my CHANGE log the changes in the life of Jeremy Cowgar

I am a full time programmer, beginning back in 1992 but in the past 5 years or so I have had on and off pain in my wrists and left elbow. When it first started, I got smart and did all sorts of things to my work area and that solved the problems. Since then I have grown lax and the pain has been back, on and off again. Hence, I’m doing something about it again.

Over the past 7 years or so I have used Vim on and off. I am not a newbie but far, far, far from an expert. To help reduce the amount of key wacking in a given day, I am moving back to Vim. These days I program mostly in Tcl, Python, HTML and JavaScript. Thus, I have found some plugins that really make things nice.

Due to my family’s interests in Farming, Flying, Running, Hiking, Backpacking, Horseback Riding, Astronomy and Amateur Radio, we are a very weather oriented family. We have wanted a weather station for some time, but finally got around to purchasing and setting one up. We are now pushing data to the Weather Underground and the NOAA CWOP system as well as observing weather in our own home on the console.

So, how did we do all of this?

Before we go into how I report my observation sessions, it makese sense to know how I publish my blog. I do not use a memory or processor intensive blogging platform such as Word Press. Instead, my entire blog is made of static HTML files. No dynamic applications serving up data here, except for the web server itself of course!

Why do I do this?

1. I consume less resources. Computing power these days are really sucking up major amounts of energy and for the most part, they do so for no good reason. I am not contibuting to this by my software choices, like what software my blog runs.
2. It’s easier to use. When I want to create a new post, I just fire up my familiar text editor and type away. I then save my file under my blogs posts directory as something such as ‘2013-02-15_observation-reports-how-to.html’
3. It’s ultra fast. No processing is really done to serve this page up. My webserver simply reads the page from disk and transfers it to you. Most systems require substantial amounts of processing just to show you a blog post. No so here.

Began: 2/13/13 12:08 AM Finished: 2/13/13 2:07 AM Seeing: III. Somewhat stable Transparency: Mostly clear Site: Norton, Johnson Rd Farm

Samantha and I went out and setup the scopes about 7p because the clouds were suppose to clear by 8p and it was looking that way. 8p came about and it had clouded over. We left them out until about 9p then brought them in not being able to view anything but a few whispy views of a 4 day old waxing crecent moon.

Around midnight I noticed a nice clear sky. Samantha had already went to bed and has a big day the next morning so I left her sleep and took the C8 out for a bit. The viewing session came to an end about 1:50am due to frost on the objective lens.

1. M99 a Galaxy in the Coma Berenices constellation (also named Virgo Cluster Pinwheel/Coma Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC4254, UGC7345,Coma Pinwheel Galaxy,[St.] Katherine’s Wheel,Pinwheel Galaxy,St. Katherine’s Wheel,Virgo Cluster Pinwheel Gal.) observed at 12:08 AM - Had to use averted vision but could see and identify using two stars in the FOV. - with my C8/VX (ES 82/24mm)
2. M84 a Galaxy in the Virgo constellation (also named NGC4374, UGC7494,Markarian’s Chain) observed at 12:11 AM - Was able to see pretty easily. Started with my 18mm EP but then switched to my 24mm to get a better view of it and M84 in the same FOV. M86 was easily viewable while centered on M84. - with my C8/VX (GR 18mm), C8/VX (ES 82/24mm)
3. M86 a Galaxy in the Virgo constellation (also named NGC4406, UGC7532) observed at 12:16 AM - Viewed mainly with the 24mm EP in conjunction with M84. I did go all the way down to a 12mm EP but didn’t really get more detail. - with my C8/VX (ES 82/24mm), C8/VX (GR 18mm), C8/VX (GR 12mm)
4. M88 a Galaxy in the Coma Berenices constellation (also named NGC4501, UGC7675) observed at 12:19 AM - Observed with the 24mm and 18mm EPs but was difficult. I marked this to view again when it is higher in the sky. - with my C8/VX (ES 82/24mm), C8/VX (GR 18mm)
5. M87 a Galaxy in the Virgo constellation (also named Smoking Gun, Virgo A, NGC4486, UGC7654,Smoking Gun,Virgo A) observed at 12:38 AM - Nice views in my 24, 18 and 12mm EPs. I could not see any of the NGC cataloged galaxies surrounding M87 though. - with my C8/VX (ES 82/24mm), C8/VX (GR 18mm), C8/VX (GR 12mm)
6. M90 a Galaxy in the Virgo constellation (also named NGC4569, UGC7786) observed at 12:41 AM - Detected first with averted vision but after a bit of viewing I could look at it directly. I could see a core but very faint. - with my C8/VX (ES 82/24mm)
7. M89 a Galaxy in the Virgo constellation (also named NGC4552, UGC7760) observed at 12:45 AM - Wasn’t expecting this but I could see it right away. Could see the core in the 24mm EP but the 18mm really brought it out. With my 12mm the FOV was so tight I didn’t have any surrounding stars to help my eyes focus and I found that more difficult than backing back out to the 18mm EP. - with my C8/VX (ES 82/24mm)
8. M58 a Galaxy in the Virgo constellation (also named NGC4579, UGC7796) observed at 12:52 AM - Easy to see the faint fuzzy and a brighter core. - with my C8/VX (GR 18mm)
9. M59 a Galaxy in the Virgo constellation (also named NGC4621, UGC7858) observed at 12:55 AM - Very easy to see and identify with its nearby stars. I did not spend a lot of time with it, though, as 3 objects ago I told myself I’m going inside to warm my hands a bit. By this time they were bitter cold. - with my C8/VX (GR 18mm)
10. M60 a Galaxy in the Virgo constellation (also named NGC4649, UGC7898) observed at 12:59 AM - Another easy one like M59. This one surprised me and gave me much better detail with my 18mm than my 24mm. Usually the 18mm just makes the faint fuzzy a bit larger, rarely does it give me more detail like it did here. - with my C8/VX (ES 82/24mm), C8/VX (GR 18mm)
11. M104 a Galaxy in the Virgo constellation (also named Sombrero Galaxy, NGC4594) observed at 1:40 AM - Easy to see the core and when using averted vision I could tell its elliptical shape! 24 and 18mm used but the 18mm gave me the best view of this object. - with my C8/VX (ES 82/24mm), C8/VX (GR 18mm)
12. M5 a Globular in the Serpens constellation (also named NGC5904) observed at 1:52 AM - Easy to see but could not resolve any real detail due to the frost building up on the objective lens. I marked this one to view again. - with my C8/VX (ES 82/24mm), C8/VX (GR 18mm), C8/VX (GR 12mm)

Began: 2/10/13 3:25 AM Finished: 2/10/13 3:44 AM Seeing: II. Mostly stable Transparency: Clear Site: Norton, Johnson Rd Farm

Once back home, I wanted to attempt to spot M13 in the binouclars to see if it could be done. While touring the night sky with my eyes, I saw Saturn and gave it a whirl as well.

1. Saturn a Planet in the Libra constellation observed at 3:25 AM - I could tell it was Saturn but not much more. - with my UltraView 10x50
2. M13 a Globular in the Hercules constellation (also named Hercules Globular Cluster, Great Hercules Cluster, NGC6205) observed at 3:29 AM - Couldn’t find it without looking up the Az/Ele. Once I knew exactly where to find it in the sky I could see it w/out difficulty. Could not decern any individual stars. - with my UltraView 10x50