Scattered Thoughts . . .

Whenever I'm observing the night sky (as opposed to imaging the night sky), I use a diagonal placed into my focuser.  The diagonal reflects the light that is streaming through the telescope to a 90° angle making it easier to view through the telescope.  Some diagonals are at 45° but those are mostly used for terrestrial observing where the telescope is mostly horizontal or level.  The eyepiece is placed into the diagonal and, due to the diagonal reflecting the light  90°, the top of the eyepiece  is now pointing upward making it easier to look down into the eyepiece.  This is the purpose of the diagonal...  to direct the light to the eyepiece at a position that is easier for viewing. If you had no diagonal to change the direction of the light, you would need to crane your neck to view straight through the telescope.  Sometimes you would even need to be sitting or lying on the ground to view the sky through the telescope if not using a diagonal.  A diagonal makes it easier to view

This past Saturday morning, Kenzie and Gee ran a 5K run together.  This was their second year running in this particular event and it was obvious that they enjoyed themselves again this year!  I enjoyed being there too! I had heard on the news that 1200 people ran in this year's Girls on the Run 5K event.  Just like last year, Kenzie and Gee were in the first of four groups for the staggered start.  They were near the front of the pack at the start as well as at the finish.   We arrived at the fairgrounds at 7:30 in the morning as the gates opened.  This allowed us to get a front row parking spot as well as allowed us to beat the traffic getting into the fairgrounds.  It also allowed Kenzie and Gee to get prepared and focused for their run.   As you can see in the photo, below, Kenzie was wound up and ready to go when we arrived...  she got some good air for this photo... Below, Kenzie's coach is pinning Kenzie's name and number onto her shirt... A shot of the crowd... Belo

T he other night, Sheila and I had no energy to cook a full meal nor were we all that hungry for a typical dinner so we just made some hot buttered pretzels fresh out of the oven with a homemade beer cheese dip that I threw together.  That definitely hit the spot!   I took some notes on how I made the beer cheese dip and then, after eating the pretzels and the dip, I adjusted the recipe and ingredients so it will be even better next time.   We'll definitely be making this again!

Liza and the kids spent some time at the house after Kenzie's and Gee's 5K run the other day.  They had a little time to kill before Lukey's baseball game later in the afternoon.  While we killed time, we set up the newly finished homemade Giant Jenga game in the backyard so the kids could play a couple of quick games. The weather was chilly, windy and it looked like it would rain at any moment.  We could definitely use the rain but we didn't get any.  It actually feels like September and the lawn looks like a typical dry September lawn.  We really could use rain...  a lot of rain at this point.  We were able to squeeze in a couple of quick games before Liza and the kids had to run to Lukey's baseball game.   Lukey played against Gee in the first game.  Kenzie had the winner in the second game.  Unfortunately, Ace wouldn't allow Kenzie to play so the game was cut short when Ace knocked the tower of blocks over.   Gee and Lukey played a very good game though!  Th