Two cool tidbits

[cjsmith]

Yay #1: exercise

Yesterday I did the coolest thing I've done in probably three years. Rob and I went to a fitness store to try out weight machines & see how many exercises I could do without standing, and while we were there I found a water rower.

I'd always believed rowing machines would be too rough on my feet. Some of them probably would be, and certainly if I hadn't been wearing my special shoes there'd have been no way. But I sat on that thing in the store for fifteen minutes, breaking a sweat, making myself red in the face... and I was happier than I've been in years. NOTHING else I've tried can get my heart rate up, really up. Swimming doesn't even remotely come close, for me. Operating a wheelchair I'm limited by my wrist strength. But THIS I could DO.

I was almost afraid to smile, coming out of the store, because I didn't know whether my feet would flare up in pain later in the day or the next morning. If they did there'd be no point. But it's the next morning now, and they don't seem to be too bad. I may have a winner.

I'll have to rework the foot straps completely, of course. They're terrible.

Nifty Thing #2: Iridium flare

I'm still not over jet lag, so I was awake at 4:30 anyway. I went outside to look for my first Iridium flare. The sky was very cloudy, but this one was supposed to be incredibly bright (-8) so I waited. Thanks to Rob mentioning it last night, I knew what direction to face, how high up to look, and what time to be looking (plus or minus the uncertainty of an analog watch that's been time-zone-changed a lot lately). Sure enough, I saw it, even through the clouds! It lasted maybe a second or a second and a half, a bright spot moving quickly across the sky. That was really nifty. I can see how people who don't, say, need sleep for some reason, can get caught up in going to chase these things.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The pictures here may help explain a little more of the motion. The user sits on the little pad shown at the left of the machine and puts both feet on the slanted prop you can see leaning at a forty-five degree angle toward the right side of the machine. The seat pad is on rails. It slides back and forth by a couple of feet during the stroke. Much of that is leg strength, terminating (obviously) in pressure on the soles of the feet. Instead of offsetting the arm motion, the leg motion adds to it, so that the "oar" (handle hanging off a cable) moves a good yard or more during the stroke.

Hey, I found an animation!

I had been told by several people that the majority of the pressure is (or should be) on the ball of the foot, so that all the muscles and length and strength of the leg can be used -- just like on a bicycle. It's the obvious right way to use a human leg, except for mine. Fortunately, on this machine at least, the prop slants such that a lot of the push can be done by my heels. AND I have magic shoes.

I'm not sure how much it differs from any other rowing machine, really. Its resistance is provided by blades whooshing through a tank of water, rather than by bungees or something, but other than that I have to imagine most of the idea is the same.

Exercise is incredibly important, isn't it? Man, I've been SO starved for this.

As for Iridium flares, I'd only heard of them after Rob took up astronomy as a hobby and started reading about all kinds of stuff. It amazes me that people write software to go find these things and keep track of them. A -8 is several times brighter than the brightest star, so you'd probably see it fine if you knew exactly where and when to look. But most such flares aren't that bright. I sympathize with your frustration about the light pollution. Tucked in the heart of Silicon Valley, we can see a few more stars than you can, but not a whole lot more. We live under a streetlight, too. Taking the scope out and doing much useful with it is a challenge.

Astrophotography works though. Many long exposures plus image processing software mean you can "see" stuff the eye can't detect AT ALL through a good scope. If you're interested, take a quick look at Rob's picture of galaxy M51. We can't see that thing at all through the scope -- not even the faintest whisper!

[eichin.livejournal.com]

That looks more compact than the Concept2 erg I have (which is air-turbulance based, but still a very thorough workout - and data reporting in plenty of units - and since rowing backwards holds no interest to me, I don't actually care how realistic it is relative to a real crew shell :-) Also has lousy footrests, come to think of it.)