Introduction

   Hello, fans of the cosmos-- or someday soon perhaps!  Welcome to my astronomy journal, now about to be in blog form after 5 years.  On that note, if you want to read anything from my non-blogged archive, feel welcome to contact.

   The entries will include a daily series of astronomical facts, figures, bits, trivial stuff, and--most amusingly--alot of things that you may not give the slightest darn about, yet find fascinating and intriguing anyway! 
important note: keeping the aforementioned in mind, and since I am a novice when it comes to blogging, most entries will be divided into two sections:

brief
if you are--for some strange reason--in a rush out the door, yet care enough to give my words a little attention.

detailed
given the length of this intro, if you even finish reading it, you may want to ignore this section; unless perhaps, you are extremely curious in what I have to write about, and obsessively compelled to check it out.
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 I will start the series this coming Monday, March 19th; more on why that is later, in entry #1.  Chabot Space & Science Center (CSSC) where I spend more time than I can sometimes keep track of, will be the location for which my software image coordinates are based.  Unless otherwise noted, CSSC will be the viewing point of all of these images and journal references to such, using the coordinates of the observatory plaza there; more exactly, the center of Compass Rose on our plaza, at 37º 49' 09" North (37.81926º), and 122º 10' 54" West (122.18171º).  Is that exact enough for you!?  If you don't believe me, map it, zoom in a bit more, and find that you either (a) feel silly for having just wasted your time by not believing me, (b) found out how cool it is too see us from above...or both! 
   Getting back on topic, sometimes the info given can apply to surrounding locations anywhere in Oakland proper, or more rarely, the entire Bay Area.  However, a few highlights will, or might, require one to be at Chabot's observatory plaza only. 

   Throughout these journals, I will also include images from Starry Night® (SN) software, giving proper credit naturally, in each journal.  Using SN pro-plus 6, including regular updates, I will "paste" at least one image per entry.  Sometimes, I will include an image that looks like the real, night sky.  Other times, I will alter them to illustrate and point out what I am trying to put my focus [of attention] on.  This software may not be perfect, but it does have some near-realistic images, thanks to good resolution and much more that was put into it by the creators, engineers, techies, etc.  I will also include alot of info such as time, celestial coordinates, number values for measurements, and much more.

   Okay, that's enough yapping with this long-winded intro.  Let's start the journals for a blog that I perhaps should have started 5 years ago, and see how far I get with them!  Enjoy, happy reading and viewing...weather permitting, of course. :-)