Day 3955

I learned something new today. I downloaded the compositing software I needed, watched a few YouTube tutorials, and started stacking a sequence of Milky Way photos I'd taken out at the observatory. The whole idea of stacking is to take a series of identical images and then layer them on top of each other to eliminate artifacts and electronic noise. The software actually works and really does clean up night sky images while leaving everything looking natural. The process takes a lot of time though and I'm not sure if it's that much better than the internal noise reduction that's already built into my camera. I took some pictures using the camera's internal noise reduction and they were almost as good as the time consuming stacking procedure.

Actually, I was more pleased to discover that my pictures look pretty good right out of that camera than I was to learn how to stack images. It's always nice to learn something new though. Even thought I'm too lazy to stack my night sky images all the time, I'm sure I'll use the stacking software in the future. It's always good to be knowledgable about this stuff when you're talking with other photographers.

It's a good thing I had something new to learn today, because there wasn't much else going on. The weather is still nice and Dawn continues to do well on her morning walks. We have no idea if her seizures will return at some point, but for now everything seems fine. Dawn is definitely back to her old ways, taking long walks in the morning and then sleeping on the bed for the rest of the day.

I kind of felt like sleeping on the bed for the rest of the day myself. I'm still having a hard time catching up on my sleep. I go to bed too late and get up too early. I thought I'd sleep a lot less while I was out at the observatory, but I got almost the same amount of sleep out at the Prude Ranch that I get here. I stayed up a lot later, but I also slept in a lot later every morning. It appears that I get about five hours of sleep each night wherever I am.

When I took the trash out to the curb tonight I was amazed at how few stars I could see. It felt like Dallas was on a different planet than Fort Davis. It's clear out tonight, but basically all I could see was the moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. It's a shame that I now know how to take good star pictures, but there are no stars to photograph. Oh, well. I guess I could drive out in the country to find darker skies, but I don't like driving at night and there's nowhere close where I'd even feel safe.

The Boca Chica live feed was interesting today. The Space X folks added the nose cone and forward wings to the SN8 booster that was already sitting on the launch pad. This thing is huge and really looks like a rocket now. It is quite impressive. It's amazing how different Space X is than NASA. They basically drive the rocket parts down a state highway and assemble them in a field. The activity never stops. There are three shifts that operate 24 hours a day. I still think these guys are going to get to Mars first.

They say Covid cases are spiking in Dallas again. It's a shame that nobody can seem to get a handle on this. I don't think the Europeans are doing any better than we are at this point. I don't even know anyone who is sick now, but we continue to be bombarded with dire statistics every day. This is not good. I'm always wondering when my luck is going to run out. 

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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