What have you been up to lately?

[Makuser]

Hi all. I got a nice email from Mark the other day and as he said he is recovering quickly which is great news. I also want to let Juha know that he is in our thoughts and prayers from all of us here on TSS.
As for Sheri and I, we have spent August and September dealing with house repairs, house insurance (good luck us here in Florida this year), car repairs twice, and car insurance.

[Butterfly Maiden]

Hi all. I got a nice email from Mark the other day and as he said he is recovering quickly which is great news. I also want to let Juha know that he is in our thoughts and prayers from all of us here on TSS.
As for Sheri and I, we have spent August and September dealing with house repairs, house insurance (good luck us here in Florida this year), car repairs twice, and car insurance.

It is great to hear that Mark is recovering quickly now.

I am still very concerned about Juha though and hope that all is going well for him.

Thank you for the update Marshall.

[SkyHiker]

I'm getting ready for my second Grand Canyon trip this year. This time with my 25 yo son. While I've lost weight and am in good shape, those few extra pounds will come to haunt me hiking up the South rim. Last time around I did the North rim to Ribbon Falls and back. That is about the equivalent of a crossing, and it was in the heat of summer. It should be fun and as impressive as we know the Grand Canyon to be, especially when going right through it.

I'm not jealous at all!

Sounds like an awesome experience: but good luck keeping up with the 25yo! (I am reminded of the two old-timers talking: "Those people who say you can do the same at 65 as you did at 25 obviously didn't do anything at 25!") The Grand Canyon is on my "bucket list", but realistically I don't think I will ever get there.

When I think of the Grand Canyon I often think of a friend (a fellow Aussie) who was visiting one of the lookouts and ran into John Dobson who was setting up for an outreach session with his home-made telescope. Awesome in more ways than one!

All the best,

Dean

We just got back from our GC trip and successfully crossed as planned. Unfortunately, we only set personal records this time; we started at 5:30 AM and reached the other side at 9 PM. We took a 2-hour break at the Phantom Ranch near the river and later, as we were going towards Indian Garden, another hour for my son to recover from signs of heat stroke. We submerged in the stream next to the Bright Angel trail, which felt really good and radically fixed the problem. The stretch from Phantom Ranch to Indian Garden was the hardest especially due to the temperature. From there on we took it slow and trudged our way to the top, partly in the dark, along with many others. It was a magnificent hike in good weather. We shuttled back to our starting point the next day. On the bus was a guy who claimed he did it in 5:45. We need a bit more training for that!

[pakarinen]

Just for larfs, I tried an ancient Celestron 40mm Kellner that was bundled with my vintage C8 in my ST80 this morning. Aside from a much smaller apparent field than I'm used to, the image was quite nice. As a bonus, all of Orion's sword fit in the FOV.

[GCoyote]

Since the remains of Ian are promising a few days of rain and showers, I got the rest of the lawn reseeded. Then I made pot of soup and some biscuits so we can sit inside and watch it rain.

[515bonner]

As a side hobby I collect and listen to Old Time Radio shows. Over the past 2-3 decades I have collected almost 600 CDs in mp3 format of some 35,000+ radio shows.
Lately I have been on a purge. Several months ago I put all my music CDs on a dedicated server, and got rid of about 8 crates of CDs (passed them off to my brother).
Several weeks ago, I decided to do the same with the OTR shows. So I have been transferring the CDs also to the server. Once that is done I will more than likely sell the CDs off.
Next up probably first of next year, I will be digitizing some 100 LPs and then hand them off to the daughter, who is a big collector of LPs.
As you get older, you realize that the clutter needs to be reduced!

[pakarinen]

COVID bivalent booster yesterday. I'm hurtin'. But I did get out early this morning for a little Nocturne photography with my iPhone.

[OzEclipse]

Out of retirement 4 weeks ago and back into the stable isotope mass spectrometry lab(used in climate change research). The person I spent several years training and mentoring is on maternity leave for a year.

"Just when I thought I was out....they DRAG ME BACK IN AGAIN!"

Well, let's just say that they, "made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

Replaced washers, flange seals and stem seals on all the taps in my Canberra Apartment yesterday.
Now out at the country house at Young....trying to fix the damn lawnmower.

[Butterfly Maiden]

It must feel good to be so appreciated Joe

Enjoy your recall to service

[OzEclipse]

COVID bivalent booster yesterday. I'm hurtin'. But I did get out early this morning for a little Nocturne photography with my iPhone.

I've had 4 doses with nothing more than a very mild ache in the arm.
Makes me wonder if I even have an immune system?

[pakarinen]

Makes me wonder if I even have an immune system?

I was wondering the same thing after my previous doses. My wife was sicker than a dog after a couple of hers. Up to now, I've had extremely mild side effects to virtually nothing.
But I feel fine today and was out observing last night with my 50mm and this morning with my 80mm, so no complaints!

[GCoyote]

Watching the dregs of Ian. At least one more day of light rain ahead.

[pakarinen]

The clear weather held, at least through early this morning, so I was able to spend a little more time bopping around the Collinder open clusters in Mononceros.
I am about to pull the trigger on an Innorel carbon fiber tripod. That's unless I wimp out. :nervous:

[Chich]

Have most tests out of the way. Just waiting on an appointment with a Radiation Oncologist in a month or so to decide on treatment. Good news is that nothing has spread to my bones and Workman's comp is covering me as it is classified as an occupational disease. Probably looking at starting treatment late november/early december?

In the mean time I have been out with my walking coach to help improve my covid/netflix physique

[Butterfly Maiden]

Decided to go for a walk in the Forest today.

I don't normally do Forest walks at the weekend as it is usually very busy (tourists mainly ).

However, Sophia had to go out on a consultation for a legal client, so I dropped her off first then carried on to Blackwater in Brockenhurst on my own.

It was a lovely day, with the sun shining and just a slight breath of wind.

I had my camera with me (as usual) so I took a few photos to share with you.

The stream (Fletchers Water)in the first photo is normally higher than this, but the recent lack of rainfall has had a dramatic effect. The height is normally just at the top of the pebbles where they meet the grass...

My walk wouldn't be complete without an encounter with some of my pony friends...

Another setting of Fletchers Water, much more secluded at this location and one of my favourite places to visit...

I came across a few mushrooms on my travels, although I am not certain what they are at the moment I need to dig out my fungi book and look them up, then I will come back here and add their names ...

The ferns are changing their colours now...

The leaves on the Beech trees and Oak trees are just starting to change now too. This Beech tree is getting some glorious yellow, amber and brown colours...

And finally, the spiders have been busy overnight and created some lovely webs, accentuated by the dew...

Thank you for looking :smile:

[pakarinen]

Ordered a carbon fiber tripod. It will be interesting to see if it's more stable and has a shorter damping time than my Manfrotto. But it's coming from AMZ so I can return it easy-peasy if it doesn't make the grade.

[Ylem]

Last night I spent the evening cursing out that big bright orb!

[Razz]

Last night I spent the evening cursing out that big bright orb!

So that was you I heard? You must have been angry!!

[Ylem]

Last night I spent the evening cursing out that big bright orb!

So that was you I heard? You must have been angry!!

Yep! An otherwise beautiful stargazing evening, no mosquitoes either lol

[pakarinen]

Last night I spent the evening cursing out that big bright orb!

That sucker's still out there this morning. :Boo: Clear and decent temperature too.