What have you been up to lately?

[Lady Fraktor]

Returned from Praha Rocks this evening, Eclipse, Wolfmother, Kabát, Def Leppard and Mötley Crue. 9 hours of rock, a great time.

[GCoyote]

Put up a second shed. Trying to get the patio looking more like a place to relax and less like a construction zone.

[SkyHiker]

Hiked Lonesome Lake and Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains while visiting my son. Very rocky and steep but a lot of fun and good exercise. Last week I attended his commencement ceremonies. Tomorrow I'll be heading back home.

[Chich]

We have a fire!

About 100ha and across the valley 4ish km away. There are crews, tankers and some heavy equipment on it. Pretty steep and rocky so I expect it will get larger before they have it pinned down. Difficult area for ground crews to work in.

Kind of odd being on the outside looking in.

[SkyHiker]

I drove all day from 6:15 AM to 4:30 PM to get to the Kaibab star party. The drive was fine, the North side is gorgeous as ever. Vast meadows, forests, buffalos, hiking trails, fabulous vistas, Bortle 0 skies. I just met with Martin Carey from the RTMC who is also visiting, talking about old times and how sad it was to end the RTMC. It is cold and windy though. I brought my Z12, G11+MakNewt and 20x80 Skymasters+Tiltall. With the wind blowing that hard I'm not sure if I will set up for AP. There are some nice 22" Dobs here, tonight I'll just look through those.

[Graeme1858]

I drove all day from 6:15 AM to 4:30 PM to get to the Kaibab star party.

I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere!

Have a great time at the party.

Graeme

[SkyHiker]

I drove all day from 6:15 AM to 4:30 PM to get to the Kaibab star party.

I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere!

Have a great time at the party.

Graeme

There were two 22" Dobs and one 20" Dob last night, all Obsessions. While there were clouds we did get some nice views. M51 filled the entire FOV and was clear to see in all its glory. If we had a 28" we would have seen it in color like I did once at the RTMC. We are at Bortle 0. The weather is unpredictable, so we hope for the best. The first night (Saturday) was actually excellent from what I was told.

[OzEclipse]

I drove all day from 6:15 AM to 4:30 PM to get to the Kaibab star party.

I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere!

Have a great time at the party.

Graeme

There were two 22" Dobs and one 20" Dob last night, all Obsessions. While there were clouds we did get some nice views. M51 filled the entire FOV and was clear to see in all its glory. If we had a 28" we would have seen it in color like I did once at the RTMC. We are at Bortle 0. The weather is unpredictable, so we hope for the best. The first night (Saturday) was actually excellent from what I was told.

Hi Henk,
Sounds great.

What does RTMC stand for? Search engine only gave me: Road Traffic Management Corporation, Real Time Monitoring and Control but no astrocamps.

Joe

[SkyHiker]

What does RTMC stand for? Search engine only gave me: Road Traffic Management Corporation, Real Time Monitoring and Control but no astrocamps.

Hi Joe,

It's the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. It was on par with Stellafane. There was no longer enough interest from the public and vendors to keep it going, especially after they lost the Memorial Day time slot. That was the 51st year, ewhen they ended it.

[KathyNS]

I have started decommissioning my observatory in preparation for moving. The scopes are all packed. Next is the pier. I still have to pack all the rest of the gear and disconnect the power and networking cables. The building mover is booked and a space reserved at the new site to deposit the building temporarily while I make the foundation.

Moving, yeah. It's a royal pain, though I guess it'll be worth it in the end. Add to all the normal hassles the fact that our phone landline is dead, and good old Bell has no interest in fixing it. And with no cell service here, all the normal moving tasks, that you would normally make a phone call for, require driving down the road to find a signal and then sitting by the side of the road while I wait on hold. On the plus side, I did figure out how to Bluetooth my phone into the car's speakers, so I don't have to hold the phone to my ear while waiting for a human to rouse themselves and pick up.

I will be moving from a Bortle 2-3 area to a Bortle 5 area. However, the area of available sky will be huge compared to what I have now, including a view right down to the southern horizon.

[Graeme1858]

It's the end of an H2O era Kathy!

Are you moving far?

Graeme

[KathyNS]

It's the end of an H2O era Kathy!

Are you moving far?

Graeme

About 15 or 20 km, so not far.

It might still be H2O. I am thinking of calling it "Helena Handbasket Observatory" as a comment on the state of the world.

[helicon]

Got X-rays last night on my right knee which I injured a week ago now that my back problem healed. Torn Meniscus and also some calcium deposits (just starting) in both knees, which could be a form of early arthritis. Also there is a bit of torsion between the right foot and the knee which is slightly painful. Doc said to come back in two weeks if it does not start healing in that time frame. I've been hobbling around for a week. Will get a cortisone (steroid) shot at that time. Fortunately no surgery is needed at this point, but it is not totally ruled out.

Oyy Vay!

[DEnc]

On the topic of knees, my wife just got a full knee replacement on the right side. They had her walking on it four hours after they buttoned her up, and discharged her after an overnight stay. The bedroom is her recovery room and its walk-in closet the drug dispensary. It was a brutal schedule managing the dozen drugs over the first three very long nights, but as she recovers the meds are fewer and hours asleep longer. We look forward to the rollout of spouse.v2.

[helicon]

On the topic of knees, my wife just got a full knee replacement on the right side. They had her walking on it four hours after they buttoned her up, and discharged her after an overnight stay. The bedroom is her recovery room and its walk-in closet the drug dispensary. It was a brutal schedule managing the dozen drugs over the first three very long nights, but as she recovers the meds are fewer and hours asleep longer. We look forward to the rollout of spouse.v2.

Yup. Good luck to you both.

[Ylem]

Finally got a closing date for the sale of the house, 7 July!
Let's hope they follow through and can secure financing.

We plan on renting it back from the buyers for 30-45 days to give us time to find a place in NJ.

Fingers crossed

[KathyNS]

Finally got a closing date for the sale of the house, 7 July!
Let's hope they follow through and can secure financing.

We plan on renting it back from the buyers for 30-45 days to give us time to find a place in NJ.

Fingers crossed

I know from recent experience how much of a relief that is! Good luck with it all.

(* Kathy returns to packing. *)

[pakarinen]

Replaced my ancient daily commuter car with an SUV. Lots of cargo space for astro gear! Plus, if need be, I could nap in the back of it at a dark site.

[Graeme1858]

I drove through a red traffic light a few weeks ago. They give you the option of paying a fine and getting points on your licence or attending a course on Defensive Driving. I chose the later. So today was the day of the course. It was a good course, they give you facts and figures showing the futility of driving too fast and other things that should be obvious but it's good to have pointed out every once in a while!

They showed that saying "only a fool breaks the 2 second rule" takes 2 seconds!

Still don't think I'm going to get over getting wound up by people doodling in the outside lane though!

Graeme

[SkyHiker]

Today is my last day at the Kaibab star party. I have set up only once just with my binoculars because an arthritic wrist - hauling a Z12 or doing AP would be painful. For the past 4 days there were 3 participants altogether: me, the organizer and his son. On Sunday we had one more participant. Maybe 9 days is too long and for sure we could use some more advertising. It was very nice to look through those two 22-inchers though, and to be under a glorious Milky Way. The skies were decent altogether and there was a lot of interest from the guests of the lodge and the campground. I spent the daytime exploring new hiking trails, all of them nice. Time to head back.