Scattered Thoughts . . .

I've been overwhelmingly exhausted this past week so I really haven't been doing much other than sleeping, eating and using the bathroom.  This morning, however, we had an unusually clear, sunny sky so I decided to do some solar observing with a couple of telescopes.  I felt that I had enough energy in me to drag a couple of telescopes out of the house for a simple observing session so that is what I did.   I had quickly decided to just make this an observing session only though.  To do a "proper" imaging session would require far more equipment including a computer and associated cables and thus would require far more energy.  This was energy I still didn't have just yet.  Honestly, I was still feeling as though I could sleep for another week before diving into anything too taxing.  My plan was to just observe the sun for about an hour or so while saving enough energy to then put everything back in storage.  (It turns out that I did not have enough energy to prop

We have a fairly significant astronomical event fast approaching so I've been trying to get ready for it in case, by some miracle, we have clear skies here.  If we go by statistical data about our climate here on the flats nestled between multiple ski resorts and mountains tells me that the chances that I will have clear skies are relatively slim but I'm hopeful.  On the morning of November 11th, we will have a rare opportunity to watch Mercury transit across the face of the sun.   Mercury is tiny compared to the size of the sun so this isn't anything that will be noticed with the naked eye but it can be seen through a solar telescope if the sky is clear.  I feel the need to make it crystal clear that you must use a solar telescope and not a typical nighttime telescope unless you want to be painfully blinded.   The sun is actually 277 times larger than the size of Mercury so Mercury will only appear as a tiny dot silhouetted in front of the sun as it passes between