Get Vaccinated NOW.

Both my wife and I are now fully vaccinated: 2 jabs each and well past the time needed for them to take effect. It's very liberating after over a year of being in near-isolation! I can go to the hardware and grocery stores and shop -- no more curbside pickups. And it means when I'm ready I can hang out at the Club's dark-sky site and do some imaging.  My friends are all vaccinated so we don't have to worry about sharing the virus. In other words it's back to our pre-pandemic lives.

So if you're a vaccination holdout keep these little factoids in mind:

1. You're keeping health workers overworked because a certain percent of you will require hospitalization or you'll become long-haulers. Oh, funeral homes will also be busier because a small percentage of you will die.
   
2. You're already keeping the economy from returning to normal as fast as it might otherwise. This hurts everyone, including you. Have you been complaining about how "overreaction" to the virus has hurt the economy? That's what you're doing now.
   
3. You're placing at risk those who vaccination might not protect sufficiently. Remember, it's only 95% effective, and possibly less against variants. Know anyone with COPD or is on chemotherapy? Pass the virus to them and you will be responsible for the suffering they will endure.
   
4. Speaking of variants, you're doing the virus a favor by helping it hang around and create even more variants.
5. If you're holding out because you think there are "microchips" in the vaccine or it's some other kind of ludicrous plot against freedom or whatever...get some professional help because you've lost touch with reality.
6. What you're doing is following the very slow road to herd immunity for no reason. The people who will pay dearly for this are you holdouts and the few unlucky immunized people who you pass the virus to. The one thing you have going for you is that the crush of hospital admissions is now in the rear view mirror thanks to those of us who have gotten our jabs. You're welcome.
   

In other words, avoiding the jab is foolish and callous if not actually hypocritical and delusional. Good luck to you.

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Some upgrades coming to my imaging system: I'm going solar! No more lugging two big heavy batteries around. Just one smaller one and a solar panel.  Even on a cloudy day it should be capable of replenishing the battery with enough power for another full night of imaging.

Also a new power junction box with a built-in dew controller.

On backorder and coming later this year is the big upgrade: an FSQ-106. Also a camera (ASI2600MM Pro) to replace my old SBIG ST-8300M. New filter wheel and OAG for it, too.

More about all this as it gets delivered and put to use!

Get Vaccinated!

I've now had my first jab of the Moderna vaccine. In fact, it was 20 days ago. The side effects were limited to a barely sore arm for about two days.  In eight days I get jab #2, and by April 20 I will be almost fully immune to COVID-19. I'm going to celebrate with a much-needed haircut.

After that I'll resume astrophotography from the club's Cherry Grove site and a friend's dark, relatively treeless back yard. And I'll be able to attend the Nebraska Star Party, too!

According to the WHO here are the people who shouldn't get a mRNA-based jab:

Individuals with a history of severe allergic reaction to any component of the vaccine should not take this or any other mRNA vaccine.

While vaccination is recommended for older persons due to the high risk of severe COVID-19 and death, very frail older persons with an anticipated life expectancy of less than 3 months should be individually assessed.

The vaccine should not be administered to persons younger than 18 years of age pending the results of further studies.

If you're not in one of those categories, then you have no reason to avoid the vaccine. 

Oh, you're not getting vaccinated because of something you've read on the internet? You've bought into the lies and bad science some people with political agendas are spreading? Fine, be a stooge. Chances are you'll only have mild symptoms if you get COVID.  Or maybe you'll have to spend a few days in a hospital bed, and then spend the next few years wondering if you're going to have chronic fatigue the rest of your life. No problem! At least you avoided the vaccine. Good luck to you and your loved ones.

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Next time: I'm about to start a major upgrade of my imaging system: A new scope, camera, and processing software!

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Follow-up: Our stimulus money didn't sit for more than a few hours in our bank account. Half went to Second Harvest, and half to St. Stephen's to help them assist the homeless. I hope you found a way to put your dollars to work for others, too. 

 

Donate Your Stimulus Checks

IF you are relatively untouched financially by the pandemic (and a large number of us have that good luck) you have a choice about what to do with your stimulus check(s). You could:

• Use the money to buy something for yourself, your family, or a friend.
• Save or invest the money
• Use the money to reduce your debt (mortgage, credit card, whatever)
• Donate the money
• Assist local businesses by buying their products or services
  

Those are certainly all good ways to dispose of the windfall and I'm not going to tell you one is better than the others; only you can make that decision.

I am going to encourage you to consider the last two options.

This pandemic has really hit the service sector hard, and particularly people whose earnings are lower. They've faced reduced hours, pay reductions, and complete loss of their jobs. In many cases they are trying to support a family. Eventually things will improve but while we wait for that they may be scrimping on food and medicines. One big way to help is to make sure they can find the food they need. 

Consider making a donation to your local food shelf. 

Further, there are those who are homeless, people who can't afford even the basic necessity of shelter during winter. Your donation can help provide them with a place of refuge. 

Consider making a donation to your local homeless shelter.

About that choice of patronizing local businesses? It's a good one, too. Many that serve the public have been forced to close in order to slow the spread of the pandemic. They've been asked to make a great sacrifice for the greater good. In other words, they're suffering financial hardship to keep you and your families healthy. At some point those of us they protected will want to show our appreciation, right? 

That appreciation can be in the form of our support for programs that will provide small businesses with relief. Yes, I know, that will mean raising our taxes, but don't small businesses deserve compensation for the sacrifices they're making on our behalf? I think it's safe to say keeping small businesses alive is a good thing. While we wait for those compensation programs to materialize:

Consider patronizing your local small businesses.

Sure, a new telescope or other piece of gear would be nice, but these are hard times for a lot of people. Pitch in and maybe more of us can make it to a better place together.

 

 

Astro Projects for a Shutdown

It's fairly evident that shelter-in-place is here to stay for quite a while. The state continues to feel that it will not be able to prevent a blowup from happening sometime around mid summer, at which time the hospitals may be seriously beyond their capacity. They are working to increase capacity so that when the crunch comes no one will have to go without any medical care they need. Will they succeed? We probably won't know until June or July.

That means it's likely to be solo astronomy until August. What's a person to do from a bright sky-site?

I have several projects I can work on:

1. Mirrors. I believe I have the supplies on hand for the polishing and figuring of several mirrors (one each of 6", 8", and 10")
2. Meteors. I can always set up my meteor detection system and start collecting data. More problematic is analyzing that data, but I may be able to program a sloppy workaround for having to visually inspect hundreds of images. 
3. Daytime Observing. Night observing is difficult here as the light pollution is awful, and in the last few years trees have grown to take away even more of my sky. Rather than fight that, it might make more sense to move to daytime observing. Targets include the Sun, planets, and brighter stars. An interesting question is daytime visibility in terms of star magnitude and angular separation from the Sun.

Getting Real in the Year of the Coronavirus

Old business first. Last time I looked at the idea that a 100W solar panel would be more than adequate for replacing the energy spent in a previous night of imaging. What needs to be realized about this idea is the uncertainties that come into play with it. Here are a few:

• I rarely image for an entire night as assumed. In fact, I can recall doing so on only two occasions. Usually either fatigue sets in or the sky goes cloudy and you lose a couple of hours.  
• Getting four or five consecutive nights clear all night is not something that happens often. In my experience the rule is maybe half the nights of a star party are clear.
• Some imaging sites are quite dry (like Nebraska) and active dew control isn't needed for the first several hours. This eliminates one of the larger power requirements.
• Starting with a fully charged laptop (which is almost always the case) greatly reduces its power consumption. 

In other words the estimates I made for required energy were probably overestimates. So I feel safe in saying that the panel in consideration will be adequate. It's not going to be able to run an air conditioner or refrigerator, but it will be fine for imaging.

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Now let's get to the topic of the moment, if not the decade, COVID-19. As I write we know that this virus is relatively contagious, spreading across the country, and tough on older people. Active cases are showing up in Minnesota and Nebraska, and doubtless will appear in South Dakota in the coming days. [Update: The day after posting this South Dakota reported 5 cases with one fatality.] Right now the cases are being contained through quarantine; what the situation will be by mid July and the Nebraska star party it's impossible to know. A safe guess is that the virus will be widespread by then and that most group activities will be suspended; NSP may not even happen. Another consideration is that my wife and I are both in our 60s and stand a significant chance of requiring medical assistance should we become ill with the virus. Because of that my current thinking is trying to avoid the illness at least until the end of the year and the release of a possible vaccine. Even without the creation of an effective vaccine it's hoped that doctors will learn how to better treat the illness.

Avoiding getting sick relies on some simple fundamentals:

1. Avoid people who may be infected. Given the asymptomatic spread of the virus this means avoiding pretty much everyone. Especially to be avoided are being in close quarters with many people, such as might happen on a cruise ship or commercial airplane.
2. Wash one's hands thoroughly and often
3. Avoid touching one's face

This is what we will be doing for the next year and hoping to catch some luck. Barring a minor miracle I won't be at NSP this year or any other star parties. My back yard will be safe enough I hope, so I'll try to do some astronomy from there!

Good luck to you in the coming year, it's going to be a difficult one for all of us!