| Home » Daynotes Home » Week of 31 March 2003 |
 |
Daynotes
Journal
Week of 31 March 2003 Latest Update : Thursday, 03 April 2003 10:54 -0500 |
 |
| Click Here to Subscribe | Buy PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition: | [Amazon] [Barnes & Noble] [Bookpool] | Visit Barbara's Journal Page |
Monday, 31 March 2003
[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday]
[Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com
Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]
9:47 - Things are still up in the air regarding our trip to Fancy Gap, Virginia to attempt the Messier Marathon. The forecast for tonight looks a bit iffy. It's supposed to be reasonably clear from sunset through perhaps 0300 tomorrow morning, but it would be very depressing to get to 0300 and then get clouded out. Also, there's a foot of snow on the ground, and temperatures tonight are to be in the 20's with winds up to 20 MPH. That would make for pretty miserable observing conditions, at least for an all-night session.
The forecast for Tuesday night is better. Clear all night, temperatures 15 to 20 degrees warmer, and less wind. Barbara doesn't plan to attempt the Marathon, so what we may do is go up this afternoon, get a short observing session in this evening, and then decide what to do. Chances are, I'll stay up there for the Tuesday night Marathon attempt and Barbara will return home. She has commitments to consulting clients that would make it difficult for her to spend both nights up there. I can kind of work up at the lodge, as long as I have my notebook. Barbara can't work up there, because she needs Internet access. I guess it'll all work out one way or another.
[Top]
Tuesday, 1 April 2003
[Last Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday]
[Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday]
[Sunday] [Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com
Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]
[Top]
Wednesday, 2 April 2003
[Last Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday]
[Sunday] [Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com
Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]
13:06 - I am getting too old for this.
The Winston-Salem Astronomical League held its First Annual Messier Marathon on the night of 1/2 April 2003 at the Wake Forest University Lodge, a private facility on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Fancy Gap, Virginia. Members Steve Childers, Paul Jones, and Robert Thompson participated. Except for sporadic winds that occasionally gusted as high as 20 MPH, conditions were nearly perfect. The temperatures fell from about 55° F at dusk to perhaps 45° F near dawn. Humidity was low all night, and we experienced no dewing problems. Clouds were 0/10 all night, and transparency was very good.
Childers used his 10" Orion XT10 Dob as his primary instrument, with 27mm Panoptic, and 14mm and 10.5mm Pentax XL eyepieces. Jones used his 8" Celestron SCT with 32mm Tele Vue Plössl and 14mm Pentax XL eyepieces. Thompson used his 10" Orion XT10 Dob with 40mm and 14mm Pentax XL eyepieces. The final scores were as follows:
Jones - 110 objects (missed none)
Thompson - 108 objects (missed M74 evening and M30 morning)
Childers - 100 objects (missed M74, 77, 33, 76, 79, 32, and 110 evening; M72,
73, and 30 morning)
This was the first time any of us had done a formal Messier Marathon. As dawn broke, we decided by acclamation that the Second Annual WSAL Messier Marathon will be held in March, 2103.
[Top]
Thursday, 3
April 2003
[Last Week] [Monday]
[Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday]
[Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com
Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]
10:53 - I just got email from my new editor. He says they are scheduled to go into production on the new edition of PC Hardware in a Nutshell on 14 April. That was news to me, because the last time I talked to my former editor, we were talking about production in June. An April 14th deadline is clearly impossible, but I suspect it'll be a death march now to get the book done. Not to mention getting our income tax return finished sometime in there.
Something has to give, and alas it'll have to be my daily journal. I suspect I'm going to be working my butt off between now and the end of this month, possibly longer. So, as much as I would prefer not to, I'm going to have to go on hiatus for the next 30 days. I may post (very) brief updates sporadically during that time, but not many of them. I also won't have time to do much if any monitoring of the message boards, nor to respond to any but the most important emails.
During my hiatus, you can check Barbara's journal page. I'm sure she'll be posting updates. My apologies, but I'll be back as soon as I can.
[Top]
Friday, 4
April 2003
[Last Week] [Monday]
[Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com
Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]
[Top]
Saturday, 5
April 2003
[Last Week] [Monday]
[Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com
Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]
[Top]
Sunday, 6
April 2003
[Last Week] [Monday]
[Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com
Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]
[Top]