Rant: Dust. DST. So annoying

Last night I was out till 1AM trying to image Comet 41P  and four galaxies M51, M81, M82. If I haven't mentioned already I'm an intermediate amateur astronomer, really sky gazer. I use a Celestron 8 mounted on a really nice AVX mount. I love this scope.

So why the rant? First, like other amateurs astronomers I'm no fan of "daylight saving time". First the name is stupid because nothing is saved, especially the energy since DST encourages people to jump in their cars after returning from work.

Darkness is just shifted later into the night which means I have to stay up that much later to enjoy my avocation.Nothing I can do about this non-energy saving government policy gift to the retail and outdoor industry.

Anyway about the annoying dust. I should have checked my imaging camera earlier in the day and cleaned the surfaces. I captured what would have been a really nice image of galaxy M81 were it not for the big black dust shadow marring the image.

Comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák

Galaxy M-51

Galaxy M81

Galaxy NGC2403

Should you default to Amazon?

I don't order items from Amazon that often. That, said one of the best places to read reviews is Amazon.

Frequently I find better deals at other vendors that get overlooked by Amazon defaulters especially Amazon Prime members.

For example B&H Photo and Video in New York charges no sales tax outside of the Big Apple and offers free expedited shipping for items over $49.

Bezos is already filthy rich. Consider spreading some of that wealth and maybe even getting a better deal. 

RANT: Why does a book about a one minute workout need to be 270 pages?

On one of my favorite science podcasts,   Quirks & Quarks  the author of the book

One-Minute Workout was interviewed. I'm a heavy library user and promptly went online to see if the local branch had the book. As expected, on checking the table of contents, the book was in the mid 200 pages in length.

I'll find a magazine article or two  that summarize the gist of the book. I suspect publishers push authors to fatten books to justify the price of the book. At least one Amazon reviewer has described the book as repetitive, a common characteristic of fattened books.