Chris Lasley

The reef tank is now a good seven weeks along. It went through a pretty massive cycle from all the dead sponge and assorted crud that came along with the Reef Bones. After 5 weeks a 50% water change helped clear things up a bit. If I were to do it over again I would strongly consider using fully cycled live rock. Let’s just say that curing mostly dead live rock is a nasty experience.

Now that the tank is fully cycled we’ve started adding livestock. So far we’ve added a cleanup crew, a goby, a cleaner shrimp and a couple of corals. Complete tank specs can be found here.

The past few weeks the sun has been gonzo with activity. I went out tonight to check up on an email from SpaceWeather.com quoting possible auroral activity. I wasn’t disappointed!

It seems a coronal mass ejection swept past Earth and sparked bright auroras over large portions of the United States – even as far south as Arkansas! This is one of two times I have seen aurora – both from the middle of town. This aurora was a bright blue/green fading in and out of site dancing to and fro. It must have been amazing from a dark site.

The source of the activity is a group of three big sunspots. All three of these sunspots are mega active so more auroral activity is possible. Keep and eye on the NOAA Auroral Activity Site for possible upcoming aurora.

UPDATE! – Danny Flippo was able to nab a few shots of last nights auroral activity from the River Ridge Observatory. Visit Danny’s Gallery to see what all the excitement was about.

Beth, Jessica and I had a great time earlier this month over in Guthrie, Oklahoma. This was our fourth year to OIBF and once again we had a wonderful time. Bill and Carolyn Franke attended the festival as well – it just doesn’t get any better than good friends and good music.

Part of the gestalt of any music festival is the camping. This was the maiden voyage in our 1985 Volkswagen Westfalia camper van. I’ve been working on it for months and couldn’t wait to get to Guthrie to try it out. We still have a few bugs to iron out but the Westy worked great. Bill and Carolyn set up camp next to us and we spent four great days at the festival.

The music was incredible this year, as always. All the artists were excellent but the ones that stick in my mind are Tommy Emmanuel, Druha Trava, Earl Scruggs and of course the Kruger Brothers. The most exciting artist for me wasn’t even on the bill – Rob Ickes was on stage with the Earl Scruggs Review. I’m a big fan of Rob and I was blown away by his playing. Seeing Rob made my trip!

» Click here to see pictures from the trip

Had a good night up at the club observatory. Danny Flippo and I teamed up to do a little wide field CCD imaging. We used Danny’s Johnson widefield adapter and my ST10 along with John Reed’s 135mm Olympus lens – it was quite a group effort!

The camera was mounted on top of Danny’s C8 using the club’s AP800 mount. The combination of the 135mm lens and the ST10 yeilded a field of view approximately 4 x 6 degrees! Since Cygnus was well placed we aimed just shy of Denub and shot 12 x 10 minute exposures of the North American and Pelican nebulae using an 11 nm HAlpha filter.

» Click here to see the final image