A Bit of Warmth (Jan. 2017)

A Bit of Warmth      (Jan. 2017)

Standing on the corner waiting for the light to change, the wind pushed through the thin material of my pants. The sidewalks were icy and covered with snow in front of some stores. When parking my car I had to climb over a mound of snow pushed up against the curb. Even inside my jacket pockets, my fingers were cold. The sky was a clear blue but the temperatures were brutal.

Crossing the street, I entered a bookshop. Inside it was warm and inviting. I brushed the salt off the bottoms of my shoes on the rug inside the door as the owner peeked out from behind a bookshelf and welcomed me.

I browsed, slowly working my way through the new selections, the local authors and poetry and into the back where the used books were shelved. It was just me and the owner, some light music played on the radio, we were both deep into what we were doing.

I would pull a book out a bit, look at it and then either push it back or pull it out for further perusal. I’d put it back in its slot and continue on. My fingertips lightly running across the spines as I worked my way across the shelves.

I asked the owner if he had any books dealing with bookstores, a current interest of mine. He came from behind the counter to lead me over to a couple suggestions.  It is nice to have a bookseller who is knowledgeable about their stock. This knowledge is hard earned and should be appreciated!

I read their covers and put one aside to look at further. I asked him for another suggestion. This was for anything dealing with geography. He took me to another shelf and pulled out a huge volume. I skimmed through it and decided to remember it for another time.

I put it back on the shelf and that was when I noticed it. The book I had been looking for. I hadn’t even known I was looking for this particular title, but when I saw it, I knew! It was sitting on the shelf above the book I returned. It was patiently waiting for me to find it. It knew I would be there eventually. It knew I needed it and that I wanted it!

It is called On Trails- An Exploration, by Robert Moor. It isn’t about specific trails or routes, it isn’t a guidebook, it is about trails in general. All sorts of trails, from the ones insects make, the ones animals create to those man makes and uses.

Sometimes you just know you’re going to enjoy a book, other times it is a bit of a gamble. Will you enjoy it or not? I’m pretty sure I am going to enjoy this book, especially if the first couple chapters are any indication. Yup, it’s going to be a keeper!

I looked around a little longer and then took my two books up to the counter and paid for them. I took my purchases outside into the cold January air and looked around. Across the street was a bakery, it would be my next stop before I returned to my car.

It is important to know where the good bookstores are located in a city. It is also important to know their neighborhoods. The near-by stores and restaurants are often part of the experience!

So, with a couple chocolate chip cookies, some of the better cookies in the city I might add, I took my books and returned to the car and continued with my day. Even though it was bitterly cold, inside I was nice and warm!

 

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I had written this in January of 2017 and as I reread it I thought about how things have changed since then. A lot of bookstores don’t want you to put the books back on the shelves after handling them.  I’m hoping that we will soon be able to page through books without worry about picking up or spreading germs or worry about the number of customers allowed in the store at one time. So much of book buying involves touch! I’m also looking forward to the reopening of the libraries because libraries help me to decide which books to buy! Libraries are important reading tools, they provide education, the books for us to read and learn from, the information we need to be a better society! We need these tools! Let’s hope we get them back soon!

In the mean-while, support your local bookstore! 

And by the way....I did enjoy the book I found!

Once Again - Orion

 

                While walking my dog yesterday morning after returning from work, I saw Orion coming up over the roofs of the neighbor’s houses. It reminded me of a short poem I had written recently. If I may, I’d like to share it with you and hopefully you will catch what I was thinking about when I wrote it!

 

Once Again

Once again,

Orion climbs up and over

The rugged horizon.

 

Marching on to stand

High above us.

Strong, bold and defiant.

 

Only to be beaten, once again

By the glare of the lights

Populating peoples porches.

 

A Little Lunar Topography

                There is something about human nature that causes people to enjoy finding new places. It is what caused explorers to head into uncharted lands and cross oceans that have never been crossed before. It is the curiosity that sent ships to the edge of the seas and spaceships into the space surrounding us. We all have it to some extreme, I know I do…

                I pulled the refractor out on Friday morning. (10.9.20) Setting it up after work, around 12:40AM, I let it sit for awhile to acclimate and then looked at the Pleiades and the Hyades. I like to let the scope sit still and see what drifts into view. I enjoy floating through space via my telescope, admiring the shapes and patterns the stars make. I am often surprised at what drifts into my eyepiece!

                The scope hadn’t quite cooled down; it still showed a bit of distortion when focusing on the stars. I let it sit a bit longer and then tried again. The moon had since drifted up into view, slipping up from behind the trees in the east. It was third quarter, a little over half illuminated, a great time to observe the moon.

                Turning the scope a bit I centered it on the moon and put in a higher powered eyepiece.  12.5mm gave me a partial view of the terminator, the dark edge slicing across the lunar disc. Plenty of mountains and craters were visible. Some of them appeared to be hanging out into the dark of space but where actually just the sunlit peaks of various features, the bottoms of them hidden in the shadows.

                I scanned back and forth for awhile and noticed, towards the northern end, (upper left in the pictures) a shadow. Triangular in shape, it looked as if a pyramid had cast it. The shadow was long, stretching towards the darkened side of the moon. The tip was right near the edge of the terminator.

(clicking on the pictures will enlarge them!)

                I attached the camera to the telescope and took a couple shots. Later, after tearing the scope down and putting it away and getting some much needed rest, I returned to that shadow. I was able to find it on the shot I had taken, it was a bit longer than when I had first seen it. I cropped the picture and enlarged it and got a bit blurrier picture but the shadow was easily seen.

A little internet research gave me a name for the feature and some more details.

                It is a lone mountain called Mons Piton sitting in the eastern section of Mare Imbrium. It is about a mile and a half high and about 6 miles in diameter. In my shot, the large crater in the center, to the left of Mons Piton is Plato, 63 miles in diameter. To the mountains right are two craters, the first and larger is called Aristilus and the 2^nd one, further right is called Autolycus. This crater is the site of the first man-made impact with the moon. Luna 2 crashed on its rim on September 13, 1959. A bit further away to the right of the mountain is the site of the Apollo 15 landing, August 7^th, 1971. The larger crater below the pair is Archimedes, named after the Greek scientist. (We all remember the bathtub story about him don’t we?) It is a little over 50 miles in diameter, about the distance I drive every day to go to work and back. 

(From vaztolentino.com)

                It is amazing, to me at least, the amount of information you can come up with, on anything, on the internet. I also am even more amazed at how much you can find by looking at the world and worlds around us and to do that, you don’t need an internet connection! (Though it sometimes helps!) Go out and take a look at the moon and the stars, use your binoculars or a telescope if you have them or just your eyes. It will relax you, lessen the stress of the day and you might see some things you never seen before! Go out into the night and unleash your inner explorer!