Stuff!

Note to the reader: this post was drafted somewhere in the vicinity of April 29, 2025, but not posted for two months.

I got some cool stuff today!!

A copy of *Woods 5: Grey Skies and Electric Lights* arrived in the mail today. This was the last album produced by Woods of Ypres before the tragic death of frontman David Gold. This is one of those albums that helped me through some really hard times, another being [*Arbeit Oder Liebe*](https://torstentorsten.bandcamp.com/album/arbeit-oder-liebe) by Torsten Torsten. I'm glad to finally own a copy of it.

My new telescope was also delivered today! For about a year now I've owned a [Skywatcher Classic 200p](https://www.skywatcherusa.com/products/sky-watcher-classic-200p) dobsonian telescope I affectionally call Saunt Mithra[0]. It's pretty goddamn powerful, with a maximum possible magnification of nearly 400x, but it's also pretty heavy - the OTA and mount altogether weigh 50lbs. That makes it really difficult to bring it outside and back in all by myself, especially on those nights where I know I'm only going to be out for a little bit, so I wanted something lighter.

I ended up settling on the [Celestron PowerSeeker 80AZS](https://www.celestron.com/products/powerseeker-80azs-telescope) short refractor. It's not nearly as powerful as the huge dob, but the telescope and tripod altogether weigh only 6lbs, meaning I can lift the entire thing with one hand. I hope that this will make it easier to pop in and out on nights where I want to do some viewing, but can't stay out too late, or days where I'm too sore to haul the 50 pounder. Unfortunately, it's already getting cloudy as I type this, and it's going to be rainy tonight, so I don't get to test drive Saunt Mylax[0] today.

In other news, I did another workout today. This time I successfully started yoga right after brushing my teeth, instead of waiting until I've had my coffee. I have this weird idea in my head that drinking coffee will make starting tasks easier, but it never actually does. Doing yoga today was actually easier than it has been the last few weeks specifically because I wasn't hyped out of my skull on a socially acceptable CNS stimulant. Of course, shortly after this I did proceed to get hyped out of my skull on the socially acceptable CNS stimulant. Such is life. The accomplishment is that I actually got something done before that.

In terms of handwriting practice, studying, or working on the book, I didn't get as much of that done as yesterday for three reasons:
* I spent a decent chunk of time after lunch fiddling with Saunt Mylax. I've never owned a refractor before, and wanted to get used to the process of putting it on the mount and moving it around. Plus, I had to put all the boxes she came in away, and then find a place for her and all the little parts to go.
* I'm still pretty sore from yesterday, and I'm realizing my back and shoulder issues aren't as resolved as I thought. I'm not totally sure what to do about that.
* I have to go to sleep relatively early today, because I have an event I have to be ready for at 7pm[1] tomorrow.

[0] Anathem reference: there's a telescope in that book named after Saunts Mithra and Mylax, affectionately called the M&M. Since I'm a big nerd, and I knew pretty early on that I wanted at least one other telescope, I decided to give them matching names. In the book, there's also a fisheye lens used for recording celestial activity called Clesthyra's Eye. I've mangled the reference into sometimes calling the dob "the Eye of Saunt Mythra," because nobody can stop me. I know it's silly. I don't mind.

[1] I have to catch the bus at 4pm to be there. And yes, 4pm is early for me. The life of a stargazer is not easy. I have a severe vitamin D deficiency. Not kidding!

tags: stargazing, telescopes