01/07/2008, THO
We've had a little rain this last week.
The owner of our apartment building had us put up some plastic to
prevent leaking of our cement floored balcony drain into the storage
rooms below. So I braved the ladder and rigged up a clear visqueen
awning with bamboo poles and zipties, and can no longer see stars from
the south. must leave it up for the winter, so there goes that.
Hungry for a glimpse of deeps space, I've been doing a bit of
sight-seeing out the small west window with the binoculars, damp
seeing in-between cloudbanks, and nothing specific... Tomorrow another
storm comes in too...
Well, if "Peak Oil" hits , or whatever y2k type disaster-of-the-month
hits, we are well prepared- plenty of food, oil lamps, camping stove,
warm clothes, acoustic musical instruments, board games and a couple
of classic, non-electric scopes....
Clear skies between the clouds of life to you all
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Waiting for dark---
A small folding camp chair and folding table suffice for most nights refractor viewing. Also stored in the shed is the camp recliner D. gave me for Christmas for binocular viewing.
A lunchbox holds all the .965 eyepieces for the Swift and doubles as prop for the starmaps. I'm finding that I can see the white background maps with black stars much better. ...
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Most of my observing is done along the equatorial on the south-facing balcony. From 35 degrees south to 20 degrees past zenith and no horizons, the view is limited, but changes all the time. To block out the neighbors' side lights coming through the trees, and some of the southeastern San Fran Bay light dome to the south east, I built 5 shade screens. Simple cut and slipfit pvc frames with rubber feet, painted to prevent UV damage.
Screens were made from heavy black plastic, edge-reinforced with duct tape. Plastic grommets are a snap to set. The plastic was attached to the frames with strips of double-sided velcro ties, and the screens attached together with figure * strips .
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A densely populated neighborhood requires that the observatory be unobtrusive and non-astronomical. A dome would scream "Telescopes inside, come and get me!"
So this toolshed from Pini's Hardware fit the bill, and holds everything, scopes, folding screens, chair table and paraphernalia.
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The obsevatory in the daytime doubles as an apartment balcony, and must leave room for entertaining and fun...So the whole sheband folds up into the rubbermaid "warm room" to snooze till dark
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