Sunday - So Far

Photos are of the Rime Tibetan Buddhist Center this morning. One is of the shrine room, including Lama Chuck giving Sunday service. The second composite is of their adorable gift shop. The Center is so beautiful, the people so welcome and kind. And non-denominational / non-sectarian. Christians, Buddhists, and others sometimes come for the meditation alone. And the occasional yoga class. :)

Currently at Quay Coffee with Leif. Finally found a coffeehouse where he loves their espresso and I love their mocha latte. Atmosphere is nice but not fantastic. Service is awesome, though, with their coffee amazing.

Trick-or-Treaters

Parkville Downtown is doing their Halloween today. Town is filled with ghosts and goblins. Love these trick-or-treaters! 

Parkville Coffee

Parkville Coffee on a Saturday afternoon? Of course! Love this place, so charming and relaxing.

English Landing Park in October

October day at English Landing Park. Parkville, MO. 10/26/13 Saturday

Daytime Moon

Snapped this photo of the moon at English Landing Park in Parkville, MO, this morning. Perfect & beautiful fall day.

Backs of a Park

'Backs' of English Landing Park in Parkville, MO, this morning. Took these photos after visiting the last Saturday for the Farmers Market this year. Yummy apple butter and baklava. My favorite photo is the top left one.

Knitting Lessons

Love this shop, Florilegium in Parkville MO. Owners are so nice and patient, giving Leif and I knitting lessons. We're up to knit a row then pearl a row. Making progress! Next lesson is next Tuesday. Can't wait!

Halo Rainbow around the Sun

Just took this photo of a 22 degree halo rainbow around the sun. Beautiful outside right now.

Powell Observatory and Our Busy Night

Leif (fiancé with hood on) manned the 16 inch telescope last night at Powell Observatory. Carroll manned the gate, welcoming our visiting astronomers. I did crowd control and posted photos on our club's Facebook page. Tom took photos of the crowds and the moon. Plus Randy, Paul, Elizabeth, David and many more club members helped out, including manning the 30 inch telescope! With 400 Boy Scouts next door (leader came over to warn us) and crowds that arrived an hour early? It was a very busy night. Oh, and thank you, Carroll, for the picnic yummies for the Powell team! Fueled us up beforehand for the long night! If you ever have a chance, come check out Powell Observatory in Louisberg, KS. It's operated/owned by our club, the Astronomical Society of Kansas City. It was an awesome night last night! Can you spot David's "UFO" flying toy in the last photo? :)

English Landing Park

Took this photo at the English Landing Park in Parkville, MO, last week. Beautiful day for a walk in October and alongside the Missouri River. Suspect it was one of our last warm days and we're in for a cold winter.

Siri

Siri is a smart ass. She was calling me Cindy. Then I asked her to call me Astrogirl. Then I asked her to call me Cindy again. 

She replied "I figured as much".

Awkward Geek at Heart

I'm such a tomboy and uncoordinated goof. (I hide it better now than I did years ago). Awkward and over eager at times. Way cooler when I write about my life than someone watching me. Don't get me wrong. I have an awesome life. But when you really get to know me, I'm a nerd at heart with all awkwardness that goes with it. I just happen to be lucky enough to have cool friends and do interesting things. Guess you have to not care that people will discover your awkwardness, go forward with living life, and be open to being vulnerable. You get hurt sometimes but the rewards out weigh it all. And, in the end, you get to have awesome stories and wonderful memories. And a life worth living.

Bits and Pieces

Random things going on right now... 

Knitting: Leif (fiancé) is going to take knitting lessons with me starting this Tuesday! Think he's curious about the process. And in his own words he likes spending time with me. How sweet is that? Love Florilegium in Parkville Missouri. Absolutely beautiful shop with awesome owners. They're going to give us private free lessons! I've got my needles ready!

Family and Parkville, MO: Leif and I loved spending the day with his parents, Eric and Sharon, yesterday. We don't get to see them as often as we like with us being 40 minutes away. We showed them all around Parkville Missouri. The Farmers Market, English Landing Park, Parkville Coffee, lunch, and the many cute shops. Sharon finally had a chance to use her gift certificate at River's Bend Gallery we gave her a few years ago. Beautiful and perfect October day!

Astronomy: I manage our astronomy club's Facebook page and a new member posted this on our site. Very proud that our club has such a positive effect and encourages people to check out the night sky more. And stay up late! Right now Jupiter doesn't come out until after 1am and Comet ISON until after 3am!

On the lighter side of my life: My first designer bag! On consignment and on sale so less than one of my pooches physical therapy sessions. Never thought I would even want to own a Coach but it's so cute and love the periwinkle! Bold 'girly' move for me which is probably why it's kind of a big deal. I'm normally such a tomboy.

DNA Testing: Going to get my genome mapped out with 23andMe. Terribly curious. Nervous? Not really. Suspect it'll put my mind at ease and give a sense of more power over my future if they do find anything as I can then become more proactive through lifestyle and check ups. Huge step in owning my future health. Why am I telling you something so private? Because that's what blogging can be about - your most private parts of your life shared with the world. I can't promise you that I'll share all the results but will on some. I hope through sharing my own experience I can take away some of the fear of 'knowing'. Just because you have a specific gene doesn't mean you'll get the disease or cancer. It just indicates your chances. The company has an excellent reputation and a great promotion going on right now. https://www.23andme.com

A great blog entry on someone's experience with this: http://www.singularityweblog.com/23andme-dna-test-review-its-right-for-me-but-is-it-right-for-you/

Astronomy: Interactive map of the galaxy! "Thanks to the amazing powers of the internet (and super-creative developers), you can now travel through interstellar space without any fear of ending up like Sandra Bullock in Gravity. Click over to the 100,000 Stars interactive map of the galaxy, and fly through space from the safety of your own bedroom! Showing the location of 119,617 nearby stars, you can zoom right in, from the whole Milky Way, to our local star system, and solar system. Clicking on a star will give you more info about it, and there’s also a really interesting interactive tour to get you started."

Star map:

http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/

More about the project:

http://www.geekosystem.com/galaxy-map/

Star Party 2013 - HOASP

We had our annual Heart of America Star Party this weekend. Much laughter, music, awesome door prizes, great solar viewing during the day, excellent speakers, home cooked meals, and astronomy observing at night. I'm very tired so please forgive any spelling mistakes in this post.

I would post the photos I took this weekend but there are just too many. I manage our astronomy club's Facebook page and, instead, posted all the photos there.

Our Club: Astronomical Society of Kansas City (ASKC)

To check out the the club's page directly and for ALL of the photos from this weekend, check out this link: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151943328904248&id=334830179247

If this link doesn't work, just go into Facebook and search for our page name: 

Astronomical Society of Kansas City

'Like' us if you would like all our postings to show up in your newsfeed stream.

Or just check out the below links to see the photos from this weekend. 

For those not signed up for Facebook, just follow the below links to each set of photos. You don't need to 'Like' or subscribe to the page to view the photos. Nor do you have to be signed into Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151939740754248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151941466094248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151941471664248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151941476114248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151941564629248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151941570414248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151941596174248&id=334830179247

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151943074104248&id=334830179247

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151943110934248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151943216814248&id=334830179247

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151943268769248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151943328904248&id=334830179247

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151939499924248&id=334830179247

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151939490279248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151939465319248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151939407994248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151939264294248&id=334830179247&substory_index=

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151939129864248&id=334830179247&substory_index=0

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151938943919248&id=334830179247

Heart of America Star Party 2013

One photo is of our campsite, including our two telescopes. The other photo is of the club's Dark Sky Site where the Heart of America Star Party is being held. About 100 people registered, pretty decent turnout. Great observing last night. We checked out several galaxies. Depending on the clouds, we may squeeze in a few hours tonight before the storms move in. Then the cold moves in and the winter gear is pulled out and put on. Unfortunately astronomy observing is usually best in cold weather. I won a blanket as a door prize tonight. Go figure. Wonder if the universe is trying to warn me how cold it will get. 

Comet ISON

Senior editor of Astronomy magazine, Michael Bakich, giving a talk on Comet ISON at the Heart of America Star Party. Awesome presentation!