What have you been up to lately?

[DEnc]

On the topic of moving, we just purchased a property in Humboldt County, in northern California. We've been looking for a year and a half: the county shut down a little over a year ago during the early months of COVID, and once it reopened the real estate inventory was a fraction of the usual. Our long game has payed off, though, we're really happy with the new place. Except....

The prospects for the night sky aren't as good as our prior home in southern CA. A plot of a year and a half's night time cloud cover is below. Also our slice of heaven has a half acre of second growth redwoods obscuring all but a slice of ~30* of the southern sky. They are beautiful, but holy smokes they're tall! But there are some fine sites for remote set up in the mountains to the east.

We will close at the end of March, have some work done, then recover our belongings from the mover's warehouses in LA.

Speaking of that "long game" and warehouses, I haven't had the 'scope out for 8 months!

[notFritzArgelander]

On the topic of moving, we just purchased a property in Humboldt County, in northern California. We've been looking for a year and a half: the county shut down a little over a year ago during the early months of COVID, and once it reopened the real estate inventory was a fraction of the usual. Our long game has payed off, though, we're really happy with the new place. Except....

The prospects for the night sky aren't as good as our prior home in southern CA. A plot of a year and a half's night time cloud cover is below. Also our slice of heaven has a half acre of second growth redwoods obscuring all but a slice of ~30* of the southern sky. They are beautiful, but holy smokes they're tall! But there are some fine sites for remote set up in the mountains to the east.

We will close at the end of March, have some work done, then recover our belongings from the mover's warehouses in LA.

Speaking of that "long game" and warehouses, I haven't had the 'scope out for 8 months!

I hope your move is more than satisfactory!

[DEnc]

Thank you! It's been such a long slog that any progress at all is welcome.

[turboscrew]

Speaking of that "long game" and warehouses, I haven't had the 'scope out for 8 months!

I know what you are talking about!

[pakarinen]

The health club I joined not long ago (owned by a local hospital) has two locations. One is about 10 minutes from home and the other about 20. I hadn't gone to the farther one, but decided to try it yesterday. Boo-yah! Two lap pools versus one, a hotter sauna (180*F), and a 9-foot deep exercise (?) pool.

I much prefer swimming in deep water - keeps me honest - but deep-water pools are rare around here. I guess places are too worried about liability if somebody drowns.

Anyway, a happy discovery. And the benches in the sauna feel more comfortable. Bonus!

[turboscrew]

The health club I joined not long ago (owned by a local hospital) has two locations. One is about 10 minutes from home and the other about 20. I hadn't gone to the farther one, but decided to try it yesterday. Boo-yah! Two lap pools versus one, a hotter sauna (180*F), and a 9-foot deep exercise (?) pool.

I much prefer swimming in deep water - keeps me honest - but deep-water pools are rare around here. I guess places are too worried about liability if somebody drowns.

Anyway, a happy discovery. And the benches in the sauna feel more comfortable. Bonus!

Nice! The most popular sauna temperature here in Finland.

[turboscrew]

The weather gods seem to be getting desperate.
I needed to go to a shop, and no new snow to shovel first. And I even got to peek at M42 last weekend. They must be outraged. Now one of the tyres was buried 10 cm (4") in ice. Had to jack that corner of my car up and stuff a piece of 2 by 4 in the hole in the ice.

[Star Dad]

Doin' the taxes. One of the on-line fillable forms (1040) has a blank spot. If you put in a number it doesn't show up in the printable copy. None of the fields in the forms line up with the wording of the form. Nice job IRS - if those fillable fields didn't have popup explanations (when you hover the mouse over them) it would be impossible to fill out the form. I guess they got rid of all the various 1040 forms - except the SR (senior/retired) and it's only claim to fame is a larger font size. No more 1040A or EZ. I guess our government is making sure that H&R Block, TaxCut, etc stay in business. I just don't understand why the government doesn't BILL us. They know how much we owe... they should send a bill and then if you have corrections then you make them and send them back. But nooooo.... I had to enter 5 different 1099R forms (pension/annuity types of forms) by hand that they already have. Very efficient! Please note that I'm drooling sarcasm here. Almost done... just have to have the wifey double check that I didn't get a digit in the wrong place or a wrong digit.

[turboscrew]

Doin' the taxes. One of the on-line fillable forms (1040) has a blank spot. If you put in a number it doesn't show up in the printable copy. None of the fields in the forms line up with the wording of the form. Nice job IRS - if those fillable fields didn't have popup explanations (when you hover the mouse over them) it would be impossible to fill out the form. I guess they got rid of all the various 1040 forms - except the SR (senior/retired) and it's only claim to fame is a larger font size. No more 1040A or EZ. I guess our government is making sure that H&R Block, TaxCut, etc stay in business. I just don't understand why the government doesn't BILL us. They know how much we owe... they should send a bill and then if you have corrections then you make them and send them back. But nooooo.... I had to enter 5 different 1099R forms (pension/annuity types of forms) by hand that they already have. Very efficient! Please note that I'm drooling sarcasm here. Almost done... just have to have the wifey double check that I didn't get a digit in the wrong place or a wrong digit.

In here, the government sends us tax suggestions based on previous year and what they've got to know since. If it looks right, you don't do anything. If there are errors, or needed changes, you only add those on a web form. You have about one month to check and make corrections. So it's doable, we do it here.

[AstroBee]

One last night to get out under the night sky until probably late March or early April.
I'm hoping the winds hold off. Planning on starting an M51 project with the new scope/camera/filters/mount.
Basically the entire rig is new since I last shot this with the 1600mm and ED127.

Tonight, will be the beginning of this target with the 2600mm and ED152.

[helicon]

Doin' the taxes. One of the on-line fillable forms (1040) has a blank spot. If you put in a number it doesn't show up in the printable copy. None of the fields in the forms line up with the wording of the form. Nice job IRS - if those fillable fields didn't have popup explanations (when you hover the mouse over them) it would be impossible to fill out the form. I guess they got rid of all the various 1040 forms - except the SR (senior/retired) and it's only claim to fame is a larger font size. No more 1040A or EZ. I guess our government is making sure that H&R Block, TaxCut, etc stay in business. I just don't understand why the government doesn't BILL us. They know how much we owe... they should send a bill and then if you have corrections then you make them and send them back. But nooooo.... I had to enter 5 different 1099R forms (pension/annuity types of forms) by hand that they already have. Very efficient! Please note that I'm drooling sarcasm here. Almost done... just have to have the wifey double check that I didn't get a digit in the wrong place or a wrong digit.

One of the things I do is my 83-year old mom's taxes. The state of California taxed her social security benefit in 2020 which I finally resolved last week after 3 phone calls, 2 letters, an email to her state representative, an email to the controller Betty Yee, etc. After much wrangling she finally received a check paying her back for the FTB's erroneous calculation, $1680 - plus she qualified for the $600 stimulus so that came the next day.
Nice. I am just getting ready to fill out her 2021 taxes.

[pakarinen]

In here, the government sends us tax suggestions based on previous year and what they've got to know since. If it looks right, you don't do anything. If there are errors, or needed changes, you only add those on a web form. You have about one month to check and make corrections. So it's doable, we do it here.

Thing is that the US tax law can be so arcane and convoluted that tax accountants will probably always have business.

(I worked for H&R Block as a side job several years ago. I like tax accounting, but it's not always for the faint of heart. And those are among the reasons why I pay an IRS enrolled agent to do my taxes. YMMV.)

Addendum - here's a link to 151 IRS publications for individuals. Obviously, not all would apply in all cases. Enjoy!

https://www.irs.gov/site-index-search?s ... nce%3A6566

[turboscrew]

(I worked for H&R Block as a side job several years ago. I like tax accounting, but it's not always for the faint of heart.

Finns are known to be a bit masochistic, but not THAT masochistic.

[pakarinen]

(I worked for H&R Block as a side job several years ago. I like tax accounting, but it's not always for the faint of heart.

Finns are known to be a bit masochistic [...]

And thus sauna endurance contests.

[turboscrew]

Some frustration is, again, creeping in.

This evening, when it was - and still is - cold enough, I tried to do some tests to the newly fixed CEM120.
Didn't go well. When I started, around 11 PM (23:00 for Europeans :wink:), it was -9°C (16°F).
Of course I didn't remember to check the coordinates and time first.
Then polar alignment.
Then one star alignment... well no. It wasn't even in the "hood". Tried to use Pollux, but the tube pointed somewhere in Cancer. I tried to wrestle, but the problem won - I didn't get it aligned - not even to the right constellation.
Nice way to spend some hours out in the night, right?
At around 2 AM (-11°C, 12°F) I decided to haul everything back in. Have to look into it later.
Even if there was a sound, like grains of sand somewhere in the mount gears, I think the problem is in the settings.
When I tried to star-align using Pollux, the RA actually run PAST it!? Weird.

[GCoyote]

In here, the government sends us tax suggestions based on previous year and what they've got to know since. If it looks right, you don't do anything. If there are errors, or needed changes, you only add those on a web form. You have about one month to check and make corrections. So it's doable, we do it here.

Thing is that the US tax law can be so arcane and convoluted that tax accountants will probably always have business.

(I worked for H&R Block as a side job several years ago. I like tax accounting, but it's not always for the faint of heart. And those are among the reasons why I pay an IRS enrolled agent to do my taxes. YMMV.)

Addendum - here's a link to 151 IRS publications for individuals. Obviously, not all would apply in all cases. Enjoy!

https://www.irs.gov/site-index-search?s ... nce%3A6566

I worked for them back in the `90s. It was interesting while it lasted.

[Star Dad]

Taxes are finally done. Woo Hoo! It only took 4 federal submission until they accepted it - why? Because the TIN (business id) on the forms were placed in different locations and I hadn't caught the fact, so I was putting the wrong 9 digit code in a couple of the stupid forms - which they already had an electronic copy of. Why can't they link it automatically? The lack of automation at the IRS is stunning. Ancient computer systems. And mostly it's actually Congress' fault. Why not just a simple form - 2 lines.
1. How much did you make (income)
2. Multiply by 10% - tax owed
send it in.

simple - and EVERYONE pays their fair share - even the rich folk. Everyone should have a stake in their government.

State taxes are much easier - but still there some idiotic nuances. In CT you have to declare real estate taxes... but you can only get $200 max knocked off your bill.... that means cars, campers, house, boat, etc have to be declared (only three max though). And then if you make too much income you get nothing knocked off - so why put the stupid form in. <sigh> And each year it seems there are more and more esoteric deductions and additions... none of which apply to 99% of the people. CT used to be really easy - how much federal income? Deduct all state/local taxes paid. Calculate taxes. Done - took all of about 15 minutes. This year was 90 minutes - start to finish. All the while praying the computer wouldn't crash in mid session and I'd have to start over. Well, I'm celebrating tonight... another year around the Sun and taxes are done!

[turboscrew]

In Finland, the government collects the government's tax, the community tax (city tax), the church tax and the so called YLE-tax (public TV and radio broadcasting organization), and forwards their shares to the appropriate organizations. That happened even when we still needed to fill paper forms.

[helicon]

Taxes are finally done. Woo Hoo! It only took 4 federal submission until they accepted it - why? Because the TIN (business id) on the forms were placed in different locations and I hadn't caught the fact, so I was putting the wrong 9 digit code in a couple of the stupid forms - which they already had an electronic copy of. Why can't they link it automatically? The lack of automation at the IRS is stunning. Ancient computer systems. And mostly it's actually Congress' fault. Why not just a simple form - 2 lines.
1. How much did you make (income)
2. Multiply by 10% - tax owed
send it in.

simple - and EVERYONE pays their fair share - even the rich folk. Everyone should have a stake in their government.

State taxes are much easier - but still there some idiotic nuances. In CT you have to declare real estate taxes... but you can only get $200 max knocked off your bill.... that means cars, campers, house, boat, etc have to be declared (only three max though). And then if you make too much income you get nothing knocked off - so why put the stupid form in. <sigh> And each year it seems there are more and more esoteric deductions and additions... none of which apply to 99% of the people. CT used to be really easy - how much federal income? Deduct all state/local taxes paid. Calculate taxes. Done - took all of about 15 minutes. This year was 90 minutes - start to finish. All the while praying the computer wouldn't crash in mid session and I'd have to start over. Well, I'm celebrating tonight... another year around the Sun and taxes are done!

Here in California the tax administration (franchise tax board) issues form 540 and variants and you have to print it out (or fill in) on their website. The form is 5 pages long with jillions of options. Why not reduce it to one page? (And I am not including deductions and itemizations, those schedules have to be attached to form 540), so your submission ends up being 7-9 pages.

[Ylem]

Taxes are finally done. Woo Hoo! It only took 4 federal submission until they accepted it - why? Because the TIN (business id) on the forms were placed in different locations and I hadn't caught the fact, so I was putting the wrong 9 digit code in a couple of the stupid forms - which they already had an electronic copy of. Why can't they link it automatically? The lack of automation at the IRS is stunning. Ancient computer systems. And mostly it's actually Congress' fault. Why not just a simple form - 2 lines.
1. How much did you make (income)
2. Multiply by 10% - tax owed
send it in.

simple - and EVERYONE pays their fair share - even the rich folk. Everyone should have a stake in their government.

State taxes are much easier - but still there some idiotic nuances. In CT you have to declare real estate taxes... but you can only get $200 max knocked off your bill.... that means cars, campers, house, boat, etc have to be declared (only three max though). And then if you make too much income you get nothing knocked off - so why put the stupid form in. <sigh> And each year it seems there are more and more esoteric deductions and additions... none of which apply to 99% of the people. CT used to be really easy - how much federal income? Deduct all state/local taxes paid. Calculate taxes. Done - took all of about 15 minutes. This year was 90 minutes - start to finish. All the while praying the computer wouldn't crash in mid session and I'd have to start over. Well, I'm celebrating tonight... another year around the Sun and taxes are done!

Here in California the tax administration (franchise tax board) issues form 540 and variants and you have to print it out (or fill in) on their website. The form is 5 pages long with jillions of options. Why not reduce it to one page? (And I am not including deductions and itemizations, those schedules have to be attached to form 540), so your submission ends up being 7-9 pages.

I used to do taxes years ago, taxes are complicated because life can be complicated.

Kids, no kids, owner, renter, owning 2 houses, rent one out or vacation, divorced, boat owner, telescope owner, RV owner etc.

Wait a minute, telescope owner? We only wish LOL