Doc

Strange had some sort of power surge go through the house last night.... It tripped the main fuse but after turning everything back on I found out it had blown 6 bulbs, and fried the living room dimmer switch. Fixed everthing today. I wonder what caused that!

Hip Hip Hoo-Ray for Jensen Button. What a great race for a change. The rule changes really worked and I have a feeling this season will be a great one. Clear skies tonight so scopes outside cooling.

I think most of us had a good night. I certainly did. Not far from you in Nottingham.

Unfortunately I cannot follow the fantastic night of yesterday as it's cloudy and raining. Watched England beat Slovakia 4-0. And watched the shuttle land at Kennedy Space Centre. After 5 million miles and 202 orbits it arrived back safe. Really enjoyed watching this mission.

Best night for ages... Bagged another 7 Messier objects. Read report here.. http://stargazerslounge.com/observing-reports/77528-meade-lightbridge-observing-report-27-3-2009-a.html#post1198201

Went to IDAS last night with Rob (Red Dwalf) had a great time. Rob bought along his scope. He showed the members around it and we took go's at viewing Saturn. As normal it was pretty cloudy and very cold. There was three slideshow presentations where various members showed us there images taken that month. Some cracking efforts and nicely presented on a big screen. Overall a good night and look forward to the next one.

Bought one of those headlamps today. Looks pretty good has 4 settings including 2 red LED one. Very bright. Going up to Ilkeston Astronomical Society tomorrow with Rob so hopefully it will be a good night.

A very windy night but did manage a little observing see here. http://stargazerslounge.com/observing-reports/77342-meade-lightbridge-observing-report-23-3-2009-a.html#post1196138

Just spotted the 20.28 ISS fly pass. I've seen it a few times before but this time it was really bright. Glad I've seen it though as the shuttle was docked with the ISS. No luck with stargazing tonight as the house 5 doors down are having a barbeque and have one of those outside security light thats been turned on permanently. Also the sky is a bit lentil soup like.

Wanted to see the ISS tonight but no chance. Loads of clouds as normal. Bought a DV or Firewire lead today. My DV camcorder now acts as a webcam. All I need now is a nosepiece I think it's a "C" mount I need. Tried making sense of Registax. My god it's pretty hard to understand. The idea is to take an AVI of the moon and try using registax to get a good frame fromm it. We will see.

I let my mate in work solder those wires back onto my rotary encoder and I'm glad I did. Apparently it was a PITA. The wires were also broke by the plug, took him 2 hours to do. Anyway working now so well chuffed. Also put some bicycle handle bar grips onto my Handle bars on my dob. Looks good and makes it alot better to use.

23.43 GMT. 36th Launch of Discovery. Space shuttle launch on Nasa TV. My first time watching this live and I must admit I'm enjoying every minute of it. I love this stuff. Fingers crossed for a safe blast off. AWESOME.... LOVED IT.

My scopes outside cooling. Not a cloud in the sky buy it's pretty windy right now. I don't hold out to much for tonight. Not fun observing in a gale. Just looking at the scope sitting outside on the patio and boy does it look good. Can't believe I have one of these. A boyhood dream come true. Off to make a list of possible targets. Typical it's now all cloudy. Arrrghhhh why oh why does this happen.