An Astronomy Legend

This is Al Nagler, a legend in astronomy.  I first met him at Stellafane, the telescope maker's convention in Vermont, back in 1991.  I entered a telescope in the competition and won second prize.  The next morning at breakfast he said "Congratulations.  Do you know how many years it took me to win a prize?"  Al put his lifelong love of amateur astronomy to work as a professional optical designer in 1958 when he was involved in designing NASA lunar landing simulators.  Al wanted his own observing equipment to deliver that seemingly limitless vista created for the astronauts. He started a company called Tele Vue and began making eyepieces for amateur astronomers.  They were the best eyepieces around and Tele Vue became famous.  Al has always continued his love for astronomy and education.  A mother and her young daughter came up to him at the convention and he was helping the young girl look through one of his telescopes and he was clearly enjoying the experience.

Astronomy Overdose

Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding, there is no such thing as an "astronomy overdose."  Every Spring for the last 30 years at least, I have been coming to the Northeast Astronomy Forum, in Rockland County, NY, along with thousands of my fellow astronomers.  This is the field house with all the manufacturers and vendors, selling everything we will ever need!  Be sure to click on this panorama to see it in more detail.

Additionally, there are speakers on both days of the conference, and they are all first class.  This is Jim Green, the Chief Scientist of NASA who spoke about the history of the exploration of the Moon.  Since this is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, there is much interest in the history.

Here is a collection of antique telescopes on display by my friends in the Antique Telescope Society.

And here are new telescopes on display by one of the manufacturers.  So many tempting things to buy!  So you probably wanted to know how badly I was tempted...   :-)  Well, I bought one new eyepiece.  BUT...  Wonder of wonders, I won a free raffle and got to choose a 2" Oxygen III filter for eyepieces, the value of which is $189.  So it was a great day!

It Snowed Today!

It snowed today!  Can you believe this?  In April?  OK, it didn't.  What did happen today was that an older camera that I sent off to be modified arrived in the mail.  I sent it off to be converted from a "regular" representation of the world, to an Infrared version of the world.  Perhaps you remember some of my photographs from about 5 years ago, when my friend Dean loaned me his infrared camera.  I had so much fun with it, looking at the world in a different way.  What the infrared sensitivity does is that it records things that radiate infrared, as white.  In this case, the grass on the lawn and some ivy on the wall in the distance to the left of the lamp.  It is a whole new view of the world, and I will be having fun with this camera, AND you will get to see some of my results in future blogs.

Oh, one other thing about infrared.  It is terrible for portraits! It represents skin in a strange way.  I mean, how sick do I look in this photograph?  But the trees behind me are pretty, all bright white in color.

"Newbie Night" at the Astronomy Club

We tried something new at the Astronomy club last night, at the suggestion of one of our members, Ed, who is in the center of this photograph.  He thought it would be a good idea to have a "Newbie Night" for people who might want to visit the club and ask questions about astronomy, and maybe how to get started in astronomy.  That part of the meeting started an hour before our regular meeting.

We had no idea if people would be interested in such a meeting, so we were astounded when so many people showed up.  There was a father with his young son, who had a small telescope tucked under his arm!  We had young people and older people, and a number of our members would sit and talk with each of the new visitors to answer their questions or to demonstrate how our telescopes worked.

The newbie part only lasted an hour before we went outside and had an observing session with our telescopes, showing our new visitors the night sky.  This morning I received this email from the father of the young son:  "Good morning Ken:  I wanted to thank you for taking time with my son Ryan and I last night. We had a wonderful time and learned a lot. My son was fascinated with everything. When we got home he immediately googled images of the Orion nebula. I could hardly get him to bed.  Please thank Doug as well as he spent a lot of time with us and answered a lot of my son's questions. Thanks again,  Chris"  Wow, that email certainly made my day!

Cousins Hanging Out

We hadn't seen Sharon and Glenn in a few years.  Usually we get to visit with them when there is a family reunion in upstate New York.  The last reunion was more than five years ago.  Kathy has always felt connected to Sharon, so spending several days together in Charlotte was a wonderful time because they had so much time to talk.  And to sit in rocking chairs, in warm weather on the front porch.  Isn't that what life should be about?

The Angel of Kindness

When we were turning the lights out in the bedroom the night we arrived in Charleston, the last light that was on was this floor lamp right by the bed.  The second all the other lights in the bedroom were out, this beautiful little angel became so obvious, hanging off the last light in the room.  She is made from brass and is so beautifully crafted.  She has some colored stones in her hair, and the wonderful wings, and the little tag hanging off her right hand said "Kindness."  Such a lovely reminder to us all.

Train Time

This is Glenn.  He and his wife Sharon were our hosts this weekend.  Glenn was showing me around their condo in Charlotte, North Carolina, and when we got to the top of the second floor, there was a train layout!  When I said that was amazing, Glenn said, "Wait until you see the rest of it," and then he took me into this room.  Wow!  I was stunned!  What a beautiful collection of model trains.   Glenn said that he had an engine and about five cars that he had received as a child in 1949, I think it was.  After he retired he started collecting model trains.

This is the railroad layout he has constructed.  It looks empty at this point, but at Christmas, he adds model buildings and snow and towers.  The photographs of that seasonal setup are amazing!  What is astounding to me, is that he has several buildings on the layout that are "active."  There is a sawmill that takes in round logs, and out come boards, when he presses a button!  There is a boxcar that ejects stainless steel cans of milk to the platform.  And then there is a car with a load of railroad ties on it, and a payloader that removes the ties one by one!  I had a model railroad layout as a kid, but nothing like the sophistication of this layout!