Coon Rapids Tornado 2008

We almost got sucked up into a tornado today whilst shopping at Costco in Coon Rapids!

After spending a pleasant afternoon of stimulating the economy, we ready to head home to admire our spoils. Around 4:30 p.m., we had finished checking out at Costco and were heading for the doors. There were several people ahead of us in the line
where they check your receipt against your cart of stuff. We saw that the clouds were getting really dark, and Bobi said look at the wind.

At this point, several Costco minions hauled butt for the front doors. The chatter on the radios was that they could not get the outside outside doors closed because of the wind. We then heard on one radio that there was a tornado over Menard's, which was just to the east of Costco.

We then saw the big metal shutter over the inside of the front door being pulled down, and the cart/receipt checker people starting to shoosh us further into the store. On the radios there were many calls to get the people to the middle of the store. We ended up standing next to a big rack of merchandise, when one of their people said to get away from there. At this point, we ditched the cart and headed further into the store.

At this point, we saw people camping out under the heavy metal tables in the clothing dept. We found an open space under a table of khaki pants. We crawled under that, and then heard assorted banging and crashing sounds from the roof. We stayed there for a few minutes as the storm passed over head. After a couple more minutes, we saw something sort of strange. Two employees went running towards the front of the store pushing a cart full of cookies! WTF? We've been evacuated to under a table of khaki pants and these people are making a run for it with loads of cookies? It seemed sort of surreal at that point.

Right after that, the all clear went out over the radios and we made out way out from under the table. Our adventure wasn't quite over yet!

This was a two part storm, with another section about 10 minutes behind the first. We got out the car and loaded the stuff and as we started out, heard stories on the radio of cars over turned on Highway 10, If we had left Costco 5 minutes earlier, that could of been us. We took the back roads home, with a large nasty looking cloud in hot pursuit!

We had enough time to grab the computer, weather radio, chuck the steaks in the fridge (priorities man, priorities.) and run for the basement. It was kind of anti climactic after that. The TV said there was a tornado warning for our part of the county, but we just heard a lot of rain, and a couple of booms of thunder.

I got a couple of neat picks of the storms after they were to the east of us. I also talked a little to Scott, our next door neighbor. While we were under the khaki pants table in Costco, he was out on the front step watching the tornado mosey on past to the north of Spring Lake Park. There wasn't any damage here, but it sounds like some houses in Hugo MN were damaged, no word of injuries.


After the storm

Sweet!!!

So I finally got the ST80 outside and was able to use it!

Since the ST80 has a short focal length, Chromatic Aberation is gonna be an issue. i looked at the moon, and it was nice and clear, with just the slightest bit of purple fringe around the edge. For me, it was not an issue, and even looked kind of cool. I am sure that refractor purists are having kittens at this point, but such is life. There is one accessory that comes with the scope that takes care of this issue.

The lens cover has a 40mm hole in that when uncovered, effectively increases the focal length of the scope and makes the CA go away. The trade off is reduced resolution.

My other targets were Saturn, which is showing the rings getting flatter and flatter until they go edge on in 2009.

The last stop was the double star Castor, in Gemini. The scope was able to split it at roughly 133x. The two components were both bright white. Pretty cool

Here's to clear and dark sky's at Eagle Cliff campground next week!

A duck has to quack, a crocheter has to crochet...

A nerd with a telescope and a clear warm night has to get outside!

It's been one heck of a nice night here tonight. I've been able to bike to the library, clean out my portable grills for camping, and low and behold, I could take the scope out!

This is about my 4th try at using the ST80. Other trips out have been foiled by crummy weather, wussy tripods, and other misfortune. I think the stars are aligning tonight, no pun intended.

Using the adapter plate for the Astroview mount, I have a steady ride for the scope. No dropping down or up to weird angles, no shifted images when moving the scope, and not as many wiggles as a camera tripod. I also dragged out the Denver chair that me an m brother spent the better part of 2007 making.

The moon is getting close to full, so I am not expecting to many faint fuzzies, but like they say, when the moon is out, observe the moon. I am also going to shoot for Saturn, and the beehive cluster.

This means that I am going to be busy as all get out getting stuff together for the camping trip. I know that Bobi has the yarn ready at least!




The scope on the Astroview mount... the rain gauge is keeping it company

The business end of the scope!

The Tent, Part 2

Welcome back!

If you're following along with your printed instructions for the Big Agnes Big House 4, we're at step 8

Unfold the rain fly and place it over the top of the tent. Again, the yellow buckles and straps represent the front of the rain fly. At this point, the urge to ignore the instructions kicks in for some reason. I ended up buckling all the buckles, and the then tried to set up the last two poles that give the fly it's shape and support over the doors.

Here's the correct sequence:

1) Make sure the yellow buckles are on the front.
2) Attach the two buckles in the middle of each side of the tent.
3) Then starting on the front, insert the larger pole in the sleeve in the front of the fly. clip the strap to pole running from the middle of the tent.
4) Insert the pole end into the grommet in the strap. Repeat for the other side. See the picture below for detailed view of the Rain Fly Support pole, the strap, and how it clips to the pole.

Repeat this with the pole for the other end of the rain fly.


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There is also a Velcro strap on the Rainfly that wraps around the tent pole.






At this point the tent is almost ready for use If I were really camping, I would stake it down. It looks like you can attach Guy Lines to the rings on the rain fly, and there are additional grommets on the tent strap to stake it into the ground.

After this, I tried too set up the Vestibule. The process is similar to that for the tent. You run a pole through a sleeve on the vestibule, and bend it to fit into grommets on both sides of the front. This is where I ran into trouble.

I could not get the the pole to reach both grommets. Either the pole was to long, or there was not enough space between the straps for the pole to reach. Maybe this was done by the guy that lost his spoon. He was probably off kilter after the missus gave him the who what where when why for losing the spoon...


Overall, I think that we're going to like this tent. It took me about 45 minutes to get it together the first time, but that also included some time taking pictures, reading instructions, scratching my head, re-reading instructions and fixing things that I goofed up.

Aside from the vestibule, the fit and finish seems to be pretty good. The zippers were nice and smooth, and all the straps on tent, rain fly, and foot print line up perfectly.

On the inside, there is a lot of room, but then again this is the BIG House! I'm roughly 5'11", and I could stand straight up inside. There are also three mesh pockets on each side of the tent.

On the doors, you can unzip the inner part of the door from the top to reveal the bug proof mesh, allowing for more ventilation. You can do this on both doors and get a pretty nice cross breeze going in thee. There is also a small skylight, which is a clear portion in the rain fly.

So now I am really jonesing to go camping now and get out under the stars!

The Tent!

The time for our camping trip is drawing nigh.

Tonight I did a test set up of the tent, to make sure that everything was there, and in working order.

We got a Big Agnes Big House 4 tent, with the matching gear loft, foot print, and vestibule.




Here is all the stuff laid out on the table. From left to right we have the foot print (Orange sack), the gear loft, the vestibule in the yellow sack, and the tent.




Here's the footprint laid out. The two yellow straps on the left are the front of the footprint. These will match up with the yellow straps on the tent.




Starting to unfold the tent.




When I unfolded the other side of the tent, I found a spoon. Some poor joe in China is probably looking for that, and probably got a good talking to from the missus when he got home without the spoon. I can empathize with him.




The tent is fully unfolded. As promised, the yellow straps on the front of the tent match up with the yellow straps on the footprint.



There are five poles holding this thing up. The silver ones unfold to be about 15 feet long or so. Be careful if you are setting this up around power lines...



The tent becomes free standing with just two poles. The ends of the poles are inserted into gromets on the corners of the tent straps. There are two grommets in the strap, I think the inner grommet is for the pole, and the outer grommet is used to stake the tent to the ground.



The third long pole starts in a grommet in the middle of one side, and reaches over to a grommet in the middle of the other side. Again the power line warning applies, as the pole is sticking about 12 feet off the ground. The power lines you see in the picture are about 40 feet behind the tent.



After you get the third pole in place, attach the plastic clips on the tent to the pole. This is what gives you the interior space. This tent even comes with a welcome mat!

Ok, it's up. Now let's make it weather proof!