The Bus Stop

Back around Christmas time, someone added two colorful pieces of fabric, one on each side of the door from top to bottom showing two "nutcracker" soldiers as decoration for the holiday.  It was wonderful to see this small shelter brightened up.  It made me feel good every time I walked by it.  Well, it has now been completely painted and decorated with a flag and flowers and some bright colors.  If you want to see what this structure looked like for 50 years, click Here.  Quite a change.  It will be interesting to see if the decoration changes again in the future.

 

A Seestar Evening

Tonight's astronomy meeting was different.  It was supposed to be an observing night but it was partly cloudy so instead some members decided to make it a night where members who owned Seestar telescopes could gather and help each other learn to use these amazing instruments.  The three white things up on the tops of the tripods are called "Seestar all in one smart telescopes."  They are an amazing breakthrough in amateur astronomy.  As the light pollution gets worse and worse each year, these devices can photograph objects in the night sky that can't be seen by our eyes.  You set it on a tripod and then connect to it with an iPad or smartphone and you run it wirelessly.  You choose an object that you want to see, and it automatically goes to that object and starts taking photographs and each photo is added to the stack of other photos and suddenly the object appears on your phone or ipad!  It has changed amateur astronomy!

We had am amazing turnout tonight with perhaps 6 or 7 of these telescopes and a number of people who just came to observe.  This photo, above and the two below were actually taken in darkness!  I used my SONY a7 III camera with a "film speed" setting of 12,800!  The normal setting for the camera is 400.  And look what I can photograph with this incredibly sensitive sensor in the camera!

Here Don, one of our members is seated and running his Seestar which is up in the tripod behind him, from his iPad. One of the two members behind him also brought her Seestar and it is running off to one side while she is talking with another member.

Here Bill, on the left is discussing the operation of his Seestar with Mak, on the right, who is also running his telescops.  There were lots of questions and answers tonight as members more familiar with their telescopes were helping people who had only recently gotten their own scopes.  It was such a great evening with everyone helping each other learn this amazing new device.

 

The Sycamore Trees, a Different View

 

You are all aquainted with my photographs of the line of Sycamore trees along the sidewalk at the harbor's edge.  I have photographed them so many ways, but pretty much all in a line.  So on the way back from my walk the other day, I paused and looked up at this scene.  It is part of the line of trees, and instead of them all being in a line, there is one tree behind another behind another.  I had never taken notice of the trees seen this way, and it fascinated me.  So what we have here is a jumble of tree branches and you can't really tell where one tree begins and another ends.  I guess I liked the texture, and the design with branches going every which way.  A new way of seeing a familiar object.

 

Fixing The Adirondack Chairs

When my sister Joan moved from the family house to a condo, she had no room for two beautiful Adirondack chairs that she had for years.  So she gave them to us, and you have seen them in blog posts showing the back yard.  They sit up on the top of the little hill, and we sit there with coffee or cold drinks and relax under the shade of the trees and look out over our little world.  Well, the weather got to both of them, and we hadn't noticed until I sat in one and one of the slats in the seat broke!  So the water had caused rot in some parts of the seat.  So I got some new wood and made new slats, and replaced the front part of the piece of wood that the slats are screwed to.  Then I painted the chair and it looks good as new!

So, one chair done and one to go.  This is what the second chair looks like and there is actually less repair needed to this one.  In a few days this chair will look as good as new as well!  Easy peasy!  Thank you Joan for our wonderful chairs.  I am taking good care of them!

 

Yellow!

Well, I guess that the title for this photograph is appropriate!  On my latest walk I saw that Daffodils were  looming everywhere!  The problem is that the light has to be perfect to get a good photograph of a blooming blossom.  You would not believe how many photographs I took before getting this one,  And then the original was a photograph of two complete blossoms but the shot was boring, sort of.  So I thought of my good friend Dean who always told me "You need to get closer..." and so I cropped into the photograph and just included one blossom and a hint of the other for balance in the composition.  The detail inside the blossom is always fascinating.  And you do know to click to see more.

 

The Northeast Astronomy Forum - NEAF

I have been coming to the Northeast Astronomy Forum now since about 1990.  It is the largest gathering in the United States for amateur astronomers to gather for talks from astronomers and astronauts and authors, and then to wander in this huge gymnasium and see anything having to do with astronomy that an amateur could want.  Telescopes, mounts, eyepieces, software, accessories and everything else.  It feels as if now I own one of everything, so I didn't buy anything this year!   :-)

It is also a wonderful experience to meet and talk with friends I only see twice a year, perhaps, both here and at Stellafane in Vermont.  These are two of my longtime friends in the Antique Telescope Society that I have known just about as long at NEAF has been in existence.  And the other half of this event is to be standing next to someone you don't know, while looking at some astronomical object and then start a conversation which can go on for 20 minutes, as happened to me today on a couple of occasions.  I think that is now perhaps my main reason for attending these days.

And I need to mention various raffles from the different manufacturers or dealers.  This is a group of hopefuls hoping to win either some astronomical filters, or some solar filter material, or some glassware with a manufacturer's name on it, or maybe some ski hats or baseball hats.  I WON A BASEBALL HAT!  So, another perfect day at NEAF!

 

American Vernacular

I thought about photographing this trailer which is on the property of the old Long Island Lighting Company, after I drove by it one night and saw it illuminated by a single floodlight.  I have no idea what the trailer is used for, but it does seem funny that they shine a light on it all night!  There is something just a bit odd to have a trailer all by itself, and then, I guess because of security concerns, that you light it up.  So "American Vernacular" is a term that Stan and I use all the time.  To us it means something about an object or a building that is common all over the United States and that is interesting to look at, so we photograph these objects or buildings or old phone booths or old advertising signs that have been abandoned..