i borrowed a huge telescope from the physics department yesterday. it's way bigger than i expected. @_@ there were three separate pieces to it (tripod, telescope tube, and all the smaller parts such as the mount, eyepieces, counterweight, etc.) along with my backpack, i knew it was going to be impossible to transport all of that home in the bus. x_x so i spent the $20 and took a taxi. better safe than sorry, considering how much this telescope probably cost. @_@ it's not even the biggest telescope you can get out, either.

the forecast said it was going to be clear out last night, so that was perfect. the moon is still good to look at (the fuller/brighter it is, the higher chance you'll destroy your eyes… and you won't be any shadows on the moon, so the detail is lost with brightness). uranus and venus are visible at sunset for a short period of time, so i wasn't planning on trying to see them, but saturn is visible all night long (it goes over the horizon at about 8am), so i was going to try and see that. also, probably the andromeda galaxy. you can't really see it very well at the end of march/beginning of april, so i figured i might as well try to view it while i still could. my last resort, if i couldn't find something i listed above, would be the orion nebula. probably the easiest to find aside from the moon. the middle of the three "stars" in orion's sword. easy. :D

i set up the telescope in my room, familiarized myself with how everything put together and how the telescope functioned, then put everything away. my mom said she'd take me outside the city so we could see stuff really well. *_* last thing i wanted was to be in a really dark place in the middle of nowhere not knowing how to put this thing together. so that went well. i had everything planned out, where to find everything in the sky (where things were relative to constellations, but i even had the exact declination and right ascension), but then grey's anatomy came on. and of course my family had to watch that. and i knew CSI was going to be on after that. thursday is my early day where i have class at 8. i had a test in that lab, as well. and i was kept up by AIM freaks till past 2:00am. so i got, like, maybe four hours of sleep? (blame jason, he PMed me on grep and told me to log onto AIM! ALL HIS FAULT!! >D) so i decided to take a nap while the were watching grey's anatomy, i'd get up and watch CSI, then we'd go.

yeah, didn't happen. apparently my dear mother and sister tried waking me up for CSI but i was a grouch and wouldn't get up. @_@ i totally don't remember. i do remember getting up after CSI was over, telling everyone that i'm going to call it a night because i'm too tired, and going right back to bed. -_- so yeah, sucky.

i then proceeded to sleep for ten hours. @_@ i tried getting up at 8:00 this morning, but i was still tired, so i slept in another hour. that's so bizarre for me, but i guess i needed it. and here i am. :D the forecast says that there is a chance of flurries today and tonight, so i don't think i'll be able to go out tonight. -_- it says sunny all weekend, so i can only hope it'll be clear at night too. :( we'll just have to wait and see.

at least i managed to give custom icons to a bunch of my stuff on grep last night. i accomplished something! :D