49 posts tagged “observatory”
The tangles in the Web (DNS tangles mentioned earlier) are now straightened and the new domain name, web site, and URL forwarding are all working as advertised. Some promotional postcards have shipped, my sample calendar has shipped, and I've time off to put it all together into a little gallery show. Lots of work, expensive, but fun! I'll be working on the final bits tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon I participate in a high-level meeting regarding a possible development for the Observatory -- I know very little about what will be discussed. Hmmm. So, on a couple of fronts, we're moving right along!
It was rainy and cloudy all day Saturday and all night. We got a decent amount of rain and it was needed. She and I went out for the weekly provisions and rambled around a bit. Lunch out was fancier than usual for us... a pleasant visit to Camille's Sidewalk Cafe in Rocky River. She had a veggie roll-up ("Too much lettuce," said She.) and I enjoyed the veggie panini sandwich. We did not sit at sidewalk tables! Inside, however, was cheerily busy, bright, and clean. Back at home, though She wasn't feeling her best, it was time for yet another harvest of basil and another big batch of pesto. We've now socked away a whole winter's supply of the tasty green mixture good for pizzas, pastas, sandwiches, even crackers! A bit of summer on a cracker will be a fine thing a few months from now!
I've continued work on the show and supporting materials and online stuff. I bought a new domain name, set up hosting, created a subdomain pointing to my online gallery space. Something's tangled up in the DNS but we'll get it straightened. It was a busy evening. I finally dug out and stripped the old, framed black & white photos from their stretch-wrap cocoons. There's some good stuff there, amongst the framed work and I'll want to make a final selection of, perhaps, four of them to show alongside the new stuff. Ah, memories!
Today we had a quiet morning at home with waffle breakfast. After lunch we headed out and strolled around Olmsted Falls, visiting David Fortier River Park. I got some nice photos there under changeable skies and a thick canopy of trees. That wide-angle zoom lens, however, continues to perplex me. Am I expecting too much of it? Am I being too critical when examining the details at outrageously high magnifications? It doesn't stack up to the clarity of my "L" series telephoto on the same camera body, evidenced in photos shot in the same park and conditions this afternoon. {Sigh!} I'll probably wind up sending it back to Canon Factory Repair, as invited earlier. Thing is, I don't want and don't believe I should have to pay anything more to achieve the results I rightfully expected when I first bought that lens.
Busy week coming up with a mix of work, art, and a high-level meeting concerning the Observatory. Stay tuned!
The seeing and the starry sky were exquisite Saturday night for our September Open Night. The sky over the village was cloudless and sparkling with diamond stars. The Milky Way stretched broad and bright overhead, arcing half-way across the sky, dust lanes evident. It was the finest sky I've seen in quite some time. All told 49 visitors came, stretched out over the two hours of the event -- much better than 49 all showing up at once, which has often happened! The smaller crowds at any given time allowed for better interaction with visitors and gave them the sense that they could take their time looking through the telescope. Several College students were in attendance including a young man from Mexico City. Students rarely show up at these events so it was a pleasure to have them. Three students arrived at the scheduled 11:00 closing time and I spent a half-hour with them... they were excited and enthusiastic about the entire experience. Earlier in the evening a girl, maybe eight years old, was obviously enthralled with her views of Jupiter and the Galilean Moons; she even used a chart I provided at the eyepiece to put names to the star-like dots aside the huge planet. It is extremely gratifying when someone, most especially a child, really "gets" what they are seeing when looking through a great telescope. That young lady wasn't just looking at Jupiter, she was observing! Also featured was the Andromeda Galaxy which filled the field of view with its misty wonder - the light of a trillion stars 2.5 million light-years away! Jupiter was resplendent with not only the dark, broad equatorial cloud bands visible, but other "stripes" could be seen in the temperate zones. I must say, between the excellent seeing and improved tracking of the telescope, I enjoyed the best views I've ever had of those two objects, both at 122X. The telescope's right ascension clutch has been slipping badly. By hand-tightening the clutch I found that the telescope tracked as well as some modern electrically-driven scopes making higher-magnification public views practical and enjoyable. Observing Jupiter was, by the way, greatly aided through use of a neutral density filter -- it was difficult to observe without the filter as Jupiter was so very brilliant! It was an excellent night.
The "Towercam" at the top of the Mt. Wilson solar observatory tower captured this image tonight. The facility's Internet connection had been broken for several days having been burned out by an intentionally-set backfire. Tonight the Observatory remains under threat but the degree of danger is believed to be lower now than in recent days. Mt. Wilson is, among other things, the place where Edwin Hubble did much of his groundbreaking work. It is also a modern astronomical research center. The situation is being chronicled in a blog by Mt. Wilson personnel. Image: "Towercam," UCLA Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; quality adjusted by JG.
Today is my day to go to work late. Last night was a lovely clear night. I had the time and energy. I had this morning to rest up. So I went to the Observatory last night and wound up staying til almost midnight! Typical of me, I didn't get to bed until close to 2 AM and then pretty much woke at 5:00. Nap? Nope! I went to Hinckley Lake --it was a beautiful morning-- ran an errand, and did my laundry. I'll probably crash later (at work, of course) but it was totally worth it. I saw the brilliant waxing gibbous Moon in great detail last night and Earthbound glories this morning. You have to enjoy times like these when you can for you never know whether they'll come again.
Tonight is shaping up to be a beautiful night. As the sun lowers into the western sky it casts long shadows and warm light. My thoughts turn to the long trip home from work --my late night-- and the need for rest. If I were to drive toward home but continue on, I'd reach the Observatory by about 10:30. I would probably stay there for more than an hour, getting home at, say, 1:00 Thursday morning ... a "work" day. I'll have to settle for a disappointing peek at the night from my none-too-dark stoop, then crawl into bed. Sadly, I should not answer though the sky is calling.
The day dawned damp and gray. I'd had a lousy night's sleep. We took it easy this morning but did a bit of running about.
This afternoon was a field trip to the beautiful city of Hudson for a stroll around the downtown and visits to local shops. She bought some calendars at The Learned Owl Book Shop -- 20 percent discount now, less as the end of the year approaches. I carried the little Canon A650 IS camera with me, just in case, and got a few nice shots. I've still got that camera for sale on Amazon.com, by the way, but may remove the listing and just keep it. I'd like to go to the Observatory tonight but I'm concerned that driving would be too risky as in falling asleep at the wheel. So I'm going to miss another rare, clear night. {sigh}
After being off a couple of days late in the week (scheduled and "sick") I had recovered enough from my recent head cold and was able to put in my scheduled hours at the office on Saturday. Then, due to our change in operations to a summer schedule, I was off on the Sunday when I would have worked in previous months. Then I was also off today (Monday) due to observance of Memorial Day. It's no wonder I wake up these days wondering just what day of the week it actually is!
She and I made an effort Sunday to spend some time together. We wanted something low-key since I was not yet feeling back at full health so we headed to the zoo for a nice, quiet walkaround. As we approached the parking lot we could see that droves of people of every description were descending upon the entrance. I circled the Insight around and through the lot and we headed back home for lunch and to regroup. She proposed we check out a park we had not yet visited... Wellington Reservation of the Lorain County Metropark System. We were very impressed by the facility and She was excited by the prospect of using one of the park's pontoon paddle boats... "some day, not right now." We set out on one of the trails and discovered they are interconnecting loops. After following the outer line of the combined loop system we returned to the start having hiked 3.8 sweaty miles. She was pretty well tuckered out and I feared a relapse of my illness (which fortunately did not happen). Showers and a nice dinner at home put things right.
We both had plans for Monday (the holiday). She needed to help her mother and I needed to go to the Observatory to take advantage of an unusual opportunity. During our April 4, 2009 public night, the dome's shutter began acting up. (The shutter is a sliding door that covers a slit opening in the dome used to give the telescope access to the sky.) It was difficult to open for the night and was nearly impossible to close! College carpenters built up a scaffold inside the dome early in May and determined that the rollers that carry the shutter had derailed -- nominally the rollers move along an iron bar at the top of the opening easing operation. The craftsmen lifted the shutter back on to its track and lubricated the wheels. With the scaffold in place the telescope could not be moved so all use of the Observatory was suspended during the balance of April and through May. Today, while the scaffolding was still in place, I replaced the pull ropes that are used to manually open and close the shutter; there was no telling how much longer the scaffold will be available. I have no idea how old the cotton rope was; I replaced it with a tough poly braided rope. The shutter works better now than it has in years though close examination of the condition of its wooden components left me with worries. She finished her duties in decent time. My job took longer than expected. We both opted to spend the balance of the afternoon and evening at home resting up. Interesting weekend, that!
I took the day off to tend to Observatory matters. After the work was done, it was time to relax and explore. The dandelion field is in a rural area of Portage County, Ohio. The skunk cabbage patch is along the Headwaters Trail of Portage (Ohio) Park District -- a rail-to-trail conversion.
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