This evening or tomorrow morning, depending on their locations, sky-watchers around the world will be able to witness a transit of Venus—a celestial event that won't be seen again for more than a century.

The transit will offer astronomers a chance to refine our understanding of Venus as well as to tweak models for searching for planets around other stars. (Pictures: See what the Venus transit will look like.)

Transits happen when a planet crosses between Earth and the sun. Only Mercury and Venus, which are closer to the sun than our planet, can undergo this unusual alignment.

With its relatively tight orbit, Mercury circles the sun fast enough that we see the innermost planet transit every 13 to 14 years. But transits of Venus are exceedingly rare, due to that world's tilted orbit: After the 2012 Venus transit, we won't see another until 2117.

During the upcoming transit, Venus will look like a black dot gliding across the face of the sun over the course of about six hours.

"Venus's diameter will appear only about a 30th the diameter of the sun, so it will be ... like a pea in front of a watermelon," said Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College in Massachusetts. (Read a Q&A with Pasachoff about Venus transits.)

"The effect won't be visually impressive, but that black dot against the sun is a remarkable thing to see."

New Post!

Yeah I haven't posted in a while...

The cool thing is there were Ice Crystals in the atmosphere, so we got this...

Nice!

Yeah well I so wanted to think there was a conspiracy here, however my cool headed friends promptly told me the cause.

It's still a great view, who knew.....

-=Q=-

Punkin relaxing

All of you have been so great and I appreciate you feedback.  This is my cat Punkin.  Please give me your feedback according to her eyes and body language.

If you have questions on her environment feel free to ask.  I'm interested hear what you guys think.

Pierogi Festival in Whiting

Some of you may have heard of the Pierogi Fest from the food network or other travel shows.  Having grown up in Northwest Indiana (Da Region) it's just been something I've always known about.  I used to go on Fridays and mingle with the massive crowds for the parade.  That was always fun but this year I experienced it in one of the best ways possible.

A friend of mine had a friend 3 blocks away from the main drag on 119th street so free parking for us. She lived on this beautiful street.  It's the last cobblestone street in Whiting.  I took a picture as we were on our way.  We went tonight around 9.  They close at 10 and there are some huge advantages to this. First of all you get to avoid the massive crowds.  Secondly the vendors are closing down so they give you some great deals on food.

We started out with 3 Pierogis.  A buddy of mine split an order of six pierogis for 5 dollars.  Two mushroom, two kraut, and two potato.  They were from a local bar on 119th street and were amazing, the mushroom being the big win of the night.

There is a great Serbian booth that does great cevaps and kabobs.  Now here is where getting there late can be great.  They had three kabobs left that were sitting in a pool of the most delicious juice.  I was able to snatch them for the price of two and share with our entire party.  Sadly, the lady in front of me had got the deal of the night on the last of the cevaps.  She grinned at me in a good way, but I understood.  Man if I had only been there two minutes earlier.

Well know it's crunch time so I had to get some to go orders in.  They are great at preparing to go stuff, so no worries on a good take home container.  I picked up a dozen potato and a dozen meat.

The great thing here is that we were able to enjoy a great walk down the strip, eat some great food and get in and out in under an hour.  Don't get me wrong spending a day here is fine as there is music and plenty of liquor.  They have beer tents and they actually allow you to buy booze out of the liquor stores on 119th.  I've seen it both ways, but it's nice to know how to make a quick enjoyable visit out such a large festival.

Wolf Lake

Here is some video I took on Wolf Lake before Pat Benatar's show in Hammond at The Festival of the Lakes.

Anyone hungry for some wolf?

Wolves are pretty hungry.  

Oh Duran..... Duran.....

The best meatballs

Here is my absolute favorite recipe for Meatballs, this is a 100 yr old recipe and would make for a great addition to this weekends festivities. 

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground chuck
• 4 ounces dried bread crumbs
• 4 large eggs
• 4 ounces whole milk
• 6 ounces grated Romano
• 3 ounces grated Spanish onion
• 2 ounces finely diced fresh garlic
• 2 ounces finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
• 2 ounces finely chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. If mixture seems a little loose add more bread crumbs.

Roll meatballs loosely about the size of a golf ball and place on baking sheet. Place into preheated oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes. Enjoy!