Chris Curtis Web Site

Double Cluster in Perseus, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.

First light with the ATIK16ic camera fitted to my telescope. I took some time focusing, but am still not sure if this is quite “tight” enough. Still, pleasing enough for a first try.
I was keen to use a rare clear night, but very shortly after taking this, the telescope was so covered with dew that it could not see a thing – visually or with a camera, so I had to give up.
Taking astronomical photos is a black art and reminds me of fishing (not that I have done that for decades). You do everything you think you need to, but it is never enough. You have to add the “secret sauce” (or bait) and then, very occasionally, it works. Most of the time you come back empty handed despite carefully doing everything right.

The weather was exciting today. A deep low tracked from Cardiff South-Eastwards heading for the Channel over Wiltshire and Dorset, throwing off rain bands which in reality were lines of powerful shower cells with mammatus, hail, heavy rain and gusty winds. On the radar the system looked almost like a tropical one – with concentric rainbands around a clear low pressure centre – but no “eye” or eyewall structure.

I saw lots of rainbows, some spectacular hail and snow fallstreaks (though I was not under any), some inky black skies and some very vigorous convection with huge anvils and mammatus clouds.

This morning has the first real frost and fog this autumn. Trees are bare ( except older oaks) and there are carpets of leaves.

I went out this morning to join over 1,000 people all over the planet on the “world wide festival of races“. During this weekend, you either join in an organised race or run the distance using a gps watch (as I did) for the “Kick the Couch” 5K, the “Zen” 10K or the World Wide Half Marathon. Being realistic I went for the Kick the Couch 5K and finished in a new personal best of 29:12 – finally, after literally years of trying, beating the half-hour barrier!

I was not at my best. I have been ill all week and do not feel 100% today, but was determined to get this run in. I stayed dry, but it is grey and gloomy and the rain is never far away. Everything is autumnal in yellows and browns and it is cool – a good thing, really. I set off too fast but after 2K realised I was well under the 30 minute pace so gritted my teeth and kept going. The fourth kilometre was very hard: I was fading very fast and it seemed a long way still to go.

Anyway, a significant target met, even if the run felt scrappy and uncomfortable rather than smooth. Next target – under 1 hour for the 10K.

According to the software, personal bests for ALL the distances up to and including 10K were set this month. I am officially running faster and further than ever before.

It has been hard to run recently. It is dark much earlier in the evenings and this is a very busy time at work. If you miss a run or two, you feel much worse the next time you go out. It is all too easy to lose the running habit.

I decided I had to get out this afternoon and as the weather was calm and pleasant – neither too cool nor too warm – I thought I would run my old 10K route: the first time in many months. I started off gently and let myself have lots of short walk-breaks but also had some good long runs at steady pace. I ran along the pavement for 2K then up a track and through the woods until I came back roadside at about 5K to go through the industrial estate south of Gatwick airport, along a track between the railway and river, underneath the airport itself and back through quiet streets to home.

I was delighted with the run. new PBs for 1K, 1500m, 1 mile, 2K, 8K and 10K. Not threatening any records but respectable “jogger” times – just over the hour for 10K and all the distances now under 3K are at less than 5:30/km. Legs felt great (lack of running recently!) though my nose was runny and I have felt like I have a mild cold for days. Good motivator for more running.

Well, the running programme now calls for 5K training runs. Officially, there are no stops, but I find myself having to walk to cross roads or even having to stop for traffic and I still have a tendency to stop the clock for a minute or two about half way round, but I am just back from the first of these runs and my gps watch says that I ran or “jogged” 98% of the way. It took me 31 minutes and 56 seconds. This is a new personal best and if I keep it up, I should be running under 30 minutes by the time of the world wide festival of races (http://www.worldwidefestivalofraces.com)

Although these runs are laughably slow, they were unimaginable for me just 10 weeks ago when I was struggling to jog for two minutes. It is amazing how quickly the body adapts and develops if trained right. I am enjoying it too. It was light when I set out and dark when I returned. The evenings are becoming cool now and the sky was quite lovely as the colours faded through a million types of subtlety and a big, creamy yellow harvest moon emerged from behind picture-book clouds. I was in a private and wordless place, just pounding along at peace with the world – feeling the joy of everything moving, breath panting, blood rushing and being alive.

There was frost on the car windscreen and shadowed grass this morning – the first this autumn – so it was a cold start for my first orienteering event in ages.

Blacklands Farm is a camp and adventure activity site for the Girl Guides, so has large, fairly well mown grass fields, but also lots of woodland, which has lots of tracks and various interesting (and confusing) equipment dotted around inside. The woodland is on the slopes of a stream valley.

I am not very fit right now, and felt it, but managed to run a little faster than I feared and was not expecting to be competitive, so I just relaxed and went as fast as I could. I really enjoyed myself. Once I was warmed up, the day was calm and dry. It was lovely to be running in woodland and across fields. I had forgotten how good it feels to navigate cleanly and “nail” controls and navigation felt straightforward, perhaps because I was not trying to go “hell for leather”.

I was delighted to find I had come 11th (out of 30 or so), my best result for a very long time.