Day 4509

I stayed up late last night giving the Polaris star tracker it's first real test. I had a few unforeseen problems, but the thing actually worked. It tracks stars very well for long exposure photography. I'm still having problems with the tracker disconnecting from the camera at random intervals, but hopefully these problems will get resolved with future software updates. It would be nice if the tracker was more reliable because it's hard to fix things when it's pitch black outside. They don't even want you to turn on a flashlight up here because you might disrupt observing at one of the large telescopes. I stayed close to the Astronomer's Lodge when I was out doing photography last night because I was alone and I'd heard too many stories about mountain lions and snakes.

Today was a work day, but I didn't have any assignments until later in the day so I was able to sleep in late. I don't sleep wall while I'm traveling, but if you get tired enough you can sleep anywhere. I had a leisurely late breakfast and then took my daily walk. To get the steps I need takes ten trips around the rim road that circles the two large telescopes on Mount Locke. I'm not walking as far as I do in Dallas, but the altitude is much higher here and four miles a day seems plenty to me.

I got lucky tonight and got a really good telescope to take care of at tonight's star party. The 16" Ritchey Chretien is very nice. Basically all I had to do was make sure the telescope didn't drift off target and rotate the dome every once in a while so the dome slit stayed lined up with the telescope. I also had to answer a lot of questions. There were 300 people at tonight's star party, which was actually a lot smaller than the last star party I volunteered for just before Covid shut everything down. I thought I would know the answer to most people's questions, but of course I didn't. You never know what people are going to ask.

The weather was perfect tonight. It wasn't freezing cold like the last time I helped with star parties. I didn't  need to bring my winter coats. Better safe than sorry though. It probably helped that I was inside a dome this year. Last time I was outside and it was windy. I didn't hear any coyotes howling tonight. I did see the Javelinas though. These small wild pigs are everywhere. My telescope target tonight was Messier 3. This globular cluster is spectacular under the dark Davis Mountain skies. Everyone who looked through the telescope seemed quite impressed.

Tomorrow I'll have more to do during the day. I'll be at a booth with different types of telescopes on display and will be answering questions for future amateur astronomers. I enjoy talking about telescopes but I need to ask someone tomorrow about the pronunciation of certain items. When most of your knowledge comes from reading books rather than talking to other people, it's very easy to mispronounce words.

I don't think I'll take the star tracker out again this evening. It's late. I doubt that I'll get up early to see the Milky Way core rise before dawn tomorrow morning either. I'm tired and I think I've seen enough of the night sky for one day. It was a good day though. I enjoyed it.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day