My solar observations have been postponed by a thick layer of stratocumulus that appears to have parked itself over Florida. Nice, thick, dark layer. I shouldn't be surprised; November in Florida is just that way.
I could make lemonade out of these lemons, perhaps by going to see "Interstellar". Therein lies problem #2; I have a bit of a migraine, and I've been told that the movie is loud.
Space is a vacuum, so I'm puzzled about this.
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From what I've learned about the technology in "Interstellar" is that it really isn't much of a leap from today. The main plot McGuffin is apparently a system of wormholes that suddenly appear beyond Saturn. That was probably a spoiler, so I'll stop on that.
But it would take a discovery like that for space flight to suddenly, well, take off again. Sort of like in those certain stories.
I miss those stories.
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This is me today -
Why yes, yes I do look like a roughened up, migraine affected version of the late English actor Allan Bates.
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At this point, it is very easy to just say that my plan for today is to SURVIVE.
Phooey. Balderdash, say I.
Though the way this migraine is ramping up, that may very well be the end result.
Instead of thinking about the migraine and my beard, I want to talk a little about the big change where my interests has occurred. If someone had told me as recently as two years ago that I'd prefer chasing sunspots around the surface of our host star, I'd have said "no". Solar astronomy was always a passing interest of mine, and I was always concerned about finding safe ways to observe the Sun without going to extremes. On that note, I can assuredly say that after four hundred years of looking at he Sun, most astronomers before have solved that certain dilemma; projection or filters. There are no other ways. Playing with variations, though, is what I liked doing. I even designed a new, portable solar telescope that TMSC would like to produce (they have the prototype).
But I've moved beyond that. Starting April last, I began daily solar observations. Initially, I convinced myself that this was a way to improve my skills as an observer, period. Then, after a hundred observations, it hit that I had a whole lot of data here, and wanted to study it. That was when I discovered that I could share my data with this worldwide network of observers at the SIDC.
Now, sunny mornings tend to find me in the backyard with one of my better telescopes, it wearing a solar filter, me carrying a composition book.
I've gotten quite good at it.
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I had planned on writing a poem for you today. Seriously. Some loose prose. Figured you might like that. Right now, though, this is about the best I can manage -
Where has the Sun gone?
Hiding now, November has won for the time being
And covered the sky with a blanket of gray
Low clouds that look like a gray bedsheet
Stretched horizon to horizon across an inverted mattress of sky
The day cold as Helios rides behind the clouds
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Going to sign off for now. Betwixt my headache and the hunger pangs I am experiencing, I am distracted. Perhaps there are cartoons on. It is Saturday morning, after all, and the twelve year old in me is restless. He also wants a bowl of Life cereal.
Yours,
Corbie
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