Turned in my last assignment tonight for Astronomy Lab and spent some time talking with Professor Haxton while he was monitoring the others who were making up missed labs. Now it's just a matter of waiting for the college to post the grades for the semester (sometime next week, I hope) and I'll have almost officially ended my time at Howard Community College.

I say "almost" because I'm not graduating this May. Nope. Somehow, either I forgot to turn in a piece of paper or they can't find it, but I have to re-petition for graduation again. So, I'll officially be graduating from HCC in August, although I'm not taking any more classes. (Unless they mysteriously decide I need another class to graduate, at which point, I could be certifiably homicidal. *grrrrrr!*

Still, it's nice to put this behind me. I'm going to lay out a bit to let wishweaver go after her Masters in Computer Science and then I'll get started on my Masters in Creative Writing. Yes, I've pretty much decided to go ahead and see if I *can* write "literary fiction". Just like my class last year in Creative Writing, it's not exactly what I would write given my druthers, but it's good to stretch one's limits.

So, I'll be retiring the college avatar for a while, but hopefully not forever.

On the writing front, I finished the review of the edits for Redshift yesterday, typed up my notes, retyped a few entries to make them semi-coherent and sent them off to Marco. Now, it's just a matter of waiting until the book comes out in October.

That's still a concept I'm wrapping my head around. I guess I'm still new enough at this business that the idea of a book coming out that has something in it I contributed still gets me excited. Actually, I hope thirty years from now or so, I still get that excited. *grin*

Now, I need to finish those edits to The Price of Conviction and get them to kradical by Friday.

Took my Stars and Constellations test in Astronomy Lab last night. This test required us to visually identify 10 stars and 10 constellations. Even though it was somewhat overcast, I was able to spot a couple of stars and that gave me the reference points I needed to get started. For the record, I identified:

Stars: Capella, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, Saif, Merope, Alcyone, Atlas, Arcturus, Regulus, Spica, Pollux, Castor, Sirius, Procyon, Polaris, Aldebaran

Constellations: Auriga, Orion, Taurus, Virgo, Bootes, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Leo Major, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Lepus

We're going to an observatory at Goddard Space Center tonight as an additional lab and then next week is simply a review for our finals in our regular Astronomy classes. I've really enjoyed the Astronomy labs and I hope I can get a chance to use some of this knowledge, not only in my writing, but also when I drag the daughter-unit's telescope out on a dark summer's evening.

Hmmm, maybe we could upgrade it to a . . . *grin*

Last night was one of the first times we've been able to go outside when it was warm enough to enjoy using the telescopes. We set up the 8" Dobsian scopes on the plaza outside the class area and waited for it to get dark enough to really see the stars.

At 20:11:13 though, we caught a really cool sight. Iridium Satellite 80 was in the perfect position as the sun was setting to flare. Looking up into the darkening sky, all of a sudden a huge bright light appeared, reminding me of the old star flares we used to use in the military. It only lasted for a few seconds before fading out of site, but it occurred almost exactly where Professor Haxton had predicted it to appear. He told us it had taken him quite a while to figure out the satellite's orbit, the angle of its mirrors, the angle of the sun and the location of the Parking garage to determine if the flare could even be seen from our location, much less when it would happen.

Once that was over, we set up the telescopes and rushed to get our observations in before a cloud front moved in. First thing my partner and I observed was the quarter moon. We were lined up perfectly with the terminus between day and night on the moon and the shadows in the craters were easily observed. I think if the moon had been full, the 8" scope might have been a bit too powerful, but with the quarter moon, it was just about right. They tried to take some digital photographs through my scope, but I'm not certain if any turned out. If they do, I'll post some here.

Then we found Saturn again. This time, the atmosphere was perfect for watching. The rings were clear and distinct and the Cassini line was easily observed in the rings. Also, Titan was orbiting close to Saturn as well as a few of the other moons. I would really have loved to have that picture also, but the clouds were moving in quickly.

We attempted to spot a few double stars but by then, the clouds were too thick, so Professor Haxton called off the lab. We'll be doing some of our "manual" observations (determining angles using a cross-stick or your hand) this weekend. We're down to three labs left this year, which is disappointing, since I've really enjoyed this class a lot more than I thought I would.

Now, time to study for tomorrow night's test. Bleah.

Well, I had my second test in Astronomy tonight. Tell the truth, I have no clue how I did. The test was strictly from the book. There was no reason for me to have taken notes the past few weeks, which is frustrating, since I tend to rely on my notes primarily. (My history professors never used the book. If you missed lecture, you were at sea when it came time for the test, so attendance was highly recommended.)

I may have done very well, I may have bombed. I think I did O.K., but I don't have a warm fuzzy right now.

*sigh*

I took advantage of a slow day at work to try and get some research in on my history project, (more to come on that subject at a later date) and also wrote on The Price of Conviction. The words seemed to flow for me when I had time to get a few paragraphs in here and there. Retyped everything into the master document tonight after class and I'm pretty happy with how it's coming together. The ending is not what I thought it would be when I initially envisioned this project, but I'm pleased.

Now, if only my editor will be . . . *nervously glances around*

Words for Today

1,284 / 1,000 (128.4%)

Progress on The Price of Conviction

9,809 / 12,000 (81.7%)

Words for the Year

34,966 / 365,000 (9.6%)

OK, I've always thought myself a little jaded when it comes to the realm of space. I am after all a child of the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo years and remember watching Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon a few days after my tenth birthday. I remember rovers when they weren't little computerized buggies running around on Mars and Skylab was the space station.

I've read about space, I've looked at photographs of space, I've seen artist's renderings of space and I've listened to professors discuss space.

But until I took my Astronomy class this semester, I'd never actually "seen" space. Until tonight.

We went out on the rooftop of the parking garage tonight and braving the rapidly dropping temperatures and a cloud front moving over the area to attempt to use the computers on the 8" telescopes to view three celestial objects. Between the computers acting up and the weather, we wound up only having time to find one object.

But what an object.

For the first time in my life, I saw Saturn and it's rings with my own two eyes. (OK, one eye, but let's not quibble.) It wasn't the best of conditions for observing (the concrete of the parking garage was releasing the heat it has stored up through the day, making the atmospherics wavery, like looking out toward a desert horizon), but there it was. I could vaguely make out the stripes on Saturn and the Cassini gap between the A and B ring. The instructor helped point out Titan also, a much fainter object near Saturn.

It was too cool. Sorry, but I'm really geeked right now about this. I am so looking forward to when the warmer weather gets here and we can spend more time out doing observations without everyone complaining about freezing.

*grins*

The day started out weirdly enough. We were getting school cancellations and workplaces asking people not to come in before a certain time (due to the two inches of snow we got). Got to love Maryland. So, since the place I work as a contractor had specifically said, Do NOT come to work before 9:00am (presumably so they could plow the powder-dry snow off the parking lots), I arrived at work at 9:10 am. Took a little longer, but there was quite the traffic jam as everyone who normally arrives between 5:30 and 9 were all showing up at the same time.

As soon as I walk in, my partner tells me our supervisor called all upset that I hadn't shown up for work yet and that the 9:00am report wasn't ready to be delivered. Tom explained to her that "we were told not to show up until 9" and her reply was "But we're all at work here."

(Note: Here is an off-site place, not the client site.)

She was quite upset and went to her boss to discuss it with him. A half-hour later she calls back and says that her supervisor said it was O.K., since the client site was closed and to get the report done as soon as we could. (Course, we had it done by then.)

Where's Miss Snark's clue gun when you REALLY need it.

As you can imagine the rest of the day was about as humorous as the initial events. Made it to my Astronomy class tonight and my instructor, bless his heart, is obviously a scientist. He's got a lot of good information, but he's just a bit scattershot in his lectures. I'm following him and some of the others are, but several people in the class have a poleaxed look every time we take a break. I can't say I blame them. I am so glad I've always had an interest in astronomy because the stuff I've learned outside of class is keeping me straight in class.

I think the first test is going to be brutal for the class average.

Got some more work done on the Doctor Who story tonight. Added another 1125 words, and while I'm dreadfully behind for the year, I'm at least making my 1000+ words a night the nights I do write. With any luck, I'll catch up by the end of the month, Farpoint not withstanding. We've just introduced the villain's muscle in the story and we're moving toward the first encounter with the main antagonist in the piece and the main protagonist. I think what I have planned for this will be enjoyable, but then I always think that. *grin*

All right. Wrap this up and off to bed we go.

Words for Today

1,125 / 1,000 (112.5%)

Progress on The Price of Conviction

3,331 / 10,000 (33.3%)

Words for the year

27,498 / 365,000 (7.5%)

Had my second session of the Astronomy Lab. The professor did a great job of explaining how to find the constellations with the naked eye tonight. However, being in the classroom wasn't all he had in mind. So, the class trundled outside this evening and took the elevator to the top of the campus parking garage.

Wow! What a great view. Once we knew where Orion was, it was simple to find Canis Major and the star Sirius, Taurus with Aldeberan, Gemini with Castor and Pollux, Procryon in Canis Minor as well as Rigel and Betelgeuse in Orion Proper. Then turning around, we spotted Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Leo, vaguely made out Draco, and finished with Casseopeia. We also spotted Saturn and a few shooting stars as well as watching the waning gibbous moon rising a deep orange hue.

By then though, everyone was pretty well frozen. Did I happen to mention it was 12 degrees (not counting the slight breeze we were getting on top of the garage)? We were only out there for fifteen minutes and everyone was beginning to show signs of discomfort.

But, IMNSHO, it was well worth it. For the first time, I really saw the stars and understood what I was looking at. I've been an amateur astronomer since I was a little kid, but I'd never put in the effort to truly understand what I was seeing beyond the obvious constellations. Now, all of a sudden, they're easy to spot and being able to identify individual stars (and note their colors without the aid of binoculars or a telescope) was really cool.

OK, I'm a geek. Sue me.

On top of my geekhood, I got started on The Price of Conviction, the working title for my Doctor Who story. To my great surprise, for at least this draft, I'm writing it from Susan's point of view. I hadn't intended to do that, but when I looked up after finishing the first page, there it was. I think this will be fun. I'm not sure how many stories about the First Doctor were told from Susan's POV, but I don't have the feeling it's that common. Course, considering how many books/audio books/etc. that are out there, I don't dare claim I've read them all.

However, two cups of cocoa and I'm still a little chilled. I think it's time to crawl under the sheets and get warm. Night everyone.

Words for Today

1,043 / 1,000 (104.3%)

Progress on The Price of Conviction

1,043 / 8,000 (13.0%)

Words for the Year

25,200 / 365,000 (6.9%)