Sunday, April 6, 2008

One week left

This time next week, we'll be soaring high in the sky, somewhere between the west coast and the Hawaiian islands. Needless to say, we're excited.

Getting the last finishing touches and shopping in so we can start packing. As you'd expect, after a long, cold winter here in Chicago and a wet and damp start to spring, its finally starting to warm up just as we're about to leave. I'm actually sitting outside on our balcony on my laptop, and to my joy, the Dell XPS laptop I bought two months ago have a brighten screen to be used outside in bright sunlight. Sweet!

Part of me thinks this upcoming week is going to drag on, but I do think it's going to fly by and the days are just going to fly off the calendar until that long, exhausting (although well worth it) direct flight to Kahului. We should know by about Wednesday what our budget is going to look like for our trip, which will be a good indication of how many additional things we'll be able to do outside of what we've booked and paid for already. I don't see us spending too much extra as we've done in the past, but you never know.

Most of my energy (from a blogging perspective) will be focused on our Ka'anapali Dreamin' blog, as I keep track of our day-to-day activities like I did last year. In fact, I'll probably go back through last year's posts just to get a feel for what I'd like to keep the same or do differently. Either way, its going to be a blast.

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Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Astronomy Log: 2008-04-02

Date: 4/2/08
Time: 10:30pm - 11:30pm
Location: N 42' 0' 42, W 87' 48' 36'

Notes:
10:30pm - Watched Orion's belt set WSW just above the horizon (roughly 15 deg). Also found Betelgeuse and Almeisan (from Gemini).
SW - Viewed Procyon in Canis Minor without optics, and saw faint few of Gomeisa nearby.

11:00pm - Viewing S, saw Alphard (from Hydra) threw the tops of the trees. Without binoculars, spotted Regulus (from Leo) and Saturn nearby. Also observed with binos to find nearby stars from Leo.

11:13pm - Starting shooting Leo and Saturn (Photo ~5794). Switched to 300mm lens.

11:20pm - Switched back to W. Viewed Pollux and Castor (from Gemini) without aid. Mars was also visible without binos, but it was just up against the top of the balcony and the side of the building. Could not get a good view with binos.

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