_{Six decades ago, I fell into the splendid misery of amateur astronomy. Along the way, certain natural and human patterns seem repetitious. I’ve identified 10 of them. If you have more, add them in the comments.}

1. When the full or nearly full moon is in the night sky, the sky is cloudless, insanely transparent and air currents cease to exist.
2. When your new telescope, tripod, eyepiece, camera or filter finally arrives in the mail, a front is sure to roll in followed by nights of messy weather. 
3. The dull red light on your headlamp or flashlight will flicker and die out when you need it most. 
4. If you travel any distance to get under darker skies, the drive seems longer than you expected, the road food is worse than you imagined, and after you finally arrive, you learn that the can’t-miss, take-it-to-the-bank clear sky forecast is completely wrong. 
5. When the moon finally leaves the night sky, the chance of cloud cover rises. 
6. After traveling 73 miles to your astronomy club star party—the last 11 miles on bad road—you realize it was held the night before. 
7. The more you look forward to witnessing an exceedingly rare astronomical event, the greater the chance that clouds will break your heart. 
8. When the night is pristine and your mount is perfectly aligned for long-exposure astrophotography, you discover that you forgot to charge your camera batteries. All three of them. 
9. When a long-desired eyepiece doesn’t arrive when it is supposed to, a voice on the phone informs you it’s on back order and may remain that way for months. 
10. When you set up for a serene evening of lunar observing, advancing sirens announce a nearby house fire, which ensures two fire trucks will arrive within 50 feet of your optics and remain there idling for hours.

Of Note

The house fire mentioned in the 10 Tenets of Amateur Astronomy thankfully caused no injury to anyone.

I am in a 45-day trial window of an imaging software called PixInsight. I managed to use the software to dress up Comet Pons12-Brooks, which I found two months ago.

I took a screen shot on the GreatAmericanEclipse.com website to illustrate where we were on April 8. Doniphan, Missouri (circled) was pretty much on the centerline. The pink dotted line is the border between Missouri and Arkansas.

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