The Years Roll On

 We enjoyed a family dinner last night to celebrate Adam's 53rd birthday.  With beautiful salad and lamb, some olive bread and a couple of stellar old red wines there is not much more you could want!

Cooper's Basketball

 We watched an interesting game yesterday.  Cooper's team were struggling early and in the second half the number of fouls they received mystified all the spectators.  In fact they played a lot of the second half with 9 fouls against them.  Despite that they drew level and finished with a draw.  An amazing result.

Farewell BT (Big Truck) 50

 As Pat is now centred around Melbourne Uni, the BT50 had become a little too demanding on space and fuel so it has made way for a smaller and more efficient Corolla.  The perfect car for his requirements.

A Lazy Lunch

 The numbers are declining but we still enjoyed lunch with our friends from our 1998 European Tour.  The Platform Pantry in Blackburn performed well.

Winners Are Grinners

 Lachlan's team were playing the top team yesterday.  Things did not look promising in the early stages but the boys fought back to come away with a one point win!

The close call meant plenty of wry grins as the boys finished an incredibly close game.

Another Birthday Dinner

 We had a family celebration of Brett and Mark's birthday weeks ago and it was only this week that we were able to take both families out for their birthday dinners.  Last night we celebrated Brett's birthday at Rubik's, a great little refurbished restaurant in Kerrimur.

Birthday Dinner

 We had the opportunity to celebrate Mark's (long past) birthday at Yassas Greek restaurant in Ringwood last night.  It was new (to us) and we enjoyed the food.

It was our last opportunity for the meal before Mark and Jack headed up to Queensland to undertake a bathroom renovation for Mark's sister. The building team were all kitted out in their new gear.

Nebula Night

 Nice clear nights may be few and far between in winter but they do allow the gathering of good astro images.  Two nights back I got nearly 4 hours of imaging on the Cat's Paw Nebula, NGC 6334.  This nebula is about 5500 light years away and 70 light years across in the constellation Scorpio.  It is at the tail of the scorpion.  The red is emission from the massive amount of hydrogen in the area.

Last night the conditions were not great but I managed to image The Lagoon Nebula.  Around 5000 light years away it is a giant emission nebula with very active star formation (white areas) and I even found some blue from oxygen gas emissions (lower right).