McDougalls Home

Jupiter and Its Moons

John — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:51:12 +0000

Last night, (Friday, August 27) my wife, Carol, and I were looking at the near full moon. There was a bright start to the right and a bit lower than the moon. Carol commented that she doesn’t remember that star being on the right side of the moon. I guessed that maybe it was a planet and then went in and fired up Stellarium, a free planetarium program that I have on my Ubuntu computer. The “bright star” turned out to be Jupiter. I tried looking at it through binoculars, but that didn’t work too well. I also have an ancient telescope that I haven’t had out in years. I brought it out, and after spending some good time trying to locate the moon, then locating Jupiter (As I said, the telescope is very old and the sighting eyepiece has been damaged for years), we focused in on Jupiter. It was very small, but clear. I could see four very tiny dits of light around Jupiter, that could just be reflections of something in the telescope or my eyes. Nevertheless, I went back to Stellarium, and zoomed way in on Jupiter, and lo and behold, there were four moons visible around the large planet. I went back to the telescope, and there were Callisto, Europa, Io, and Ganymede, exactly where they were in real life (except the telescope reversed the image). Europa was right next to Jupiter, but it could clearly be seen in the telescope when it was sharply focused. It was quite exciting to see, even if it was an underpowered old telescope, being used by a very amateur, amateurish astronomer. Click a picture below to see a larger view.

- John

Jupiter taken with digital camera through telescope.

The moon and Jupiter through the naked eye.

Stellarium's view of what we saw.

How we saw Jupiter through the telescope. (this photo is from Stellarium)

Courageous The Movie

John — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:59 +0000

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I’m getting excited about this film. Courageous is being made by a church in Albany, Georgia. This will be their fourth movie, the latest being Fireproof. Our family loves and has each of their previous movies. Check out Courageous’ web site HERE, and find their older films HERE. These are GREAT FAMILY MOVIES!

- John

My Thunderbird E-Mail Program Is Pretty Smart

John — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:01:05 +0000

I admit it, I have a weird sense of humor.

I received an email from Montana’s Senator Max Baucus. You know, the one that helped cram down the multi-trillion dollar “health care” bill down our throats. Anyway, I use Mozilla Thunderbird as my e-mail client (program). And, guess what! Thunderbird thinks that the e-mail from Max Baucus may be a SCAM!! Yup, Thunderbird is a pretty smart program, but be careful if you decide to “Ignore the Warning”!

Click on the screen shot for a larger view.

Video of Tornado Aftermath in Billings Montana

John — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:30:39 +0000

Billings Montana experienced a tornado on June 20, 2010. I had to travel to Billings on the next day to see if any equipment of ours (for my work) was damaged. Here is a short video I took of the aftermath of the tornado.

– John

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Katie’s Artwork

John — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:30:20 +0000

Katie took art class this past semester. She enjoyed it very much; and now that the school year is almost over, the art classes had an art show. Several pieces of Katie’s were proudly displayed. Here are some of them. Click one for a larger view.

Great job Katie!

Alia’s Home Made Handbag

John — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:46:57 +0000

Alia made this hand bag. We think it is pretty neat. Click a picture to see a larger view.

- John

Katie’s 16th Birthday

John — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:09:51 +0000

Click the photo to see more from Katie's 16th birthday.

We celebrated Katie’s 16th birthday last weekend. We all dressed up and went out to dinner at the Jade Garden. We had a great time. We were put in a back room with a couple of other large parties, and one couple. One of the parties began to sing “Happy Birthday” to someone at their table. As soon as they were done, the next party started singing “Happy Birthday” to someone at their table. Of course, we couldn’t resist, we started sing “Happy Birthday” to Katie. By that time, the entire room was singing “Happy Birthday”, laughing, and having a great time. At home, she opened some presents, which included a nice Hope Chest.

The next day, Katie had a couple of friends over for a small private party. They had a good time too.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring a camera with us when we went out to dinner, but here are some pictures of Katie dressed up, and of her small private party. Click the picture to see more photos.

Happy Birthday Katie,

We Love You!

A Couple of Hours Without … Internet!

John — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:54:40 +0000

On May 3, we lost power for several hours due to a severe wind storm. Power was out in areas from Helena to Basin, MT, in which we are in between. As the evening drew on, we new we needed to make some plans as the kids still had homework to do. We lit some candles, and fired up our oil lamp. The kids mentioned that this is how it must of been in the old days. NOT EVEN!

The worse of all though, was the fact that we had no Internet! Oh My!! Back in the “Old Days,” when we had to do a research project, we hoofed it to the local library and did “research.” Now, it is mostly done on the Internet, and a report was due TOMORROW! It is kind of funny though, as I asked the same questions that were posed to us in the “Old Days.” “When was it assigned?” “How long did you have to work on it?” “When was it due?” And, you know the answers to all of those questions. Some things never change. Click a picture for a larger view.

- John

Missoula Children’s Theatre at Clancy School

John — Sat, 22 May 2010 23:29:31 +0000

Click to see more pictures of Ana in Robinson Crusoe

The Missoula Children’s Theatre, with Clancy School, presented Robinson Crusoe. Or, more like a very loose, funny version of Robinson Crusoe. The team comes in on a Monday, does auditions, and practices with the students Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The students then perform two shows on Friday. They always do a great job. This year, Ana made the part as “Myrtle the Turtle.” Last year, Ana was asked, the day before the performance, if she could play one of the leading supporting roles on their rendition of the “Little Mermaid.” Click the picture to see lots more from Robinson Crusoe.

- John

St. Helena Cathedral

John — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:05:12 +0000

We went to a wedding recently. The wedding ceremony was at the St. Helena Cathedral in Helena, MT. It is such a beautiful building. Afterwards, we went to the reception. Here are a few pictures of how serious we were. Click one to see larger views. No, the bubble eater is not me!

- John