Kids See Solar Max and Perigee Moon With Live Video

[Skylook123]

Our club, the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, has many Special Interest Groups and other focused projects. One is the Family Observing Program, where entire families with children ages 6 to about 12 get together monthly at the Flandrau Planetarium at the University of Arizona. Saturday night's agenda was:

I. Virtual Observing (6:00 pm-7:00 pm)

1. Children will use the planetarium program Stellarium to find what is up in the night sky.

2. We will find the Big Dipper and discuss the bright stars and the significance of the two pointer stars.

3. We will identify Leo, which will be setting in the West and Virgo.

4. Saturn is in Virgo – we will be able to identify Cassini Division as 5 moons of Saturn.

II. Hands-on Activity (7:00 pm – 8:00 pm)

Constellation Myths – Summer constellation chosen by children.

III. Outside Observing (8:00 pm – 9:00 pm)

The moon is full and at perigee – meaning it will be very bright. We will try to observe at the eyepiece what we did in the planetarium program between 6 and 7 pm).

With the rousing success using the Mallincam Junior at the Grand Canyon Star Party, I offered the use of video augmentation to the agenda. Since the leader of the program, Bob Gilroy, is our club president, and I am vice-president, and we have worked together on our education goals for several years, it was a slam dunk to add video to the tools we use to nibble on the great wooly mammoth of observational astronomy. So, as a surprise to the kids, I set up the Junior on the UofA mall in front of the Flandrau Planetarium, first with a Lunt 60mm H-Alpha scope, later with a 90mm Orion ShortTube refractor for the moon.

I came into the study room around 6:45 PM and let Bob know that the sun was ready to show, so the students had a real image of the sun with all it's Solar Max going on, and with their parents' help could do their sketching assignment with a real live active sun rather than book learning. They went back in for the middle of the agenda while I swapped optical tubes. It took quite a while for the moon to clear low buildings, then a huge palm tree, but the full orb was finally fully clear and in all of its glory. Families came back out and we had quite a nice time pointing out the Lunar Poodle, the Lady in the Moon, and the gorgeous Copernicus and the rays spreading across the upper image. It took me a bit of time to get accustomed to the image reversals in the refractor compared to a week of SCT showing at the Grand Canyon, but it ended up being a perfect night for both weather and teaching how the Mare came to be, where did the Apollo 11 land, and other interesting features. We ended up with about twice as many UofA passers by as our own Family Program participants, so Bob and I were able to teach nuances of the lunar orbital mechanics and what the Super Moon meant, how eclipses occur and the periodicity, why don't the Moon and Mars have an atmosphere, and other features of solar system behavior to the passers by.

Not bad for a few ounces of camera, seven pound tripod and mount, two telescopes about six pounds each, a table, a 1 pound 13.3" LCD monitor, and a battery.

Note to Self - Buy a set of jumper cables. Don't load the truck with the motor off, headlights and flashers on, and stand around far too long talking club matters with Bob. It took 45 minutes for AAA to show up for the jump. Two 35AH deep cycle astro batteries in the truck, no jumper cables. DUH.

[Carl Reade]

Hi Jim great write up. Its definatly a big plus for live video being able to show objects live and no eyepiece queuing for the younger ones.

Cheers Carl

[Scott]

Fantastic Jim...Hats off to anyone prepared to take the time to inspire our next generation of stargazers rather than moaning about "the kids of today". And yes, a set of jumper leads might be on the cards

[shirva]

Wish we had people like yourself around my home town to take the time to teach astronomy ect....even better me being in your home town.....grand canyon trip and stars at night brilliant......hope you had the Barbie on lol.....Davy...cumbernauld....bonnie Scotland....

[Skylook123]

Thank you, Scott and Carl. In twenty years of observing I have been strictly an eyeball at the eyepiece observer, only interested in what my own eye could bring to me, and the simpler the better. Being interested in interacting galaxies, I was driven to larger apertures so an 18" f/5 Teeter truss dobsonian became my personal instrument of choice. But, truthfully, about ten years ago I found myself somewhat losing interest in the hobby. Then I discovered public outreach, and seeing the wonders of the universe through others' eyes became my calling. So, six to ten times per month I am at schools or other public venues, and it is a joy to open the skies for people. I was not interested in photography or imaging, until I saw what some fellow club members could do with combining sky views with the local desert geology. I appreciated their artistic sense, of which I am bereft. But the biggest change in my attitude has been accessibility. My wife Susan, who has been my best friend for over forty-six years and my hero for halting her university education in mechanical engineering as a senior with all As for grades and restarting from the beginning in Secondary Education because she felt it of more value to society, was an award winning instructor in Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Math, Oceanography, Meteorology, and Geology. But as my instrument collection grew, we discovered she has an eye defect not allowing her to focus at an eyepiece at night; her eyes have an extra membrane over the rods. So while she can teach cosmology, she can't SEE any of it. This is true of surprisingly many adults. Children as well have difficulty in adapting to the eyepiece. Not to mention the mobility challenged. So, as I expound in my observing reports from the Grand Canyon Star Party in another forum here, I bought a Mallincam Junior to experiment in improving my public outreach. The results were astounding. Now people who can not share the pleasure we normally gifted people experience at the eyepiece understand what we fuss on about. I will never forget my second night in the yard learning to use the camera when my wife came out. I had just gotten M13, the Hercules Cluster, centered in a 13.3" monitor using a 10" SCT. A sight to bring elation in view. She stood there and said, "So THAT is what everyone is talking about." Mobility challenged, optically challenged, and the young audience and even large audiences can benefit from the video aiding. This is not imaging, since the maximum integration time available for DSOs is four seconds, it is virtually real time viewing. Last week I had a 3" image of Saturn in the monitor for the crowd passing our setup. Not quite the eyepiece view!

[Skylook123]

Wish we had people like yourself around my home town to take the time to teach astronomy ect....even better me being in your home town.....grand canyon trip and stars at night brilliant......hope you had the Barbie on lol.....Davy...cumbernauld....bonnie Scotland....

Unfortunately, I can't seem to get my Enter key to work in writing anywhere in Stargazer's Lounge. Thank you, Davy, for your comments (my heritage is Irish in name, but Scots Wilson clan by percentage, BTW). Yes, it has been a true blessing to live in an area with so much beauty and 275 clear nights each year. The Grand Canyon, at 7000 feet altitude, 15% humidity, and the nearest lights over 200 miles away from Las Vegas, Nevada, is almost impossible to explain. Two Aprils ago I was there planning site setup, and the Summer Milky Way cast a shadow. I have had long time observers make their first trip to our event tell me that there were just too many stars to allow their automatic alignment telescopes to function; they had to align the old fashioned way and point to the right stars manually. And more than one of our group has been know to start packing up as the Milky Way rises in the east, thinking clouds are rolling in. But any of us with an interest in the aspects of our avocation and the willingness to invest the time in learning the nuances to teach and show, and the sky to show it with, can do it. Seeing the sky through someone else's eyes, or just delivering a fact or two in conversation, is something that can never be taken away.

[shirva]

Yes its good to pass on knowledge to kids on nature and science its how we evolve as a species...I had been a tutor for pipeband bass sections in various bands teaching young and old and its a great feeling seeing them progress through the ranks..I now find I'm the student of the science of astronomy and hopefully practice and learn a bit as the years go by...its been great having you on the video forum and our members will agree its been a pleasure reading your insights from across the pond...and hope you become a regular to our wee family of video astronomers.

Davy

[Skylook123]

Great observation, Davy. Due to work commitments and my wife now undergoing breast cancer treatment, and my own medical adventures too numerous to list, I have been a stranger to Stargazers' Lounge for far too long. But I agree wholeheartedly that growth can come from sharing what we know and experience so that what is our knowledge becomes a baseline for growth by those with whom we share.

For me, personally, there are so many venues to explore. The science of why clusters exist, or nebulae occur, or how a star evolves is an end unto itself. But so is the exploration of cultural evolution using astronomy and the night sky. Is the Big Dipper part of a great bear, or is it a part of the Navajo family story as the male role with Cassiopeia as the female role and Polaris as the home fire completing the picture, or is it a great plough, or perhaps a Hindu elephant of creation? Yes to all. Same with Orion, or The First Slender One (the warrior spirit) to the Navajo, or Osiris to Egyptians. Or the Milky Way, the Mayan Tree of Life, or North African clans seeing the campfires of departed elders, or the Seminole seeing the arms of the Great Spirit in the Great Rift, showing he still cares for his people and is protecting them in his grasp.

So the video gives us the chance to show and talk about some attractive sky element, then grow the conversation to the various cultural approaches to that part of the sky. We show the Ring, but it's in Lyra, placed in the sky by Zeus to honor Orpheus, the son of Apollo and Calliope who used the harp to bring calm and peace to the world around him. The video is the entry point to the passing on of knowledge to others and we never know what one life we will change.

I am thrilled to see faces light up with the connections of the scientific knowledge in the high powered monitor or eyepiece image to the cultures that use the lore of 1X observing with their binocular vision, and challenging the visitors to my scopes or tours to find their own meaning in the night sky. Scientific knowledge can sometimes be cold and sterile, but linking it to a legend or guide for another culture's way of life can be life altering in itself, according to the comment cards that get left with National Park headquarters. Video, I am now convinced, helps us do this in a group unification mode. Most of my outreach is 20 to 50 students and parents but at the Grand Canyon Star Party we have about 40 or 50 astronomers for as many as 1500 visitors each night and as many as 77,000 visitor-astronomer contacts by the end of the week. I will post experiences as often as life, and our weather which is coming upon two to three months of monsoon rains, allow. I learned a lot about people and video exposure this year, and am eager to now integrate the video into my outreach as much as possible.

Great observation, Davy. Due to work commitments and my wife now undergoing breast cancer treatment, and my own medical adventures too numerous to list, I have been a stranger to Stargazers' Lounge for far too long. But I agree wholeheartedly that growth can come from sharing what we know and experience so that what is our knowledge becomes a baseline for growth by those with whom we share.

For me, personally, there are so many venues to explore. The science of why clusters exist, or nebulae occur, or how a star evolves. But so is the exploration of cultural evolution using astronomy and the night sky. Is the Big Dipper part of a great bear, or is it a part of the Navajo family story, or is it a great plough, or perhaps a Hindu elephant of creation? Yes to all. Same with Orion, or The First Slender One to the Navajo, or Osiris to Egyptians. Or the Milky Way, the Mayan Tree of Life, or North African clans seeing the campfires of departed elders, or the Seminole seeing the arms of the Great Spirit in the Great Rift, showing he still cares for his people and is protecting them in his grasp.

So the video gives us the chance to show and talk about some attractive sky element, then grow the conversation to the various cultural approaches to that part of the sky. We show the Ring, but it's in Lyra, placed in the sky by Zeus to honor Orpheus, the son of Apollo who used the harp to bring calm and peace to the world around him. The video is the entry point to the passing on of knowledge to others and we never know what one life we will change.

I am thrilled to see faces light up with the connections of the scientific knowledge in the high powered monitor or eyepiece image to the cultures that use the lore of 1X observing with their binocular vision, and challenging the visitors to my scopes or tours to find their own meaning in the night sky. Scientific knowledge can sometimes be cold and sterile, but linking it to a legend or guide for another culture's way of life can be life altering in itself, according to the comment cards that get left with National Park headquarters. Video, I am now convinced, helps us do this in a group unification mode. Most of my outreach is 20 to 50 students and parents but at the Grand Canyon Star Party we have about 40 or 50 astronomers for as many as 1500 visitors each night and as many as 77,000 visitor-astronomer contacts by the end of the week. I will post experiences as often as life, and our weather which is coming upon two to three months of monsoon rains, allow. I learned a lot about people and video exposure this year, and am eager to do as much as possible.

[Spacedout]

Hi Jim,

Great post and I think what you are doing is an inspiration to everyone involved with astronomy. I think all of us who participate in the fantastic hobby would love nothing more than sharing it with someone else, particularly those who have never looked through a telescope. The problem with that however is trying to enthuse someone new that the small grey fussy patch you are showing them is actually a gigantic colourful galaxy millions of light years away! They will always be expecting something resembling what they see from magazines or TV. Video astronomy however is changing that problem and it changed it for me too.

I started with an 8" Newtonian and whilst from my initial research I knew not to expect too much, I was still a little disappointed when viewing DSOs. I loved viewing the planets obviously and was quite excited too at the beginning knowing the small grey fuzzy in my eyepiece was Andromeda but alas, I soon began looking for more. Initially, I was going to build a 20" Dobsonian based on the Obsession (bought the book) with some ideas from Teeter and got as far as building the workshop to start and then an 18 point mirror cell. I then had the urge to go one further and build a bino scope as I loved the idea of using both eyes. This then developed into a bino scope chair (heated!) and before I knew it I had designed on Sketch-up something resembling a mini digger with giant binoculars on top!! Man have I got the bug!! Anyway I soon came to senses and realised my ambitious ideas did not match my knowledge or wealth so started work again on the more realistic 20"

Not long after I started working again on the 20" I came across video astronomy and in particular the Mallincam. I very quickly realised that this was exactly what I was looking for. This would give me the detail I wanted and much more than a 20" scope could ever produce and the comfort of using both eyes. I could also control this from the comfort of my living room which is what I was looking for from a bino scope chair. However the best part for me was knowing that soon I would be able to invite people round to show them M81 or the Whirlpool knowing they would not be disappointed as before. I can only imagine the buzz you must get when you see the reactions from your audience and this is definitely something I hope to do in the future.

Keep up the good work Jim and keeps us all posted!

Regards

Karl

[Spacedout]

Unfortunately, I can't seem to get my Enter key to work in writing anywhere in Stargazer's Lounge. Thank you, Davy, for your comments (my heritage is Irish in name, but Scots Wilson clan by percentage, BTW). Yes, it has been a true blessing to live in an area with so much beauty and 275 clear nights each year. The Grand Canyon, at 7000 feet altitude, 15% humidity, and the nearest lights over 200 miles away from Las Vegas, Nevada, is almost impossible to explain. Two Aprils ago I was there planning site setup, and the Summer Milky Way cast a shadow. I have had long time observers make their first trip to our event tell me that there were just too many stars to allow their automatic alignment telescopes to function; they had to align the old fashioned way and point to the right stars manually. And more than one of our group has been know to start packing up as the Milky Way rises in the east, thinking clouds are rolling in. But any of us with an interest in the aspects of our avocation and the willingness to invest the time in learning the nuances to teach and show, and the sky to show it with, can do it. Seeing the sky through someone else's eyes, or just delivering a fact or two in conversation, is something that can never be taken away.

Hi Jim,

Regarding the enter or return key I had the same issue when I started. Just use the toggle edit mode for text and switch back if you need anything on the menu bar.

Regards

Karl

[Spacedout]

Great observation, Davy. Due to work commitments and my wife now undergoing breast cancer treatment, and my own medical adventures too numerous to list, I have been a stranger to Stargazers' Lounge for far too long. But I agree wholeheartedly that growth can come from sharing what we know and experience so that what is our knowledge becomes a baseline for growth by those with whom we share.

For me, personally, there are so many venues to explore. The science of why clusters exist, or nebulae occur, or how a star evolves is an end unto itself. But so is the exploration of cultural evolution using astronomy and the night sky. Is the Big Dipper part of a great bear, or is it a part of the Navajo family story as the male role with Cassiopeia as the female role and Polaris as the home fire completing the picture, or is it a great plough, or perhaps a Hindu elephant of creation? Yes to all. Same with Orion, or The First Slender One (the warrior spirit) to the Navajo, or Osiris to Egyptians. Or the Milky Way, the Mayan Tree of Life, or North African clans seeing the campfires of departed elders, or the Seminole seeing the arms of the Great Spirit in the Great Rift, showing he still cares for his people and is protecting them in his grasp.

So the video gives us the chance to show and talk about some attractive sky element, then grow the conversation to the various cultural approaches to that part of the sky. We show the Ring, but it's in Lyra, placed in the sky by Zeus to honor Orpheus, the son of Apollo and Calliope who used the harp to bring calm and peace to the world around him. The video is the entry point to the passing on of knowledge to others and we never know what one life we will change.

I am thrilled to see faces light up with the connections of the scientific knowledge in the high powered monitor or eyepiece image to the cultures that use the lore of 1X observing with their binocular vision, and challenging the visitors to my scopes or tours to find their own meaning in the night sky. Scientific knowledge can sometimes be cold and sterile, but linking it to a legend or guide for another culture's way of life can be life altering in itself, according to the comment cards that get left with National Park headquarters. Video, I am now convinced, helps us do this in a group unification mode. Most of my outreach is 20 to 50 students and parents but at the Grand Canyon Star Party we have about 40 or 50 astronomers for as many as 1500 visitors each night and as many as 77,000 visitor-astronomer contacts by the end of the week. I will post experiences as often as life, and our weather which is coming upon two to three months of monsoon rains, allow. I learned a lot about people and video exposure this year, and am eager to now integrate the video into my outreach as much as possible.

Great observation, Davy. Due to work commitments and my wife now undergoing breast cancer treatment, and my own medical adventures too numerous to list, I have been a stranger to Stargazers' Lounge for far too long. But I agree wholeheartedly that growth can come from sharing what we know and experience so that what is our knowledge becomes a baseline for growth by those with whom we share.

For me, personally, there are so many venues to explore. The science of why clusters exist, or nebulae occur, or how a star evolves. But so is the exploration of cultural evolution using astronomy and the night sky. Is the Big Dipper part of a great bear, or is it a part of the Navajo family story, or is it a great plough, or perhaps a Hindu elephant of creation? Yes to all. Same with Orion, or The First Slender One to the Navajo, or Osiris to Egyptians. Or the Milky Way, the Mayan Tree of Life, or North African clans seeing the campfires of departed elders, or the Seminole seeing the arms of the Great Spirit in the Great Rift, showing he still cares for his people and is protecting them in his grasp.

So the video gives us the chance to show and talk about some attractive sky element, then grow the conversation to the various cultural approaches to that part of the sky. We show the Ring, but it's in Lyra, placed in the sky by Zeus to honor Orpheus, the son of Apollo who used the harp to bring calm and peace to the world around him. The video is the entry point to the passing on of knowledge to others and we never know what one life we will change.

I am thrilled to see faces light up with the connections of the scientific knowledge in the high powered monitor or eyepiece image to the cultures that use the lore of 1X observing with their binocular vision, and challenging the visitors to my scopes or tours to find their own meaning in the night sky. Scientific knowledge can sometimes be cold and sterile, but linking it to a legend or guide for another culture's way of life can be life altering in itself, according to the comment cards that get left with National Park headquarters. Video, I am now convinced, helps us do this in a group unification mode. Most of my outreach is 20 to 50 students and parents but at the Grand Canyon Star Party we have about 40 or 50 astronomers for as many as 1500 visitors each night and as many as 77,000 visitor-astronomer contacts by the end of the week. I will post experiences as often as life, and our weather which is coming upon two to three months of monsoon rains, allow. I learned a lot about people and video exposure this year, and am eager to do as much as possible.

Sorry to hear about your wife Jim I wish her a fast and speedy recovery.

[Skylook123]

Hi Jim,

Great post and I think what you are doing is an inspiration to everyone involved with astronomy. I think all of us who participate in the fantastic hobby would love nothing more than sharing it with someone else, particularly those who have never looked through a telescope. The problem with that however is trying to enthuse someone new that the small grey fussy patch you are showing them is actually a gigantic colourful galaxy millions of light years away! They will always be expecting something resembling what they see from magazines or TV. Video astronomy however is changing that problem and it changed it for me too.

I started with an 8" Newtonian and whilst from my initial research I knew not to expect too much, I was still a little disappointed when viewing DSOs. I loved viewing the planets obviously and was quite excited too at the beginning knowing the small grey fuzzy in my eyepiece was Andromeda but alas, I soon began looking for more. Initially, I was going to build a 20" Dobsonian based on the Obsession (bought the book) with some ideas from Teeter and got as far as building the workshop to start and then an 18 point mirror cell. I then had the urge to go one further and build a bino scope as I loved the idea of using both eyes. This then developed into a bino scope chair (heated!) and before I knew it I had designed on Sketch-up something resembling a mini digger with giant binoculars on top!! Man have I got the bug!! Anyway I soon came to senses and realised my ambitious ideas did not match my knowledge or wealth so started work again on the more realistic 20"

Not long after I started working again on the 20" I came across video astronomy and in particular the Mallincam. I very quickly realised that this was exactly what I was looking for. This would give me the detail I wanted and much more than a 20" scope could ever produce and the comfort of using both eyes. I could also control this from the comfort of my living room which is what I was looking for from a bino scope chair. However the best part for me was knowing that soon I would be able to invite people round to show them M81 or the Whirlpool knowing they would not be disappointed as before. I can only imagine the buzz you must get when you see the reactions from your audience and this is definitely something I hope to do in the future.

Keep up the good work Jim and keeps us all posted!

Regards

Karl

Thank you, Karl. I had a similar experience, indoor observing with the telescope outdoors, a few weeks ago. It was over 110F/45C outdoors but I wanted to do some solar viewing. I set the Lunt 60mm up with the camera outdoors, and ran a 20 meter composite cable for data into the door to the living room and watched on my laptop in air conditioned comfort. The runs outdoors to adjust the camera settings and focus were brutal, but it worked.

[Skylook123]

Hi Jim,

Regarding the enter or return key I had the same issue when I started. Just use the toggle edit mode for text and switch back if you need anything on the menu bar.

Regards

Karl

Thanks for the hint, Karl, but I seem to have drifted into configuration perdition. I no longer have an edit capability either, (thus some rather garbled posts above) along with the rude reception to the enter key. I remember Usenet from decades ago...fondly. EDIT...the edit button magically appeared after I hit send. Still no help on the enter key. Oh well, no work tomorrow and cloudy skies, so some tinkering seems to be in order...

[Skylook123]

Sorry to hear about your wife Jim I wish her a fast and speedy recovery.

Thank you for the kind thoughts. Our first appointment with the surgeon was very reassuring, very positive outlook.

[DoctorD]

Great Post Jim and very positive responses from the other members - this is what video astronomy is all about - sharing what we see and often from the comfort of our homes.

It does not matter whether you use a security camera, astro modified camera, web cam or even an astro CCD so long as the main aim is to view in as near real time as possible.

There is something satisfying about setting up without a computer - just scope, mount camera and video monitor, however capturing the videos and having a go at extracting as much detain as possible from them during those cloudy nights can help with the astronomy "fix" often needed given the rubbish weather we get in the UK.

Clear skies and a speedy recovery for you an your wife Jim.

Paul

[shirva]

Well put Paul....Jim I truly hope your wife gets well soon..my partner's going through troubles as well she had a operation to remove part of her kidney due to cancer and has never fully recovered properly and quality of life has been reduced greatly and has to be fitted with a heart monitor on Monday for suspected heart trouble ...my thoughts are with you Jim its a hard watching loved one's in pain....regards Davy..

[Skylook123]

Great Post Jim and very positive responses from the other members - this is what video astronomy is all about - sharing what we see and often from the comfort of our homes.

It does not matter whether you use a security camera, astro modified camera, web cam or even an astro CCD so long as the main aim is to view in as near real time as possible.

There is something satisfying about setting up without a computer - just scope, mount camera and video monitor, however capturing the videos and having a go at extracting as much detain as possible from them during those cloudy nights can help with the astronomy "fix" often needed given the rubbish weather we get in the UK.

Clear skies and a speedy recovery for you an your wife Jim.

Paul

Yes, Paul, the responses are very uplifting. There is quite a corps of folks, growing every day, who apply the live video benefits to sharing with others. I have been doing public astronomical outreach of some form or another for almost twenty years, eyeballs at eyepieces, until earlier this month and the effect on the public is stunning. For those challenged by mobility issues, optical problems, or just too young to cope with an eyepiece view, magic occurs with the monitor screen. And, while they eye's dynamic range can make it difficult to emulate the view in the monitor for some targets, and I still prefer the native view for my own enjoyment, adding in the integration and other augmentation does do wonders, as well as the use of human binocular vision, for the average viewer as well. I have occasionally run a T from the output on the camera to both S-Video into a frame grabber and my laptop for image recording and RCA Composite video into the monitor for show and tell. Or I can feed S-Video into the laptop and frame grabber, and us a 2 meter HDMI cable into the monitor. The laptop screen is actually quite a bit bigger than the monitor (17" vs. 13.3") but it is very heavy with a seven hour battery. The monitor is 12V LCD weighing only ounces, so I only use the lappie at home for practice image stacking. Otherwise, it's just show and tell, very efficient way to teach. And thank you sincerely for the good wishes. They are felt.

[Skylook123]

Well put Paul....Jim I truly hope your wife gets well soon..my partner's going through troubles as well she had a operation to remove part of her kidney due to cancer and has never fully recovered properly and quality of life has been reduced greatly and has to be fitted with a heart monitor on Monday for suspected heart trouble ...my thoughts are with you Jim its a hard watching loved one's in pain....regards Davy..

Thank you much, Davy. I have been blessed with good health (well, except for the diabetes, hypertension, gout, all treatable chemically) compared to my wife's decades of medical adventures - stomach removal before it was known that ulcers are bacterial in general, gall bladder emergency removal, appendix, developing allergies to more and more food items, much more, soon needing one hip and two knee replacements, and now this adventure. I suppose we can live in perfect health and one day be run over by a trolley, though. It is quite mind numbing at times when pondering the mysteries of the cosmos, then noting the wonders of our own bodies along with the frailties. Our prayers and best wishes with you and your partner as well.

[shirva]

Thanks Jim...take it you have your own parking space at the hospital your there that often like myself. ..part of reason I got into astronomy was because of my partner's medical probs. .I can do it all from my wee astroshed out her back garden and be there in minutes if she needs me..just about completed garden make over and I can get back to astronomy duties. ..lol..clear skies Jim. ...Davy

[Skylook123]

Thanks Jim...take it you have your own parking space at the hospital your there that often like myself. ..part of reason I got into astronomy was because of my partner's medical probs. .I can do it all from my wee astroshed out her back garden and be there in minutes if she needs me..just about completed garden make over and I can get back to astronomy duties. ..lol..clear skies Jim. ...Davy

`

LOL, Not quite, all has happened over 46 years. I've always been the impatient lurker as she, and my two sons, went through medical adventures. Until last year when I had pneumonia of which I posted about my own foolishness associated with it. By the way, the mailbox I backed over is scheduled to be fixed tomorrow. For that one at age 66 I had an 18% survival prediction (nine days of pneumonia and in tachychardia before I drove madly to Urgent Care, backing over the mailbox on the way). Fooled 'em. Lived through it (always a street runner, I was jogging around the hospital floor by day two.) Floor nurse said the only reason I was alive was fifty years of running three to five miles a day, three or four times a week. My only time in a hospital other than birth or visiting. Looks like I'll have some more visiting to do shortly. Quite willingly, no local athletic team to root for at this time, so it's Team Susan, playoff mood. No chemotherapy planned at this time, so she is a bit disappointed since she was already picking out tattoos for her head. No wig for her - too hot here in the Sonora Desert. Her sister suggested small stick-on jewels.

[shirva]

Why not get a sky map of the constellations tattood o her head for charity lol...Davy

[Skylook123]

Why not get a sky map of the constellations tattood o her head for charity lol...Davy

SSHHH! She has enough...unusual...ideas.

[shirva]

Mmm my partner dosent do conventional either Jim...think that's why I love her so much....Davy

[Skylook123]

Susan and I say we saved two other people from miserable lives.

[shirva]

I wasn't one of them lol ...Davy