"Mr Satan"

I went up to the grocery store in Glen Cove, and on the way back home, I discovered I was behind this car.  It was not a normal looking car at all.  Looks home made, and of course it is from California, so that wouldn't be surprising.  But the license plate!  Are you kidding me?  "Mr. Satan."  Who wants to be known as that?  I mean, how about "Mr. Nice?"  Or anything else!  I am not sure what this driver is trying to tell people - that he is really bad, and that you better avoid him?  What a way to go through life.  I was not able to get a look at the driver after I took this photograph.  I was curious what he looked like though.

 

Spring Touch Up for the Ghost Bike

When I took my walk the other day I was stopped in my tracks when I passed the ghost bike!  It was freshly painted, and all the weeds around it had been trimmed.  This is such an interesting story.  A ghost bike is usually left where someone dies in a bike accident.  Not so in this case.  A young man crashed into a utility pole at high speed one night and killed himself.  I believe his girl friend survived but I am not sure.  The ghost bike has been here for a number of years, and a few years ago I came across the friend of the dead guy, who was cleaning up around the bike and planting flowers.  I have been so impressed with the dedication of the dead man's friend at keeping this memorial in place, and fresh flowers every spring.  But the thing I remember about the story of this crash was that the young man who died had been indicted for a murder and was awaiting trial.  Whew!

 

Why Is She Looking At Me Like that?

I have to admit that Grace has this look.  And it is always at me.  If she is in the kitchen and it is time for the cats to get their food, Sam wanders around back and forth, but Grace sits just like this and stares at me.  I cannot resist, and so I feed her.  But here she is in the living room.  I was sitting in my easy chair and she came over and sat down and started staring at me.  Who would refuse this cat, who looks at you like this.  What does she want?  In the past, I had a small red laser pointer. and when I was in my chair, I would turn it on and sweep the laser between the front hall and the living room and the dining room, and the cats would chase the dot.  But I have misplaced the laser so her looking, I am sorry to say, is in vain.

 

Pickup Sticks

Our new neighbors are hard at work on their lawn and garden in their new house.  He has done that magnificent craft work which I have showed you, where he built small fences on the front bank to check erosion.  So we talked about trimming the hedge between our houses.  When they moved in, the hedge had grown to at least 10 feet tall.  It was a tall green wall that we couldn't see through.  So he talked to his brother who is a gardener and he said the hedge should be cut really low and then allowed to grow back.  That would result in a brand new, thick hedge over time.   What is wonderful is it brightens everything  around this side of the house, and we can see the sky.  It just opens everything up and it is such a great improvement from the tall hedge.  I am so glad that our neighbor decided to do this!  I decided that the sticks would be more obvious if the photograph was in black and white.

 

Custer Institute and Observatory

I have been a member of Custer Institute since 1989 when members of my astronomy club said it was the best place for dark skies for observing.  Usually I drive out on a weekday night and set up my telescope in the side yard and observe.  Once in a while there might be others with telescopes, but not usually.  Saturday nights at Custer is when they allow the public to come up to the dome where the volunteers show them sights in the night sky.  It is usually mobbed!

Custer began as an astronomy club back when Charles W. Elmer, one of the founders of Perkin-Elmer Optical Company would get together with like minded friends, at his home.  They bought the land where the buildings are located now and built the main building in 1938.  Custer Institute was incorporated in 1942, the year I was born!  In 1945 the second building was built, which housed this room which can hold 100 people and the facility began holding both astronomy and cultural presentations for the public.  

The three story tower and observatory was built in 1947, which resulted in three round rooms inside the tower.  This is the ground floor room with displays of astronomical telescopes and equipment, and the portrait is that of Charles W. Elmer.

And this is one of the pieces of equipment on display in a case on the first floor - it is a nautical sextant from 1850, used by ship's navigators in order to navigate by the stars while at sea.

The second floor round room is where a very cozy library is located and the room is stuffed with both books and astronomy magazines going way back.  It looks like such a cozy place to choose a book and sit down to read.

This is the third floor, where a modern refracting telescope is located, and where visitors get to see so many of the wonderful things in the night sky, from the Moon, to planets, to star clusters and galaxies and gaseous nebulae.  Custer Institute is an amazing place with such a wonderful history!

 

A Day Visiting Observatories

I drove an hour out to Riverhead this morning, for a small gathering of Antique Telescope Society members.  We toured two observatories and a machine shop from the 1940's.  For telescope geeks this was a virtual heaven!  This is a photograph of an observatory at Riverhead High School, that contains a one-of-a-kind telescope built by a Riverhead machinist many years ago.  It was beautifully designed and still works

This is the telescope inside the observatory, on its equatorial mount.  The Tube of the telescope is made from aluminum and magnesium which was really unusual fort the time.  Then we were off to see an old machine shop that is a museum and contains heavy machinery from the 1930's and 1940's.

Then after lunch we headed out to Custer Institute in Southhold where I have been a member for 30 years.  This is where I drive to in order to do my observing under skies darker than any other place on Long Island.  This is another portrait of both ATS members, and Custer members who were there this evening.

 

A Pink Flamingo

One last photograph from the trip to Manhattan where I walked the High Line again.  This pink flamingo really stood out in the sunlight against the brick wall in shadow.  I am sure the people who lived there put it out just for passers by, which is kind of fun.