Sometimes Up To Something

Daylight Savings Time, British Summer Time, whatever it's called. Isn't it oudated? Didn't they only introduce it because people used to work outdoors more often? The thing is, not only do some countries not do it at the same time as others, but some countries just don't boher with it at all. And it makes time zones even more confusing than they already are. And also it's just proof that time really is just meaningless and nothing but a construct or whatever. Maybe I'm not using the right words. I'm one of the people who thinks we should just do away with it. Especially since it means it gets darker later so less time for stargazing. I'm still trying to think of when the best time to get up in the night to see things I haven't seen yet will be. 

It's nice that the skies are clear again, especially at night. I can go out and look at the stars again. Although things will be changing soon with the clocks going forward (I still think we should do away with it, most countries don't do it at all) and then I'll get confused about what's supposed to be where and at what time. It might soon get to a point where I start setting alarms to get up in the middle of the night and see what's in the sky. It might be the only way I can see certain constellations. I want to have seen all the Zodiac constellations by the end of this year, and some are harder to see than others, especially with shorter nights.

My Mum's had a rough start to the year, so I went over to see her, even though the house is small, messy, and smells like cigarette smoke and dog. I just thought she'd appreciate it. I even got her some flowers and some shortbread. I did also want her to help me with a piece of clothing I'd attempted to upcycle but got too in over my head with. I didn't want to throw it away because it was a gift from someone who got the wrong idea about what I like to wear. She helped me change it with a type of sewing machine I hadn't seen before (maybe I could get one of those instead of a regular one? But I think both kinds have their pros and cons). The sky was actually clear for a while tonight, so I could look at the stars again. It's a bit freaky to me how the constellations look bigger when they'e closer to the horizon. Something to do with the atmosphere and the way light moves, or just an optical illusion? 

Today a friend of mine brought in this mechanism used to make round badges and magnets at our social group. I was the only one who really used it today, though. She's planning on bringing it to the youth club at some point. Anyway, as I'd recently thought of an idea for something I don't want to give any details for at the moment in case a certain person I know reads this, the night sky and constellations were on my mind, and I thought they'd make some good badge designs. This friend's sign is Leo, and I asked a few more people when their birthdays were to make badges for them as well. The others are Aquarius, Scorpius (Scorpio), and Gemini. You can see where the gold pen I used for the lines was starting to run out a bit.

It's just been too cloudly lately. I want to stargaze some more but I can't, and what's worse, the Aurora Borealis has been visible from the UK, except for where it's cloudy. The other day when I had to get up early, I was still feeling tired until I looked out of the window and saw some stars, that woke me up and I went outside to look at them, but not that long later when I left the house, it was cloudy again. By the time it's clear again, the constellations will have moved. We're already getting to the point where Taurus can be seen outside my bedroom window at about 10 or 11. But hopefully that means I'll be able to see Virgo and Libra in the evening rather than early morning soon. And maybe Scorpius as well, I don't know if you can actually see it fully above the horizon where I live, though.     

Did I already mention I got some new binoculars to look at the night sky with? Well, they work. I'm having trouble adjusting them so that I can see more clearly and so that I don't see double, but I am able to see smaller, more faint stars that aren't so visible to the naked eye. Lots of tiny stars. Well, they're not really tiny, they're bigger than this planet anyway. But they look tiny when they're so far away. I want to see all the Zodiac constellations before the year ends. So far I've seen Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Aries, Aquarius, Virgo, and sort of Pisces and Cancer but they're quite faint. I might need to get up in the middle of the night during sumer to see the more southern ones. I should be able to see Libra and Capricornus, and maybe Sagittarius, but I don't know if Scorpius is visible in the northern hemisphere or not.

The first day of the year sounds like an exciting time, but business doesn't really allow it to be, does it? So many places are closed, and if you don't drive, then you're limited to where you can go. But you still want it to be an exciting, time, so you have to make the best of it. So I went out for a quick walk, re-dyed the ends of my hair, and went outside to look at the night sky when it was dark. Thankfully there were no clouds. It's so annoying when clouds prevent me from stargazing. The camera my Dad gave me is over 10 years old, but allows me to take actually decent pictures of the moon with most of the details. I can't find a way to get it to take pictures of the stars, though, but if I zoom in enough at the big bright star that is actually Jupiter, I can get something that I'm not sure is actually a blurred image of how it looks or if that's just how the light is. Maybe I need to get some new binoculars specifially for looking at stars. Then I can ...