The meteorite is the source of the light, and the meteor's just what we see.

Holy Geminids!

Tonight is the closing of the Geminid meteor shower. I have an alarm set for 2 A.M., but I'm wary I'll push the snooze button one too many times. I did, however, check it out last night. Only for about a half hour, and well before 2 A.M., but I got about 5 sights of stars a-shooting! Mom, Dad, and myself set out into the 34 degree night with some amazing layers, a chair, a Droid (with one of those fancy constellation apps), a flask of Tullamore Dew, and my camera and tripod. Oh, and did I mention the pack of dogs? It was pretty cute. Here are a couple of night shots:

Daddy in his fancy coveralls getting oriented by the constellations

Very out-of-focus view

Star shots are much harder than you'd think...

The cloud cover that eventually sent me inside

Winter trees and a meteor shower. Mm..

On my second trip out, I got distracted...

Ok, so I didn't get any action shots, but I don't claim to be a professional. These guys, however, might:

"Gems from Geminid meteor shower"

Also, I found a nice, if outdated, tutorial on meteor shower photography here:

Meteor photography tips

There's nothing better than getting comfy under the infinite sky and watching stars come down. Especially with good company and a little whiskey... And, if you're really fancy and a fan of my very favorite musical artist, playing "Emily" (by Joanna Newsom) while you do it. (Here's a video I got of it live - not the greatest audio OR video, but beautiful none-the-less.)



In other, more crafty news, I began my first knitting project yesterday morning! My interest in the knitting scene was piqued by my friend Ralph, who is among the most precious of all human beings on this planet.

Ralph, knitting on an Oxford back porch on a hungover Sunday morning

He gave me a little basics lesson right on that porch, and I was hooked! He, however, is a little more advanced than I, so I had to start at the beginning...

Have you ever realized how amazing YouTube is? In addition to providing an outlet for remixed news-reel (complete with autotune) and  parrots dancing to "Whip My Hair", there are some seriously useful DIY video tutorials. Such as the one I used to get me started with my knitting:

Knitting Basics - Lesson I

And so, Krista taught me how to cast on and start knitting. Which is pretty much as far as I've gotten. Granted, I'm doing a scarf without any frills, so that's pretty much all I need to know until the very end. I'll keep you updated on how it goes. Here she is so far:

As with all of my projects, I am learning the hard way about the idiosyncrasies of the medium, which is just my way of learning. But it's going pretty well so far, and I've already decided what my next project will be: a sweater for my pup! Fern has been feeling left out, in Mom's barrage of sweatered Yorkies, so my goal is to mend the situation by the end of the year! How precious will this little bit look in a sweater:

Any votes on yarn color/texture?