On the second ride of this weekend learned about some local history. The president of Connecticut women suffrage association lived in my neighboring town.
Snagged the really warm day for my first outdoor ride of 2024. It was just beautiful! The forecast for the weekend is more of this. Look forward to 2 more rides.
Last night, it started out as a Facetime call from my son to discuss some chemistry problems he was working on. Then, he added my daughter to the call and they made a ‘dad’ playlist on Apple Music that mostly consisted of Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. This went on for almost 2 hours. So much joy! Happy that they wanted to spend time with me. 🥰🥰🥰
Another attempt at capturing the horsehead and flame nebulae in Orion. This time, there was no narrowband filter attached to the camera like it was while taking this photo, last month. The difference in the colors of these nebulae is quite striking.
We visited Barcelona during the last holiday break. On the way back home, our flights were cancelled twice and we were stuck there for 2 extra days. The airline staff in Barcelona told us (as required by law) that we were covered by EU regulation 261 that provides protection for travelers who are affected by long delays and cancellations. We filed the necessary paperwork with American airlines and received 600 euros per person for each cancelled flight. So, basically, we had free travel to Barcelona on this trip. Well… it wasn’t really free; we paid for it by 2 wasted days at airport hotels.
This protection is applicable to all flights originating or ending in an EU country. So, if you are delayed by more than 4 hours on your trip to Europe, make sure you submit a claim under EU 261.
2024 version of the Running Man (NGC1977) and Orion Nebula (M42). This star forming region in the sword of Orion is about 1350 light years away. The core was intentionally overexposed to bring out the dark nebulosity.
This image is a stack of sixty 1-minute exposures taken with WO Zenithstar61 telescope attached to ASI533-MC-Pro camera. Processed using SIRIL and Photoshop.
Looked at the Weather app on Apple Watch this morning and noticed that it has improved a lot. There is so much more information and it is displayed so beautifully. Wonder if this change came about with the recent WatchOS update.
After some hemming and hawing, we finalized our plan for viewing the Total Solar Eclipse on April 8th, 2024. Initially, we were thinking of taking our chances with the weather in the Northeast but, expected chance of it being a cloudy day is at 80%. Compare that with Austin, TX where the probability of a cloudy day is only at 40%. Hopefully, that holds true and we get to see the eclipse. Even if it turns out to be a cloudy day, we will get to visit Austin after 24 years. It will be interesting to see how dramatically it has changed since the 1990s when my wife was a grad student there. It is also highly likely that we will meet @pratik and family. That will be second time in a span of one year. It is all win-win-win situation.
Finally, after a lot of hemming and hawing for years, signed up to get solar panels installed on our roof. If everything goes by the plan, we will be using clean energy and reducing our carbon footprint in about 2 months.
Finally, after a lot of hemming and hawing for years, signed up to get my genome sequenced and get some ancestry information.
Listening to the new Green Day album. It is quite good. They have the same energy as they did 30 years ago.
35F and rain is the absolutely worst kind of weather and that is what we have for this whole weekend.
2023 was the first year since 2013 when I did not do a century ride. The longest bike ride for 2023 was 55 miles. Have to plan at least one century ride this year - either sign up for an organized ride or do it by myself.
The first computers I used when I started grad school in 1991 were MacIntosh IIs and Silicon Graphics UNIX boxes. I think there was only a gap of about 1-2 years when I didn’t own a Mac or had access to one at work.
