Astronomical Legends

So one of the fun things about the astronomy convention is the part about randomly bumping into friends that I haven't seen in a while.  Here are a couple of astronomy legends, enjoying each other's company.  On the left is Perry Remaklis, who with his wife owns the publisher Willmann-Bell that specializes in astronomical books, and to the right is Richard Berry, formerly the editor of Astronomy magazine.  He has designed a number of really cool telescopes - I have built one, and years ago he told people how to build their own CCD camera for astronomy.  Brilliant people!

Two Hours of Bad Roads

When I left the astronomy convention, I spied this mountain bike on a rack on top of a car in the parking lot.  I have never seen a bike so covered in mud!  Strangely enough, I know whose bike this is!  He belongs to our club, and told me that in the morning before coming to the convention, he was going to do a two hour mountain bike competition ride nearby.  Well, I guess he did!  He will be doing a lot of cleaning and lubricating of the bike before his next ride!  Be sure to click on this to see it in more detail.

High Rise

I drove up to Rockland county today to go to the first day of a two-day astronomy conference.  I forgot to take a blog picture while at the conference - I was too busy looking at all the stuff, and talking to everyone I met as I wandered around.  So in desperation, on the way home, I did my shooting-out-of-the-car-window trick.  As I went by Co-Op city, I saw these patterns in one of the high rise buildings that make  up Co-Op city.  I was attracted to the repetitive design.  It looks much cooler if you click on it and see the design up close.

Moonrise, Dunkin Donuts

I love when I get desperate for a photograph for the blog.  I have my radar working at high speed scanning everywhere, looking for a photograph.  I was on my way to my astronomy meeting, and each week that involves me stopping at the Dunkin Donuts, where I buy coffee and donuts to bring to the meeting.  As I left the store, I looked up to see the moon, and then the strange lighting fixture on the dormer.  I have never noticed that before, but that just goes to show how, when I am desperate, I really start looking around.

Blue Landscape

What do you see when you look at this photograph?  Think about it for a minute or so.  There will be a quiz.  What I have photographed to get this image, is the light from the late afternoon sun, shining through one of the blue glass bottles sitting on the windowsill.  I have photographed several of the bottles in one picture before, but this is just the light from one bottle, photographed with a closeup lens. It looks to me like trees in a forest reflected in a pond. Your experience may vary.

I have been meaning to do this for a while...

This is the famous Japanese maple tree in the front yard, illuminated by car headlights.  I have seen this picture every time I pull into the driveway at night.  It's just that I never quite get around to shooting it. Tonight I said: OK, no more fooling around, stop the car here, and shoot it NOW!"  So I did.  I am fairly sensitive to the different feelings that different kinds of light evoke in me.  This lighting on the tree comes under the category of strange and creepy, and I like that, as a change of pace.

The Moonwatch

About eight of us from the astronomy club drove out to an elementary school with our telescopes for a moonwatch this evening.  One of our club members is Colin, a high school senior, who is planning to study astronomy in college next year.  He is a brilliant student, and his knowledge of astronomy in mind-boggling.  Here is shown explaining to one of the students at the school, some of the geological features on the moon that she was looking at in the telescope.  There was a young girl about nine years old that came to my telescope to look at the moon.  She put her eye to the eyepiece, and then was frozen in place.  I could tell in her voice that she was stunned seeing the craters and the surface of the moon.  She was immobile for a long time, and then after walking away, came back to my telescope for another view.  What is more rewarding than that, to introduce people to the universe!