Monday Night

It's Monday night, and it's cloudy as hell. Probably for the better, as I need to be up and out the door no later than 0630. Looking at cleardarksky.com I see that tomorrow is somewhat promising, so I'll wait and see what comes of it. I haven't been out in a week. It's been a mix of cloudy skies, early mornings, and lots of packing that's been holding me back. What's nice is that my wife and son and I are moving October 1 to a house - so I'll have my own backyard! It's still in Brampton, and still light-polluted as all hell, but at least it's better than trekking it to my parents to borrow their yard. My Dob will stay at their place until we're settled in, then I'll start exploring the sky over my new place. I have a large, empty schoolyard directly behind the house, and not too many trees, so the sky is fairly open. The only real nuisance are the orange sodium lights glaring along the edge of the pathway through the schoolyard. One is almost directly behind my backyard. Guess I'll just have to cope. Plus, with my scope readily available, the occasional trip to Palgrave or Forks of the Credit will be a little easier.
As I had the day off and decided to take a break from packing for a bit, I spent some time skimming the books for some new "Night Targets." I'll start a separate thread on this topic when I feel like it, but it's essentially just a list of items I'd like to turn my scope on the next night I'm out. Many of the things on the list are so basic that more experienced observers will have seen them a thousand times, or stopped looking at them years ago. But we all have to start somewhere!
While my son was at the sitter's for half the day, and after I finished taking care of some of the legal stuff with the mortgage, I paid my trusty reflector a visit. I recently bought a laser collimator, and put it to the test this afternoon. It made aligning the optics a breeze. I've collimated so rarely - this is the first time in over two, maybe three years, that I've tried - but it went so smoothly that my worries about the job being a big pain in the ass were calmed the moment I started adjusting the secondary mirror. To see the red dot shine dead centre on the primary, and reflect spot-on with itself after just a few minutes' work made me realise the $50 spent on this nifty gadget was well worth it.
Not much else in my little world of astronomy to report on for today, and as this is my first day at work on this blog I think I can talk the boss into letting me leave a bit early. And with tonight, and possibly the next few nights a bust in observing terms, I think I'll call it quits here.