this weekend and other stuff that's on my mind

I got to see some sats on friday... but i'll post more on that later.

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I can't remember what I did on Saturday. I know the Mrs took lil N to the zoo. And that's all I remember, other than getting up early with the lil ones. And then the Mrs and I watch The Mentalist that we taped from Thursday evening... I thikn that's what we did on Saturday.

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Sunday, the Mrs had her sister and mom come into town to watch the kids while we had a date. The Mrs and I went to a movie. We saw Hall Pass. It's what you would expect from an Owen Wilson movie. For being from the Farrelly brothers (Something About Mary, etc), it didn't have that many 'OMG I can't believe they just showed that' moments.

Later that evening we watched the Oscars. I beat the Mrs in guessing the winners.... 12 to 10 (out of 24). That may be one of my better showings really. In recent past year, I've been getting whomped pretty good. But I managed to have a couple good picks, even without some of my 'dark horse' picks. We went to bed around midnight... Ugh...until

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Monday morning the Mrs woke me up at 2am. The tornado sirens were going off. We went to the living room, watched the TV and went through the 'do we wake the kids up and go dawnstairs or not' conversation. Eventually, the warning was cancelled. So I went back to bed. Then the Mrs woke me up at 4am. Sirens were going off, the kids were up this time because the power had one out which meant the nightlihts went off long enough for their brains to figure out 'hey its REALLY dark now'. So we went to the basement for about 15 minutes until that one had passed. I tried to get back to sleep and probably managed to get another 1/2 hour in.

Needless to say, I'm dragging ass today.

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I had been tracking the progress of the Red Bull Stratos project. The point of this 'project' was to try to break the world record for falling from the greatest height. The current record was set by Air Force Col. Joe Kittinger in 1960 when he jumped from 102,800 feet from a big honkin' balloon as part of Project Excelsior. During freefall he reached speeds of 614 mph.

The Red Bull Stratos project was to attempt to brea those records and possibly have an unassisted human (other than gravity) break the sound barrier. They had a person (Felix Baumgartner) picked out for this attempt and I believe Red Bull had most of the technical stuff figured out.

Unfortunately, in October 2010, a man how claims to have spoken with Red Bull about this stunt in 2004, only to be told 'no thanks' is suing Red Bull. Red Bull in response to this law suit has ceased any work on the project until the lawsuit has been settled.

What a drag. However, there is still some hope of it occurring. There are still two people still chasing this record.

One There is a French guy (who I think lives in Canada) who is attempting to break this world record as well. His name is Michel Fournier. The goals of his project can be found at his website. He's 66 years old, has no sponsors and is basically coupling together his equipment from old discarded military items. He was banned from making his attempts in France, but he found a new home in Canada, eh? I remember seeing something about this earlier, and his website was pretty shoddy then. Seems like it has gotten a massive update since then. I'll give the man props. He's made several attempts at them... of of which failed before he even left the ground, I believe. In 2003 the balloon ripped while being inflated. In 2008, he had another attempt lined up, but fate intervened again and this time the balloon detached from the gondola and floated away. In May 2010, another failure due to the reserve parachute deploying inside the capsule during a pre-launch test while the balloon was being filled. D'oh! The next attempt is slated for May 2011. Good luck Michel!!!

There is also a UK stunt man, Steve Truglia, who has expressed interest in breaking the record as well. His website appears to show that the planning is done but that he needs sponsorship. His plan was to make an attempt in 2008, however that obviously has not occurred and there is no news other than needing sponsorship. Regardless of where you are in the preparations, Good luck Steve!

23 sats on a Friday Night (sung to the tune "Clock Strikes 10" from Cheap Trick)

Considering all the crappy weather we had on Friday, amazingly enough it was quite a clear evening. Now, if I could just get my neighbors to let their dogs take a piss in the dark, the world would be great. All in all it was a pretty good session. I had a good run from 7:30pm to 8pm. I was really REALLY hoping to catch a glimpse of NanoSail-D2. Yes, it's NanoSail-D2 despite what most websites, including NASA's own NanoSail-D website, and news articles say. The truth is that in August 2008 the original NanoSail-D was on the third flight of Space X's Falcon 1 but there were issues with the launch and the payload was destroyed. So they launched the replacement NanoSail (NanoSail-D2) in it's place in 2 years later in November 2010. Anyhoo... Between Feb 25th (techically earlier) and March 7th NanoSail-D2 should be fairly visible in the sky. Friday even was the first really strong evening to see it... and like f'ing clockwork, literally 1 minute before it would start showing over the horizon, one of my neighbors turned on their stupid halogen backyard lights so f'ing fluffy can see to take a massive dump. I tried blocking it out with my hand but it was just too damn close and too damn bright. So I retreated to stand between my house and the other neighbors, using the grill on the deck to block the light. Alas, I did not see it. There were a number of factors: 1) the stupid f'ing halogen light, 2) it was in the SW... and things in the W this late in the evening are fairly hard to see regardless of what the magnitude is. Oh well... I have about a week left and it should be getting brighter for a few more days. Saturday would have been bright as all get out, but it was complete overcast. Maybe I'll get a clearing this evening, long enough to see it and the head back in to watch the Oscars with the Mrs.

Anyhoo... enough of my jabbering... on with the show... errmmm... blog...

Here's the time-line for the evening of:
Date: 23-Feb-2011 Wednesday


7:05 PM - Name: Resurs 1-4 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.1
Int’l Designator: 1998-043-G
This is my 25th sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body, aka ye olde bright and faithful. The last time I saw this object was on Jan 2nd! For a while this was an object that nearly always saw as long as I was out at the right time. I honestly thought that I'd be homing in on 50 by now... but I'll take 25 regardless. :-D

7:17 PM - Name: Cosmos 1743 - Magnitude: 2.7
Int’l Designator: 1986-034-A
This is my first sighting of Kosmos 1743, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite. It was launched using a Tsyklon-3 rocket in 1986.

7:19 PM - Name: ISS - Magnitude: -1.0
Int’l Designator: 1998-067-A
This is my thirteenth sighting of the International Space Station. The Space Shuttle Discovery (as part of STS-133) had not docked yet (it docked on Feb 26th), so I'm not sure where it was in the sky this evening. I was hoping to spot them within minutes of each other like I did with ATV 2. Oh well, maybe I'll be able to see the Space Shuttle Discovery when it undocks from the ISS.

7:23 PM - Name: USA 198 Rocket aka ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B - Magnitude: 0.4
Int’l Designator: 2007-060-B
This is my first sighting of this Atlas V Centaur upper stage. This particular rocket was used to launch a classified National Reconnaissance Organization satellite, code-named USA 198 or NRO L-24. Due to its orbit, known as a Molniya orbit which allows a satellite to mainly stay staged over a designated area, it is believe to be a military communications/data relay satellite which would make it part of the Satellite Data System 3 program.

7:27 PM - Name: Cosmos 2263 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.2
Int’l Designator: 1993-059-B
This is my third sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite Kosmos 2263.

7:28 PM - Name: DMSP 5D-2 F8 DEB - Magnitude: 5.6
Int’l Designator: 1987-053-G
This is debris from the launch for the DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) 5D meteorological satellite system. The satellite launched was the first to carry SSM/I microwave imaging sensor to see through clouds. DMSP 5D-2 was launched into orbit using an Atlas E rocket.

7:31 PM - Name: Cosmos 1818 - Magnitude: 3.5
Int’l Designator: 1987-011-A
This is my second sighting of Kosmos 1818, a Russian radar ocean reconnaissance satellite (RORSAT) launched on February 1 1987 aboard a Tsyklon-2 rocket. It was powered by a nuclear reactor and contained a Plazma-2 SPT electric motor (aka a Hall effect ion thruster). According to Wikipedia, this particular satellite fragmented into 30 pieces on July 4 2008, so this must be one of the larger pieces or basically what is remaining of the main 'core' of the satellite.

7:32 PM - Name: Cosmos 1500 - Magnitude: 3.2
Int’l Designator: 1983-099-A
This is my third sighting of Kosmos 1500, a Russian Okean-OE oceanography satellite. It was launched using a Tsyklon-3 rocket.

7:35 PM - Name: Cosmos 1340 - Magnitude: 2.7
Int’l Designator: 1982-013-A
This is my second sighting of Kosmos 1340, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite. It was launched using a Vostok-2M rocket.

7:36 PM - Name: Iridium 38 tum - Magnitude: 5.8
Int’l Designator: 1997-069-E
This is my second sighting of the tumbling Iridium 38 satellite.

7:38 PM - Name: Helios 1B - Magnitude: 2.8
Int’l Designator: 1999-064-A
This is my tenth sighting of Helios 1B, a French photo-reconnaissance satellite.

7:41 PM - Name: shooting star - Magnitude: 2.0
Int’l Designator: 0
This was a white shooting star @ 50 degrees E heading ESE.

7:41 PM - Name: Meteor 1-31 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.7
Int’l Designator: 1981-065-B
This is my eighth sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which put the Russian meteorological satellite Meteor 1-31 into orbit in 1981.

7:42 PM - Name: Lacrosse 5 Rocket aka TITAN 4B R/B - Magnitude: 1.6
Int’l Designator: 2005-016-B
This is my fifth sighting of this Titan IV-B rocket. This rocket was used to put National Reconnaissance Organization's Lacrosse 5 satellite into orbit.

7:47 PM - Name: Cosmos 1842 - Magnitude: 3.3
Int’l Designator: 1987-038-A
This is my first sighting of Kosmos 1842, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite. It was put into orbit using a Tsyklon-3 rocket in 1987.

7:51 PM - Name: Cosmos 2242 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.7
Int’l Designator: 1993-024-B
This is my second sighting of this Tsyklon-3 rocket which was used put Kosmos 2242, a Russian Tselina-R ELINT satellite, into orbit.

7:58 PM - Name: IRAS - Magnitude: 5.3
Int’l Designator: 1983-004-A
This is my fourth sighting of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). It was put into orbit using a Delta 3910 rocket.

8:06 PM - Name: Cosmos 1610 Rocket - Magnitude: 4.5
Int’l Designator: 1984-118-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Parus communication and navigation satellite, Kosmos 1610 in 1984.

8:12 PM - Name: Lacrosse 4 - Magnitude: 2.8
Int’l Designator: 2000-047-A
Amazingly, this is only my third sighting of the Lacrosse 4 NRO recon satellite. It was launched into orbit in 2000 using a Titan IV-B rocket. Actually, I just looked and I've only Lacrosse 2 and 3 only three times as well. I've seen Lacrosse 5 six times. I've only spotted the Lacrosse 4 rocket once, Lacrosse 5 rocket five times and have never spotted the Lacrosse 2 or 3 rockets ever. Interesting. I need to add Lacrosse 2 / 3 rockets to my 'need to see list'.

8:18 PM - Name: shooting star - Magnitude: 2.0
Int’l Designator: 0
This was an orange shooting star heading NW

8:18 PM - Name: Cosmos 2278 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.1
Int’l Designator: 1994-023-B
This is my 2nd sighting sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite, Kosmos 2278.

8:26 PM - Name: Meteor 2-5 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.6
Int’l Designator: 1979-095-B
This is my second sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket, which was used to launch the Russian Meteor 2-5 meteorological satellite into orbit.

8:37 PM - Name: shooting star - Magnitude: 2.0
Int’l Designator: 0
This was a white shooting start heading SW.

8 on a partially cloudy evening

I honestly didn't think I was going to have a chance this evening. It's had been overcast all day, so I figured that they gray skies would continue. So it was to my amazement when I looked outside after putting lil A to bed that I could see some stars. I could also see some clouds coming, but it looked like I could get some time time in. Which I did. Yay!


Here's the time-line for the evening of:
Date: 23-Feb-2011 Wednesday

7:21 PM - Name: Tansuo 1 LM2r - Magnitude: 3.2
Int'l Designator: 2004-012-C
This is my twelfth sighting of this Long March 2C rocket. This rocket was used to launch Tansuo 1, a Chinese stereo imaging satellite.

7:26 PM - Name: Meteor 1-31 -or- Meteor PRIRODA - Magnitude: 3.7
Int'l Designator: 1981-065-A
This is my second sighting of Meteor 1-31, a Russian meteorological satellite. There were actually several models of satellites that were part of the Meteor 1 program. This particular satellite was a model known as Meteor-Priroda and it was the 6th and final Meteor-Priroda satellite launched.

7:29 PM - Name: Lacrosse 5 Rocket - Magnitude: 1.6
Int'l Designator: 2005-016-B
This is my fourth sighting of this Titan IV-B rocket which was used to launch Lacrosse 5, a radar imaging reconnaissance satellite for the NRO.

7:39 PM - Name: Cosmos 1500 - Magnitude: 3.2
Int'l Designator: 1983-099-A
This is my second sighting of Kosmos 1500, one of two Russian Okean-OE oceanography satellites. Kosmos 1500 was launched into orbit using a Tsyklon-3 rocket.

7:42 PM - Name: Cartosat 2 Rocket -or- PSLV R/B - Magnitude: 3.4
Int'l Designator: 2007-001-E
This is my 2nd sighting of this Indian PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket.

7:42 PM - Name: Meteor 1-31 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.7
Int'l Designator: 1981-065-B
This is my seventh sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which launched Meteor 1-31 (see above at 7:26 PM). It's not often that I get to see the satellite and the rocket that launched the satellite in the same evening.

7:44 PM - Name: Cosmos 1340 - Magnitude: 2.8
Int'l Designator: 1982-013-A
This is my first sighting of Cosmos 1340, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite. It was launched into orbit using a Vostok-2M rocket.

8:02 PM - Name: ISS - Magnitude: -1.1
Int'l Designator: 1998-067-A
This is my twelfth sighting of the International Space Station. The funny thing is that I spotted the object in the north and thought that it was likely a plane since I didn't have anything at that time on my list... or so I though, when I did a double check, I noticed that it was farther down on the list. Occasionally, the list that I print out doesn't always have them sorted by the peak time, so in this case, there were a couple of 8:06 PM objects in the list and THEN the 8:02 PM for ISS.


Some fun facts*:
Total number of objects seen to date: 426
Total number of unique objects seen to date: 200
Number of days since first sighting: 181 days
Avg number of objects seen per day: ~2.35
Number of sightings which were 'Kosmos' related: 126 (~30%)

Number of unique objects per year:
1958: 0 --- 1959: 0
1960: 0 --- 1961: 1 --- 1962: 0 --- 1963: 1 --- 1964: 3
1965: 0 --- 1966: 0 --- 1967: 1 --- 1968: 1 --- 1969: 1
1970: 1 --- 1971: 4 --- 1972: 2 --- 1973: 1 --- 1974: 4
1975: 1 --- 1976: 3 --- 1977: 2 --- 1978: 4 --- 1979: 3
1980: 4 --- 1981: 6 --- 1982: 6 --- 1983: 10 --- 1984: 6
1985: 8 --- 1986: 5 --- 1987: 7 --- 1988: 2 --- 1989: 2
1990: 7 --- 1991: 3 --- 1992: 4 --- 1993: 5 --- 1994: 6
1995: 3 --- 1996: 2 --- 1997: 7 --- 1998: 4 --- 1999: 3
2000: 3 --- 2001: 3 --- 2002: 4 --- 2003: 3 --- 2004: 7
2005: 8 --- 2006: 7 --- 2007: 8 --- 2008: 8 --- 2009: 4
2010: 12 --- 2011: 1

I'd figure out the total number of sightings, non-unique per year... but it's 11pm and I'm friggin' tired. I really need to somehow get this into a database so I can just query all this stuff in nothing flat. Doing this all 'by hand' is fairly painful. Especially since I'd like to know things like the 'earliest' and 'latest' satellites seen, as well as the lowest / highest on the horizon, brightest / dimmest magnitude, etc etc etc.




* OK, so the facts are fun for me and pretty much no one else. Deal with it. :P

S3 ... Super Saturday Session

It took me 2 days to enter in Friday's near record breaking session. However, I went and set a record on Saturday night. In all honesty, I should have obliterated my record as I had 3 pages of satellites to spot and a full 2 hours to do it. The first hour was gang-busters. There periods where I would be trying to spot 5 or 6 satellites in a 2 minute period. It gets tricky because you need to spot them as quickly as possible in order to move to the next one.

However, the last whole hour was a bust (except for ONE satellite and 2 shooting stars). I had the same problem sometimes in the summer as well. You get to that last half hour and things are mostly in the west and despite that the web pages saying the magnitude should be fairly visible, I come away without seeing most of them. It can be kinda frustrating.

Anyways, all in all I saw 27 objects in one session. A NEW RECORD!!! I was concerned that I had only tied my record from Oct 8 2010 again since 2 of the objects were shooting stars, however after looking at that session, I had one shooting star which means I saw 24 satellite. This evening I saw 25 satellite and 2 shooting stars. I also managed to nab a glimpse of an object which was launched last week: ATV 2, a European ISS supply craft, launched on Feb 16 2011 and is currently on its way to the ISS. Cool! I also passed the 400 objects mark this evening and this good session this evening gets me a good push towards the excellent 500 objects mark.

Here's the time-line for the evening of:
Date: 19-Feb-2011 Saturday

7:05 PM - Name: Cosmos 1154 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.0
Int'l Designator: 1980-008-B
This is my second sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which launched the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 1154.

7:08 PM - Name: Tansuo 1 LM2r - Magnitude: 2.9
Int'l Designator: 2004-012-C
This is my eleventh sighting of this Long March 2C rocket body. This rocket was used to launch Tansuo 1, a Chinese stereo imaging satellite.

7:13 PM - Name: COSMOS 2251 DEB - Magnitude: 5.7
Int'l Designator: 1993-036-BEP
This is my first sighting of this piece of debris from Cosmos 2251. February 10 2009 marked the first time two intact satellites had a major collision. Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 collided. This caused a significant amount of debris (> 500 pieces), much of which is still floating around and probably will be for a long time. Read a news story about it here.

7:13 PM - Name: MOS 1-A Rocket - Magnitude: 3.6
Int'l Designator: 1987-018-B
This is my first sighting of this Japanese N2 rocket body. The N2 was a derivative of the American Delta rocket. It was used 8 times between 1981 and 1987, all successful, before being replaced by the H-1 which had all Japanese upper stages. This particular rocket was used to launch Japan's first earth observation satellite, MOS-1 (Marine Observation Satellite).

7:14 PM - Name: Cosmos 1184 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.4
Int'l Designator: 1980-044-B
This is my second sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket. It was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 1184.

7:15 PM - Name: COSMO-SkyMed 1 - Magnitude: 3.2
Int'l Designator: 2007-023-A
This is my twelfth sighting of COSMO-SkyMed 1, Italian earth observation satellite.

7:20 PM - Name: Cosmos 1943 - Magnitude: 3.2
Int'l Designator: 1988-039-A
This is my first sighting of Cosmos 1943, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite. It was launched in 1988 using a Zenit-2 rocket.

7:23 PM - Name: Cosmos 2263 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.4
Int'l Designator: 1993-059-B
This is my second sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket which was used to put the Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite Kosmos 2263 into orbit.

7:28 PM - Name: Cosmos 823 Rocket - Magnitude: 4.8
Int'l Designator: 1976-051-B
Number 400!!! This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket. This rocket was used to put a Russian Zaliv navigation satellite into orbit in 1976.

7:32 PM - Name: Amazns BrzTank - Magnitude: 4.1
Int'l Designator: 2004-031-C
This is my first sighting of this Briz-M upper stage. It was part of a Proton-M rocket which launched the Amazonas 1 satellite. Amazonas 1 is part of the Hispasat group of Spanish communications satellites.

7:33 PM - Name: Cosmos 2315 Rocket - Magnitude: 4.0
Int'l Designator: 1995-032-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket. This particular rocket was used to put a Russian Nadezhda satellite, which is part of a civilian navigation system.

7:35 PM - Name: Cosmos 540 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.4
Int'l Designator: 1972-104-B
This is my second sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket which was used to put a Russian Strela-2M military communication Kosmos 540 on Christmas Day in 1972.

7:37 PM - Name: Cosmos 1515 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.8
Int'l Designator: 1983-122-B
This is my first sighting of this Tsyklon-3 rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Cosmos 1515 in 1983.

7:39 PM - Name: Cosmos 1452 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.9
Int'l Designator: 1983-031-B
This is my third sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Strela-2M military communications satellite Kosmos 1452.

7:40 PM - Name: Cosmos 1346 - Magnitude: 3.7
Int'l Designator: 1982-027-A
This is my second sighting of Kosmos 1346, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite that was launched using a Vostok-2M rocket in 1982.

7:43 PM - Name: Sich 1 - Magnitude: 2.9
Int'l Designator: 1995-046-A
This is my second sighting of Sich 1, a Ukranian earth observation satellite, launched in 1995.

7:45 PM - Name: Cosmos 1328 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.7
Int'l Designator: 1981-117-B
This is my is my first sighting of this Tsyklon-3 rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 1328.

7:45 PM - Name: Meteor 1-31 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.7
Int'l Designator: 1981-065-B
This is my sixth sighting of this Vostok-2M which was used to launched the Russian meteorological satellite Meteor 1-31.

7:46 PM - Name: ADEOS 2 - Magnitude: 3.7
Int'l Designator: 2002-056-A
This is my first sighting of ADEOS 2 (Advanced Earth Observing Satellite 2), a Japanese earth observation satellite. It was launched using a Japanese H-2A rocket in 2002.

7:46 PM - Name: Meteor 2-10 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.6
Int'l Designator: 1983-109-B
This is my second sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which was used to launch the Russian meteorological satellite Meteor 2-10.

7:49 PM - Name: Shijian 6-3B aka Shijian 6F - Magnitude: 3.8
Int'l Designator: 2008-053-B
This is my fourth sighting of the Chinese Shijian 6F satellite. It was put into orbit using a Long March 4B rocket.

7:50 PM - Name: ADEOS 1 H-2 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.0
Int'l Designator: 1996-046-C
This is my second sighting of the Japanese H-2 rocket which was used to launch the original ADEOS satellite.

7:52 PM - Name: ISS - Magnitude: -2.6
Int'l Designator: 1998-067-A
This is my eleventh sighting of the International Space Station.

7:56 PM - Name: ATV 2 - Magnitude: 3.2
Int'l Designator: 2011-007-A
This is my first sighting of ATV 2 aka Automated Transfer Vehicle 002 aka Johannes Kepler ATV. This spacecraft is a supply ship for the ISS, carrying 15000 lbs of propellant, water, air, and dry cargo. It was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) from the French Guyana using an Ariane 5ES rocket. It is expected to dock with the ISS on Feb 24 2011. This sighting was cool because I was able to see both the ISS and a vehicle chasing it down in the same evening. If I'm lucky, it will be clear the day ATV 2 docks with the ISS. Actually, I'll be more lucky if I'm able to spot the two in the sky at the same time either pre-dock or post-dock. To me, that's more interesting. Oh, and seeing this object allows me to cross the year 2011 off my list. That leaves only 6 years from 1966 and previous that I still need to see objects from. I need to start taking my binoculars out so I can possibly see some dimmer objects. There were a few objects that had a magnitude in the mid-5s that I possibly could have seen with binoculars.

8:12 PM - Name: Shijian6-3Aptr - Magnitude: 4.0
Int'l Designator: 2008-053-D
This is my fourth sighting of this piece of a Chinese Long March 4B (CZ-4B) rocket which was used to launch Shijian 6E and 6F (see above at 7:49pm)

8:20 PM - Name: shooting star - Magnitude: 2.0
Int'l Designator: 0
This was a fast, bright white shooting star heading SSW horizontally at 40 degrees.

8:24 PM - Name: shooting star - Magnitude: 2.0
Int'l Designator: 0
This was a fast, white shooting star heading ENE horizontally at 60 degrees.

Sooooo close to tying my record

It was a beautiful evening last night. The sun is setting around 7pm, I'm getting really good sessions in at the moment since I'm not missing alot of the early satellite and I'm still catching all but the later satellites as well. Yay. In about an hour and a half I spotted 24 satellites. That's one shy of tying my record of 25 set on Oct 8th 2010. The neighbors mostly played nice, the moon was taking its time rising in the east. It wasn't too cold out (though by the end of the evening, I couldn't really feel my cheeks. I honestly should have had the record. I came inside briefly to see if the Mrs was done putting lil N to bed which she was, but she was watching a TV show. There were 3 more satellite, two of which should have been too bright to miss, so I went outside for another 7 minutes. I somehow or another failed to spot any of those three. I think I need to 'recalibrate' my watch since I believe that it is off by nearly a minute which actually does matter in this game. I have no idea how many repeat items I have, though when putting them in my spreadsheet, I noticed that many were from the 70s and 80s, so... I guess we'll see.

Oh, and I managed to see one early this morning peeping through the front window which is rather hard since you can't really look through the big windows since they have screens that that actually blocks most of the light, so I end up peering through the narrow windows next to the door. Plus, everything that I had a chance of seeing was in the east, which faces the street and its 30 mercury streetlamps. Combine that with the lights inside and its is very difficult unless the satellite is REALLY bright.

Here's the time-line for the evening of:
Date: 18-Feb-2011 Friday

7:05 PM - Name: Tansuo 1 LM2r - Magnitude: 2.9
Int'l Designator: 2004-012-C
This is my tenth sighting of this Long March 2C rocket body. This rocket was used to launch Tansuo 1, a Chinese stereo imaging satellite.

7:09 PM - Name: Cosmos 1242 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.7
Int'l Designator: 1981-008-B
This is my second sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 1242 in 1981.

7:13 PM - Name: Cosmos 2228 Rocket - Magnitude: 4.1
Int'l Designator: 1992-094-B
This is my second sighting of of this Tsyklon-3 rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 2228.

7:18 PM - Name: Breeze-M tank - Magnitude: 3.6
Int'l Designator: 2010-069-C
This is my first sighting of this Briz-M tank. This object was part of a Proton-M Briz-M rocket which launched the KA-SAT satellite, which telecommunications satellite which services Europe and the Middle East exclusively using 82 Ka spot beam transmitters. Each 'spot' can handle a throughput of 475 Mb/s. Dang!

7:24 PM - Name: Sich 1 - Magnitude: 3.3
Int'l Designator: 1995-046-A
This is my first sighting of the Sich 1 satellite, the first Ukrainian Earth observation satellite. It's main function was to observe and track things like pieces of Arctic ice. It was launched using a Tsyklon-3 rocket. There was a piggyback satellite as well. It was a Chilean satellite called FASAT-Alpha, however it did not separate from Sich 1 and had to be muted / disabled.

7:25 PM - Name: Cosmos 1709 Rocket - Magnitude: 4.0
Int'l Designator: 1985-116-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket. It was used to launch Kosmos 1709, a Russian Pirus military communications and navigation satellite. The first Pirus satellite was launched in 1974 and as of 2010, 99 of these satellites have been deployed.

7:26 PM - Name: ISS - Magnitude: -1.5
Int'l Designator: 1998-067-A
This is my tenth sighting of the International Space Station.

7:29 PM - Name: Meteor 2-2 - Magnitude: 4.8
Int'l Designator: 1977-002-A
This is my first sighting of Meteor 2-2, a Russian meteorological satellite. It was launched in 1977 using a Vostok-2M rocket.

7:31 PM - Name: Cosmos 1805 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.4
Int'l Designator: 1986-097-B
This is my first sighting of this Tsyklon-3 rocket which launched the Russian Tselina-R ELINT satellite Kosmos 1805 in 1986.

7:32 PM - Name: Cosmos 1184 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.1
Int'l Designator: 1980-044-B
This is my first sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket. It was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 1184.

7:36 PM - Name: Cartosat 2 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.5
Int'l Designator: 2007-001-E
This is my first sighting of PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket. This PSLV was developed by the Indian Space Research Organization. The PSLV has four stages and is used to put objects into sun synchronous orbit. This particular rocket was used to launch 4 satellites (this was the first time a PSLV has attempted to launch four satellites). The main satellite was Cartosat 2, an Indian earth observation satellite. The other 3 satellites were the Indian SRE (Space Capsule Recovery Experiment), the Indonesian LAPAN-TUBsat (remote sensing for natural resources and weather forecasting) and the Argentinian PEHUENSAT-1 (an experimental satellite).

7:37 PM - Name: Cosmos 1154 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.2
Int'l Designator: 1980-008-B
This is my first sighting of this Vostok-2M satellite which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 1154 in 1980.

7:40 PM - Name: shooting star - Magnitude: 2.0
Int'l Designator: none
This was a very quick, bright white shooting star. I don't believe there are any known meteor showers at the moment, so this is probably some random piece of something or another.

7:41 PM - Name: Shijian 6-3B -or- SJ-6F - Magnitude: 3.8
Int'l Designator: 2008-053-B
This is my third sighting of the Chinese Shijian 6F space environment satellites. It is rumored that the Shijian 6 satellites are actually for ELINT. This satellite was launched using a Long March 4B (CZ-4B) rocket.

7:41 PM - Name: Cosmos 1005 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.1
Int'l Designator: 1978-045-B
This is my second sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 1005.

7:46 PM - Name: Meteor 1-31 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.8
Int'l Designator: 1981-065-B
This is my fifth sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which launched the Russian meteorological satellite Meteor 1-31.

7:47 PM - Name: Cosmos 1633 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.1
Int'l Designator: 1985-020-B
This is my first sighting of this Tsyklon-3 rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 1633.

7:54 PM - Name: EGP H1 Rocket - Magnitude: 5.9
Int'l Designator: 1986-061-C
This is my first sighting of this Japanese H-1 rocket. It was used to launch the EGP (Experimental Geodetic Payload) satellite. The EGP is a sphere covered with 318 mirrors for reflecting sunlight _AND_ 1436 cube corners for reflecting laser beams. Cool picture here! Back to the H-1 (or H-I), it was launched 9 times between 1986 and 1992 and had no failures.

7:58 PM - Name: Secor 1 Rocket - Magnitude: 6.0
Int'l Designator: 1964-001-A
This is my first sighting of this Thor-SLV2A Agena-D rocket. It was launched in 1964 and its payload was SECOR 1, a US military geodesy satellite. Here is a pic of one of the SECOR satellites. The Agena-D was the upper stage of the Thor SLV rocket. I'm actually guessing that the Thor was the Thorad-Agena rocket. My brain is fried from this post so I'm starting to care less and less, in case you're still reading.

8:05 PM - Name: Shijian6-3Aptr -or- CZ-4B DEB - Magnitude: 3.6
Int'l Designator: 2008-053-D
This is my third sighting of this piece of space junk from a Long March 4B rocket which was used to launch some of the Shijian 6E and 6f satellites. (I saw Shijian 6F earlier in the evening.

8:10 PM - Name: Cosmos 405 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.7
Int'l Designator: 1971-028-B
This is my first time seeing this my first time seeing this Vostok-2M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Cosmos 405.

8:10 PM - Name: Meteor 2-10 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.7
Int'l Designator: 1983-109-B
This is my first sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which was used to launch the Russian meteorological satellite Meteor 2-10.

8:13 PM - Name: Iridium 38 tum - Magnitude: 5.6
Int'l Designator: 1997-069-E
This is my first sighting of the tumbling Iridium satellite Iridium 38. Based on some web reports, it appears that Iridium 38 lost its ability to maintain its correct position in the Iridium constellation. It was replaced by Iridium 82.

8:14 PM - Name: Cosmos 1452 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.4
Int'l Designator: 1983-031-B
This is my second sighting of this Kosmos-3M which was used to launch the Russian Strela-2M communications satellite Kosmos 1452.

---

Here's the time-line for the morning of:
Date: 19-Feb-2011 Saturday

6:24 AM - Name: IGS 1 H2A Rocket - Magnitude: 2.6
Int'l Designator: 2003-009-C
This is my third sighting of this Japanese H2-A rocket body which was used to launch the Japanese military recon satellite IGS 1. IGS stands for Information Gathering Satellite. Kudos to the Japanese for naming the satellite for exactly what it does.

Valentine's Viewing session and this morning

I got to go out on a fairly clear night on Valentine's Day. No, I didn't use my telescope. With those kinds ofb things, I tend to take my time, RTFM, test it out on a good day when I can see what what I'm doing, etc. For some reason, I did not fair very well (only 7 satellites) despite being outside for an hour.

There was a fairly bright older object that I wanted to see on Tuesday morning, however it's time was late (7:05am or something like that) and the sky was too bleached out to see it. :( There was also a plethora of satellites listed to be seen Tuesday evening, however it was overcast the entire evening.

Then, this morning I woke up early (and everyone else was up as well). I peaked through the blinds and noticed that it was fairly clear. There have been some older satellites that have been visible in the mornings lately, so I went downstairs and figured out if there were going to be any visible. There was one, so I quickly wrote that one down and then wrote down a few others. I quickly took a shower, got dressed and went outside. I managed to see four satellites in about a half hour. But MAN!!! It was COLD outside as there was a pretty decent wind blowing south to north. Alas, I did not see my target object, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Here's the time-line for the evening of:
Date: 14-Feb-2011 Monday

7:17 pm - Name: Cosmos 2228 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.0
Int'l Designator: 1992-094-B
This is my first sighting of this Tsyklon-3 rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite. This was the last successful launch of a Tselina-D satellite. An attempt to launch one last one, Tselina-D #69, a year and a half later in 1994 failed.

7:21 PM - Name: COSMOS-SkyMed 1 - Magnitude: 3.5
Int'l Designator: 2007-023-A
This is my 11th sighting of COSMO-SkyMed 1, an Italian earth observation (likely a reconnaissance) satellite.

7:42 PM - Name: Meteor 3M-1 - Magnitude: 3.0
Int'l Designator: 2001-056-A
This is my second sighting of Meteor 3M-1, a Russian weather satellite. It was launched in 2001 using a Zenit-2 rocket (which I would see 20 minutes later... see below).

7:52 PM - Name: Cosmos 1680 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.9
Int'l Designator: 1985-079-B
This is my third sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Strela-2M military communications satellite, Kosmos 1680 in 1985.

8:00 PM - Name: Cosmos 1242 Rocket - Magnitude: 2.7
Int'l Designator: 1981-008-B
This is my first sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite Kosmos 1242 in 1981.

8:05 PM - Name: Meteor 3M-1 Rocket (or SL-16 R/B) - Magnitude: 2.5
Int'l Designator: 2001-056-F
This is my third sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket which launched Meteor-3M, the Russian weather satellite. It's not very often that I see both the satellite and the rocket which launched the satellite in the same evening. The only other case I can think of at the moment was the launch of Shi Jian 6G and 6H that I spotted on Oct 7th, a mere 2 days after they had launched. At that point, the rocket and satellite were only 2 minutes apart (unless you count some of the rocket debris which was 30 second in front of the satellite.

8:07 PM - Name: Cosmos 2406 - Magnitude: 3.2
Int'l Designator: 2004-021-A
This is my second sighting of Cosmos 2406, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.

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Here's the time-line for the morning of:
Date: 16-Feb-2011 Wednesday

6:25 AM - Name: Yaogan 1 (JB-5 1) - Magnitude: 3.0
Int'l Designator: 2006-015-A
This is my third sighting of Yaogan 1, a Chinese remote sensing satellite. It is rumored that this is is also named JB-5 1 and is actually a SAR reconnaissance satellite. Yaogan was launched using a Long March 4C (CZ-4C) rocket in 2006.

6:28 AM - Name: Cosmos 2322 Rocket - Magnitude: 3.2
Int'l Designator: 1995-058-B
This is my second sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket which was used to launch a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite in 1995.

6:32 AM - Name: Resurs DK-1 - Magnitude: 3.1
Int'l Designator: 2006-021-A
This is my second sighting of Resurs DK-1, a Russian commercial earth observation satellite. It was launched in 2006 using a Soyuz U rocket.

6:50 AM - Name: IGS 1 H2A Rocket - Magnitude: 0.8
Int'l Designator: 2003-009-C
This is my second sighting of this Japanese H2-A rocket. This rocket was used to the Japanese spy satellites IGS (Information Gathering Satellite) 1A and 1B. IGS 1A was an SAR satellite, while IGS 1B was an optical satellite. This particular rocket was a H2A2024 which used 2 SRB-A solid rocket boosters as well 4 additional Castor solid strap-on boosters. It was launched in 2003.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

My wife is very cool. She got me a telescope for Valentine's Day. Yay! It's nothing huge, just a little ol' starter telescope but that's all I really need right now since I have no idea what I am doing.

In other space news, I managed to catch one satellite yesterday morning while looking through the glass of the front door. This is actually quite difficult because of the lights inside as well as the ability of glass to distort and degrade light coming from stars. I also managed to get a good hour plus outside last night in the brisk air. It wasn't too cold out but the wind nearly knocked me over a couple of time. I had about 3 old satellites on the list this evening, however currently the moon nearly overhead around 7:00pm so it washes out alot of the sky and the older objects were going to be very dim so, alas, I did not get to knock off any of the older years. When spotting things in the east, I would have to hold my hand or arm up to block the moon. That doesn't seem like much effort until you have to do it for a couple minutes straight. You arm gets tired quite quickly.


Here's the time-line for the morning/evening of:
Date: 13-Feb-2011 Sunday

6:47 AM - Cosmos 2360 Rocket - 3.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-045-B
This is my first sighting of this particular Zenit 2 rocket which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite, Kosmos 2360 on July 28 1998.

7:00 PM - Cosmos 1763 Rocket - 3.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1986-052-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Strela-2M military communications satellite Kosmos 1763 on July 16 1986.

7:03 PM - COSMO-SkyMed 1 - 2.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-023-A
This is my 10th sighting of COSMO-SkyMed 1, an Italian earth observation satellite.

7:26 PM - ADEOS Rocket - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1996-046-C
This is my first sighting of this Japanese H2 (or H-II) rocket which was used to launch the ADEOS 1 (Advanced Earth Observing Satellite 1) satellite. The H2 was launched only 7 times and succeeded in 5 of those launched. The creation of the rocket was an exercise in using existing technologies. It first launch was early 1994. Unfortunately, due to reliability and cost factors, it was retired in 1999 after losing its last 2 payloads, including one which self destructed.

7:28 PM - Shijian6-3Aptr (or CZ-4B DEB) - 3.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2008-053-D
This is my second sighting of this object which is some debris from a Long March 4B rocket. This particular rocket was used to launch a pair of Shi Jian 6 satellites, namely SJ-6E and SJ6-F on October 25 2008.

7:34 PM - Meteor 3M Rocket (or SL-16 R/B) - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2001-056-F
This is my second sighting of this Zenit 2 rocket body. It was used mainly to launch Meteor 3M, a joint Russian-US environment/atmosphere meteorological satellite. According to NASA, this rocket also launched four other satellites: Kompass (a Russian for exploring earthquake prediction capabilities), BADR 2 (a Pakistani satellite for updating the status of ground based commanding stations), Maroc-Tubsat (a Moroccan test satellite for a 3-D attitude control system), and Reflector (a US satellite whose acronym means Retro-reflector Ensemble For Laser Experiments, Calibration, Testing & Optical Research).

7:49PM - Meteor 1-31 Rocket - 2.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1981-065-B
This is my fourth observation of this Vostok-2M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Meteor 1-31 meteorological satellite.

7:55 PM - Meteor 2-4 Rocket - 3.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1979-021-B
This is my first sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Meteor 2-4 meteorological satellite in 1979.

8:02 PM - Helios 1B - 3.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1999-064-A
This is my ninth sighting of Helios 1B, the French photo-reconnaissance satellite.

8:18 PM - Cosmos 2406 - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2004-021-A
This is my first sighting of kosmos 2406, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite. It was launched into orbit using a Zenit-2 rocket.






I tried to spot satellites from 1960, 1965 and 1966 last night, but their just weren't bright enough to be seen by the naked eye. I still need to see satellites from the following years: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1966, and 2011. Only 7 more years to go.

One in the morning, one in the evening

Managed to get some time in yesterday during the REALLY cold morning and the just-about-as-cold evening. Both objects were new, so ... yay!

Here's the time-line for the morning/evening of:
Date: 10-Feb-2011 Thursday

6:46 AM - CZ-4 DEB - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2006-046-D
This is my first sighting of this object. This is some debris from a Long March 4B rocket. This rocket was used to launch a Shi Jian 6 pair of satellites (SJ 6C and SJ 6D). These satellites are reported to study the environment in space, however some speculate that that may also be used for ELINT (electronic intelligence).

8:31 PM - Cosmos 1680 Rocket - 3.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1985-079-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket which was used to launch Kosmos 1680, a Russian Strela-2M military communications satellite.

Another clear evening, thank goodness

I was starting to get a little bit of satellite spotting withdrawal. Finally it was a clear night. I only got about 5 minutes in, but that was all I needed to spot 3 different object, one of which was totally bad ass.

Here's the time-line for the evening of:
Date: 8-Feb-2011 Tuesday

7:26 PM - orange fireball - 1.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: (possibly) 2006-050-AM
This was a bright orange fireball that cross the entire sky, going S to N, in about 3 seconds. The odd thing about this fireball is that it wasn't circular. It was, well, like a wide bright orange line crossing the sky. About the width of your pinky nail. I believe that there was a very light smoke trail that was left behind. Based on one website, this potentially was the decay of a piece of a Delta IV rocket (a Delta 4M, the smallest of the Delta IV rockets, to be exact). It's marked as being 'debris'. Based on the amount of debris from this particular launch, I would have to guess that either something catastrophic happened to the rocket OR it was the victim of a space collision with some other piece of space junk. This particular Delta 4M was used to launch DMSP-5D3 F17, a U.S. meteorological satellite for the DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program).

7:26 PM - Cosmos 2227 Rocket - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1992-093-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit 2 rocket body which was used to launch Kosmos 2227, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.

7:28 PM - Cosmos 2297 Rocket - 2.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1994-077-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit 2 rocket body which was used to launch Kosmos 2297, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.



I still need to see satellites from the following years: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1966, and 2011. I notched 1969 at my last session after spotting Meteor 1-1. Only 7 more years to go.

Lately....

Here's a brief update of all kinds of stuff...
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The one job that I was really pulling for gave me a 'not at this time but maybe later'. That was very much a drag and very depressing for me, but I'm getting my head back up and will continue on the search.

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Ian and I went to the record show. Well, it's more like we were in the same building since we really didn't get to talk much and we didn't do lunch afterwards. I managed to get 6 or so albums. Amazingly, most of them WEREN'T dollar bin records. I got an album called 'Moog España' which I've already listened to. It is what it sounds like... some 'spanish' songs done with a Moog synth. Not horrible, but not that good either. I picked up a Railroad Sounds album on the Audio Fidelity label; this was a record I remember that my dad had that I played when I was growing up (listen to it on YouTube here). I picked up some bizarro album that I can't even describe except to say that it is a 1950/1960s album in the Hawaiin/Polenesian vein of things. For $3 I finally picked up the Rollings Stones 'Sticky Fingers' album with the zipper on the cover. I also picked up Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds (released in 1978); obviously there is still come interest in this since there is actually a web page for it. I swear that I picked up another album or two, but I can't remember them for the life of me.

------------------------------

When I got home from the record show, the wife asked if I was going to listen to any of the albums I bought. I then realized that since moving into the house a year ago, I hadn;t actually hooked up the record player. So, I went downstairs to do that. I don't have a proper stereo to play it through anymore, so I knew I was going to have to hook it through the computer, which was fine since I wanted to rip some of the albums. Well, let me tell you that the onboard audio for my PowerSpec is, to put it politely, very tempermental. When I was recording the Devilcake stuff for Ian, I pretty much had to restart the computer every time I stopped Cool Edit because it would get all confused. Plus, it wouldn't let me monitor anything so I was kinda doing everything blind. I wouldn't know if I had a good signal until I stopped Cool Edit. Anyhoo... the last time my parents brought more of my crap back from Portsmouth, they brought one of the few remaining junker PCs. It pretty much only has a motherboard, a case, an old 4x CD drive and.... a sound card. Since it was a computer I build for my parents, I think, or maybe it was one of my original ones that I gave to my parents... anyways... it had a 5.1 sound card / game card in it. I plugged it in and of course, being Vista Home Basic, it puked on the plug and play. But I refused to be denied so I cracked open the computer case again and tried my best to find my model number and all that happy crap. And, with a few swift keystrokes I had the Vista drivers. I hooked up the record player into the mixer board Todd gave me eons ago (while tempermental, missing some knobs and occasionally gives some nasty feedback if the cords aren't just so, it's still works like a champ), plugged the mixer into the Line In and viola. I had sound. Luckily Vista didn't get all weird and it worked without me really having to do anything. Thank goodness. So I ripped the Moog España and another album, Walter Carlos By Request whilst half-watching the Super Bowl. Looking forward to ripping some albums.

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I have too much crap in my house. Note, I said "I" not we. Whlie my Mrs may have some things, she also moved alot and any non-essential things were usually tossed in the transition. Me? I never moved that much and continually moved into a bigger place each time, so I kept everything. Well, now I don't have as much room for things but the piles are the same size and there is STILL more stuff in Portsmouth. So I'm going to have to do some soul searching, some selling and some trash dumping. I am admittedly a collector of just about anything. I like things. I don't like throwing things away that still have purpose. So I tend to keep things WELL past the time that most people would have chucked them. But, honestly, being in my little man cave is now a bit suffocating. There's just too much stuff and it all my stuff. So, it's got to go. I tried doing a CD purge before the last garage same and only managed to fill up one CD tower. I have 8 or 9 or something. And that's not counting the 5 or 6 boxes of CD boxsets. And it's certainly not counting the 600 cassetts I have. Nor is it counting the teb 12x12x12 uHaul boxes full of LPs. Or the one crate full of 78s. TOO MUCH STUFF. And that's just the music crap. That's not counting all the other things I keep which ... honestly.. i can't even enumerate or even elaborate on. Obv, it can't mean THAT much to me if I can't even put into words what I have.

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I've determined that "Storage Wars" on A&E is very curious to watch. I mostly enjoy it, though you can usually see how each episode is gonna play out. Dave's just an ass, but he has the money and skills (and luck) to shut most people up. Jerrod gets pissed off with Dave and usually ends up spending too much money on things (though sometimes, like for most, it works out). Darrell despises and taunts Dave with every molecule in his body... and of course Dave usually returns the sentiment. And Barry, never seems to know what he is doing and just baffles me to no end on the things he purchases and keeps and whatever.

I also started watching Gold Rush Alaska on Discover. I've only seen one episode, but it's gotta be close to the end. Basically these guys sunk 250k into equipment and leased a plot of land known for having gold. But they wasted 3 months using their homemade equipment that pretty much didn't catch any gold for various reason. So now, they've fixed the stuff but only have like 6 weeks or so left in the season. It's bizarro how you could sink that much money into and not do ALL of your homework. Sure, the dude's dad was a miner at one point, but cheese and rice, make sure that what you've cobbled together is going to do SOMETHING other than catch much and let all the gold flitter away downstream. C'mon!