Meanwhile

Still in mourning.
The more I think about it, my bicycle I mean, the more I realize how great it was.
I really did have it set up to do what I needed it do, and I suppose it will take a while to get another bicycle set up the same way.
I'm going to try and pick the Bicycle With the Funny Name this weekend.
If I ever make it out to my brother's house.
This week we had another lunar eclipse:

I hauled out the ole telescope, more on that later, and took some pics through the eyepiece.
You can just see some color in the last frame.
By then the moon was so dark, I had to boost the ISO in my camera something fierce so I switched off to Big Mama:

Here's the set up:

I was going down to the park, but I could see well enough right from the parking lot downstairs.
The eclipse took place just when the moon was around zenith so I had to bend my neck some.
The right angle on the 'scope served me well.
Watching planetary events like this reminds me that we, planet Earth, are just a another small satellite in a bigger picture.
In a bigger bigger picture.
If you know what I mean.
I've been off this week and mainly taking it easy and doing my laziness drills.
The darkroom experiments continue:

More on this later.

Forecast: Cloudy

Okay, not really.
A forecast I mean.
I mean it's cloudy tonight so I guess I'm going to be waiting until next month to get tonight's Moon shot.
The good news is that there's gonna be a lunar eclipse on Saturday night.
Make that Sunday morning.
Early.
Okay, not that early as it's supposed to start at about 12:30am or so.
I hope it's not cloudy.
You can be sure that the Flat Tire Mission Control Center(FTMCC) will be waiting for this event.
It's not a full eclipse, only a partial one, but still, it should be kinda cool. The last partial one I had the pleasure of viewing was interesting as well. The Moon got all dim and sort of reddish as the Earth blocked out the Sun.
Huh?
No, that's a solar eclipse when the Moon blocks the Sun.
A lunar eclipse is when the Earth gets in the way of the Sun shining on the Moon:



Not as dramatic as turning the day into night.
More like turning the night into, well, night.
Still, should be pretty cool.
More about Saturdays/Sundays eclipse here.
While The Flat Tire Observatory(FTO) is shuttered for the night, let me take this time to finally give credit to the Moon reference I've been using:



Atlas of the Moon, by Antonin Rukl, was published in 1996 by Kalmbach Publishing, the publishers of Astronomy magazine.
Unfortunately, it is no longer in print.
There was a second edition.
Unfortunately, the second edition is no longer in print also.
You can find it used for like a GAGILLION dollars at places like Amazon, but if you are really hard up for one, I would check evil eBay.
The bad part of astronomy books is that there are usually short printings. The good part is that you can find really good books in the bargain section of your favorite book seller because hardly anyone ever buys them.
I just picked this up from Borders for like nine bucks:



Okay, well I had hoped it would begin to clear in the time it took me to post this up, but no such luck.
Let's hope the forecast for Saturday is clear.