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WEEK 31 2020
Last Week- Sun- Mon- Tue- Wed- Thur- Fri- Sat- Next Week
Saturday - Hot.
Did various small things, cleaned up the garage and yard and house a bit more.
S called, they'd found some chain link panels at a yard sale, but couldn't remember exactly which yard sale. I passed, since it wasn't exactly what I wanted, really, 6' panels, which meant a lot more posts, which is a bit concerning if you think you have to cross a septic leach field.
And, to be honest, money is a bit short, July was a very expensive expensive month, between vacationing and wall materials and the dentist (mostly the latter).
Went out and did a bit more observing, though the almost full moon is washing out nearly everything. I suspect the C8 desperately needs collimation, I'll have to look into how to do that. It's fairly easy on a Newtonian, not sure how it works on an SCT.
I can't find my old Canon T3i, must have packed it somewhere really safe... I'm sure the comet images would have been a lot better with it.
Friday - Hot.
Not much to say, worked on various things. Back is sore, holding off on the little wall until next week.
Book #44 was The Wonder Engine, by T.A. Kingfisher. This is the sequel to #42's Clockwork Boys and was...okay, I guess.
Thursday - Hot.
Put in the 2nd bay of the north wall. This goes across the "use" road the previous owner had made by driving through his front yard. The ground was packed down and very very hard - when I tried to excavate the shovel just bounced off. I used a pick to go down about 2" the other day, and have been filling the little trench with water since, to soften it.
This worked very well to soften things up, and I was able to create a 2nd bay, but since the ground dipped (the use road again) I ended up putting in another, third lower course. Gahh. I may have to go buy more blocks and bricks, but no big deal.
My back is very sore - I think the pick work was just too much.
In the early evening I dragged the old Super C8 Celestron out, and let it cool down. Then I went out after 9pm and aligned it roughly with the north star and did a bit of observing. Conditions weren't ideal, it was still warm and turbulent, but Jupiter and Saturn were bright and relatively high in the sky.
The old Telrad finder wasn't working, so that while I could find a very faint Comet Neowise with binoculars I just couldn't find it in the scope. I used to be very good at sighting along the tube of my old Criterion 4" reflector, but the short barrel of the C8 makes that nearly impossible.
I'll see if I can fix the old Telrad. But a scope of 8" should really have a second light gathering scope, as a finder too.
The ancient Celestron 26mm Plossl was the best eyepiece, with sharp and clear images, even though it's low power: the C8's enormous 2000mm focal length dived by 26 gives only 77X as the magnification!
There are a couple of ortho's, a 12mm and a 8mm I think, but the images were bad. Maybe I'll order a couple of better eyepieces - ortho's and kellner's and ramden's are 1970's and 1980's state of the art, but they pale in comparison to modern eyepieces.
Wednesday - Hot.
I did add some more SunTex screens to the west office, to the upper portion of the west and northwest windows. There is a slot at the top of the window that one can slide the top of a screen into, and I cut and assembled and painted (white and black) some clips to hold the side and bottom in. It looks OK, from the street, though a full size screen on a wooden frame that covers the entire window would be more efficient - keeping the direct sun off the metal window frames for example.
With the two extra screens in place the little a/c was, after an hour or two, able to bring the mid afternoon temps down to about 73F in the room. This is running flat out, so it's a bit noisy, but it certainly indicates I'm on the right track.
I have enough SunTex to make one more screen, but I've ordered more. If I make some full size screens then the little screens will be surplus and I can put them back into the other windows, or just store them somewhere for the cooler weather.
Another thing might be to add some lattice to the front porch - maybe a low rail with lattice below it to keep sun and reflected heat from directly impacting the front room, maybe even a little along the top of the porch.
Tuesday - Hot.
No wall work, letting my back take it easy for a bit.
Another hour and a half at the dentist, late morning. No drama, just time and expense.
The new little clock arrived, so I put it up. I actually hung it on the side of the fireplace with the bigger gap, and moved the barometer to the other side. I can still see the lack of symmetry, and it bugs me, but maybe it won't be so obvious to guests. It's a fake pendulum clock - there is an AA that runs the quartz clock side, and a different AA that runs the pendulum. You can take the pendulum battery out and the clock still runs - completely different circuits.
One by one, each of the cats came into the front room, then climbed into the box the clock came in. Budd instantly, Jim with a bit of caution, Suzy only after I turned it on it's side...
Monday - Hot.
Out in the morning, before it got real hot, put in the first bay of the front yard's north wall. It took, as usual, far longer than I thought.
One issue is alignment. The wall in the front is about a degree out of parallel with the front of the house...maybe. It's definitely not perpendicular, but then I'm not sure the house is laid out square to the road. After fiddling about for a couple of days with a tape and measuring laser I decided to make the new all parallel to the house. Three bays should take me to the front edge of the house, then a space for a gate, then the side wall at the north side and the remaining north wall...which I have no serious plans for this year. Other stuff has precedence.
Finished at noon and was beat for the rest of the day...
I did a bit of research in the afternoon, on quiet small a/c units, and the GE Profile 6, 6150 BTU unit is rated at 40 dB. And there are none in stock, anywhere, in a 150 mile radius. Same is true for the Haier 5k BTU quiet unit. And the big quiet LG unit I already have one of.
Supply chain breaking down? But they have plenty of noisy junkers still.
Sunday - Still hot.
Off to WinCo and 99 Cent stores in the morning with S, bought quite a bit. Afterwards we went to Ben's, the "good" butcher...but they now have Covid-19 hours, and are closed on Sundays altogether.
I'd like to get some good steaks as a "thanks" to A&L for the loan of
the Corolla, but it'll have to wait a couple more days. Wednesday,
perhaps.
Comet Neowise is now an evening object, but fainter than before. The new binoculars are a help. I also took picture with the iPhone and sent it to friends who were out looking for it and having trouble.
Book #43 was Clockwork Boys, by T.A. Kingfisher. Ummm. Sort of Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser meet Georgette Heyer meet steampunk? Not bad, but...
