marius dot org

I guess it could be something with our proxy systems at work, but I suspect not – as twitter is the only site giving me problems.

I don’t know if this is better or worse than the fail whale.

This weekend, a few members from the Seattle Astronomical Society held an unofficial star party out near Goldendale, WA.  Since I didn’t get the chance to take on the Table Mountain Star Party a few weeks back, I was determined to make this event.  It was an easy sell on the homefront as well, what with the vineyards in nearby Yakima.

Tons of Messiers were knocked out, and now I’m ready to apply for the Messier certificate from the Astronomical League.

• Globular Clusters: M2, M9, M15, M19, M22, M28, M30, M54, M55, M62, M69, M70, M72, M75
• Open Clusters: M6, M7, M8, M11, M16, M17, M18, M20, M21, M23, M24, M25, M26, M29, M34, M73,
• Galaxies: M31, M32, M33, M74, M110
• Planets: Jupiter

That’s 31 new Messier objects, bringing my total up to 98 out of 110.  The remaining 12 will have to wait until the dead of Winter and one or two left until Summer of 2009. 

Finally, some of you (ok… really just Michael) have asked me to post pictures of my observing.  I’ll post a picture here of the telescopes set up for the star party, and I’ll also note that I’m taking donations to buy gear to hook up to my telescope for observation photos.

As I posted about earlier, Diann & I spent a long weekend on Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands the weekend before last.  Other than the absurd waits at ferry lines, it was a great trip.  Sadly, my plans to use Qik to stream a lot of the trip were foiled by spotty (at best) cell coverage.  I was able to snag a quick video on the ferry ride, an a couple on the island.  They’re all available at the Qik link above, but here’s the one from the ferry trip:

Lopez Island is one of the larger islands in the San Juans, and is probably best known for biking (it’s relatively flat and has mostly patient residents) and local farming.  We made use of both.  We recently picked up a bike carrier for the Prius, and we hauled the bikes up with us.  We did one major day of riding, but it was our longest ride yet: 32.4 miles by my reckoning, with a total climb of 2,340 feet (elevation graph to the left).  We started out at about 9:30am, and did a few little pit stops throughout the island, checking out some of the parks/preserves with some periodic walks through the forest and to the beaches and a pit-stop for lunch.  Overall, I think we probably spent a good 4 hours in the saddle of the bike.

We also went on a ~4.5 mile sunset say kayaking trip, and I’ve got a monster blister to show for it. I should’ve worn my biking gloves.  Somewhat graphic-ish photo to the right. :)  I’d never been kayaking before, and it was really nice and relaxing.  Less of a work-out than I anticipated, but I guess we were going slow considering it took us about 2 hours to make the 4.5 mile trip around the harbor. 

Other than that, it was mostly R&R.  Ate some good food in town, and I’m pretty sure we either drove or biked on every road on the island.  More pictures to come soon once I copy them off the cameras we toted along – I think I got some cool pics at the museum on the island.

Oh – farming.  On the way out of town, we stopped at Horse Drawn Farms.  They mentioned they’re open all the time because they have a farmstand, and I had no idea what to expect.  When we got there, there was a open building that had three deep freezers (one each for beef, pork, and lamb), and several refrigerated areas for produce.  There was a weigh-scale, and everything was priced by the pound.  It was up to you to calculate everything, add it all up, and deposit your money in the cashbox (and make change).  Call my cynical, but I’m still shocked and amazed that an honor system like this still exists and seems to work!  There was probably thousands of dollars of meats and produce, not to mention the well-stocked cashbox.  Neat stuff.

The last two meals we’ve made at home have featured foods we picked up here: flat iron steak and potatoes on Sunday, and Chile Rellenos last night.  I’ve gotta say: farm fresh meats taste so much better than the same stuff from a grocery store.

The car is packed (camping gear, bikes, telescopes), days off work are scheduled, and the route is planned.

Diann & I are taking a long weekend and heading out of town. Posting will be non-existent.

But wait!  I am going to try something out.  I signed up with Qik, a service that you can stream video to the Internet from your cell phone.  I think I’m going to periodically post updates from the road, ferries, bike, tent, and kayak while we’re out.

If you want to check it out, just check out my Qik profile page periodically over the next few days, or keep an eye on the Qik videos list over there on the right of my blog.

Try as I might, I can’t see any difference in Qik’s recent change to an “open” beta.  I’ve submitted my cell phone number to them, received the SMS, opened the link, and then I get a page that says:

Request received!

Thank you for your interest in Qik. We will be in touch to let you know when you can get started – thanks!

Nothing after that, even though their blog post says “No more waiting for approval.”

Anyone have a Qik invite they can share with me in the meantime, since it seems like everything is status quo over there?