Category Archives: Astronomy

Vote Early—Vote Often

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The Electorate Has Spoken – Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Yesterday, Anne and I voted early. It used to be that a valid excuse was required to vote early. Anne always had one, since she is a poll judge. I was usually forced to lie that I would be out-of-town. Then in the year of covid, a new excuse was added, fear of getting sick. After that the need for an excuse was dropped. There was a good turnout at the closest poll, in downtown Clayton. So good that we couldn’t park in the library’s garage. The line wasn’t long, but the ballot was.

We have no big elections. The only statewide office is for auditor. Our Democratic congressman is running unopposed. But there were quite a few ballot issues to vote on. Most of these were put up by the Republicans, so I voted against those. After voting, I saw a sign that said that the library lends out telescopes. I put my name in to check out one. Something to look forward to.

After performing our civic duties, we went to Ivy Cafe for lunch. Ivy is known for their tartines and we each ordered one. Anne had the Meramec, sushi-grade pan-seared Norwegian salmon, tomatoes, cucumber, feta, capers, and mediterranean sauce. While I had the Delmar, strip steak, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, mozzarella, horseradish drizzle, and herbs.

Big Dipper

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Sunset Stars

Last night, there was a chance that the aurora would be out, but that did not pan out. Also, there was a lunar eclipse, last night, but I couldn’t stay up late enough to view it. So, all I got was this picture of the Big Dipper. Which is sort of interesting, since today I find myself having played the role of the big spoon, either last night or maybe today.

Last night, Bill and I infuriated both Anne and Jay by discussing future plans for repairing the outhouse. It has been forty years since the cabin got indoor plumbing and in all of those years, the outhouse has been allowed to deteriorate. Bill and I were making Nice-And-Gentle suggestions that admittedly grew more and more outlandish, to eventually include renting a Kubota digger from Parker Hardware, but I was only joking, but not everyone found it funny.

Lake Superior Night Sky

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Lake Superior Night Sky

This crazy quilt of a picture is the photo that I took of last night’s sky. Let me try to decode it for you. The concentric arcs are star trails. They are caused by the earth’s rotation. This long exposure photo was shot for 33⅓ minutes. (It just happened to run that long.) The length of these arcs is the distance that these stars traveled in that time. On the righthand side is the north pole. All of the stars are circling that. The bright lines are jets, headed across the pole to Europe. They are pretty much headed in the same direction. The finer lines, going every which way are meteors. They are part of the Perseids.

Everyone’s Got One

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James Webb’s Wider view of the Uranian system

This wider view of the Uranian system with Webb’s NIR camera features the planet Uranus as well as six of its 27 known moons (most of which are too small and faint to be seen in this short exposure). A handful of background objects, including many galaxies, are also seen. Image description: The planet Uranus is on a black background just right of center. Just below the planet at the 7 o’clock position is a faint blue point labeled Puck. Brighter blue points at 8 o’clock, 5 o’clock, and 3 o’clock are labeled Ariel, Miranda, and Umbriel, respectively. Two additional blue points at 7 o’clock and 5 o’clock are labeled Titania and Oberon.

My God, it’s full of stars!

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Artimis Stage Separation

Yesterday, after months of delay Artemis II finally launched to the moon. It will not land on but circle the moon, much like Apollo 8 did almost sixty years ago. This back to the future (or is it the past?) flight occurs against a backdrop of our latest so-called Mission Accomplished war against Iran and closer to home, there are the problems with Anne’s iPhone.

She has been complaining for days about problems with her phone. I have offered to help but have been rebuffed. Lately, though they seem to have multiplied. New problems include Google not being able to access the microphone and the calendar app not being able to add new events. When she tries, she gets an error message saying, “Calendar does not have permission to access your calendar.” I googled these errors and found online solutions.

Equipped with this advice I was able to convince Anne to allow me to assist her. Unfortunately, none of the menu trees called out by Google’s AI matched what was available on the phone. With mounting frustration, I tried calling the Apple Genius Bar to make an appointment. All I got was a lot of run around, but eventually in lieu of an appointment, their AI suggested that we reboot the phone. We did this and voilà! Like magic everything was working again.

I guess it was my bedside manner or lack thereof, but Anne was not happy with me. Words were had and at that point I wisely baled. Returning later, ruffled feathers were smoothed and peace reined over the land. Well, at least here.