Staunton River Star Party - Spring 2022

 

I attended the last few days of the Spring 2022 Staunton River Star Party.

Below is where I stayed and view out the front porch.  It was difficult to have to "rough it" while I was there.

While there, I did eat out once at the local diner.  Funny name and all the food had goofy names like Pluto Hotdogs, etc.

It was very windy, so most scopes were put away, disassembled or like the 30" dobson in the background, let the wind blow it around like a weather vane.

Evidently, someone wanted to see God tonight.  Geez!

This is my setup love the truck, love the green cart that Vickie just gave me.

First Picture with new camera for telescope

Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42)
Celestron 8" EdgeHD
Advance VX Mount
0.63 Reducer
ASI533MC Pro

I purchased a new camera for my astronomy hobby and while I have no aspirations of being any type of photographer, I usually save a picture or two from the night's activity.  This is the first picture that I took.

Awesome Truck!

I have been asked about my setup with the telescope presently.  This is how it normally looks when I am out.  I am aware how awesome the truck is, make sure and notice the red LED lights in the back as well.

I got the Beyond Polaris Observing award

 I need structure for my astronomy hobby, so I joined the Raleigh Astronomy Club.  One of the benefits is that you get a membership to the Astronomical League as well.  There is a whole list of Observing Programs, and these are some of my new favorite activities.  I finished one of these a few months ago and got the award for the Beyond Polaris Observing Program. This is the beginning of page 34 in the League's March 2022 Reflector Magazine.

Stargazing in North Carolina

 

Welcome to North Carolina Stargazing.  You spend 1/4 of your time getting ready to observe, 1/4 of your time actually observing, and 1/2 of your time cleaning it all up afterwards.  This is beginning of spring, pollen makes this even worse.

Exactly Right

 

When your wife says she wants a bench to sit on, you build her a bench!

 

The culvert is collapsing

About a month ago, a tree fell near the creek in front of the house and lodged in the pipe under our driveway. I removed the tree, but the steel pipe was bent to the point that little water could flow through it.

The neighbor and I (mostly the neighbor) cut several sections out in an attempt to get the water flowing again. Unfortunately, I knew what was happening. As the water was not able to pass through the drainage pipe, it was going around it, taking much of the compacted sediment with it and undermining the driveway. This is what we get now when it really rains! This has only happened once, but .... wow!

Fortunately, the insurance company sent out a structural engineer today to get the process of repairing it started. Wish us luck.

One of those almost perfect weekends.....

The boys and I had one of those weekends that many dad's dream about. It started out on Saturday morning by attending the "First in Flight Jet Rally in Wilson, NC. Handing over the camera to Andrew and telling him to take all the pictures he wanted resulted in amazing me. These are some really cool pictures by an 8 year old. After the airshow, we took off to Grandma's and worked with the boys to help her fix items around the house. We also took our bicycles so we could ride until our legs were sore. We returned home on Sunday with the family boat long enough drop it off (would not start), then walk into the house to change out the cooler and grab the tent and sleeping bags. Off to the lake ... where we swam, killed ticks, and canoed. By the time we left on Monday about lunch, the children we so tired we came home and spent the afternoon playing computer games, napping, and watching TV. All together, an almost perfect weekend. Thank you Lord for holding off the rain!

Some of the souls have changed, but the fun continues

I wanted to take a few moments to update the members of our changing family. We have had a couple of really sad times with the death of our oldest cat and our guinea pig (Scruffy). When Scruffy got sick, Vickie worked very hard to try and save her, but she ended up continuing to get sicker and finally died.

Vickie waited for about 6 months before deciding that she wanted to adopt another guinea pig, which after a few weeks needed a friend. We have not really named either one of them, but the cats have taken them into our family.

Finally, I could not talk about the members of our family without saying that we seemed to have unintentionally got our neighbors dog, that we now call our "step dog".

So, the list of non-humans is (in order of size):
Gracey Grey
Genny Guinea
Abby
Jingle
Recon
Shem
Jasmine

The Great Jasmin Repair of 2010

Although I was sick for much of today, Vickie and I took Jasmine to the vet. For anyone that has been around our house lately, you know that our dog has a skin problem that has continued to worsen. She has gotten to the point of not wanting to touch her and she really stinks. Finally, we decided to take some of the tax return and spend it on vet bills for Jasmine.

Today was the first visit. I was embarrassed that the vet found six ticks, but otherwise it was OK. After all the examination, she does not have "The Mange" or anything. She is just a yellow lab with skin issues. Her skin and ears have a yeast infection and bacteria that is the main reason for the smell. For the next 4 weeks we have an entire page of procedures to follow: daily bathing, lotions, and medications. After only one day of this, we feel (maybe it is hoping) we can already see a difference.