Day 374: Star Gazing (For The Moon I Own)

     That's right, I own a moon. Not the moon, but a moon at least. If you don't believe me (for whatever weird reason) you can read all about it right here, or read the brief blurb about it belowww.
     For those of you that didn't click that link and read about how I acquired a lunar satellite; I'll bring you up to speed. Through a series of articles and online videos I stumbled upon some guy who claimed ownership of the moon...Our moon. His name was Dennis Hope and he found a loophole in the paperwork governing the celestial body put in place by the United States and Russia. Basically, The countries agreed that no corporation/nation/country/whatever can claim to own the moon. Dennis saw that and assessed that he in fact, did not fall into any of those categories. Being just some guy, he claimed to own the moon, and no government or country has really minded.
     I decided that I'd do sort of the same thing. Our moon wasn't up for grabs, but that's cool cause I didn't really want it anyway. Instead, I set my sights on a moon that I had learned about in astronomy class. IO, the innermost moon of the planet Jupiter.
          -There you go, you're all caught up to speed.
     I had been planning this challenge for a couple nights now, but I kept having to push it back due to cloudy weather and such. But tonight was clear and mild and perfect for star gazing. Plus, it would be a perfect excuse to finally bust out the sweet telescope Stef got me for our anniversary months ago. I did a little bit of research about what I wanted to try to spot through the telescope. I downloaded a nifty app on my phone that would display the constellations in the night sky wherever I pointed my phone (pure genius). I got my equipment and headed out to try and find a dark corner in the parking lot of my apartment complex. Everything was all set up, and aside from feeling like a total weirdo every time a person with a dog walked by, I was feeling good. I could see some stars without the telescope, so I only assumed that I'd be seeing all the things with it.
     Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to get my sights on anything, even with my fancy star map app. I fumbled with the knobs and the twisty thangs, but I couldn't get a single star in my scope. I did manage to get a faint star in the little guide viewer, but I didn't come here to brag about that.
     Was it a failure? Yeah probably.
     Will I try it again? Totally, In fact, I'm going camping this weekend and there won't be any light pollution there so maybe I'll give it another go.

What I expected to see...

...What I saw

Day 104: Get Towed

Waiting on the street

Funky jazz lights

     Ya like the new layout? I've been spending way too much time messing with it instead of doing things like homework and actual blog updates. Honestly, I don't know if I like it, but whatever, well see. So I went to another jazz gig with Joey to beef up our know-how for this jazz paper we have to write. We went to this jazz club downtown called Dazzle to watch the Joey DeFrancesco trio play. Long story short: we over-payed to hear some jazz, eat some garlic bread (and a complementarity ice cream Sunday cause they messed up my garlic bread), and take notes for class. It was an enjoyable time and I felt good about my small amount of new found knowledge concerning the jazz genre. The trio ended with a funky cover of "Billie Jean" by the late Michael Jackson and we left the club. It wasn't till we reached the empty parking space that had once been occupied by Joey's car that we realized that we were screwed. His car had been towed, and we were stranded in Denver. This may sound like a lame challenge/experience thing (and in some regards, it totally is), but I couldn't really do my new thing seeing how I was stranded in city with nothing but a jazz notebook. This may be a lame experience (and it was. it really was) but its still a new experience, so that means I can count it. Joey and I spent the hour or so that it took for his mom to drive down and pick us up walking around and people watching in front of a weathered old liquor store. We were solicited by a couple guys wanting cigarettes and weed, and we kept attentive by watching the flocks of dance club-bound people. It was cold and dark and really uncomfortable, which makes for a pretty crappy situation. We eventually got picked up by Joey's mom, who felt that it was her job to inform us of how stupid we are. Apparently, even though we parked on the same block as the jazz club, we were on the property of the Spicy Pickle, and thats where the towing of the car came into play. Joey got slapped a $195 fee to get his car back and was made well aware of his dumb mistake. He went to the impound lot the next day to pay the fine and retrieve the vehicle. It really sucked, but now I know that getting towed is no fun at all.