2018-08-07 Day 9 – Across the Straits of Belle Isle – and Down the Coast to River of Ponds


Because I had that huge lunch of fresh fish and chips yesterday – an apple and a bag of my carefully rationed channa was what I had for dinner yesterday. After dinner, went for a stroll and met  Guy and Joy – from the Sunshine Coast – off on their adventure across Canada – as soon as I get bandwidth – I will make sure this link is correct – and post a hello to them – see guyandjoysgreatcanadianjourney.com 

Anyway, the ski had been perfect in the afternoon – then cloudy – then around 7PM it started to clear. I told Guy & Joy to come join me around 9:15 if they wanted – and we would do a little bit of telescope adventure. Where I had the scope setup (I brought the MAK150 with me) – could not get Venus in the scope – but I made sure to show it to both of them. It was a pretty cool night –because is was dead nut simple to observe Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn –the onl missing one is Mercury to get the set of naked eye planets – so that was cool.

Started with Jupiter, and had a great shot, but would not come completely crisp. I thought it was haze in the atmosphere – we are already pretty far west. I realized in the middle of a deep sleep (i.e. it wolk me up) – it was dew – I had been conserving battery – so had not put the dew heaters on – and that was a mistake. Anyway – Jupiter was good in the 41mm and even the 13mm – but looking back I – I should have had the fucking dew heaters on – It would not come crisp

Off to Mars – and the clouds basically defeated any serious observation. I will point out/ remind you – we are just past the peak of a conjunction which is literally a once-in-a-generation – the next time it will be so good is 2035. So – I am a bit ticked off with myself for not taking better advantage of it this summer. Anyway, we got a good red glow – and sometimes – a pretty good disk – but the clouds were nasty – and I had no dew heaters on to make worst.

I think we actually did M13 before we did Mars. M13 is the  Hercules Cluster and in my opinion one of the most impressive objects it is easy to find and see. We again enjoyes this a lot with the 41mm – but as soon as I tired the 13mm – it sucked – I am sure this was dew – and amhoping for another night soon to prove it.

We split Mizar, which along with Albiro – are my favourite easy doubles. Then – over to Saturn – which looked great in the 41mm –and just sort of “blacked out” under higher magnification. Shit – I am sure it was dew – user error – darn darn darn!

By then – blackflies and the time of night meant it was time to shut down. I actually not only put away the scope –I packed most of the camp! I confess to being a bit in airport mode – since I had to catch the ferry this morning.

The drive this morning was very nice. A bit foggy at times, but some nice views. When I get some bandwidth and post photos, I will double check the place names and include those.

The Apollo is a cool old boat –showing her age a bit – but did a fantastic job getting us across the straights. See the pictures below for some of the views. One funny thing – buddy who guided me in to park had he in the left row withal the high body pickup trucks et al – and had me tight left – yikes – the driver’s door would not open – bumped into the “wooden curb rail. Had to climb out and in the passenger door.

Spent a nice afternoon touring down the coast. I knew I did not have far to go – so a very relaxed drive – end of airport mode! When I post the pictures – look for some commentary on the places. One funny story – it took me four different stops today  before I finally found a place to sell me a fishing licensee! But – I have one –and I spent about 45 minutes casting into the pond here at “River of Ponds” – no joy – but I still had a good dinner!

Even though the weather forecast has sucked – the weather has actually been pretty good – like today – some sunglass hours – some not – a quick scurry around camp after dinner to get shit out of the rain – then back outside to sit and enjoy once it stopped.

My kilometerage to Nfld is 3,385 km to the ferry. So – should be home well under 7K. Next time I do this trip, I think I will build some more slack in. This is great country.

Yer fren
Sandy, Camped on the Shores of River of Ponds, Nfld.








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