Stargazing 2

What a beautiful night to be looking up. At 10 pm, the skies were sooooo gosh darn crystal clear, the light-polluting moon was still below the horizon, and the constellations were at the perfect rotation.

I was excited to see the Big and Little Dippers in full view for the first time since my recent interest in star gazing. I like to use these constellations as the key to finding Polaris (the North Star) when I'm away from my house. The trick is to find the two stars at the "spoon's tip" of the Big Dipper. These always point straight to Polaris. By the way, contrary to what many people think, the North Star is not a very bright star (disappointingly ordinary, really) and is often confused with Sirius (the Dog Star), which is THE brightest star in our skies next to the Sun.

My highlight of the night was being able to naked-eye spot the Orion Nebula in the cluster of three stars (Orion's Sword) just below Orion's Belt. This is a visual feast thanks to the clear skies of winter, which really is the best time of the year for star gazing. Jack Horkheimer gives an exhuberant video presentation (RealPlayer) of this nebula.

Winter surfing 2

It's my new ride (and a followup to my latest snow adventure). She came in the mail just a couple of weeks ago and I have yet to boogie down a hill with her. As for details, the board is a Morrow Clutch @ 154cm in length. I got it online together with boots and bindings as part of a package deal. Has ABS sidewalls for a smooth ride, goes from zero to 60 in 7.2 seconds, has driver and passenger side airbags, fuel cells, moon roof, Turbonium and death ray.

I just hope that it serves for much more than show and never collects dust.

Thanks, Santa.

New Year's cardio begins

I have this little growing fire burning in me to get my workouts back into swing. It arises not so much from a New Year's resolution, but from exercise withdrawal due to more time spent with holiday activities and other such stuff rather than being at the gym.

Also, I've been gluttonizing myself these winter months more so than the year's average. Like yesterday. It was a saturated fat fest. As was the day before. And the day before. Ad nauseam. All thanks to deep fryed Crisco cuisine and endless alms of cheesecake. Topped with coffee--my staple crave. Plus, I was out of protein powder. What else is a grown man to eat?

I certainly loved it, but it's conflicting with my blog profile--aiming for big things in endurance sports--and is offsetting my ying-yang thingy. The road will surely lead to nowhere but frustration.

So what shall I do? Well, for a starter, how 'bout a little request for benediction: "Oh my dear CycleOps, god of all bike trainers, deliver me from my couch potato ways and give me the strength to output at least 200 watts onto your bearings (fluid bearings, mind you) for my cardiovascular redemption. Plus, I've spent so much money on you, I have to justify the purchase somehow. Amen."

Ahhh, thank goodness for prayer. And now the fire burns more brightly.

Mission Stardust

The Stardust spacecraft is coming home.

I watched a segment about it on The Discovery Channel a few months ago and thought what a cool mission this is: launch a spacecraft to rendezvous with the Comet Wild 2 (it took 5 years!), then maneuver behind it, catch some of the particles that are flinging off, and finally return to Earth with the spacedust for analysis. (I still find it incredible that we have the know-how to do these space feats with precision!)

The launch was seven years ago. And now it's seven years later. January 15, 2006 is the touchdown date.

There'll be some submicroscopic interstellar dust to be analyzed, but first it all needs to be carefully searched for and found in the amazing aerogel that was used to catch the particles. The number and size of the particles is miniscule compared to the size of the aerogel, so researchers are actually asking online public joes like us to use our computers to help look for the stuff with 'virtual microscopes'! Anyone can sign up and so I registered to be a potential volunteer, although I'm not sure how much time I can dedicate for the search. Still, I think it's a wonderful concept.

I'm continuing to read up on it with keen interest as it's supposed to be a big deal, although I still don't quite understand how much unique information may be added to our current knowledge of the universe.

(Additional: summarized video clip)

Brokeback Mountain

I just started reading Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx. It's a series of short stories, the last one being Brokeback Mountain from which its corresponding movie has been adapted. I'm trying to read through it as quickly as possible before I hear any spoilers from reviewers and other moviegoers, although I think the damage has already been done. (Hey, did I just use 'me', 'reading' and 'quickly' all in one sentence? How incredible is that?! :-o)

I'm only through the first few pages, but I must say that Proulx's poetic but run-on sentence writing style is already causing me to do some double takes. It made me think that perhaps I need to be a bit more well-read or that I simply need to read more books period to sharpen my comprehension. Well then, I guess I'll just have to add that to one of my many goals of 2006.

Stargazing

I've been doing "naked-eye astronomy" these past three days.

Each of my nightly observations of the stars lasted about 15 minutes. I checked for clear skies, then bundled up warmly, grabbed my PDA with Planetarium 2.4 installed and headed out either to my front sidewalk or onto the backyard deck. Then I looked up, matched the PDA screens to the skies and just marvelled at the stuff I saw.

Regardless of surrounding light pollution from nearby cities and street lamps (one bright lamp unfortunately in front of my home), I can see enough objects up there to maintain my interest. I can see the moon. I can see the stars. I can see the planets! I've spotted Polaris (the North Star), Mars, Venus and Saturn with certainty. Jupiter and Mercury are also visible with the naked eye. I'll check out Jupiter tonight. However, spotting Mercury may be more tricky; because it is so close to the sun (imagine looking in the sun's direction and picture Mercury's plane of orbit), it is only visible just after sunset or before sunrise and always close to the horizon.

I think it was those "Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer" segments on PBS that added to my interest. That guy was so into it (like Mr. Ray from Pixar's Finding Nemo). Excited at everything up there and telling us what to look for. I tried looking for things then, but just couldn't because it was too general and I couldn't be sure of the objects I saw. But then the PDA came along and made it all exact and more personal for me; it made my observations more interactive as it could tell me in real time what I'd be seeing from where I was standing--I could zoom in, zoom out, pan the skies and see in elapsed time how the objects would move across my view. Looking at the screen and then looking up was like looking at a U2 concert on your TV and then turning around to find that the music event was happening live right behind you! It was just neat that things were matching up--calculations matching real time.

This is only the beginning, so I'm quite eager to find out what else I could see during the upcoming clear nights.

"Keep looking up!" is what Jack Horkheimer would always say when signing off his program.

Thanks, Jack. I will.

Reading is fundamental

I had a Sylvan moment this evening. You know, those TV commercials showing a parent suddenly and deeply moved by a quantum leap in her child's academic progress. Well, my turn came today.

Just before bedtime, I heard Tina talking and laughing in her room. I thought she was just chatting with her younger siblings and needed to be told to shush down a little. So I quietly walked to the doorway, peaked in and saw her standing alone next to the bed, her back to me, with her 'Dolphins' book propped up on the sheets. And there she was, reading to herself:

"One dolphin liked to yank
the tail feathers of a pelican.
The pelican didn't think
it was funny.
But the dolphin did!"

The stuff made her giggle. That's what got me--the giggles. She was understanding what she was reading and it made her laugh. And yup, it was then that I made that proud moment smirk and got teary eyed. Followed by hugs and kisses and "I'm very proud of you" and all that.

And then came that Sylvan commercial ending song and fade to black.