Public Night at Cedar Key

Thanks, Dave. I think I'll pass on Igor. And hope none of my nurses resembles him too closely.

The day lazing at Cedar Key was fine, but I had electricity problems with the scope for the public observing night. I thought I'd brought adaptors to run it off the car's battery, but no. (Belatedly I remember that two of them were rusted and had to be thrown away; the one that I have won't reach.) I do have about 200 feet of heavy extension cord for 120-volt AC, and the park ranger pointed me to a place where I could relocate near an abandoned building with a external outlet.

Long story short, there was no outlet, and it was growing dark. My mount won't work without electricity. Fortunately, a guy about twenty feet away had a portable recharged battery that output AC, so I bummed some off him. Can't count on him being available tonight.

(I feared electrical problems and considered bringing the heavy German equatorial mount. But it's a weight-lifting pain to set up even when I'm in good shape, and since I already have hernias from surgery, maybe I don't need any new ones.)

Anyhow, the scope will run for a couple of hours on 10 AA batteries, so I'm going to get those when I'm out today. Independence.

The sky was pretty clear, but loaded with moisture ... telescope fogged up by 10:15. I should've skipped the public presentation, an hour-long slide show, stuff I already knew. Showed Jupiter and the Orion Nebula and some double stars to a bunch of people. Tonight it'll just be observing, down at Shell Mound, where the sky should be darker and the population a lot lower.

I'll have a list of more obscure targets, and will put the large finder scope on the 9-inch. Not even try to use the mount's computer.

I did a little drawing yesterday before and after lunch, on the restaurant's dock. A standard Cedar Key scene, water and islands. Since I didn't bring my art bag, though (mea culpa), it's rendered with a three-color ballpoint pen on stationery paper, the only art supplies available here. Actually, an interesting experiment. Will try a more careful attempt today. Maybe I'll have something worth scanning in when I get back.

The motel office has lots of old VCR tapes, so I watched John Wayne in The Shootist before I turned in, though it was a technical nightmare; it would spontaneously start to rewind every ten minutes or so. I'd have to jump up and stop it (the remote doesn't work) and run back and forth.

So the equipment gods – Loki? – were not with me last night. Tonight, with the batteries, will be better.

Joe