What are your jeans doing today?

[setterman]

He is still apprehensive as can be. Seems like he's just waiting for us to leave him. We're not.

How can you not love that pup.... I hope a fate worse than death befalls the people who had him before you and neglected him.

[beatle]

washed a coaster

[dkatz]

More in The Flat Head 3001 World Tour

More in The Flat Head 3001 World Tour

[dkatz]

-Z- your eye just keeps getting more and more amazing. I swear I think in the relatively short time I've been actively following your updates, the quality and artistry of your photos has noticeably improved - from an already high starting-level!

[-Z-]

^you are too kind.

And thanks for the rep Paul! And almostnice!

Just need to find time to finish that book for dkatz.....

[rufio]

^^^ That Shell petrol station is really striking. Could be anywhere in the world, couldn't it?

Also, good reading material. I used to be a huge Neil Gaiman fan, although I've lost interest in what he's been doing the last few years.

[zissou]

'Twas a sad day here. I buried my twelve year old dog, who was having long bouts of not eating or getting out of bed.

Sleep well in your blanket of roses...

Upon hearing of her death, St. Francis ordered the sky to blanket her in the year's first new fallen snow...

[roy6]

Spent a lazy and intermittently rainy afternoon in SF Japantown.

[farmer]

heart goes out to you Zissou.

Have been building a fenced in area with B for the doggy over the last few days. Almost done. Free railroad ties and old fencing.

till dark

Lining the inside with buried chainlink incase he is a digger.

He should be chillen in here by Sunday night. Cold Bre

Jawns

sams

and sams

After all the free material and gift cards we have only paid about 50bucks out of pocket.

working on those commands. sup

OgiSD64Dh7c

[Paul T]

I miss that part of town. Had some great lunches out there... is there still an excellent vinyl record store on the edge, can't remember the location? Still have a bunch of Bernard Herrmann soundtracks from there.

Zissou: sorry.

[roy6]

^PaulT- I suspect not. The only dedicated Vinyl store left in town AFAIK is Grooves on Market street, though there is some to be had in the upper Haight at a few specialty music shops.

[eltopo]

Sorry to hear that Zissou,

One of the hardest things ever to deal with. I still not over mine from like 5 years ago. Hence the name of my blog.

Roy Jacket looks great!

[Graytrain]

So i went back up to the observatory to do some changes to the system and winterize the structures.

The road was a little more treacherous than we thought it was going to be. unfortunately I don't have any photos of it because i was too busy putting on chains, icing the rock, and digging us out. But we got to the top in perfect time, enough time to see the sun set:

Notice the nice little dust storm raging in the valley below:

The light pillar telling of ice in the high atmosphere:

you have to take full advantage of your surroundings.

then a stroke of brilliance as we sat down and started the real work of observing. Transform the bad to good!!! Keep that beer cold!

a wonderful way to keep the beer as cold as when you first opened it.

I got excited.because we started to get some crazy weather... unfortunately just crazy enough we had to shut operations down for the night. (and yes that is in miles per hour.)

This was when i saw the Roy x Cone contest which was about 4 hours from announcement. I got really excited. Jumping for joy thinking this was one contest in which i was going to get in on.

The next night was much of the same. nothing really new but sadly the night when i found out i did not get accepted. SO it was time to drink it away and do something to make me feel productive and distract me from the pain being felt deep within: WASH DISHES like the domestic goddess i am...

The moon was so incredibly bright i was stunned. I walked out to get some air, and was blown away. This is something you must experience.

moon and jupiter right below it, you can see the glow of las vegas to the bottom left:

[Graytrain]

Part two:

Now for the pretty pictures.

The sky wasn't dark enough to get milky way to pop out.

but you can still see orion's nebula (left of right hand tree) if you look close enough and mars off to the down left from center and orion.

This is the Perseus Galaxy cluster. each one of those fuzy golden spots is a galaxy many times bigger than ours, all gravitationally bound to the one in center. these are the largest gravitational systems in our universe.

This is what is called the Deer Lick group of galaxies. these are not gravitationally bound but just happen to lie in the line of sight.

and lastly my favorite. NGC 2403. This is just a regular galaxy but we took a few frames in hydrogen alpha wavelengths to bring out the star forming regions. this is a very special type of light that is only produced by new stars and star making nebulae. these are the orangy areas in the galactic plane.

[ranonranonarat]

simply beautiful graytrain. i dont understand everything of what you've written but from the pictures they look amazing. where in the world are you?

just to get things right, this is the moon???

[Graytrain]

yeah! thats the moon! not even full! blew my mind away too.

This is in southern Utah.

[aho]

graytrain, always enjoy those posts! I want to make it up to one of those observatories sometime, you down?

[Graytrain]

yeah! i am down! we have star parties all the time. and i have the keys to the place!

[ranonranonarat]

so that is the moon in the day? or is that in the night? assuming that it is in the day, so you end up seeing 2 bright orbs in the sky? (sun and moon).

sorry if it sounds dumb. i am just too taken aback.

[Graytrain]

ranon, its ok! but this is in the middle of the night. notice the stars all around.

[almostnice]

seeing Graytrains pics compensates more than enough for the crashdown,which status i checked every hour at work yesterday.

wasnt too crowdy,enough time for shittalking

and checking unsuccessfully again...

than all of sudden a customer came in,wearing this awesome G 1:

that really made my,til then,uneventful day!

[beatle]

graytrain - wow - stunningly beautiful sky

[ranonranonarat]

markus you look like you want to punch through the computer screen. i was checking every 15 minutes so i win.

[dkatz]

Mind: blown. Wish we could have you in the contest, if solely for more of these types of posts!

markus you look like you want to punch through the computer screen. i was checking every 15 minutes so i win.

Haha I'm with both of you guys. Kinda pathetic...

[dkatz]

The Flat Head 3001 World Tour

The Flat Head 3001 World Tour

[Farhad]

Graytrain-now a star party sounds like a party I would like to attend. nice post.

Markus-you're a sick man!

daniel- will be drinking a Pliny for you today!!!

Zissou- sorry about your dog

[lance]

Graytrain - Beautiful posts, always.

dkatz - One day I'll get to Africa, I swear; you keep the fire burnin!

[farmer]

Got to put a few hours in today... slowly coming together. Little guy better be happy.

Every birthday/anniversary/whatever Bre asks for a new power tool. (love her) Going to work with her latest.

[dimpra]

so earlier today there was a self-report session with the team from the embassy

filling this form, signing that paper, blah blah...

the embassy staff's that will check all of my doc's

shoegazing-while-queueing

free lunch , fried rice+grilled chicken. love em.

heading to this place after i'm full, too bad the queue to the beer hall is like crazy

erdnuss

cont'd

[dimpra]

german cakes, yummy.

decided to try this cream filled (?), not bad.

back to real life