Monday, March 18, 2024

Jupiter and the Moon for Kids!


About 6 months ago I was contacted by a teacher at an elementary school about an hour away.  She said they wanted to try having an observing session in March, and could our club show up with some telescopes.  I said "Yes" and the other night the weather was clear so two of us who volunteered to bring our telescopes went to the school.  The teacher said that maybe no one would show up, but I was a bit nervous because usually we would have three or four telescopes for an event like this.


Well...  It felt as if the whole school showed up!  We have never had this many people, both parents and students at one of our events.  One of the teachers had a telescope and he showed up, so we had three telescopes there.  I felt badly that people had to wait in three long lines to observe Jupiter and a thin crescent Moon, but everyone, to a person, was so patient!  What a joy to have such a nice group of people there.


This is Don, one of our members, watching a student look through his telescope.  The parents and students were both so thankful for the chance to look through a telescope at celestial objects, many for the first time.


It is always a joy to see how some of the students were glued to the eyepiece, wanting to look for as long as they could at the Moon or Jupiter.  We let them look as long as they wanted, and the people in line behind them were patient.


And even the teachers got to look through a telescope as well!  They deserved it, given how much work and worry they put into this event.


And this gives you a sense of how many people were there.  Don's telescope was behind me and his line is not showing.  It was such a rewarding evening, made even better by the large attendance.  When Don and I were leaving we both talked about having a "buzz" because of how rewarding it is to be able to show people our universe and some of the amazing things that are in it.











 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

"Mom, There's a Creepy Guy..."


I have written before and shown photographs of the times I go to the city to meet my night sky photography friends for dinner.  On this occasion, I wanted to do some quick photographs of my Hotel Pennsylvania demolition project while it was still daylight.  So while I was shooting, I didn't realize that one of my friends was snapping these photographs!  They're great, aren't they!  I look like some kind of creepy guy, spying through fences!


Once the demolition got down to the first floor, it was behind a wooden fence and the only way I could see what was going on behind the fence was to find areas to peek through.  Not creepy at all!



 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Testing for the Eclipse


It is 23 days to the Total Eclipse of the Sun.  Kathy and I will be driving to Rochester, NY where the path of totality goes through New York State.  So today, because it was sunny, a number of our club members were getting together in groups to work together to test their equipment - cameras and long lenses and telescopes, and and also to make the calculations for the complex exposures required for the three phases of the eclipse.  It helps to work with another person to make sure what you have calculated are the correct exposures.  So my friend Grace came over to the house and we set up in the side yard and did test exposures, and consulted on our calculations.  Stan's mantra for everyone, before the eclipse, is to "practice, practice, practice..."


There are three stages of the eclipse, and each stage requires different camera settings.  The first is when the moon starts passing in front of the sun.  You have to view and shoot that with a special filter, like the silver one here, on Grace's telephoto lens.  The the next phase only lasts maybe 10 or 15 seconds, and you take the filter off with the sun about 98% blocked and try to photograph "Bailey's Beads" and the "diamond ring" which is caused by sunlight shining through the mountains on the edge of the moon.  Then the third, and most spectacular phase, is "totality" where the moon completely covers the sun, but the glow of the Sun's corona streams out from beyond the black circle of the moon, and it is as dark as night!  And it happens so fast that you have to be absolutely prepared or you will miss parts of it.  The total eclipse is magical and overwhelming and eerie and one of the most beautiful things you will ever experience.  I hope some of you get to see this eclipse!



 

Friday, March 15, 2024

Pencil Towers


We went to the city today to a museum.  Afterwards we walked down 9th Avenue to a diner for lunch.  When we were done we walked east on 58th street one block to the subway.  It was then that I saw one of the "Pencil Towers" - one of the newest types of buildings that have been built in Manhattan.  They are so tall and so thin they stand out dramatically, and be seen from a long distance away.  They are tall as in 1,400 feet tall!  So I took this photograph and continued walking  east, and was amazed to see another pencil tower on the other side of the street!


There was a story in the NY Times about how some of these types of buildings have some issues. This is the headline and sub head for that story: "The Downside to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks."  "432 Park, one of the wealthiest addresses in the world, faces some significant design problems, and other luxury high-rises may share its fate."  One of the issues is how the buildings can sway in really strong winds.  Yikes, do you want your bedroom or living room moving around in a hurricane?  No thank you.  The story continues: "The tower at 432 Park Avenue became the tallest residential building in the world in 2015. It has already been surpassed by a newcomer on New York’s Billionaire’s Row in Midtown Manhattan, but it remains one of the most expensive apartment buildings in the world.

 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

The Last of the Dogwoods


The wind blew our last Dogwood tree down!  I stepped out on the porch yesterday and something was different.  It took a moment or two to figure out what it was.  I could see more of the neighbor's house and the sky. Then I realized, the Dogwood tree at the west end of the porch was missing.  What?  I walked over to the end of the porch and there was the tree lying on the ground.  The strong winds two days before had blown it down.  It was mainly dead, with only one branch that still had blossoms on it every spring.  But it was covered with two kinds of vines, that had loaded the tree down with their weight, and that's all the green stuff you can see in the photograph.  Those are not dogwood leaves you are seeing.


This is crazy that all these vines could completely take over the tree, and for me not to notice, but it is at the edge of the property and the only time I go by it is when I am mowing the grass.  A year or so ago, I took a saw and cut a number of trunks of vines on the tree.  One vine near the bottom was nearly two inches in diameter!  So I knew one day, the tree would have to come down, but not until the last blooming branch was gone.  Well, Mother Nature had other ideas.  So today I played lumberjack and went after the wreckage with a chain saw and now much of the tree and the trunk are in small enough pieces that I can put them in the car and take them to the dump this weekend.  When we bought our house there were two dogwoods on our property - one by the garage and this one.  And then the Gordon's had a Dogwood just on the other side of the hedge on their property.  Now all three are long gone and I will really miss them. 

 

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Jupiter and the Moon


I have yet to tell the story, but I will soon.  Last night another member of the club and I drove an hour to a middle school in Bay Shore, on the south shore to set up our telescopes.  We showed Jupiter and the Moon to the people who came.  More on that tomorrow.  So tonight, after the sun set, I was driving to a friends for some computer help, and when I looked up, I was stunned to see Jupiter and the moon so close together!  Stunned!  I was not expecting that, and to see a crescent moon with the "bright star" of Jupiter so close to it was such a wonderful experience.  Fortunately the duo were quite high in the sky, so they were still up when I got home and I got out my 200-600mm telephoto and framed the two objects through the branches of the giant Hickory tree on our front lawn.  Not sure if you can see this, but if you enlarge the image, I captured the four moons of Jupiter in the photograph!  One more surprise!
 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Saving the Cliff House


Yesterday when I mentioned I had gone to the beach to shoot something and then found the sunset as well, well, this is the "something."  They are clearly done with most of the rebuilding and support of the cliff and they have saved this historic house!  The people who live there are gardeners, so I am guessing in a year or so there will be plantings on the terraces which will probably soften the structures, maybe with trees in front or ivy growing on the walls.  I will be your faithful reporter and make other posts after I see changes. But this is great news to see!


In this photograph, I walked out on the beach and the further I got from the road, the more I could see of the house.  So between the two views you get a pretty good idea of all that they have done.