Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

I took a nap after typing out yesterday’s entry. I awoke at 4pm to find a text message from the Chemistry coordinator asking if my stargazing was pushing through. Hearing the drops of water on the metal covers of the air conditioners, I had an idea why she was asking. When I stepped outside the department though, it was sunny. Going to my observatory though, I saw that the streets and windows were wet, meaning there was a downpour while I slept. It was finished though, and the sky seemed to be clearing.

At the observatory, I got the constellation transparencies for my lecture, and I checked if my request for the general cleaning of the dome room had pushed through. The janitors were mopping the floor when I checked, and they said they’d be done by 5pm.

Going back to the science building, I saw my co-coordinator, who asked what time I’ll start with my lecture. 5pm I said, giving the students enough time to buy dinner for take-out. Waiting in the department, one of the student ushers came in to ask me the same question.

At quarter to 5 though, when I went to the auditorium, the speaker from 1pm was still talking, and just ended when I went in. I also noticed that they were using another projector (one that didn’t use an overhead lamp) borrowed from the Instructional Media Services, because the other one I had set up fouled up on them early in the presentation. It could have been because the software they were demonstrating forced the screen resolution higher, but I didn’t check anymore. I could use to projectors for my talk.

The students got back after half past five though. I guess most of them couldn’t go further without eating. That was still okay though because it was still daylight outside. I asked the students to sit in front, because they weren’t going to occupy the whole place anyway, to save my voice since there was no microphone. Latecomers sat at the back though, so I don’t know how much they really heard. It was fun using both the computer and the transparencies, though, as well as the chalkboard. And instead of telling them to give diskettes if they wanted a copy of the software, like what I did with my class, since I knew the next day was their last day, I just told them they could get a copy through e-mail.

The lecture ended at 7pm, and there was still the matter of closing up the auditorium by myself with all the IMS equipment, then leading the students to the top of the next building.

I used the fire escape, which meant I got to the observatory before the other students who were ahead of me. Since the dome room was clean, I told the students they could bring up the monobloc chairs to use inside while the other half was in the roofdeck.

But we didn’t need them. Counting, only thirty plus were at the roof deck at one time. Where the others went I didn’t ask or search. In fact some of them didn’t even look through the telescope, preferring to bond with their new friends sitting on the blankets I told them to bring. I had run out of magnified objects to show them by 8pm, but they still stayed until 845pm.

There were some who were genuinely interested in the topic though. At least that’s over.