- (https://b-ark.ca/ksKKwg)
I’m riding in the 2025 Enbridge Tour Alberta for Cancer, raising money for the Alberta Cancer Foundation, and have so far raised $2,744, exceeding my $2,500 goal and surpassing my 2024 effort!
Help me by donating here
And remember, by donating you earn a chance to win a pair of hand knitted socks!
Dr. Who-inspired Knitting
So much Knitting, so little time. I’m currently working on a project for a friend of mine (I’d worry about you reading this, Massie, but… I doubt anyone is reading this :): a Dr. Who Scarf. I used to have a decent picture of the original, but it’s misplaced somewhere, and the best I could find is this:
It’s freakin’ huge… probably about 10-11 feet when finished, many colours, and simply a whole heck of a lot of work. Fortunately, it’s almost done. Almost. Probably another foot to go, and then all the weaving-in-of-ends (damn I hate that part). Once it’s done I’ll put up a couple pictures.
On a more Gardening-related note, Lenore and I decided to plant apple trees! ‘course, we bought them over a week and a half ago, and only now, with our landscaping finally completed, have I been able to get them in the ground. One is a Norland and one is a Battleford, with the Battleford going in the front yard and the Norland in the back. Both are quite small right now (I’ll take some pictures soon), around 2 feet tall, so we won’t be getting a yield for a couple years. But, in the meantime, here’s something to look forward to.
Jupiter Redux
Well, I just had to go out again last night and check out Jupiter. With it setting earlier and earlier these days, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to observe it.
Unfortunately, the weather has been very unpleasant lately (it’s mid-August, but it feels like mid-September!), and so seeing wasn’t great, with a lot of atmospheric turbulence. Still, I got a beautiful view of the Galilean Moons again. It’s fascinating seeing them change position… rather than being in a straight line, as in my previous observations, this time Io and Ganymede were to one side and Callisto to the other. Just beautiful.
Jupiter and It's Moons
Wow, it’s been a while. Three years?! Yeesh… well, now that we’ve finally moved into the new house, which is further out from the city core, hopefully I’ll get around to doing more observing.
Speaking of which, I decided to observe Jupiter tonight. It’s setting quite early these days, so I expected a lot of atmospheric disturbance, but there was surprisingly little! The planet face didn’t have a lot of detail at roughly 100x, though light and dark regions were visible (no spot, though it was facing us).
Of the Galilean Moons visible, Io, Calisto, and Ganymede were present, forming a rough line to one side of the planet. Quite pretty, actually.
The Dumbell Nebula
Well, tonight was a nice night for observing. Very clear, fairly warm… good stuff! I decided to go searching a little higher in the sky and found myself in Sagitta and Vulpecula. Initially, I tried for M71, a dense globular in Sagitta. But, for all the searching I did, I simply couldn’t find it! And I’m positive I looked in the right place. Very strange, since it’s only mag 7.0.
On a positive note, I found M27, aka, the Dumbbell Nebula tonight! This is a bright, 8th magnitude planetary nebula located in Vulpecula. It showed itself as a faint smudge against a starry background. I can’t say I really noticed the dumbbell shape. :) Still, very cool… my first nebula!
