Good morning readers. I’m obliged you came by.
If you went outdoors with a clear sky last night early evening and craned your neck to look directly overhead you might have seen Altair. Around the time the light that met your eye was leaving Altair I was a young man approaching the age of 50.
I was beginning a new career, male hormones raging, severely involved in a tempestuous relationship with the lady described if you clicked the ROMANCE [https://sofarfromheaven.com/romance/ ] tab above. [When the light reaching your eye from Cassiopia is as old as the light last night from Altair]
When that last night Altair light was leaving home on the way to a rendezvous with your eye my old friend Keith and I were doing a different kind of time travel. We were stomping up and down mountains exploring the country around Santa Fe, discovering the ruins of numerous hippie communes begun and abandoned around the time the Altair-light was leaving on the journey to meet our then-eyes.
We were also searching the Zuni Mountains for a lost gold mine from a time when the orange giant in Scorpio was headed on its voyage to our eyes as we sat around our night camps gazing at the sky.
I was going to do a lot longer post about this, but I’m having a connection problem slowing things down. Probably moisture getting into the repaired phone line:
Artful Communications – White Trash Repairs 3
.
The light leaving Old Sol at the time I hit SAVE DRAFT will reach the earth about the time this furshlugginer computer finishes doing it. Roughly 8.5 minutes. I’m going to have to do more on this sometime when the connection’s not taking much longer than the light from moon-to-earth, start to finish.
Old Jules
So Far From Heaven 
There is so much to see in the winter’s night sky, you don’t know where to look. Did you read my blog when I told about something going faster than the speed of light? No, it wasn’t your internet connection.
Hi DizzyDick: I don’t recall whether I saw it on your blog, but I did read about it various places on the web. Quite a thing, that neutrino speed coming along violating all the rules. Thanks for stopping by. Jules
Good post Jules…enjoyed it very much.
I recently had to move because of my wife’s health, and where we were before, in the middle of the Wye Valley in Monmouthshire, Wales, there was no light pollution at all! The village became pitch black at night. Which was fine all the inhabitants new this and eveyone owned a good torch. My son would come home for a break from London and just sit out in the garden and marvel at the night sky. Now that we have moved to a new’ish house on a new’ish estate, all the streets are lit by huge sodium lights. It’s good for the neighbourhood watch scheme, but you can’t see a darn thing in the sky.
Thanks for an interesting and entertaining Blog my friend.
And, a Happy, Health and Prosperous 2012 to you.
Mark
Wales, UK
Mark: Thank you for the visit. I believe the best meal I’ve ever consumed in my life was in South Wales. A bed and breakfast at a place called Brekfa, or Breakfa. Glad you visited and reminded me of it. Gracias, Jules
Hi Jules
I can only think that maybe you are referring to Brecon? It’s about 30 miles from where I live and a very pretty little town. For the past umpteen years they have held the Brecon Jazz Festival there which has always been successful. However, I understand that because of the current poor economic climate that it has been cancelled this year, with no plans to reinstate in the future!
Cheers
Mark
Good Morning Mark. Brecon doesn’t sound right, but my memory’s dimmed … this was mid-1980s. I can’t even recall the sequence of it all. Seems to me there was a monument in the middle of the road not too far on the way there driving from London with this inscription:
This pillar is called
Mail Coach Pillar and erected
As a caution to mail coach
Drivers to keep from intoxication
And in memory of the Gloucester
Carmarthen mail coach
Which was driven by
Edward Jenkins on the 19 day of
December in the year 1835, who
Was intoxicated at the time
Drove the mail on the wrong side of
the road and going at
Full speed or gallop met a
Cart. Permitted the leader
To turn short round to the right hand
And went down over the
Precipice 121 feet where at the
Bottom near the river it came
Against an ash tree when the
Coach was dashed into
Several pieces
Colonel Glynn of Glanbrian
Park, Daniel Jones Esq. of
Pennybone, a person of the name of
Edwards were outside
David Leon D Harris Esq. of
LLandover, Solicitor and a lad
Of the name of Kernick were inside
Passengers and John Compton RD
I have heard where there is a
A will there is a way one person
Cannot assist many but many can
Assist a few as this pillar will
Shew which was suggested
Designed and erected by J bull
Inspector of mail coaches, with
The aid of 13 pounds
Sixteen shillings and six pence
Received by him from forty one
Subscribers in the year 1841.
The work of this pillar was
Executed by John Jones
Marble stone mason Llanddaroe
Near Carmarthen
Painted and restored
By Postal Officials 1901.
I don’t recall the town or village, at all, except there wasn’t much of it other than the bed and breakfast, which was a restored inn, or roadhouse. I’d have sworn the name was Breakfa, or Brekfa, but memory fades. Seems to me the next day headed for Fishgard, then back down the coast.
Thanks for the reply. J
Thanks for the reply.
A search comes up with references to Brechfa which is near the Brecon Beacons… maybe that’s it?
http://www.visitbrechfaforest.com/ etc.
Jeanne: That’s it. Thanks. J
Thankee Mark. J
Damn the computer and the slow connection; I wanted to read more.
You’re having an interesting life.
elroyjones: I’ll try to make up for it between now and when the light leaving Alpha Centauri right now gets here. Gracias, Jules
Today’s post is an example of why I’ve become a regular reader – your thoughts make me think, often outside the box. The link to your comments on a previous relationship is another.
I’d like to know where the star map came from. I think it would be really neat to see one similar but with vector arrows added to the stars in relation to galactic center.
Hi John Gall and thanks for the visit. Someone sent me the star map by email a long time ago, but just now I websearched it and found a similar, or identical map here: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/20lys.html.
Their home page, http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/12lys.html has a list of the other charts posted there, some of which are interesting. Gracias, Jules