Astrovelo

Watched it last week. Had some really funny moments. The casting was horrible. Sanjay Dutt should get a lot of plastic surgery done. His old age shows on his face. As long as you don’t look at his face, he was good in his part. Gracie Singh looks like a ‘molkarin’ (kaamvaali bai). She needs to get a new appearance too. Overall, the movie was entertaining. No stupid love songs (maybe I fast-forwarded;) but, don’t remember), not much melodrama except in the end. Watch it, if there is nothing else you can do.

The Complete Far Side by Gary Larson

I was just amazed by its sheer size. Didn’t realise it would be this big and bulky when I ordered it. It is a set of two very high-quality hardbound volumes and probably weighs 20 pounds. It could be easily used as a weapon.

Gary Larson’s wry humor is admired worldwide and his drawings have this surreal quality which makes them so enjoyable. In 1994, he decided never to make any more of those and has kept his word. I liked the first line of his introduction to the book…. “It has been seven years since I hung up the eraser.”

I have been reading a month at a time when I get a chance. It is very enjoyable. I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes ‘The Far Side".

All I can say is WOW. Now, I know what I was missing in life. Installed wireless network at home yesterday. I am connected anywhere in the house without any wires. It is so convenient. I could check my email from kitchen table this morning when I had only 5 minutes while I had my cup of coffee. Wouldn’t have done it without the wireless highspeed connection.

Yippieeee! Finally, our hamlet is all wired up. Now, we have high speed internet service at home. Thanks to Comcast, I can connect to the internet at high speeds. No more dialup. Was waiting for this day for a long long time. :)

For those who don’t care about my astronomy pictures, enjoy this weekend Ashwini update. She got to open one of her birthday gifts a week ahead of time and here she is trying out her shiny new walker wagon.

It was so warm over the weekend: a taste of upcoming spring. Both Saturday and Sunday were ‘no jacket required’ days. Ashwini decided to go out and check the weather herself. She was very excited to see all the trees and the grass. It is going to be hard to keep her in the house in summertime.

Last week had been really good. Warm (more than 20F) and clear nights most of the week. Took the telescope out and took some pictures too. I suppose that is evident from last few posts.

The usual suspects:

• Moon
• Venus
• Saturn
• Pleiades (M45)
• Great nebula from Orion (M42)
• Double cluster (h and x) from Perseus

• M35: A beautiful open cluster in Gemini. Was very close to Saturn.
• M38: Open cluster in Auriga. Quite spectacular. Clear cold night made observing it a pleasure.
• M81/M82: Spiral galaxies in Ursa Major. All the light pollution on the north side made viewing them difficult. Breathtaking, nonetheless.

Better photograph of Pleiades (M45), compared to my earlier attempt. Used the telescope driving mechanism this time to avoid the streaks caused by Earth’s rotation.

The stars in this cluster are very young, only a few million years old. Long exposure photographs show nebulocity around them; the clouds that they were born from.

Nursery for new stars…   

Check out these images of M42 taken by others. Please don’t make any comparisons with my photo as it doesn’t belong in the same category.

Enlarged smaller area with craters and a mountain range at the edge of light and darkness.

Beautiful star cluster Pleiades (M45), enlarged through the telescope…

Moon and Venus from last night.

Aaahhhh! I just love ‘Fat Tuesday’. I don’t know the religious significance of it, but I love paczkis (pronounced puchkis). This is a cream-filled or jelly-filled donut-like thing. Already had two this morning. They are sitting happily in my stomach. Maybe a couple more and there’ll be no need to eat lunch.

Queer headgear: just like Erykah Badu