New Challenge
In October, I adopted a new dog. He is a rescue approximately still under two years old. His specific breeds are unknown, though the best guesses I have heard are Beagle, Terrier, and possibly Italian Greyhound (due to his long legs and body shape). I named him Fritz.
Fritz is the youngest dog I have ever had, and he certainly has a lot of “puppy” in him. Loves to bite at my slippers and pants, as well as swipe my shoes to bring into his “lair” a.k.a. the center of my living room. It’s been a challenge to keep up with him, with all that pent-up puppy-type energy. We play in the yard and I take him on long walks, but he never seems to get tired.
Needless to say, acclimating a new dog to my house has taken up a lot of my time. As we soon enter Winter and its sometimes activity-killing cold, I will spend the next several months trying to teach basic obedience (at least he is house trained), and then go to formal training in the Spring.
My long-term hope – and I fully admit this is only a hope at present – is that one day Fritz and I will be trained enough that I can take him on hikes and stargazing adventures. How cool it would be, if I could back up my astrophotography equipment and dog into my pickup, and drive out West! But we’ll take it slow, starting with training and smaller trips.
Blog Designs
When not tending to my dog, or my house, or my job, I have been planning the future of this blog. I have had this platform running on Ghost for over a year, and have learned a lot, on what works, what doesn’t, limitations and opportunities. In short and without mentioning details, I am planning changes to stage my blog for future success. Though the changes may appear cosmetic to my readers, the back-end adjustments will be significant. Look for design changes either late this December or early 2023.
In the Sky, late 2022/early 2023
November’s highlight was the final Lunar Eclipse of 2022. See my article with eclipse image below. There was a lot about this eclipse that made it difficult to capture, as I explain in its article.
We are only a few days away from the next Mars opposition. A week ago I did a trial run on photographing the Red Planet, and hope to image Mars again either on opposition night or around that day, weather dictating.
As for the sky in general, this is the best night time of year to view my favorite Constellation, Orion, along with surrounding stars like the Pleiades. Conveniently, Mars is framed in that area of sky through December.
See In the Sky for my upcoming astronomy trackers.
