Trying to Get Wireless

We were staying in an old cowboy hotel built in about 1917, and completely restored about 15 years ago.  They do have wireless, but I was having trouble getting more than one or two bars, and it took forever to upload a photograph for the blog post.  Finally, when it was too frustraging, I thought I would wander down the hall to see if I got a better signal.  I only had to go ten feet, and I had a full strength signal!   All I had to do was sit on the stairs, and life was good.  (Photograph by Stan Honda)

San Felipe de Neri Church

San Felipe de Neri Church is a historic Catholic church located on the north side of Old Town Plaza in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Built in 1793, it is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city.   This church has continuously served as a House of Prayer for nearly two hundred years, starting in 1706.  It is a beautiful church, and is particularly striking with its adobe colored exterior against the brilliant blue sky of New Mexico

The Colors of Sunset

On the flight back from Albuquerque to New York, we ended up flying at sunset.  I just happened to look out my window and was stunned to see the golden glow on the wing from the light of the setting sun.  So I took a few pictures.  I went back to my book, and then happened to glance out again, and the colors had changed completely, and both the sky and the the wing were illuminated by the sky glow!  I was stunned at the complete change in color.  What a sublime thing this was to see.

Pie Town

We drove out to Pie Town - that's really the name of a town in New Mexico.  There are about four restaurants that serve pies, but only one seemed open.  What luck for us!  This is Janine and Lori, two delightful women who run "The Gatherin' Place" where they serve the most amazing pies.  I had blueberry with vanilla ice cream.  After they served us, the women came by to chat with us, as they did with all the customers in the small restaurant.  I am not sure what was more fun - the pie, or the conversations with the owners!  It was a magical day meeting them.  Outside the restaurant they have this 1940's truck which tends to attract visitors.

Moonset at the VLA

OK, so this is really cool!  We received permission to be on the grounds of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array Radio Telescope tonight.  This is an astounding telescope!  It consists of 27 individual radio dishes arranged in a "Y" shape that are moved on railroad tracks.  The tracks of each leg are 13 miles long and the arrangement of the antennae are changed several times a year.  Sometimes the dishes are close, and sometimes they stretch out for their full length.  I will show you some more photographs in another post, but to say these devices are impressive is an understatement.  We wanted to photograph one dish against the Zodiacal light and we were successful.  But I will show you some images of the dishes in daylight.  It was frosting on the cake to arrive and be setting up, and then seeing the thin crescent moon setting in the distance.  A magical evening!

Zodiacal Light

We are under some of the darkest skies that I have ever seen, here in Magdalena, NM.  Our friend John Briggs, who I have known for years now, lives here on 80 acres some distance from town.  He was determined that we would get to see the Zodiacal Light, which is caused by sunlight scattered by particles of space dust, and can only be seen about an hour and a half after the sun has set, IF you are in pristine dark skies.  The slightest amount of light pollution will make this invisible.  It is a stunning thing to see, perched on top of a hill, with the entire sky filled with brilliant stars overhead.

Night Sky Photography Class

OK, here's the deal.  I have found a wireless connection which I think I can continue to use, I hope...  But if a post is missing, please don't worry, it will be that I can't access wireless to post.  Yesterday Stan gave a Night Sky Photography lecture to about 25 people from an astronomy club in Albuquerque.  After the lecture was over we drove to a dark sky site outside of town, and practiced some of the things that he talked about.  I was going around helping people with their first efforts with their own cameras.  But I did stop to take a picture or two before it got too dark.  Here are people with red lights - both flashlights and headlamps - working on taking pictures, with help from both Stan and I, and from other experienced club members. We use red lamps so that we don't loose our night vision.  I think this is a really cool photo, and something different, for me.