Blog – Page 105 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

February 2, 2017

A charm (DOG EAR)

eah, third time. Was relaxing on my vacation. Woke up and thought, I just finished that Orion Nebula book. Need to knock out a review before I forget too much. What could be nicer, more “writery” than to sit in a side bedroom looking at rain and sea and write a wonderful review? I just needed a tweed jacket and I’d be set. The cat even curled up on my lap. So, wrote out a brilliant first two paragraphs, describing the first time I’d seen the nebula with my scope. What was that big orange star called? Like bug-juice something-r-other? […]

February 2, 2017

Close in before Close out (2/2/2017)

finally got a free evening with clear skies to test out my new Explore Scientific eyepieces (thanks, Mom!). I’d picked up a 24mm and was disparately looking for an 11mm (which finally came off back order). I’d borrowed the 24 from a CFAS friend and the high quality really shown over the comparable focal length eyepieces that had come with my scope. Anyway, clear skies. Got home and got cleaned up after the bike ride. Set up the scope while dinner was cooking – got it leveled and sighted early, picking out the best location to view Southwest, to track […]

February 4, 2017

OpsLog – WBRR – 2/4/2017

ust another day on the railroad. Was aboard 391, a mixed through freight out of Alamosa, creaking its steamy 1936 way up to the high slopes and eventually to Durango. I was conductor – boss man of the movement. In the cab, young Eric, still new enough at railroading to have a spark in his eye (and I knew he was aiming at moving east to high stepping Pennsy eventually). Richard slumped in the crummy, sucking at a bottle of rot gut, occasionally stumbling down the steps to realign the turnouts behind us if Eric blew the whistle long and […]

February 5, 2017

The Orion Nebula (Review)

e an Orion go back a couple of years. It was one of the first objects I’d pursued with my new scope – after the moon and planets. And there was so much to see – the brilliant belt, the smoky glow of Betelgeuse. But it was when I tracked down Orion’s star-splashed dirk that I got my biggest surprise. At the midpoint, I stopped. There was a clear thumbprint on my view of one cluster. Must have fumbled it while getting the eyepiece out. Annoying. But when I started to track clear I got my real surprise – the […]

February 9, 2017

Moon Scout (DOG EAR)

as engaged in one of my more relaxing hobbies, astronomy, the other night. While waiting for Orion to come up (so I could look under his belt – I’m a nasty man) I swung the barrel on the moon. Always a favorite place to see things, and I really wanted to try out my new eyepieces. Okay, so I know there are astronomers with big trench-mortar tubes that can see that golf ball Alan Shepard whacked. Very good. But with my new eyepiece giving me a CLEAR view at 120x (a big improvement), I can see things pretty well lunar-wise. […]

February 16, 2017

Gone in Sixty Seconds (DOG EAR)

’ve had service interruptions on the site before. From time to time my Amazon links suddenly stop working. I’ll notice that instead of profit-generating links to my books, I’ll end up with generic orange-box links to Amazon-in-general. Usually in an hour, maybe a half-day, the links return. So last Thursday when I found my site replaced by a 500 internal error page, I figured GoDaddy was at fault. There was also a chance that our information security people here at work had gotten even more draconian and had deemed my home site a threat. Decided to wait it out and […]

February 19, 2017

Bok Tower (2/19/2017)

or those who don’t know it, Bok Tower is a beautiful garden with a massive tower way, way out in the Florida hinterland. They were hosting a dark sky party and our club was one of those from among the various astrological concerns to attend. There would be speakers, sky tours, and, of course, our scopes. It way, way out there. If you think the Kuiper belt is out there, you’ve never driven down I-4 south past the parks on a Saturday. And after you clear them, that’s only Jupiter orbit – you’ve a ways to go. But we got […]

February 19, 2017

Gelato Parlour (Review)

oddamn! That’s all I can say about this one. Goddamn! The full name of this short story is The Arousing Adventures of Gelato Parlour. Yeah, I didn’t have the space for the full title. But Goddamn! Okay, this comes out of The End, that Jurassic Publication collection that I reviewed before. But this one was so good, it warranted its own review. It’s written in flashy cheesy Vaudevillian style, very similar to The Further Adventures of Captain Gregory Dangerfield. But where Dangerfield is clearly, solidly planted in 1920, Parlour is set in a whimsical floating style of yesteryear, un-pinpointable yet […]

February 22, 2017

OpsLog – LM&O – 2/22/2017

eah, it’s been a week. A few days ago in a prolonged Go game, I pulled a stupid move that likely cost me the game. I’m so upset about this that I sulked all weekend. And then there was the meeting at work where I was so popular in my regulatory position that everyone who came in sat as far down the table as they could. The only people to sit near me were the last in the room. A friend on the call said she thought I must have felt like Sean Spicer. I mean, shit. Today was ops. […]

February 23, 2017

Faster (DOG EAR)

‘ve probably touched on this before, but stories do have a way of affecting us. Because of heroes in our tales, such as the heroes on the fields before Troy (I count Hector in that number, but not Achilles – not until he calms down, that puff-boy), we can improve our lives. Stories teach us to change, to thrive and challenge. In my case, it was a cartoon. Yowamushi Pedal is a wonderful anime series in Japan, a story about a young kid who can’t get the school anime club off the ground but somehow finds himself drawn into the […]