Mars approaching M44 aka the Beehive cluster. It will be coming even closer in coming days but I will not see that as the forecast for those days in this area is cloudy skies.
After this morning’s exercise on the rowing machine, I completed my 2024/2025 season with 355,855 meters of rowing. This is the second best total for me so far. Hoping to do better in the next season starting tomorrow.
I was planning to bike into work this morning but, when I saw the amount of pollen covering every surface, decided against it. Don’t want to suck in all that pollen and start my workday with sneezing fits.
Thanks to the Merlin app, I now know that the damned bird that keeps screaming outside of my window at 5:30 am is a ‘tufted titmouse’.
Last night’s astronomy outing was so much fun! Just three of us with a 14" SCT and a night vision attachment for the eye-piece. We spent a few hours hoping from galaxy to galaxy with a few clusters. And the astronomy chatter was priceless. Don’t know when something like this will happen again.
The Chinese version of “I have forgotten more than you have ever learned” is “I have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice”.
Wanted to start watching Andor S2. In the Disney+ app, there was a 14 minute recap of S1. It was so good that I want to watch S1 again before starting S2. Also, some details of the story that seem important have escaped my memory and it will be good to watch S1 again.
On Sunday morning, went to the mega Indian grocery store in NJ - Patel Brothers. Seemed like the latest trend in fashion for Indian people is to go grocery shopping in their pajamas! Wondering if this is limited to NJ or it is a nationwide phenomenon?
Have been listening to Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” on a loop all day long. What a fantastic album it is! Can’t believe it was released 60 years ago even before I was born.
M51 aka the Whirlpool galaxy.
🔭 William Optics Megrez 90 📷 ZWO ASI2600MC Duo 97 x 1 min exposures stacked in SIRIL and further stretched and processed in Photoshop
Planning for May 2nd to 4th for an opportunity to capture Mars in Beehive cluster. On May 3rd, the moon will be close by to be in the same frame.
Spotted another of Fernando Botero’s “La gorda” statue in his home country of Colombia. This one is in Plaza de Santo Domingo in Cartagena. The other one was in San Juan, Puerto Rico about two years ago when Botero was still alive.
Packing for an international trip and as always couldn’t find my passport. Had some panicky moments before I remembered where it was.
This spinner Sai Kishore on Gujurat Titans team in IPL reminds me of Sideshow Bob from “The Simpsons”.
Happy Liberation day, people! We are being liberated from the horrible condition of having money in our pockets.
Respect for Cory Booker! 🫡
19 hour long speech!!! Not only that he has been talking all this while but He has been on his feet all this time. That is hard.