A conspiracy?

Yesterday evening I spent an hour jogging under the starry sky and the waxing moon. I left home about 10 p.m. and suddenly noticed that it was still not dark in the north-west. Even at 10:30 it was still possible to see the glow in that direction. When the moon has passed its full phase, the period of nocturnal darkness will have shrunk still further, and if I want to observe under dark skies I'll have to start well after midnight.

I think I'm the victim of a vicious conspiracy. Just consider the following:

At +59 degrees, nocturnal darkness will vanish completely in early May. In april, however, there is still a period with darkness, and at this time of the year temperatures start getting more pleasant than in winter. It would therefore be very nice to use the evenings of April to observe. But some secret brotherhood has invented something called "DAYLIGHT SAVING". This shifts the dark period of the night one hour, and for a person in full job has to get some sleep at that time. I also think that the same secret organisation have put the zero meridian through Greenwhich. Therefore I'm located almost at the western edge of my time zone. I'm more than 5 degrees west of Dmitri and nearly 10 degrees west of Thomas who both are in the Central European time zone. Therefore they get nocturnal darkness considerably earlier than me. IT IS NOT FAIR.

I'm soon going to start my own secret fellowship. Our ultimate goal will be to move the zero meridian to Dublin and eliminate the use of daylight saving. It is is possible, we'll also move the north pole to Mexico. I'm afraid, however, that this will represent some technical difficulties. But who knows...

Inge S

Inge: The real problem is that we were all born several centuries too soon. In the distant future, every amateur astronomer will be able to obtain his own space telescope (for the price of a couple of Al Nagler's eyepieces), and, sitting at his computer, will be able to observe DSOs, doubles and other celestial wonders at excellent resolution without regard to such inconveniences as the latitude or the time zone or the atmospheric conditions of his home base. Of course, this assumes that our technology will continue to progress and not be demolished by the extinction of homo sapiens owing to either a stray asteroid or the malfunction of human culture.

Inge, while we're at it, even though you might NOT like this idea..... how about COOLING the planet a lil' bit, just enough for the Hurricanes to quit bugging me here in South Florida? I mean, c'mon, 6 months of Hurricane Season is a BIT TOO MUCH! 8)

Clear skies to all!

Hm, several good ideas here. I think I go for the cooling down instead of moving to Iran. Probably the cooling will also reduce the amount of humidity carried up with the Gulf stream. This winter has been the coldest in Norway for many years, and, indeed, we had more good nights for observing than we normally have.

Inge S

Inge; Ill tell you what I'll do, for April & May I will come over to Norway and enjoy Friends, Family, the great food and the Gorgeous Girls and you can come to New York and look at the stars. Hows that sound.

Bob