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[OT] Her in the Sky



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 14th 08, 10:44 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Yowie
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Posts: 3,225
Default [OT] Her in the Sky

Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the moon
(and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for Her in the sky.
My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've shared it with the Yowlet,
and now we both go out and howl and the moon when She's at her brightest.
I've always been innately aware of her Cycle, and would be at a loss without
Her in the sky.

Last night was the first clear and not bitterly-cold-and-howling-a-gale
night since I got my telescope. Its a crappy telescope, I admit, barely
better than binoculars, but it was free, and I've wanted but haven't been
able to afford one since, oh, I don't know, for as long as I've been talking
to Her in the Sky.

I started off trying to get a view of Jupiter, but gave up in frustration
after an hour or so. After another hour or so of cursing and muttering about
bad design, I finally got my first ever glimpse of Her under magnification.
I was astonished, astounded and more deeply in love than ever.

After fiddling with the eyepieces some more, I settled on 'medium'
magnification (and sorry, i don't know what magnification it was, I don't
know about the technical side of the telescope) - high magnification didn't
allow a stable enough image, with the wobbly tripod and worn out mounts.
But medium magnification allowed me to see the craters, and the seas,
allowed me to watch contentedly as she slowly 'sailed' past my little
viewing aperture.

Joel dragged me in at 11:30pm and told me off for staying out so late on
work night and for being out in such frigid temperatures with just t-shirt
and jeans. I had not noticed the time pass, nor the temperature drop. I am
in love all over again.

Yowie

--
If you're paddling upstream in a canoe and a wheel falls off, how many
pancakes can you fit in a doghouse? None, icecream doesn't have bones.


  #2  
Old July 14th 08, 10:54 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Daniel Mahoney
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Posts: 1,027
Default [OT] Her in the Sky

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:44:41 +1000, Yowie wrote:

Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the moon
(and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for Her in the sky.
My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've shared it with the Yowlet,
and now we both go out and howl and the moon when She's at her brightest.
I've always been innately aware of her Cycle, and would be at a loss without
Her in the sky.


She is indeed beautiful, isn't she? My own personal rituals evolved into
much the same - Moon-centered, and frequently led to me just talking to
Her.

As for watching through the telescope - some time if you get a chance to
look at high magnification, on the lower left limb (between 7 and
8 o'clock), there are a few craters in a perfect line, appearing
larger/smaller/smaller still with the smallest one right on the edge such
that it's crater walls project beyond the edge of the Moon herself, so
that when you first view them they look like a pyramid on the moon! I
don't recall whether refracting scopes invert images; my reflector did, so
the interesting craters appeared around 2 o'clock on Her face. It's an
interesting visual effect when you first see it.


  #3  
Old July 14th 08, 11:39 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Sherry
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Posts: 3,176
Default Her in the Sky

On Jul 14, 4:56*pm, hopitus wrote:
On Jul 14, 3:44 pm, "Yowie" wrote:





Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the moon
(and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for Her in the sky.
My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've shared it with the Yowlet,
and now we both go out and howl and the moon when She's at her brightest.

  #4  
Old July 14th 08, 11:58 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Jofirey
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Posts: 2,628
Default [OT] Her in the Sky


"Yowie" wrote in message
...
Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the
moon (and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for
Her in the sky. My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've
shared it with the Yowlet, and now we both go out and howl and the
moon when She's at her brightest. I've always been innately aware of
her Cycle, and would be at a loss without Her in the sky.

Last night was the first clear and not
bitterly-cold-and-howling-a-gale night since I got my telescope. Its
a crappy telescope, I admit, barely better than binoculars, but it
was free, and I've wanted but haven't been able to afford one since,
oh, I don't know, for as long as I've been talking to Her in the
Sky.

I started off trying to get a view of Jupiter, but gave up in
frustration after an hour or so. After another hour or so of cursing
and muttering about bad design, I finally got my first ever glimpse
of Her under magnification. I was astonished, astounded and more
deeply in love than ever.

After fiddling with the eyepieces some more, I settled on 'medium'
magnification (and sorry, i don't know what magnification it was, I
don't know about the technical side of the telescope) - high
magnification didn't allow a stable enough image, with the wobbly
tripod and worn out mounts. But medium magnification allowed me to
see the craters, and the seas, allowed me to watch contentedly as
she slowly 'sailed' past my little viewing aperture.

Joel dragged me in at 11:30pm and told me off for staying out so
late on work night and for being out in such frigid temperatures
with just t-shirt and jeans. I had not noticed the time pass, nor
the temperature drop. I am in love all over again.


There are web sites that have star maps. You can tell them where you
live and you will get a map of the sky for the day and time.

But first to get familiar with the moon and the scope you have
available.

Best mistake we ever made. When Charlie and I first got married, we
were shopping for Christmas presents for my sisters kids. We picked
out an inexpensive telescope for her son. Only to find at the
checkout we had actually picked up a much more expensive one. The
store was crowded, the lines were long, so we decided 'oh what the
heck' and bought it anyway.

My now fifty year old nephew is still quite the amateur astronomer.

I wait every fall for Orion to come back.

Jo


  #5  
Old July 15th 08, 12:08 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Victor Martinez
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Posts: 1,742
Default [OT] Her in the Sky

Jofirey wrote:
I wait every fall for Orion to come back.


Every fall we rent a cabin near the Lost Maples area here in Texas. One
of our favorite activities is sit by a fire and watch Orion come up over
the ridge across the river. It's magical!
And every year we swear we're going to buy a telescope and bring it out.
Perhaps this year...

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

  #6  
Old July 15th 08, 12:24 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Jofirey
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,628
Default [OT] Her in the Sky


"Victor Martinez" wrote in message
...
Jofirey wrote:
I wait every fall for Orion to come back.


Every fall we rent a cabin near the Lost Maples area here in Texas.
One of our favorite activities is sit by a fire and watch Orion come
up over the ridge across the river. It's magical!
And every year we swear we're going to buy a telescope and bring it
out. Perhaps this year...

--

That picture is just as clear and lovely as any photograph Tom takes
with his camera.

Jo


  #7  
Old July 15th 08, 01:22 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Yowie
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Posts: 3,225
Default [OT] Her in the Sky

Daniel Mahoney wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:44:41 +1000, Yowie wrote:

Even before I knew the word 'witch' or 'pagan' I used to talk to the
moon (and Antares, my favourite star), have always looked out for
Her in the sky. My Full Moon ritual is barely a ritual, but I've
shared it with the Yowlet, and now we both go out and howl and the
moon when She's at her brightest. I've always been innately aware of
her Cycle, and would be at a loss without Her in the sky.


She is indeed beautiful, isn't she? My own personal rituals evolved
into much the same - Moon-centered, and frequently led to me just
talking to Her.

As for watching through the telescope - some time if you get a chance
to look at high magnification, on the lower left limb (between 7 and
8 o'clock), there are a few craters in a perfect line, appearing
larger/smaller/smaller still with the smallest one right on the edge
such that it's crater walls project beyond the edge of the Moon
herself, so that when you first view them they look like a pyramid on
the moon! I don't recall whether refracting scopes invert images; my
reflector did, so the interesting craters appeared around 2 o'clock
on Her face. It's an interesting visual effect when you first see it.


The odd thing about Australia (and hte rest of hte southern hemisphere) is
our moon is upseide down, and the phases go ( 0 ) rather than ) 0 ( like
yours do. So I have no idea where '2 o'clock' might be - and whether my
telescope turns the image upseide down. Still, its something to discover for
myself, and I look forward to finding them.

Yowie


  #8  
Old July 15th 08, 01:34 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Daniel Mahoney
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Posts: 1,027
Default [OT] Her in the Sky

The odd thing about Australia (and hte rest of hte southern hemisphere) is
our moon is upseide down, and the phases go ( 0 ) rather than ) 0 ( like
yours do. So I have no idea where '2 o'clock' might be - and whether my
telescope turns the image upseide down. Still, its something to discover for
myself, and I look forward to finding them.

Yowie


Hmmm, I never thought of that. When I say "2 oclock", I mean that for
me, through an inverting telescope, the crater formation is at the upper
left limb (where 2 o'clock would be on the face of a clock). Since we
don't know if your telescope inverts, it could be either 2 or 8 o'clock.
And that's just approximate, so it will give you an excuse to look all
around the visible edge of the full moon

Dan
  #9  
Old July 15th 08, 01:35 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
[email protected]
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Posts: 9,349
Default [OT] Her in the Sky

Yowie wrote:

The odd thing about Australia (and hte rest of hte southern hemisphere) is
our moon is upseide down, and the phases go ( 0 ) rather than ) 0 ( like
yours do.


It's not the moon that's upside down, it's you guys. (Kidding )

But that's interesting, and it makes sense, since the earth's shadow would
getting larger and smaller in the opposite direction.

My education about celestial bodies was quite pitiful. Considering that
I was interested in astronomy, I didn't even know which direction the
moon waxed and waned. A friend of mine taught it to me about 5 years ago,
complete with a handy mnemonic. (It wouldn't work for most of us, since
the words are in Russian and the letters representing the orientation of
the crescent moon are Cyrillic - but for some reason I remember that better
than anything I learned in childhood!)

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)
  #10  
Old July 15th 08, 01:38 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
[email protected]
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Posts: 9,349
Default [OT] Her in the Sky

Daniel Mahoney wrote:

Hmmm, I never thought of that. When I say "2 oclock", I mean that for
me, through an inverting telescope, the crater formation is at the upper
left limb (where 2 o'clock would be on the face of a clock). Since we
don't know if your telescope inverts, it could be either 2 or 8 o'clock.


Wait, would that be 8 o'clock or 4 o'clock? If it just flips it over
(ie, as a mirror image across the horizontal diameter), then 2:00 would
become 4:00. But if it actually rotates the image of the moon by 180
degrees, then you're right, it would be 8:00.

Joyce - knows very little about telescopes, but does know about image
transformations!

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)
 




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