no.54 130623 Thank you for the clean water

I took this via my telescope using my digital camera.
I literally put my camera on the lens, but it came out pretty nice. I was really happy with the result.

Yes, there is supermoon today but I can't see it from my window. I went out for a walk to see if I can see it but I am surrounded by forest of high rise buildings so there is no chance. My cousin from Korea texted me this morning saying that she is outside watching the supermoon with her mom. The time difference between here and Korea is 13 hours, so it was night time there when she texted me. She said she saw some people out with their telescopes and told me that she misses looking at the night sky with me. She used to live in Toronto with my family back when I was in university. Both my cousin and I love looking at the stars. When the sky was clear, I would use my telescope to look at the stars and the planets, and I would often show it to my sister and my cousin. The quality of my telescope wasn't that great, but still, it was definitely fun to share a hobby together. Those were good times.

Back to today's main story. I joined my church's softball league for the summer, which started at the beginning of this month. We play every Sunday in the afternoon, and today by far was the hottest and the most humid day. I remember the very first Sunday we played, the weather was still a little cool and I had to put on my hoodie while I played. But today it was hot and humid all at once. Although I was constantly drinking water, I don't think it helped that much... because I have a small headache now. As soon as I got home, I drank lots of cold water, took a shower and did a cucumber massage (thanks to my sister!). I was able to really think about the importance of clean water in our lives and we use this resource for granted. Do you ever give thanks for the water we have? I do, but rarely.. probably once or twice a year. Water is plentiful where we live and we have an easy access to it, so forgetting to be thankful for something as simple as clean water may be obvious, but it shouldn't be. Today, I'm gonna praise God and be thankful for the clean water that I have!

no.52 130621 Thank you for the first day of summer

A fun summer day with my cousin

Summer officially begins today with summer solstice marking the longest day of the year. I've also read from National Geographic that the supermoon of the year will be visible this coming Sunday. It refers to the moon at its closest to earth (called perigee), and apparently it happens when there is a full moon this year. According to NASA supermoon appears up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than when the moon is at its furthest point (called apogee).

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I have a stargazing app on my phone which I use from time to time. The last time I was outside actually observing the night sky was probably sometime last month, or it could be the month before. My excuse for not going out at night to look at the stars is that the days have gotten much longer.

I suggest that you download the app and look at the night sky! With the app, it's not so difficult to locate the stars, I guarantee! If this is too hard, then at least go watch the supermoon as you only get one opportunity a year! I also want to recommend a song today, it goes really well with star gazing. I'm actually listening to it right now, as I am writing this post. It's my one of my favourite jazz musicians - Eddie Higgins Trio, and the piece is called 'Moonlight Serenade.' It's a sweet, sweet song by my favourite kind of trio, comprised of piano, double bass and drums.

It's kind of ironic that I'm encouraging you to go stargazing on the longest day of the year. Anyways, I'm thankful for this beautiful day of the first day of summer. I've been complaining that it didn't feel like summer since we had many spring-like days. I'm probably going to complain that it's too hot from now on, because we're back to normal summer weather. Ah, but summer should feel like summer, not spring!

Happy summer!