Of course, spring varies according to your location ...

[ChrisGreaves]

... and who is composing emails about tree delivery.

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I seem to have slept right through April and much of the best part of May.
Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

[Graeme]

When your clocks go forward they really go forward!

[ChrisGreaves]

When your clocks go forward they really go forward!

Actually, every clock I own, apart from the two laptops and the two smart phones, is stopped. They go neither forward nor backward, and I save about an hour every daylight-saving event, whereas everybody else has to give an hour back in six months time. Three years ago I let the clocks run down and refused to replace the batteries.
As a concession to Good English Taste I set the hands of each stopped clock at 10:50, so that no matter where I am in the house, I can glance at a clock and pronounce "Time for Elevenses".

The electric stove clock is a different kettle. When the power goes out overnight, the oven greets me with a flashing clock, which tells me to set my smartphone alarm to 1900 hours so that I can re-program the room thermostats at an appropriate time. Then I get distracted booting up the computer etc so that the oven clock doesn't get pressed to stop the flashing until later in the morning. If I were smart I could read the oven clock at any time of any day and work out at what hour the most recent power cut ended. I haven't worked it out yet, mainly because I haven't found a use for that knowledge.

Anyway, once those four chestnut trees arrive here, they have to wait for Scott and Diane to drive up and take them away to plant them. My property is too small for two American Chestnut trees. If I am still alive in ten years, S&D have to pay me one 25-litre of chestnuts each autumn, so that helps to put a two-month shift in timing into perspective, right?
Cheers, Chris

[Graeme]

When your clocks go forward they really go forward!

Actually, every clock I own, apart from the two laptops and the two smart phones, is stopped. They go neither forward nor backward, and I save about an hour every daylight-saving event, wheras everybody else has to give an hour back in six months time. Three years ago I let the clocks run down and refused to replace the batteries.

Well that saves having to mess about twice a year at daylight savings events. We have a cuckoo clock with no numbers on its face except for a dot where the 12 would be. Every March and October it drives me nuts trying to synchronise the coocoo with the last bong of the BBC news intro music!

[ChrisGreaves]

Well that saves having to mess about twice a year at daylight savings events. We have a cuckoo clock with no numbers on its face except for a dot where the 12 would be. Every March and October it drives me nuts trying to synchronize the coocoo with the last bong of the BBC news intro music!

Hi Graeme.
It almost saves me having to mess around with clocks.
I still have to reprogram the thermostats, although my programmable thermostats are dying off one by one each time they make an adjustment at Muskrat Falls At least one other house in my street was hit a few months back.

My body-clock doesn't really suffer because "I wakes up when I wakes up" and make toast, coffee, mayhem whenever I choose to (but see "Elevenses" above).

Is music on the BBC that bad that you have to use their bong? I remember when they use to play violins and stuff like that.
Cheers, Chris

[stuck]

...We have a cuckoo clock with no numbers on its face except for a dot where the 12 would be...

a minimalist cuckoo clock design. Or did all the other numbers fall off?

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

...We have a cuckoo clock with no numbers on its face except for a dot where the 12 would be...

a minimalist cuckoo clock design. Or did all the other numbers fall off?

Well, Ken, it is a cuckoo clock, as Graeme pointed out with "coocoo", there is but a dot.
Cast your mind back to "Hear My Song", the proper version, at the 01:18:45 mark where the conductor arsks [sic] "Wez thu dots?". The Dots are, of course, the dots on a music score.
Since the cuckoo clock has retained a dot, I suspect it just needs a dash to give it the full complement of its only two notes.

Me?
I'd set the hands at five to five, then I could exclaim "Is that the time? I have to dash!".

Many birds have been spotted with spots. This one doesn't have a score of dots so he is winging it,

You're welcome.
Cheers, Chris

[Graeme]

Is music on the BBC that bad that you have to use their bong? I remember when they use to play violins and stuff like that.

They use a 60bpm tune that counts down seconds to the on the hour news. It's like the pips but more modern!

a minimalist cuckoo clock design. Or did all the other numbers fall off?

Minimalist!

20230329_195802_EL.jpg

[ChrisGreaves]

Minimalist!

As one who once spotted Mercury with the naked eye, I feel compelled to ask, on behalf of shy loungers:-
Feathers on the cuckoo?

Also, after you have negotiated the settings on March 12th, did you write to the times about "The First Cuckoo of spring" at midnight?

Thanks, Chris

[Graeme]

Since the cuckoo clock has retained a dot, I suspect it just needs a dash to give it the full complement of its only two notes.

The dot is actually a light sensor. When we go to bed and turn the light off, the cuckoo knows not to coocoo!

[ChrisGreaves]

The dot is actually a light sensor. When we go to bed and turn the light off, the cuckoo knows not to coocoo!

Ah now I see, as the parrot was unable to say as it's cage cloth was dropped over the cage.
Cheers, Chris

[Graeme]

As one who once spotted Mercury with the naked eye, I feel compelled to ask, on behalf of shy loungers:-
Feathers on the cuckoo?

No feathers, but we can all have a go at spotting Mercury if you get a clear Western horizon any time between the 8th and the 18th April. It's at it's furthest from the Sun as observed from Earth, known as greatest Eastern elongation. Start looking at about 20:30 BST (19:30 UT). Don't get the binoculars out before then, the Sun will not be low enough below the horizon, you will go blind.

FsXV6XVXsAEXBRL.png

[ChrisGreaves]

... It's at it's furthest from the Sun as observed from Earth, known as greatest Eastern elongation.

Thanks Graeme. Does this mean that Earth and mercury are separated by a 90º arc, so that, from earth, we are lookimg perpendicular to mercury's radius?
Cheers, Chris
PS I turn my head but 45º to see that there are/aren't clouds to the West. C

[Graeme]

Does this mean that Earth and mercury are separated by a 90º arc, so that, from earth, we are lookimg perpendicular to mercury's radius?

Yes.

Greatest-Elongation-East-West-John-Goss-e1641493876313.jpg

If you look at Mercury (or Venus) through a telescope you see it go through phases like the Moon.

[John Gray]

As a concession to Good English Taste I set the hands of each stopped clock at 10:50, so that no matter where I am in the house, I can glance at a clock and pronounce "Time for Elevenses".

Horologically speaking, the hands of deliberately-stopped clocks are invariably set at ten to two, or at ten past ten (according to preference). To do otherwise is a breach of convention, or a sign of teenage rebelliousness...

[ChrisGreaves]

Yes.

Oh! Great Master!
I think that you should have responded "No"

Greatest-Elongation-East-West-John-Goss-e1641493876313.jpg

In my mind I had Mercury (which I have changed to a green Venus) IN Earth's orbit, but 90 degrees around the orbit.
I think that my mind was on the right track, which is probably better described as a "tangential" aspect, as your diagram shows.
I had it partly right in that I was thinking of "the angle that offers the maximum distance between the Sun and Mercury/Venus.
But it was late at night and ...
Thanks, Chris

[stuck]

...Minimalist!...

not sure I approve. Out cuckoo clock is a traditional clockwork one, genuine Swiss too.

Ken

[Graeme]

I think that you should have responded "No"

Sorry Chris.

Your phrase "Earth and mercury are separated by a 90º arc, so that, from earth, we are lookimg perpendicular to mercury's radius?" threw me out a bit!

I thought you meant with Mercury at the right angle of a right angle triangle. So from Earth we are looking perpendicular to a line from the Sun to Mercury.

So, yes! And from that angle we see Mercury 50% lit by the Sun. If you tilt your head to one side the drawing makes sense.

You just tilted your head to one side didn't you!

Graeme

[Graeme]

...Minimalist!...

not sure I approve. Out cuckoo clock is a traditional clockwork one, genuine Swiss too.

Ken

Ah well, yes, but does your one go silent at night thus not waking you up all night long every hour on the hour?