Scattered Thoughts . . .

I mentioned in a previous blog entry  that I had compared one of my solar images to the images captured by the National Solar Observatory in El Tiede, Spain and I shared comparison images.  While I was lying in bed last night, I got to thinking that perhaps I should provide more information about the National Solar Observatory.  It seems silly to mention this and not explain it a bit. The National Solar Observatory (NSO) is a research and development program funded by the US.  Generally speaking, its purpose is to advance our knowledge of the physics of our sun.  The NSO isn't actually one physical observatory but a network of observatories around the globe that are constantly collecting data on our sun. In yesterday's blog entry, I compared my quick and dirty Hydrogen alpha image to the Hydrogen alpha image captured by the NSO Integrated Synoptic Program's Observatory in El Tiede, Spain.  This NSO Integrated Synoptic Program (NISP) consists of six observing systems around

I 've been working on putting together a very small telescope for capturing the full disk of the sun in the Hydrogen alpha wavelength.  Actually, I've been working on two different solar astronomy projects.  This project should not be confused with building a spectroheliograph which is another project I am working on at the moment.  That spectroheliograph project is much more complex than this one.  I'm still waiting on the optical parts to arrive from France for that project.  In the meantime, I came up with an idea that I had written about here but it wasn't until this morning that I was able to get outside in the sun to test this new setup. When I put together this surprisingly tiny telescope (it is really a small 50mm guide scope), I wasn't sure of the spacing required to get everything to come to focus.  I wasn't even completely sure whether I would have success in capturing the full disk of the sun.  It was possible that I would still be too magnified and

W e had a really nice birthday barbeque celebration in the backyard this past weekend.  Although it was a bit smoky from the Canadian wildfires, the weather was actually quite nice for a change! The company was good.  The food was good.  The drinks were cold.  There were plenty of games to play.  The rain stopped just long enough for us to set up the yard on Friday, have a great time together on Saturday and then clean up before it started raining again.   Looking at these photos, it seems to me that everyone had a good time! As always, the kids congregated on the sailboat most of the day.  At one point, four of the grandchildren were on the sailboat at the same time (photo above).  I have no idea how they all fit in that rather small cockpit!  In hindsight, when I saw that the four of them were on the sailboat together, I should have had Liza place 10 day old Sophia into Lukey or Kenzie's arms too so I could get a photo of all the grandchildren on the sailboat at the same time.  

W e always have our first barbeque of the season on the weekend that falls around July 1st which happens to be my birthday.  This year, we had this barbeque on July 1st.  If anyone is wondering, I turned 61 years old this year.  Unfortunately, most days, I feel like I'm 81 and I have difficulty and a lot of pain trying to get around and I even look the part due to being hunched over and having difficulty standing.  Contrary to how I feel on these days, my birth certificate claims I am 61 years old this year.   We had a very dry spring to the point where everything in the yard was dying and turning brown but the past two weeks were filled with day after day of solid rain until the day before our scheduled barbeque.  The rain stopped just in time for me to mow the lawn, do some much needed landscaping and set up the backyard for our barbeque.  It was sunny, hot and humid with a bit of smoke from Canadian wildfires hanging in the air.  My health didn't fare so well and I ended up