More on the Conjunction, from XKCD

 Find the whole wonderful thing here...

As seen on TV

 

Unwanted Year

 

Farewell

 

Useful Flowchart

 

Lies about Money

 Fatcha, of course, tried to pretend that running a country's economy was like balancing the family accounts.  

Cameron/Osborne described it using the rhetoric of business.

It is, of course, like neither of these.  They were just handy way of distracting from their ideological class war on the poor and disadvantaged.

We wonder what mendacious lies Sunak will use for his own cuts to welfare, which will surely come as soon as he thinks he can get away with it.

Amazing Skies...

 Nunhead skies on Christmas Eve...

Lockdown Cornwall

BREAKING: The whole of Cornwall has been placed into Tier 4 lockdown after hundreds of pirates returned home to Penzance to celebrate Christmas with their families...

Apparently the Arrrrr rate has increased dramatically!

Poem - Epitaph

 Epitaph - By Merrit Malloy

When I die

Give what’s left of me away

To children

And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,

Cry for your brother

Walking the street beside you.

And when you need me,

Put your arms

Around anyone

And give them

What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,

Something better

Than words

Or sounds.

Look for me

In the people I’ve known

Or loved,

And if you cannot give me away,

At least let me live on in your eyes

And not your mind.

You can love me most

By letting

Hands touch hands,

By letting bodies touch bodies,

And by letting go

Of children

That need to be free.

Love doesn’t die,

People do.

So, when all that’s left of me

Is love,

Give me away.

The Great Conjunction

 We finally had a clear night tonight.

Looking from the top of the house I could perfectly see Jupiter and Saturn together. It might *just* have been possible to separate them with the naked eye, but with the camera they could be easily separated. With the strongest lens, pictures showed them as separate dots (see below, Saturn is the fainter of the two, at about 11 o clock). Then we tried the binoculars, which also clearly resolved two flecks of light.

They were higher above the horizon than I had expected, and the night was *really* clear, which meant there was a little more time.

So I wrecked the study digging out the 2 1/2 inch refractor bought (from Lidl!) 13 or so years ago, and half assembled it. No spotting scope, no fine controls. And with that we could see the two planets, in the same image, as more than mere dots. The paler Saturn was lower due to image inversion and slightly to the right. Saturn's rings were discernible - everyone saw it as ovoid, and I think I could just make them out. And there was a string of three tiny pearl-like moons stretching out from Jupiter.

Sadly, I can't (yet!) hook the DSLR up to the telescope. But just seeing the two planets together like that was quite amazing.

From the Nasa Website:

'What makes this year’s spectacle so rare, then? It’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this “great conjunction.”' (Click on the images to see them clearly)

Some Nunhead Skies

 

Pale Nunset

 A few Evenings Ago

Big Nunset - Reflections

 A week or so ago, we had a bright, orange, colourful Nunset.

This is what the other side of the house looked like at the time.  Orange windows!!

Blind Date Letter...

 

Masks

To summarise:

(i) You wear a mask primarily to protect others, not yourself. Although it can protect you somewhat also.

(ii) Covid-19 is a nasty disease; it can kill the fit and well, as well as the vulnerable, and can also cause severe debilitating impacts (long Covid)

(iii) You can have the virus and be spreading it for some time before symptoms develop, and if you are asymptomatic, then you may well continue to spread the virus without developing symptoms

(iv) There have been a number of studies which demonstrate the real efficacy of wearing a mask, for both droplet-borne and aerosol-borne Covid-19,

(v) Even a face covering is useful, simple masks are better, N95 masks are better still,

(vi) For the great majority of people, including those with asthma and similar illnesses, there are no problems with breathing, people don't get asphyxiated, or hyperventilate, that is an Internet-driven myth

(vii) They look smart, and you can now get creative with fabrics and so forth. Masks are cool!

(viii) Masks are just one part of the jigsaw - we also need to practice social distancing, wash our hands, avoid crowds, stick to our bubbles, and so forth

(ix) It is the law, so just do it.

Big Nunset

 

Nunrise