Yes, I am alive and well. Why no observing reports? Observing just hasn't been happening very much this spring. Weather was the biggest problem, with a truly terrible spring session due to rain and clouds. More recently, the price of gas has interfered with my observing program, too. It's a 50 minute drive each way to my dark sky site, so that adds up even going out 3 or 4 times per month. And I tend to avoid heading out near Summer Solstice anymore, as darkness arrives too late for this old duffer. If I want to put in a solid 3 hours of observing, I would start around 10:45 pm EDT, finish up at 1:45, pack up the gear and drive home, not hitting the sack until around 3 am. I used to be able to pull that kind of thing off, but it gets harder and harder with age. I spend my days practicing piano, but I am too burnt out after a late night out to practice successfully.
Also in the summer, there is the bug problem. Of course I use bug spray, and it's not too bad where I observe, but the twilight drive there, and the late night drive home, means that for each trip I make it leaves hundreds of squashed and dead bugs all over my car and windshield. So next morning first thing after breakfast, I have to wash the car. I mean really scrub it.
Sure, you might say, those are only excuses for not observing. But taken together, this is no longer a season in which I observe. I will likely crank up operations again in the latter half of August. Also of note is the fact that my observing club (RASC Windsor) no longer publishes a newsletter. I used to write articles for that publication 5 times per year, and it kept me on my toes. Many of those articles are published here, but no longer.
I had begun a massive project related to my goal of seeing all the northern NGC objects, namely discussing each one and posting about it here. That project was a tiresome thing to undertake, but it might get revived. I like to take a chart from Uranometria and run through all the objects I was able to observe with my 12" reflector. Of course some of the charts are so dense with objects (Coma B. and Canes V. for instance) that the very thought of writing about each object I have observed sends shudders up and down my spine. I had left off in the middle of talking about Leo, so I might resume there in a few weeks.
Clear skies!
Mapman Mike
