We live in an awesome neck of the woods...

Wow... that's really all I can say.



Tonight, Rebecca (friend from work) and I got paid $250 each to drag a few telescopes up to Possum Kingdom lake and show some rich old farts a few cool objects in the night sky while some real-estate moguls wined and dined them into purchasing their second or third million dollar homes. I can't say that I'd buy from them, but I'd definitely like a ranch or a lakehouse out here, at least before it gets totally yuppi-fied. (prolly too late, I know).

Anyway, Rebecca talked about the astronomy department and McDonald Observatory, and I gave a short tour of the summer sky (i.e. constellations, visible planets, scale of the solar system/galaxy). I managed to work in a short plug for my old A&M days, and I got a few whoops and a few cat-calls from some red raiders. After it got dark enough, we pointed the scopes at the sky and showed them some cool things (Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, basically). Let me tell you, drunk people are rather entertaining to try to explain astronomy to them. Well... for a while... then, after the 4th time you show them where the north star is, they just get annoying.

Anyway, they wrapped everything up by 10:30, so we had to clear out. As it had been a long time since both of us had seen a decent sky, we went back to the hotel, stocked up on some bugspray and some red flashlights, and headed out down highway 16, until we got tired of driving and pulled off the side of the road.

When we got out of the car, we both started laughing almost hysterically... I have NEVER EVER seen a sky so dark. The Milky Way just pops out and smacks you in the face. We set up the Dobsonian telescope and took out a few binoculars. Jupiter was so bright, it almost hurt your eyes to look through the scope at it. I could see globular clusters with my naked eye. I now know more constellations than I ever knew existed, and can cross at least 10-15 Messier Objects off my list.

The Milky Way is really something. It's not something I can put into words. It's more than beautiful, it's more than humbling. I've never seen the milky way as clearly as I did tonight. We could even see the dust lanes. I was simply dumbstruck. Just looking with binoculars, I could see all sorts of cool stuff in the sky, and we were able to find quite a few of them with the scope. By far the coolest time I've ever spent stargazing.

If you've never seen the milky way, GO! Go to a DARK location. Preferably 60-70 miles away from any sort of civilization. Go to Ft. Davis. Go to Possum Kingdom Lake. Go anywhere.

I've never been more excited to be an astronomer. You guys don't know what you're missing out on.

Bike Thiefs Suck!

Yeah... So my bike got stolen last week. Through my own stupidity, really. I had my bike in the back of a friend's truck while we went to eat. When we finished, I hauled my bike out and headed home. The unfortunate thing was, somewhere between my apartment and his truck, I lost my bike lock. I returned to the parking lot and tried in vain to find it, but to no avail.

Anyway, I kept my bike inside for that night, and kept my bike in the library during the day. I kept this up for a day or so, until my friend Greg came to stay with me. He's sleeping on the couch, so I didn't want to crowd him, and I put the bike out on the rail, like I usually do. I even went through the farce of pretending to fumble with a lock and "lock" it to the rail.

This worked for a night. I was pretty busy the next day, so I didn't manage to make it to the bike store to buy a new one, and I was also holding out hope that my friend would find it in his truck.

I tried the farce for a second night, and it worked again. By the third night, I was pretty sure that I could get away with it again. However, I was indeed planning on buying a new lock. I even said to Greg as we walked past a bicycle store, "I need to buy a new lock." That very night, my bike was stolen from off my balcony...

I walked outside the next morning, and my heart sunk into my stomach. I've pseudo-lost my bike several times before, but that was just because I forgot where I parked it. There wasn't even a glimmer of hope that I might have parked it somewhere else.

So, I called the Po-po... I reported it as stolen. I guess I've got a shot, because my driver's license is engraved underneath the bottom bracket.

My guess right now is that a homeless guy took it. I've seen them joyriding on bikes which obviously weren't theirs before... Hopefully they dump it in a location the cops frequent.

Oh well... gives me an excuse to finally buy that road bike I've been wanting... it looks like there are some good deals on Craigslist.

Moral of the story: Inconvenience your friends or buy a damb lock.