Phosphor

Parallel and Serial ports

My little sister talks a lot (like Pinkie Pie) but I don't consider her annoying, especially since I don't get to see her as often.

It snows about every other year where I live. It's usually wet and slushy like, although last winter was an exception. It was powder like.

I like the ones from Waffle House with peanut butter and syrup. Yummm!

A couple things: Bought tracking platform for my largest telescope Joined MLP Forums back in July and made some friends Imaged cloud details on Uranus

In high school, I just took really good notes and reviewed them a few days before a test. I tend to remember things better if I write it down. I did the same in college, but had much less time to study since I had a busy schedule.

I get really sleepy when drunk, so that kinda keeps me out of trouble. I don't drink very often tho.

Hello everypony! I finally decided to write my first blog. Most of my future blogs will probably center around my hobby in astronomy. Ever since I was a little kid, I was always fascinated with space, particularly the planets. My favorite planet will always be Saturn. I started the hobby with a simple store bought refractor telescope at the age of 8. It worked great on the moon, but that was about it. The mount it came with wasn't capable of tracking and the optics weren't good either. I remember seeing colors around the Moon when looking thru it. Come to find out, that was chromatic aberration and it's inherent in many refractors, well, except for superachromats. (But who has the money for those? Lol.) I used that telescope for a couple years before I moved on to other things. I didn't return to the hobby till just a few years ago. Now that I was out of college and had a career, I had time and funds to return. I bought a small beginner reflector telescope with an equatorial mount and tracking motor. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was free of chromatic aberration and had tracking. After a while of observing, I was wanting to photograph what I saw. I checked some of the astronomy forums and bought a basic camera that slid into the focuser tube. Simply point the telescope and the planet shows up on the screen, right? I wish! Astronomy cameras have tiny chips and aligning a planet onto it is easier said than done. That bare bones setup got me started in planetary imaging, and I've been addicted to it ever since! I have made significant upgrades in the last two years. I now own 4 telescopes: Celestron C90, Aquila 90 refractor, Celestron C8, and Skywatcher 16 reflector. 2018 was an awesome year! I spent a lot of nights imaging Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, and even the ice giants: Uranus and Neptune. I will never forget the views of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, or Saturn's wonderful rings in the eyepiece of that 16in telescope! Throughout 2018, I watched Venus go from nearly full to a thin crescent phase. Mars made it's closest approach in late July and was a wonderful sight in the eyepiece. My first image of Uranus with cloud details was also just a couple months ago. Towards the end of the year, I did some long exposure astrophotography of some of my favorite targets: Andromeda Galaxy, Pleaides, Horsehead and Orion's Nebula. Moving on to 2019, I plan to continue my hobby. This year will kickoff with a lunar eclipse at the end of the month, so I can't wait for that! This year will be a bit different, though. Jupiter and Saturn will be low in the sky and Mars is already far away from us, so I won't spend as much time imaging them as I did last year. I will likely focus on long exposure astrophotography in the spring and summer months. On the planetary side, I hope to upgrade my tracking mount with Go-to capability so I can image the elusive planet: Mercury. It's always close to the Sun, so the best time to image it is during the day when the planet is higher in the sky. Unlike Venus, Mercury isn't bright enough to be seen during the day with the naked eye, so I will need the Go-to capability to find it. I have imaged Mercury in the past, but only when it was low in the sky after sunset. The only detail visible was the phase of the planet. I can image from UV-a to Near IR, so unless shortwave or thermal infrared cameras become affordable, I probably won't be buying any new cameras this year. I hope you enjoyed reading this. If there are any questions or comments, go for it. I love talking about this stuff!

Some of my goals will take more than a year to achieve, but I want to get started on them with 2019 rolling in. Save some money to buy a lot of land Get back to dating (it's been a little while) And of course the generic "lose a few pounds" new year's resolution.

I do the exact same thing.

No. I haven't watched that show in probably a decade or so. I never watched it on my tv but my great aunt would have it on. I watched a few with her while visiting.

I bought Desert Strike for the SNES last week at a local game and video store. I played the gameboy advance version when I was a young teenager and enjoyed it.

I watched Bird Box a couple days ago, while visiting some family. It was ok, but I felt it was too similar to The Happening.

I finally beat the final boss in Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon (PS1). I had been procrastinating for a long time on this game. lol I was kinda let down on how easy it was to defeat the sorceress. Still have a couple dragon eggs left to collect and some gems. To my surprise, 100% completion wasn't required to get revenge on Moneybags. He showed up after defeating the sorceress. Man, I enjoyed every second of torching and charging into Moneybags!

Every once in a while, I will put an envelope in the mailbox for pickup. I still use the post office sometimes if I need to ship a package or pick up something that requires a signature.

I feel... Rainbow Dash, please move these clouds away! Other than that, I feel fine.

I don't follow a hard/fixed schedule but a typical day would consist of: Waking up Preparing for and commuting to work Work Drive home Eat Dinner Check weather and atmospheric forecast If good, setup one of the telescopes If cloudy, spend time on computer Shower Go to bed

It doesn't happen often but when I'm feeling down, a weekend trip to visit some family usually gets me going again. Revisiting old hobbies also helps.

Any object with a temperature above absolute zero radiates infrared light.