I'd rather stare out the window than listen to the President.

He's giving the State of the Union Address tonight. Do I want to watch?
"I'd rather stick needles in my eyes."
- Garrett Breedlove ("Terms of Endearment")
The snow has melted but it's still cold. The stars are out and the trees are aglow in artificial light. So, what is there to do? Let's do some star gazing. The photo above is looking to the south. Can you find Orion's belt? Sirius, the dog star? Canis Major? Check the chart below.
That's Lepus, right above the glowing tree. See. You learned something. Say Betelgeuse three times and see what happens.

Comments

Handsome B. Wonderful said…
I tired to watch a bit of it but became so pissed of that I had to turn it off to save my poor heart the stress.

It is he really going to be gone next year, is it really going to happen???

I feel like I'm about to finally emerge from an abusive relationship.
January 29, 2008 at 1:11 PM
rattln along said…
is that with a hard "g" or a soft "g" Betelgeuse?

I tried it with a hard "g" and got a nice cold beer handed to me. :P
January 29, 2008 at 9:33 PM
Kate Michele said…
id rather watch ice melt.. snow melt... yeah i hear ya.
January 30, 2008 at 1:15 AM
Anthony said…
rattlin: It's actually like "j" - juice. beetle-juice.
January 30, 2008 at 7:52 AM
rattln along said…
I know. I was making a bad joke.
January 30, 2008 at 11:05 PM
Ladyred said…
I like that Betelgeuse thing. Nice photo. How long was the exposure? Yea I have to ask. How long after the sun went down? It looks (ok I'm seriously guessing here) like maybe 20 to 30 min exposure? I'm guessing big time since it's been a long time since I did timed exposures. I know after an hour or so you get streaks, I love that look. Maybe I should let my camera sit for a few hours.... I have a good sky on occasion at G-man's and will be working on capturing that moon. It's too cold right now though. I'm not that nuts yet.
January 31, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Anthony said…
That one was 30 seconds at f4 or thereabouts. After 30 seconds, the shutter goes to "bulb", and I don't have a remote for it, so I kept fiddling with the aperture until 30 seconds was long enough. I tweaked it a little to brighten the sky and bring out more stars. It was after 10pm, so the sky was as dark as it gets around here.

I tried some stuff with my 600mm mirror lens, but couldn't get a long enough exposure to eliminate the streaks. I'll have to mess with the ISO settings to try to get it to bring in more light.

I"m hoping (again) to get out this weekend with it. The weather has been crappy, but Saturday and Sunday look like above-freezing temperatures, so I might be able to stand being outside for a few hours in Philadelphia.
January 31, 2008 at 1:23 PM
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