Rain, Rain, Go Away

This has been the rainiest June I can remember.  While I’ve really been too busy to have much time to get out under the stars (such as they are here in Brooklyn), even when I did have time it has rarely been possible.

We’re now on the road for a trip west of the Mississippi (well, a little bit west), but our first day of traveling hasn’t improved things.  It rained as we left Brooklyn, it rained at the birthday party we attended in Thiells (Rockland County), it rained as we drove toward Gettysburg, PA, and it rained after we checked into the hotel (but not, gratefully, while we unloaded the car).

This is our first major roadtrip as a family.  We overpacked.  We don’t look like Chevy Chase in American Vacation, but we the idea of having a minivan instead of the meager luggage allowance of the airlines caused us to pack to much.  Okay, I confess, it caused me to pack to much.  As in the 8-inch Dob and it’s paraphenalia, the AstroTech AT-66ED, the AstroTrac, my cameras, heaters, computers, power supplies and all related paraphenalia (no, that’s not a new word for the day, I’m just practicing).  I took over half the car with all stuff.  Of course, paranoid that I am, I have a lot of duplicate equipment there.  If one camera dies, I have a second.  I do only have one AstroTrac, so if that dies, I’m out of luck for long exposures.

But if it doesn’t stop raining, all that will be moot.