Witch's Broom. The bright star is 52 Cygni.