The Giant Sunspot

I have been sketching sunspots now for two months, as part of the research project.  The last few days  there has been a really large sunspot that I have watched as it traverses the face of the sun.  This spot is larger than the Earth!  Even in my little 1 inch aperture 18th Century replica telescope, I could see that the spot was large and it also was surrounded by a large "penumbra" - the gray area surrounding the black sunspot.  So I got out a much larger telescope, set it up, and photographed the sun and the sunspot. Notice that it is not a round spot, and there is white area that is slowly cutting into the spot.  It will be interesting to see how this progresses over the next few days. Be sure and click on the image to see more detail.

High Flight

I love seeing contrails in a brilliant blue sky.  It brings thoughts of flying off to new places to experience new things.  These "condensation trails" are formed when water vapor from the jet engine exhaust forms ice crystals.  The altitudes at which the contrails form are usually between 25,000 to 40,000 feet - the altitudes at which airplanes cruise, as opposed to taking off and landing.  There is something about seeing them that is poetic in some way, and which reaches deep inside me.  If I see a plane flying overhead, I have to stand and watch until the plane is out of sight. 

April Fools, on Me!

You are not going to believe this one!  You saw my April Fool's trick where I stuck a piece of black tape on my shirt pocket to make it look like my fountain pen leaked?  Well, today, while sitting at dinner, Kathy said "What is that on your shirt?"  I looked down and was horrified...   If you can believe this, and I barely can, I put a fountain pen in my pocket with the cap off, and the nib pointed down!  I think about 1/3 of the ink was sucked into my shirt!  I can't believe it!  While putting ink remover on the stain, the ink started to spread, and made an interesting looking abstract "painting." And here is one more amazing thing - after the ink remover, and a soaking in detergent and Clorox and then a trip through the washing machine, this is how the shirt pocket looked!

The New Tappan Zee Bridge Rises

The new Tappan Zee Bridge has been under construction since 2013, and I notice big changes in the new bridge each time I have crossed on the old bridge which runs alongside. The original Tappan Zee Bridge was built during 1952–1955.  The Tappan Zee was built in a period of material shortages during the Korean War.  The deteriorating current structure bears substantially more traffic than its designed capacity. Unlike other major bridges in metropolitan New York, the Tappan Zee was designed to last only 50 years.  So how comfortable are we driving across this structure, knowing that it is now 11 years beyond it's design life!  The new bridge is going to be spectacular thing to see.  Just  wait!

Women in Science

Another astounding day at the Astronomy Forum!  Two more spectacular speakers.  The first photo shows Marcia Bartusiak, a brilliant science writer.  I have been a fan of her books for years.  "The Day We Discovered the Universe" is one of the best books on understanding how we came to learn all that we have about the universe.  I bought her new book, about black holes, which she signed, and I even had a conversation with her for several minutes.  The second photo is of Alice Bowman, The Mission Operations Manager for the New Horizons mission to Pluto.  She was a terrific speaker, and spoke about so many of the challenges of the mechanical aspects of the spacecraft and the mission.  We were sitting on the edge of our seats during part of the talk.  Another amazing day, seeing people doing wonderful work in science!

News From Pluto

An exciting day today!  I spent the first of two days at the Northeast Astronomy Forum.  I have been going to this event for about 25 years.  The  highlight of the day was a talk by Dr. Alan Stern, the "principal investigator" (meaning the guy who ran the whole thing) of the New Horizons Project, which sent a spacecraft to Pluto.  The craft was launched in January of 2006.  It traveled for nine years and three billion miles.  On July 14, 2015, it flew 7,800 miles above the surface of Pluto,  making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet. During the flyby, instruments gathered scientific data and extensive photography was performed.  I can't tell you how cool it is to listen to and to see in person, a planetary scientist like this and have him tell us first hand what has been discovered so far from the data and photographs.  Want to see something really impressive?  THIS is the best photograph that had ever been taken of Pluto, by the Hubble Space Telescope, before the New Horizons mission!

Building New York

When I visited New York as a teenager, which I did a lot by riding the New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad from Milford, Connecticut, I remember someone saying to me "New York is a great city, if they ever get it finished!"  I thought of that comment when I saw this tower crane near Times Square.  I just love watching construction, and the heavy machinery required.  This makes for a more interesting picture because of the light and shadows, and the silhouette of the crane.  These are cool machines - the tower itself is inside the steel framework of the building, and as the building gets taller, they add sections on to the tower, and the crane grows with the building.