Getting There

Because the North East Astronomy Forum is on the west side of the Hudson, I need to cross the river somewhere to get to the event.  I always choose the Tappan Zee Bridge.  Oh wait, that changed!  This new cable-stayed bridge was built and then the old truss bridge was demolished.  I know it is now called the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, BUT, I was surprised to learn that it is still called the Tappan Zee Bridge!  That's a relief!  The old truss type bridge was the Tappan Zee Bridge and also called the Gov. Malcolm Wilson Bridge. This is an absolutely stunning work of engineering and it is absolutely beautiful in it's design.  And it looks different every time the weather changes, which is why I try and photograph it each time I cross it.  I am VERY careful and you will notice there are no cars near me.  I do NOT look at the camera, I look at the road and point the camera with some sixth sense and sometimes I get a good composition.

 

Wall to Wall Telescopes!

Today was the first day of two days of NEAF, the North East Astronomy Forum, which I have been going to for years.  It bagan back in 1991 and has morphed into the largest astronomy show on the east coast.  If there is a telescope that you are interested in, or eyepieces for filters or books or telescope mounts or binoculars and every other thing you can imagine, this is the place to come to see the actual item before you decide to buy it.  This is a panorama from the balcony of the Field House at Rockland Community College where the exhibits are.  There are also presentations by speakers - this year a lot of astronauts from the US Space program as well as managers and journalists talking.  CLICK ON THIS PANORAMA TO SEE IT MUCH LARGER.

I love this photograph of two guys, and telescopes in the background pointing in every direction!  These are mostly Unitron telesopes which were really popular back in the 1950's to about 1975, and they were known for their high quality and beautiful construction,.  They were manufactured in Japan for the American company.

Here is a portrait of me with Russell Porter, of Vermont who was the father of the Amateur Telescope Makers movement that started with a class of 14 men and one woman in Springfield, Vermont, in 1920.  Oh, that's just a cardboard cutout of Mr. Porter.  He was not at the event.

Here are seven pair of giant binoculars on tripods lined up for all to see.  It must be magnificent to study the night sky with binoculars this large when you are in an area that is away from all the light pollution.

 

1948 Chevrolet Stylemaster

I went to the grocery store this afternoon and when I came back out I saw this car and was stunned!  Wow, what a beautiful car!  What a thrill to see this!  I had no idea what year it was.  I got my camera and took some photographs and started to drive away when I saw an older man looking over the car carefully.  So I backed up and drove by this car again and asked the viewer what car it was.  He knew that is was a 1948 Chevrolet Stylemaster, and said "This car has an automatic transmission in it!  They didn't make automatic transmissions back then!"  As we were talking, a younger man approcahed the car and said it was his.  Turns out his father built this car for a man who wanted an automatic transmission and a larger engine.  That men owned the car for years and when he passed away, the car was offered to the young man who now owns it.  I was asking about the engine and he said it was a NASCAR engine, and it was 500 Horsepower!  We had a really nice chat, and as I drove around the car to leave, he started the engine and it was unmistakable that this was not the original engine!  You should have heard that deep throated engine as it sat there idling!  What a sound!  What a car!

I particularly love the straight on view of this car from the front!  Notice how there is a triangular shaped dark thing right in front of the windshield - that is a vent that lets air come into the car and is distributed at the feet of the driver and front seat passenger!  All the modern conveniences!

 

Microclimate

We have Daffodils on our property that are hardly beginning to show, while our neighbors across the street have them in full bloom, which is where I photographed these.  Other neighbors on our side of the street two houses up the hill have them as well!  You know why that is?  Right!  Microclimate!  Seriously.  We don't get the sun as the other houses do.  In the wintertime, and I am not joking our neighbor Judy's property and our property get more snow than the people on the other side of the street!  I am serious.  The street is in a very shallow valley because the land behind us goes uphill, as does the land on the other side of the street!  Anyhow, our Daffodils will come, but meanwhile I have these beautiful flowers that grow at the curb across the street.  Happy Spring!

 

Before and After

The other day I showed you a photograph of a small ranch house behind a chain link fence, which I think is about to be demolished.  Let me take you back a bit to this house which I posted on the blog.  I always thought it was a nice house, a bit modern, on a large lot with tall trees all around.  What a lovely place to live!  This is a close view.

The wider view shows dumpsters on the property.  So there is trouble ahead for this nice house.  Little did I know!  I took this photograph last August.  I photographed some heavy equipment digging a foundation since then.  

Oh man, look at this!  They started the framing a month or so ago I think.  Look at it now!  "Mcmansion" is an understatement!  Yikes.  But here is the killer.  Remember all the trees?  All gone as well.  What a difference in "place" this is.  It changes everything...

 

A Beautiful Crescent Moon

After supper I went outside to see what the sky looked like.  I wanted to play with my new, old refractor telescope from the 1970's that was a gift from a long time ASLI member.  It was still light in the sky and I knew the moon would be a crescent, but I wasn't sure I could see it because sometimes it is really low in the sky.  I was stunned to see this beautiful crescent moon high in the sky.  So I quickly ran inside, grabbed my camera then went to the car and grabbed my tripod and finally managed to get this photograph.  I love how incongruous it is to see our old broken TV antenna still on it's mast on the roof.  Time to go up and take it down, but it does make an interesging foreground!

I continued watching the moon and then noticed a bright Jupiter up and to the left of the moon,  shining brilliant in the darkening sky.  If anyone is curious, the orange colored star down below Jupiter is Aldebaran.  And what is really cool is, that if you click on this photograph to enlarge it, just below the moon are a group of six stars or more - they are the Pleiades!  What a wonderful collection of objects in the night sky just after sunset!

 

Another One Down The Drain

One of the neighborhoods I ride my bike through is Roslyn Harbor.  There are or were a number of homes that look like this.  I have lost track of how many of them have been sold, then torn down and a "McMansion" has been built it its place.  I have been riding through this place almost 20 years now and have seen the same fates to so many homes.  I have shown you some homes that have been torn down, and the most recent teardown now has a completely framed new giant home being built on the property.  Stay tuned.