Scattered Thoughts . . .

O ur homemade Giant Jenga game is now ready for playing in our backyard! After I finished sanding all the 2x4 pieces with 220 grit sandpaper (which was after 80 grit and 120 grit), I waxed every piece and then polished the wax until it was smooth and slick.  I also waxed the top of the leveling base.  Now every piece is very smooth and looks nothing like a typical framing 2x4 which is how this wood started!  Each of these pieces started very rough when I first cut the 2x4s to length.  Now they are looking nothing like a typical framing 2x4. For some reason, I thought that the relatively easy process of applying wax and then polishing it would go very quickly but, as usual as my health worsens and I get older, I was very wrong in my time estimate.   I think the waxing required even more of my time than sanding with the last grit of sandpaper did and that took far longer than I anticipated!   I found that I could only wax and polish 12 of the pieces in an hour.  There are 54 pieces so th

I had written previously about finally finding a configuration of gear that makes full disk solar observing far more enjoyable than without this new configuration of solar gear.  The purpose of this blog entry is more about documenting this new and unusual configuration so I can duplicate it again each time I want to observe the full disk of the sun with my Quark solar filter.  Of course, I have this configuration documented in my notes too but I figured it would be good to document it here as well.   My larger telescopes provide more closeup views but I like to see the whole disk as well.  In order to improve my full disk view, I had to play around with a few ideas on how I could possibly accomplish this.  I kept going back to my assortment of astronomy components to assemble different configurations.  Then I had to play around with spacing.  It was a fairly long process of trial and error based upon the knowledge I had gained through experience but I eventually hit upon the right co

W hen I was out testing a new solar astronomy gear configuration a few days ago, I had a problem with my focuser slipping.  This was caused by two factors...  first, this new configuration put a lot of weight on the focuser...  and second, at the time, I was viewing the sun at its highest point in the sky at noon.  This orientation made it easier for the focuser to slip downward toward the ground.   When I brought the gear back indoors, I tried to adjust some of the setscrews underneath the focuser but, honestly, I had no idea what any of the setscrews did.  You would think that you want all of them as tight as possible but that is completely wrong in this case.  I had to do some research. While in bed that night, I did some research on my Kindle.  I found a thread in an astronomy forum about adjusting this focuser.  I wanted to get out of bed right away to fix this focuser but I wisely memorized the page and then went to sleep instead.   The next evening I pulled out this little teles

T he sky was clear this morning so I decided to do a little solar observing rather than woodworking.  I'd really like to get the two woodworking projects I am working on finished but I couldn't pass up the clear skies especially since I haven't really done any solar observing yet this year.   I had a couple of things related to solar observing that I wanted to try so it seemed like a good morning to do some experimenting with astronomy gear.  The weather should be nice for the next few days so I could easily put off the woodworking projects for a day so I could finally get to spend some time observing the sun. I had a lot of nice success with a larger telescope when using my new binoviewers while viewing the moon, Venus and Mars last night so I wanted to try solar observing with the same binoviewers for solar observing.  Viewing with two eyes provides far less eye strain than viewing with one eye and eye strain is something I have been experiencing lately.   Last night I wa

W hen I was doing some solar observing last week, I was having some problems keeping my single eye focused and open while also keeping my other eye closed.  After about five or ten minutes of observing with one eye, my eyes were twitching and they simply were not cooperating anymore.  I am definitely getting old!   These types of eye difficulties are often related to typical weakness due to old age but it is also partially related to my primary illness.  If I am beginning to have difficulty seeing through my telescopes as I did the other day, then that is a serious problem and I need to find a solution to this problem.   I felt the best solution was to get a binoviewer made specifically for telescopes so I could view the sky with both eyes instead of only one.  This is known to alleviate the typical eye strain from viewing with only one eye for longer periods of time. So, a couple of days ago, I ordered a binoviewer to be used on my telescopes and it arrived in the mail today.  Natura

I 've been working on two small woodworking projects lately.  Well, they are what I would consider small projects but they are taking forever to finish! Everything in the photo, at right, has been sanded with 80 grit sandpaper followed by 120 grit sandpaper so I am making some progress.   As seen in the photo at right, I made a table for the backyard and I am making a Giant Jenga game.  Each of these small projects has required a lot of cutting and even more sanding. Giant Jenga will be played on the ground.  It is only sitting on the table for the photo, at right.  Actually, I wanted to keep the bare wood off the damp lawn so I placed everything on the new table.  All this wood in this photo still needs sanding with 220 grit sandpaper but that finish sanding with 220 grit should go quickly.   This photo only shows about two-thirds of the Giant Jenga pieces because I still need to sand the remaining third of pieces.  I ran out of energy yesterday and I ran out of 80 grit sanding be

I had previously written about getting a new refrigerator back in February or March when I was doing a bit of whining about needing to settle on choosing a new refrigerator and that we were not happy with what was available.  We also were not happy about the prices of what I feel is garbage.  Unfortunately, prices are up and options are severely limited due to the circuit board shortage.  On the positive side, we were able to replace our broken refrigerator within a few short days.   One of the things I complained about when I previous wrote was the terrible water and ice dispenser on this Whirlpool refrigerator.   In particular, we were not happy with the water pressure coming out of the water dispenser.  It was very much like a trickle.   The other night, Sheila was trying to dispense some water and an alarm sounded.  An icon lit up on the display indicating we needed to change the water filter.  I had already ordered replacement water filters for this refrigerator when we had purch

S ometime late last year, I purchased a relatively small but powerful power station.  The primary use for this power station was for my astronomy gear but it has proven to be a useful power source for blackouts at the house.  So far, I've been very happy with this little powerhouse. When I purchased the power station late last year, it was on sale at a very good price.  This power station also has a portable solar panel array that you could purchase separately, if you needed, that could charge this power station using only solar power.  Unfortunately, that portable solar panel array was priced a little higher than I was willing to pay at the time so I was waiting for it to drop in price.   Shortly after purchasing the power station, I couldn't find the portable solar panel array anywhere.  I kept this product in my Amazon Wishlist anyway.  I would periodically check to see if it was in stock and, l ast week, I noticed not only was the portable solar panel array in stock but it

I spent about 24 hours sick with a stomach virus.  It wasn't horrible but it was pretty lousy.  I'm typically not a puker but I had a very difficult time keeping everything down especially when I was lying in bed.   This virus started shortly after going to bed on Mother's Day so I must have picked it up on Saturday when I went to the Post Office to send a package.  I suppose it is possible that I picked it up on Mother's Day from Whitney or Ellie but it is more likely that I picked it up the previous day at the Post Office.   I spent almost all of Sunday night going to and from the bathroom.  Even when I was not in the bathroom, lying down to sleep was not much of an option.  Lying down just allowed the puke to move upward more easily so I spent my little bit of time in bed in a sitting position.  I think I may have gotten only one to two hours of sleep Sunday night before being awoken with a mouth full of puke.  I didn't actually get any restful hours of sleep un

Ellie and Whitney came over to visit with Gee this Mother's Day to wish her a happy Mother's Day.  They had a really nice time together and the visit made Gee very happy, as always! They spent some time in the house while Ellie played with blocks, a basketball and a soccer ball.  The ball usage got a bit rough for playing in the house so we moved outside.   While outside, the ladies spent some time in the playhouse.   I managed to clean the gutters and set up the downspout to fill our rainbarrels while we were outside.  The downspouts were set up to divert water away from the house for the winter.  Now we have all the water collecting in our rainbarrels so we can water our gardens. Afterward, Gee and I made some nachos grande for dinner.  That was pretty good too!