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Welcome to the Month of October!
Oct. 1st, 2009 11:57 pm Welcome to the Month of October- did my stretches, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 57 and 81 degrees, NW winds at 6 to 8 MPH, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 83. West northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 59. Southwest wind between 8 and 11 mph.”
I spent a few hours climbing up onto the roof installing my new UHF antenna and then spent another hour finding the best direction to point it for the best reception. Almost all the channels come in pretty good and it is a vast improvement over the old antenna that had mostly fallen apart on its mast.
I did some reading of “Astronomy Today” just going through it slowly to make sure I understand everything correctly. Most of it is just the basics that I already knew but it is a good refresher for some of what I had forgotten; sidereal day=23hr 56m (star day) vs. solar day=24hr is noon to noon and because the Earth rotates at 15 degrees an hour and takes an extra 3.9 minutes to get back to the same spot as Earth orbits around the Sun. Same thing for the Moon; a sidereal month=29.3 vs. synodic month=29.5.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast Ep. 149: Constellation Program, where they talk about the new Ares Rockets that is our future transportation to the Moon and beyond. The Ares I will carry the manned module, and the Ares V is a heavy payload lifter. They both use off the shelf technology from the Apollo and Shuttle missions and are interchangeable and scalable.
I got back and sat with my binoculars looking at the waxing gibbous Moon as it rose in the twilight sky. I find this a better way to look at a bright Moon making it easier on the eyes than later when it’s dark. I read a little more until “Fastforward” came on ABC and I was able to watch it in color thanks to the new antenna! Interesting series! Then “Fringe” on Fox, where a police officer crystallized and blew up after taking a briefcase from a man wearing a trench coat at an airport.
I did my stretches and went for a night run; checked out Delta Cephei that was about the same in brightness as yesterday; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 57 and 81 degrees, NW winds at 6 to 8 MPH, humidity around 20 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Friday: Sunny, with a high near 83. West northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph becoming calm. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 59. Southwest wind between 8 and 11 mph.”
I spent a few hours climbing up onto the roof installing my new UHF antenna and then spent another hour finding the best direction to point it for the best reception. Almost all the channels come in pretty good and it is a vast improvement over the old antenna that had mostly fallen apart on its mast.
I did some reading of “Astronomy Today” just going through it slowly to make sure I understand everything correctly. Most of it is just the basics that I already knew but it is a good refresher for some of what I had forgotten; sidereal day=23hr 56m (star day) vs. solar day=24hr is noon to noon and because the Earth rotates at 15 degrees an hour and takes an extra 3.9 minutes to get back to the same spot as Earth orbits around the Sun. Same thing for the Moon; a sidereal month=29.3 vs. synodic month=29.5.
I went for my evening walk listening to Astronomy Cast Ep. 149: Constellation Program, where they talk about the new Ares Rockets that is our future transportation to the Moon and beyond. The Ares I will carry the manned module, and the Ares V is a heavy payload lifter. They both use off the shelf technology from the Apollo and Shuttle missions and are interchangeable and scalable.
I got back and sat with my binoculars looking at the waxing gibbous Moon as it rose in the twilight sky. I find this a better way to look at a bright Moon making it easier on the eyes than later when it’s dark. I read a little more until “Fastforward” came on ABC and I was able to watch it in color thanks to the new antenna! Interesting series! Then “Fringe” on Fox, where a police officer crystallized and blew up after taking a briefcase from a man wearing a trench coat at an airport.
I did my stretches and went for a night run; checked out Delta Cephei that was about the same in brightness as yesterday; practiced my guitar; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
