Stephen Kennedy's Rants

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A treat for all astronomers on the the 8th of November 2006. The planet Mercury will be able to be seen transiting the face of our star, the sun.

If you have a telescope with proper solar filters (never look at the sun with your naked eyes, or with a telescope or binoculars with proper solar filters) you will be able to see this event take place over 5 hours.

Starting at 12:12PM MST Mercury will be visible against the sun’s surface. If the weather stays clear I will try and get some pictures to post on my site so stay tuned!

Stephen

While on our recent cruise, SWMBO (She who must be obeyed) and I were walking through the Schooner bar on the Rhapsody to go see the game show going on in the Shall We Dance Lounge on the very first night. The Schooner bar is really just a bar that is on either side of the hallway leading to the lounge. We had just attended the welcome aboard show where Derek Lewis gave us a sample of his Adult Daycare at Night program in the Schooner bar. SWMBO was in front of me as we started walking through were Derek was performing, then suddenly she was behind me. In a fog I kept walking and was stopped by Derek the Entertainer who wanted to talk to me. Little did I know that this was a part of his show, Kamakazee Karaokee, where he grabs unsuspecting people and forces them to sing… Uh oh!

When Derek found out I was from Calgary he asked if I knew the Rodeo Song! Being a Calgarian the answer was, Duh, Yeah! Anyway the song that was picked for me was the Beach Boys California Girls. I was told that I was to hold the Mic like a Rock Star from Calgary and not a Campfire Girl from Medicine Hat (I was impressed, her knew a little about Alberta)! If I did not know the medley I was to read the lyrics in a loud and dramatic fashion. What’s attached is my rendition. Although it is pretty horrible, it is not as bad as some of the others that were out there and not quite as bad as William Hung (American Idol)!

After my number my business manager and SWMBO was given a “recording contract” for me to come to the CD release party on the final night of the cruise where I could hear my performance… Here it is! Again a warning, if you can’t stand nails screeching on a blackboard you may not want to listen to this!!

We spoke with Derek after the show and he asked about the Rodeo Song. Knowing I had it on my MP3 Player, I told him I would burn a CD with it on it for him. We gave him the CD with the song and a few other party favorites (Gay Eskimo).

We saw Derek a few times during the week and he had learned the Rodeo Song and said we would do it the final night! Saturday Night rolled around and we went to the release party. Derek saw me and called me up and we did the Rodeo Song, Uncensored, Although he couldn’t sing some of the words, I could! Well that was fun! Here is a link to our Rodeo Song performance. Be warned not only can I not sing, there is explicit language (several of the few words you still can’t say on TV).

I take no responsibilty to damage to your hearing after listening to this!!!

 Rodeo Song

I admit it is awful but I had fun doing it!

S 

 

My better half and myself recently went on a cruise in the Western Caribbean. We departed Galveston, Texas on September 24th, sailing on Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas for Key West, Fl Georgetown, Grand Cayman and Cozumel Mexico.

I have posted about 1000 pictures at

https://www.chinookcity.com/gallery2

S

If you are planning to take a cruise with one of the cruise lines that departs from Galveston, beware of transportation issues, especially if you arrive at Bush Intercontinental! There is no easy (or inexpensive) way to get from Houston to Galveston! So far the best option I have been able to come up with was to book a hotel near IAH and then rent a car from Enterprise and frdrop iot off in Galveston (additional 40.00 fee)! Still much cheaper than what the cruise line offered us and wil probably work better tool Unfortunately the Cruise company we booked through was unfamiliar with the area. They found us a great package but the Hotel was at Hobby airport and required a 60.00 USD (approx) cab ride from IAH to the Hotel!

After having hotel reservations screwed up on a business trip a couple of months ago, I always double check everything well in advance now!

I have just posted three shots I took of the moon. All three were taken Sept 8th between 12 and 1:30 AM through my Celestron C6SGT and with my Canon Digital Rebel XT. I am pretty proud of these as this was the first time I used the Rebel XT on that scope. Two are taken just directly through the scope, (the top half and the bottom half images) and the other was taken using an Antares 6.3 Focal Reducer (Full moon shot). Have a look. They can be seen in my gallery at the following location.

https://www.chinookcity.com/gallery2