Clear blue skies...

The start of this year has been cold. Frost, ice and sprinkling of snow. But with that has come some lovely clear skies, perfect conditions to finally get my brothers telescope out for a trial. For the astronomers amongst you its a Meade LX90 EMC. Google describes this as a “high-end, versatile catadioptric telescope with a 10-inch aperture and compact form factor, featuring an advanced Autostar II GOTO system for quick object location and centering, containing a database of over 30,000 celestial objects.” However after not being used much in recent years it was feeling a little damp and sorry for itself and not quite in its former glory. Undeterred though with a bit of playing around and giving it a little TLC, I managed to get it working after a fashion. And wow, it blew me away. We actually saw the rings around Saturn and the patterns on Jupiter which were incredible and really do exist (they don't seem real till you see them), but I think the best of all was the moon. The definition of the craters completely took me aback. The photo doesn’t do it justice as it was a mobile phone pointing down the lens but you kind of get the idea.

And all this frost and blue sky means we’ve been out and about a bit. Blue, the neighbours dog, has joined us for a bit of snow fun in the Campsies and Tanya has been endeavouring to break the ice and go swimming. 

All this blue sky has meant I’ve been feeling very positive at the start of the year, with no real slump after the festivities which is nice. My resolution this year was to try and approach everything with more positivity so we’re off to a good start. And there’s more blue skies forecast for my ski trip to Megeve this week. So here we go 2025…fingers crossed for clear, blue skies all the way.

Moonstruck

Swimming on the ice

Videoclip: Ice Swimming...

Or you can watch the videclip here

Videoclip: Snow fun with Blue

Or you can watch the videoclip here