What have you been up to lately?

[Ylem]

Gaaack! So pneumonia is what you've been up to? Grim. Get well soon.

Not yet clear. The doctors would have recognized pneumonia already, I think.
I hope to know more on Wednesday.

Today it became clear that there's a tumor in my left lung. My right lung is fine.
The kind of the tumor is not yet clear.

Sorry to hear of this Juha, hoping for the best.

[Lady Fraktor]

Hopefully a good outcome Juha!

[turboscrew]

Dear Juha,

I am so very very sorry and sad to hear that. My dad was diagnosed with lung tumours in 2004. His was much more advanced than yours sounds. He had one large primary tumour (12cm) in his right lung and 12 secondary tumours 5cm each across both lungs.

Even back then, advances in treatments were made every year and they kept changing treatments to adapt to and control his tumours. He died 7 years later. Because my mum had died the year before, he gave up on living and stopped medication and treatment otherwise I suspect he could have continued for many more years. I hope yours has been caught at a much earlier stage. Given the accelerating rate of advances we were seeing during the 7 years of his illness, I am sure that treatments have advanced much much further in the past 11 years since dad died.

My very best wishes.

Joe

Thank you. This sounds comforting.

[Unitron48]

I spent the day watching my grandson's riding competition.

Dave

[astrowolf67]

Here lately, I've been fiddling with my N scale trains again. Yesterday, I received a GSO dual speed focuser upgrade from Agena, for my Apertura 6" f5. I got it installed and tuned up, only to have clouds move in, and thunderstorms this morning. We've also been house shopping, which seems to be taking up most of our free time, and my mind. Never knew it could be so hectic and stressful. The local market is CRAZY right now. But, I think we've found one we both love, that will fit our needs and wants, with room to enjoy our hobbies and life. We are planning to put an offer in tomorrow, and see what happens.

[turboscrew]

Here lately, I've been fiddling with my N scale trains again. Yesterday, I received a GSO dual speed focuser upgrade from Agena, for my Apertura 6" f5. I got it installed and tuned up, only to have clouds move in, and thunderstorms this morning. We've also been house shopping, which seems to be taking up most of our free time, and my mind. Never knew it could be so hectic and stressful. The local market is CRAZY right now. But, I think we've found one we both love, that will fit our needs and wants, with room to enjoy our hobbies and life. We are planning to put an offer in tomorrow, and see what happens.

Good luck with the house!

[SkyHiker]

Drove back from the Grand Canyon, Kaibab Lodge yesterday. It was 9:30 hours of driving interrupted by an ad hoc fix with packing tape, from the Dollar store in Fredonia, of my driver side window that somehow disengaged and started sagging down and outside. I pulled it up into the window socket and taped it down over the door so I could make it home safely.

Along the way the temperature went up to 109 degrees F. I wonder how people manage to live this time of year in places like Vegas, Baker, Barstow, Victorville, Palmdale, Lancaster. I suppose you can use solar power for air conditioning. There are gigantic solar plants along the way in the desert. Water will be a major problem, like now with filling Lake Mead already. It's a major challenge with no small fix for the coming years.

[pakarinen]

I spent the day watching my grandsons riding competition.

Very cool. My granddaughter rides English but she's taking a break from lessons for awhile. I think I'm more bummed out by that than she is.

[Ylem]

We have officially made the decision to move back to NJ.
It won't be a rush job, so we have plenty of time to get this place ready for sale. Wifey wants to retire at the end of this year.

While NJ isn't known for dark skies, I well be going from Bortle 7 to a 5, so I am happy

[pakarinen]

7 to 5 is good.

[OzEclipse]

I had a go at creating an astronomy quiz for the TSS quiz forum but only 4 people have tried it.

This is the link: give it a go?
https://theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.p ... 94#p206567

Joe

[pakarinen]

I'm finding SkySafari 7 object coords difficult to read on my new phone, so as much as I dislike the idea of using a laptop while observing, I'm going to try running Stellarium in night mode on my laptop scopeside. Oh, the horror... the horror...

[notFritzArgelander]

Due to popular demand I am extending my stay in SLC. Ordered new glass, the Antares Ultima pseudo-Masuyama from TS.

An update. There were some details of my order with TS that weren't right (shipping and billing addresses swapped) so I fixed that. Also my grandson impressed me with his skills with observing with the Orion Observer II refractor package I decided an upgrade was in order. The winds from Mt Olympus are problematic so I thought that a shorter profile scope would be less frustrating,

https://shop.astronomerswithoutborders. ... -telescope

Also, due to @Gmetric suggestion, I've been working away at a quantum gravity post. It's almost ready to share. In response I've opened up a new research notebook too. I think I am likely to old and rusty to do the maths but it should be another fun hobby. :shrug:

[UlteriorModem]

Just got back from my second eye surgery for my left eye. A few days of discomfort then I should be good to go.

Already a vast improvement with my right eye. Probably wont even need glasses anymore!

[515bonner]

Just got back from my second eye surgery for my left eye. A few days of discomfort then I should be good to go.
Already a vast improvement with my right eye. Probably wont even need glasses anymore!

Had mine done back in 2012 on both eyes. Dr visit last month still shows I have 20/20 in right eye and 20/15 in left,
which he said was amazing being nothing has changed in 10 years.
Use readers for close up stuff. Other than that, no problems.

[GCoyote]

Lawn care, gardening, chopping back invasive plant growth that's been climbing over our privacy fence.

[DeanD]

On Sunday, helped plant over 3000 plants for a newly declared National Park which had been used for grazing. Only 87000 to go!

[GCoyote]

Had to get my ride inspected for a recall notice. It passed but the dealer will replace the suspect part regardless at the next service, no charge.
I used the trip as an excuse to visit a used book store a few blocks from the dealer and I scored a paperback copy of this:

[notFritzArgelander]

Due to popular demand I am extending my stay in SLC. Ordered new glass, the Antares Ultima pseudo-Masuyama from TS.

An update. There were some details of my order with TS that weren't right (shipping and billing addresses swapped) so I fixed that. Also my grandson impressed me with his skills with observing with the Orion Observer II refractor package I decided an upgrade was in order. The winds from Mt Olympus are problematic so I thought that a shorter profile scope would be less frustrating,

https://shop.astronomerswithoutborders. ... -telescope

Also, due to @Gmetric suggestion, I've been working away at a quantum gravity post. It's almost ready to share. In response I've opened up a new research notebook too. I think I am likely to old and rusty to do the maths but it should be another fun hobby. :shrug:

A further update. The Astronomers Without Borders scope has been received and my grandson is delighted with it during a daytime first light. Today we finished modifications per this video:


He is even more pleased. We hope the weather holds fair for a few days so a proper first light can be done.

[John Donne]

We spent the weekend with my brother and his wife riding Steam at the Illinois Railroad Museum in Union Illinois.

It is always a pleasure to be 8 years old again.