Best Posts in Forum: Hobbies and special interests

Jungle version.
Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Holiday!
Dr. Ski

 

But I can't go back, I know.
Just learned of Eddie Money's passing. Sad day.

I try to vary the type of images in my galleries, but the last couple of days have produced some outstanding crepuscular apparitions. Since I am limited to posting 10 photos, I am devoting this post to sunrise and sunset events from the Observatory.

 

I
have become
comfortably numb.
Last week's shenanigans.

 

Where would I be without my woman?
A few of my favorite images from last week.

 

But I had my fun.

As you all know, the Earth made it's closest approach to the Sun for the year on Jan3.
This is called perihelion.
The Moon makes it's closest approach to Earth every month at perigee.
The Moon's farthest distance from Earth each month is called apogee.
(As you may have surmised, "peri" is Latin for "near" and "apo" is Latin for "far")
The Moon's diameter changes significantly between apogee and perigee, although you cannot detect that with the naked eye. The media makes a lot of hype about a "Super Moon", which occurs when the Moon is full at perigee. But a Super Moon looks the same as any other Full Moon.
I thought it would be cool to capture images of the recent apogee and perigee Moons and compare them to the Sun's image at exactly the same magnification, which allows you to see the actual size difference. I got too time on my hands. Ticking away from me.
I also included a Hydrogen-Alpha image of the Sun on perihelion day.
All images are at 40X.

 

There is much eye candy to behold at night if you know where to look.
I'm sharing my favourite star portraits from the last couple of weeks.

 

Even on the stormiest nights the clouds open up for a brief period of time. Of course I have to stay up and drink beers until the sky finally clears (that gives me an idea for another song. It's been a while since I've written a song. My last song was a country song: "My Heart is on Fire and You're Sitting on my Hose").
Here are some cool images of our Solar System neighbors from the past week.

 

The wife was really wanting a Belgian Malinios male and female pup that were papered (PCCI) and was not having any luck finding them around Dumaguete or Cebu so she found what she was looking for in Manila. She also decided she had to have a Siberian Husky as well...

I was in Manila with her (before heading off to Korea) to pick out the pups. A black female Belgian Malinios and fawn colored male. She's had the Belgian pups for a little while now but the Husky was delivered yesterday. She is about half the size as the Belgian pups but makes up for it with tons of energy. She fit right in, though our Black Belgian female keeps a bit of distance.

Just a heads up for folks buying pups from a distance and trying to get them back home there are some requirements to be aware of. The airline requires the pups to have a rabies vaccine, which is given when they are about 3 months old; what the wife was not told is that it has to be 2 weeks after they've been vaccinated before they are allowed to travel, so that was a delay. Also the normal required vaccines.

When you check the pups in, they cost extra from whatever baggage you are allowed and the airline prefers a heads up and they need to be checked in a airline quality cage (not like a chicken in a cardboard box). It cost 6,000 peso for them both to fly. They figure by weight and round up from what the wife told me.

The Husky was younger so we had to wait and she was shipped as cargo on an early morning Cebu Pacific flight. That cost another 3,000 peso.

The wife will also have to change the PCCI registration to her name as well as changing the pups names to what we named them. She was waiting on the husky to do them all at once; I don't remember what we paid to transfer before but I believe it is between 1,000-2,000 per pup. I'll update the actual cost once the wife makes that happen.

The attached pictures aren't the best but I'll post some more later if the wife can get some better pics.

Shawn

 

If your only response to me giving you an 'abhorrent' for your 'Smith and wesson' reply when everyone else if trying to help keep this dog alive and understands the kindness of the new owners, is to give me an abhorrent back for my positive suggestions, then I feel sorry for you. I know you often comment on the Forum in a ranting and negative fashion and I am sure many have figured out your personality by now.

I don't care about an 'abhorrent' or 'trollin' - in fact, you went through my previous posting and gave me SIX negative ratings today! One (a dislike) was even for my information on a Comet!! VERY sad man. They are only 'marks on paper' and mean nothing if they come from someone like you. Coming from the decent folks on here would force me to rethink my attitude. In your case, it is a joke. I like jokes.