During yesterday’s Nor’easter someone slid on the icy road and knocked down my mailbox. The granite post was broken in half, and the vehicle probably had significant damage. It was really nice that they reached out and offered to fix the mailbox. Good to live amongst responsible people!
Here it is from before the accident
Happy Valentine’s Day!!!
Heart nebula in Cassiopeia is an emission nebula located in the Perseus arm of Milky Way galaxy at ~7500 light years. This is a large region of gas and dust that spans about 100 light years across.
This image is a stack of 28 two-minute exposures. 
This year’s presidential election in USA comes down to selecting a good, decent man over trump. Nothing else matters. It is not a difficult decision that requires any thinking. Just shut the fuck up, go to the polling site and vote for Biden without any doubts or reservations.
Big fat snow flakes coming down. Can’t wait to finish some work and go out for a walk in fresh untouched snow.
A nor’easter is barreling down upon us and everything is shut down - not only schools but even work!!! Perfect opportunity to go for snowshoeing today.
“We are about to live the American Dream, which is, of course, to benefit from someone else’s misfortune.””
— Turtles All the Way Down by John Green a.co/2tFgDJC
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.