Amy & Vivian Arrive!

We drove to JFK late this afternoon and picked up Amy and Vivian who will be in New York for a couple of weeks.  I did a couple of quick snaps after I stopped and photographed her dragging two suitcases and a child's car seat to the car.  Kathy jumped out to help but hadn't reached her yet.  I was using my toy camera and just kept shooting without looking at the back of the camera  I actually love her moving out of the frame - that sense of motion and moving.

Once we started driving home, Vivian immediately fell asleep in her child's seat!  She was sound asleep all the way home.  The joy of being a child.  It is wonderful having Amy and Vivian here, and Liz arrives in a week, for a family reunion.  Fun having family home!

 

Montauk Air Force Station

This giant surveillance radar, is one of the largest the military ever made.  It was installed on property called Montauk Air Force Station in 1960, just west of the Montauk Point Lighthouse.  It was built to detect a surprise attack on New York City,  by Russian aircraft or missiles.  If hostile aircraft were seen, there was a network of 19 Nike Missile batteries positioned around New York City, which would be able to shoot down the bombers or missiles.  The radar antenna on the top of the building is 120 feet across and weighs 70 tons.

The building that housed the radar is 90 feet tall, and the radar was able to see airborne threats as far as 200 miles out to sea.  Many of the rectangular screens which make up the antenna have rusted and fallen off the support structure.  This antenna was motorized and would sweep the horizon for 360 degrees, day and night, year after year.  The radar was decommissioned in 1982.

This small house is just a stone's throw from the radar tower.  The huge concrete building at right was part of the radar facility.  Tomorrow I will tell you about Camp Hero, which was located nearby, and had giant guns to defend against hostile ships in World War II.  I am not sure that this is the actual small house which I am going to tell you about, but there was a house like that looked like a small wooden house, but in reality it was built of thick, heavily reinforced concrete.  It's purpose was to be part of the sighting and aiming system for the giant shore batteries.  More on that tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

 

The Ring Nebula

So it's almost 2:00 AM and I have just come in from using my telescope in the side yard where I was looking at some astronomical objects.  Then I put my Sony a7 camera on the telescope and tried for some photographs.  OK, so this little "smoke ring" is underwhelming, unless you are an amateur astronomer and then it is pretty exciting.  It is called "The Ring Nebula" strangely enough and was discovered first by a French Astronomer in 1779 in a telescope with a 3-inch lens.  It is generally believed that in the distant past, a star nearing the end of its life, blew a huge amount of gas off of it's surface as a shell.  The gas has been expanding ever since.  In a really large telescope, the tiny remains of the star can be seen as a faint dot in the center of this round nebula.  I wish this was a better photograph, but for me is is "baby steps" at the telescope and still learning how to use it and the camera in combination, but to get this tonight was a big deal for this beginner.  If you click on the image you will see this in slightly more detail.