We were delighted to find an "Obama barn" near our "summer home" in Port Clinton, a pretty conservative area.

Three things occupied us during October. Bob was involved with teaching another class for Baldwin-Wallace College's "Institute for Learning in Retirement"; this one (his 3rd) was titled "Iraq: Revisited and Beyond" and contained material from his previous class on Iraq plus more material on the post-"surge" situation.

He was also involved with taking sights for his U. S. Power Squadron navigation courses and both of us (Penney more than Bob) were involved as volunteers in the local Obama campaign.

Here's Bob adjusting his sextant while taking a sight on the moon (one of several) near Port Clinton.

The sextant sights frequently involved help from one or another members of the family, usually Penney (although Paul drove the boat one beautiful evening while Bob got his "three-body fix" on Jupiter, the moon and the star Arcturus.

Penney was able to put the time while Bob was getting set up to good use knitting an afghan for former-roommate and longtime pal Sharon Tucker. To the left: an early site, which proved to be a little too difficult to get to and not too comfortable once you were there.

To the right, a more comfortable site for sights, but it's later in the month, and darker!

The site chosen for most of the other sights was a small beach and boat-launch area at the end of Fulton St. in Port Clinton, which looks out over a portion of Sandusky Bay. The main advantage of this location is that it faces the southern horizon (a tough thing to find on the "North Coast"!). Most of the best bodies for navigational sight-taking are to be found in the southern sky, at least during morning and evening twilight, when sights have to be taken (you have to be able to see both the body and the horizon). Pictures to the right and left show the location.

 

Not an especially flattering picture of Bob, there, to the left, but you have a nice photo of the moon. It is, by now, probably a little too late to see the horizon, anyway, which may explain the frown!

To the right: Penney relaxing on the boat while Bob is busy with some chore or other. We hardly got out in the boat at all this summer, but in Cleveland one learns say (early and often), "Wait until next year!"