Monday, May 23, 2022

AIR day 15 - item 3

The following is a blog post from the Astronomer-In-Residence (AIR) web site, reproduced here. Text and images used with permission.

Day 15 blog entry.

Monday 23 May 2022: Planned the Third Week

8 AM. Simple breakfast.

Heard a weird sound. Went outside. Silly woodpeckers. Territorial sapsuckers. They were pecking at the steel roofs of the buildings in the staff area. Their special woodpecker Morse code. Are you bonkers? The roof, like a big drum, amplifies the sound and…

Wait a second! Smart woodpeckers!

Missed Tony’s text message from yesterday evening. They enjoyed glorious conditions on the Blue Mountains. I shared the news about the excellent skies.

Met with Kathleen and staring, once again, at the weather data from Environment Canada, we planned astronomy activities for the week.

  • Tue night - tour of the night sky with hopefully live views
  • Fri night - getting started with astrophotography
  • Sat day - solar viewing

Learned some of the fascinating history of the area.

Transcribed my audio notes from last night’s visual observing. Informed the president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada that I will speak on behalf of the national Observing Committee during the General Assembly in late June. Took some questions from a RASC member about to embark on the Explore The Moon observing certificate program. Finished the major edits to the 10-inch telescope operational manual.

Prepared a large Caesar salad with back bacon! Tasty.

At dusk, I locked up the SkyShed POD. Clouds tonight, sadly. Walking back from the dome, I passed closely to the bat boxes. I could hear lots of scratchin' and squeakin'. Go get those bugs!

The Astronomer-In-Residence program is coordinated by the Allan I Carswell Observatory (AICO) at York University with the Killarney Provincial Park Observatory (KPPO).

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