Greetings sports fans and music lovers. Somewhat to report upon.

The Astronomy Day event was yesterday. Notable events and ponderings:

1. Although of course immense, very bright and dangerously radioactive, the Sun put on a disappointing show yesterday with regards to sunspots. Only two very small ones. However, through one of the solar scopes I was able to see flares wisping off, which was very cool. Or hot, as the case may be.

2. Despite this poor showing on the showbiz front, it still managed to turn parts of me into a krispy kritter. One may argue this is due to my absentmindedness and no fault of Sol and I would plead no contest. Sol just sits there. I'm the mook who got so wrapped up in things that I forgot I was outside for hours on end. 93 Million miles away doesn't mean it can't hurt you.

3. They had a doorprize drawing for a Meade 60mm telescope and I won it. This is exceptionally odd, but as my friends swore there was no trickery or subterfuge involved I will let that one go. Perhaps I should take this as a sign to buy more lottery tickets. Mega Millions is up over 168 Million right now. Even if the government takes half for taxes I could still donate the rest to the SETI Institute and build them their own radio telescope array.

4. I decided to forgo the viewing session planned for the night with the club and simply went home. Once home, I put together the new scope and went outside in the front yard with it. Boo and Fuzz thought this was all very odd and Fuzz in particular decided if I was paying so much attention to this contraption it must be good for something and so took it upon himself to rub against the tripod legs at the most inopportune moments. This cat defines "free love". You look at him and he purrs.

The telescope in question is the Meade Telestar 60mm. It has a form of the Autostar electronic control system but instead of a motorized mounting that moves the scope for you it will indicate where you need to move it to get to your intended target. Provided, of course, that you align it properly to begin with. Which I didn't. But by sighting by eye I was able to look at the Moon and Jupiter for quite some time. As for the alignment problem, after reading the manual again I realized one doesn't have to go with the first star it puts on the display for alignment. So I'll scroll through until I find some I know, like Betelgeuse. I'm also planning to get a planisphere so even if it comes up with one I don't know I'll be able to find it fairly quickly.

Working on a tip from the leader of my astronomy club, I'm checking out Meade's factory outlet site for other hardware. Be afraid.

I saw all four Galilean moons last night. It was a somewhat sad and faintly disturbing thought that for this very sight and what it suggested, Galileo was condemned by the Church and put under house arrest for the rest of his life.

I did manage to see the two most prominent dark cloud bands just north and south of Jupiter's equator for a few moments, at which I was most surprised.

I stayed out until it started getting too chilly to sit around in a t-shirt, and so came back in well pleased despite the problems with the alignment.



Gigantic gobbling giraffes grunting Goethe!