It's a new year!
On a cosmological scale the passing of a year certainly does not mean a whole lot. Light travels approximately 6 trillion miles (or about 9.5 trillion kilometers) in a year. So I guess that means that the light from all those faint fuzzies (some of which are many many light years away) that is rapidly heading towards my piece of glass in the backyard is just a little closer to arrival.
But for me, passage of another year means that a significant portion of the short time I have here on our little planet has been used up, never to be regained. Hopefully I've used the time granted me this past year wisely, though I know that hasn't been the case at all times.
I had 62 observing sessions in the dome in 2005, for a grand total of about 152 hours. I have not added up how many objects I actually observed but it sure has been a lot of fun.
Last night I spent New Year's Eve with some other amateur astronomers. We had a party at the home of my friend George who owns Starbase One observatory, located nearly at the base of Kitt Peak. Sadly, clouds prevented us from closing out 2005 and ringing in 2006 under the stars. But it was fun to talk stars. We also watched Star Trek First Contact on his big theatre system, and I noted that they used a Meade SCT as a movie prop. Apparently if the Enterprise ever visits our time I will be able to look through the eyepiece and see it floating in space!
Still have not formalized any New Year resolutions but I'm sure they will include a number of astronomical goals. Literally and figuratively.
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