It’s Sunday morning, 9:15am, and I’m sat here in my parent’s study tapping away on the computer… it’s been a few days since I did a blog entry, so I thought now was as good a time as any (I’ll write a proper entry when I get home later).
We’ve had a great couple of days - the weather has been pretty good, and most importantly we’ve had a break. The holiday has been mostly taken up with playing board games, reading books, helping Dad buy a new telly (the old one and the new one required two people to lift), and generally not doing much.
Yesterday evening we went out for a meal together at the “Jubilee” in Pelynt, and when we got back I fished out the astronomy book I had brought down with me - myself and W went and laid out in the garden looking at the stars. My parent’s house has next to no light pollution, so looking at the sky is way better than at home - we found the “Great Globular Cluster” in the Northern Cross with binoculars (I didn’t bother bringing my telescope). It’s pretty amazing to find galaxies and stuff in the sky - things you just don’t normally realise are there. I guess the easiest one to see is the Andromeda galaxy - once you know where it is, you can usually see it with naked eye - although you might need to use averted vision.
(for those who have no idea what “averted vision” means, your eyes are peculiar things - the centre of your vision is setup for capturing detail - whereas the outside of your eye is setup for capturing colour… with that in mind, if you look straight at a faint star, you won’t be able to see it, but if you look to the side of it, you will be able to see it in your peripheral vision, because the side of your vision is more light sensitive. It’s a trick astronomers have used for years).
Anyway - today I believe we are off to the local “car boot sale” (“garage sale” for the US readers), and then when we get back myself and W will be packing our stuff up to go home… It’s a 4 to 5 hour journey so we’re not exactly looking forward to it.
I’ll be “back online” properly tomorrow.