Picture Imperfect!

I went to the lake to take a picture a picture of the sunset. I have practiced and practiced. I got to know my camera. I took the moon, night fireworks, stars just before dawn and I have them developing as we speak. I thought, however, that I ought to disclose everything, lay it all out in the open, be an open book. So I am revealing first he very first picture I took. I was trying to catch the sunset, but turns out Texas is not wanting for trees. Too many trees made it hard for me in my Chrysler to catch the sunset in time. let's get it over with, this is it.

NuStar in the Hole!

NuStar( Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Arrayon) is a probe to search for black holes that was launched into space on June 13, 2012. It was a very busy day with so many errands to run I could not watch it live. I was able to get updates on my twitter page on what was going on. Basically, this telescope was successfully launched and I hope there is a great camera in this device. I will be watching first hand on its return and will get to feed my fascination for black holes.
After that the week just got busier and there was no time for blogging. I did get time to take a lot of pictures and have been practicing taking good shots with this film camera. its a lot harder than it looks. I would go digital but this camera, if you get everything set right, takes some awesome pictures. I have not lost my commitment to getting an incredible shot of the night sky.Which is why tonight I dedicate my night to taking more practice pictures; fingers crossed. If anything I will enjoy looking at the stars and might even identify some new clusters.

Black Holes

There are stars in our universey which one cannot see.
- Jean Audouze

I started my book on black holes by Clifford A. Pickover and I loved it, mostly because it is interactive. I learned to calculate the mass of a black hole, at a very basic level though I'm no astrophysicist or anything.
I found out that a black hole is not anything you will ever be able to see but an astronomer can collect information that suggests that there are black holes out there. That is why many people think they are a figment of many astronomer's imagination. I hope not since that is a future project of mine. The pictures of such an event can be incredible.

http://news.discovery.com/space/2011/04/13/black-hole-zoom.jpg

Oh starry night!

  Looking at the stars always makes me dream,
as simply as I dream over the black dots
representing towns and villages on a map.
Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining
dots of the sky be as accessible as the
black dots on the map of France?
- Vincent van Gogh

June 9, 2012


I spent some time today working my camera and getting everything ready for my big night. It turns out I picked a great day to do this, because there were so many stars that I could see with the unaided eye today. I wished I had a telescope ( I know-baby steps). I noticed that one cluster keeps popping up on exactly the same place every night. I step out of my back door, take three steps and there it is when I look up. Unfortunately, numerous attempts to take pictures of this with my camera have failed me. I still have no picture. I think because its not a digital camera the setting has to be just right in order for me to take a picture in the dark. So its back to the drawing board. I guess I could take a good shot of the sunset to cheer myself up for now, since the camera seems to take good shots of everything else.

All kinds of information

June 8, 2012
I wanted to find my next star cluster tomorrow and take a picture. I am rushing to the store right now (note to my big brother-the kids are fine, being well taken care of and I will only be a minute at the store), and I will get this camera working today and pratice using it to take these pictures and tomorrow I will have an actual picture of star clusters that I recognize. Good luck to me.
DID YOU KNOW:
Mars "...has plenty of evidence for a history of running water and enticing evidence for liquid water laying recent tracks within the soils."
Space Chronicles by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, p 78

...to Venus!

June 5, 2012
The transit of Venus was when planet Venus crossed the sun. It happened today and it was not very easy to see.
Whenever the sun is involved you cannot look directly at it because you will damage you eyes. The weather did not help, there were clouds everywhere making the whole exercise frustrating. The sun did not reflect on my white paper so that lovely trick did not work. So I gave up and sat behind my computer to admire images shot by others. If I wanted to see it for myself again I would have to live until 2117 which is the next time this will happen again. It turns out a lot of this stuff is hard to view and record without equipment which I am still working on. Until then I will go back scaring myself to death reading about asteroids and planning for some stargazing on my next night off.

Dragon

May 31, 2012
The spacecraft Dragon has landed successfully. Actually it splashed into the pacific ocean, but considering other vessels like it have exploded upon descent into earth, this is awesome. In fact, this successful mission by Space X, was historical. I watched with fascination all afternoon while grabbing at dirty dishes and preparing spaghetti for dinner.
Apparently it was carrying over a half a ton of experiments and equipment. Having private American companies  that are able to accomplish some of these missions would not only take a load off NASA,  it would also create greater opportunities for space exploration and discovery.
Who knew space research could be so engaging. I hope to learn more about it and will be watching the next spacecraft- NuStar- launch into space June 13. For now its preparations for birthday fun and more reading.

Image URL:
http://8.mshcdn.com/wp-content/gallery/nsas-mission-control-2/space-x-dragon-and-iss-connected.jpg

Got no money to travel?...then Read!

I can read anything. A lifetime of literature teachers shoving books like 'Far from the Madding Crowd' down your throat will do that to a person. I can get engrossed in a cereal box cover.
However, even I was surprised to find myself rummaging through shelves at my local library for books about space. I was there to look for books to help me learn more about star clusters and how to identify them but something came over me I suppose. I guess I was learning about astronomy not just stargazing; but space...wasn't it too soon for space?     I grabbed a book 'Space Chronicles' by Neil Degrasse Tyson. That is what I started reading today. I had also picked up. I was sure the librarian checking out my books thought I was insane.
'Space Chronicles was a good first read because the author's motive for writing the book was to try to get more young people interested in astronomy and science. The big idea is that we need young Americans to want to get into these science technology and research professions. Our future in medicine and technology as a nation depends on us going back into space. I was learning so much already all from one book. So off I go to do some reading.

Rainy night

May 29,2012.

I was planning to take some time off reading to see if I could find some star clusters in the sky. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a stormy night. The wind was so strong it blew the branches of the trees in our yard hard against our living room windows. So back to reading and tomorrow is another day.
JUST A THOUGHT: When I was growing up my father always told me I was a star. He said the same about my siblings also. Its a comforting thought to imagine, now that he is deceased, that he is the star and he is up there watching over us. Far fetched, but comforting.

Ursa Major- The Big Dipper

May 20, 2012


The big day came with disappointment. There was no eclipse to be sighted anywhere near my home. I should have driven my sleepy behind to Lubbock. I had to get over it because I still had to take my notorious evening nap before work. Then I realized I had not done any real stargazing at all. I had done all this research and I got books and equipment, but the beauty was in the skies not in the research and equipment. I grabbed my new binoculars and headed out to the back yard at the first sign of darkness. I sat on my outdoor L.L. Bean Camp Comfort recliner that I had set on the grass. I looked up and sat quietly watching the stars with "the unaided eye" first as I wanted to know what I could see with no equipment. It was a beautiful sight. Everything was silent and I caught one light after another of stars that had been following up above everywhere...everywhere I had ever been, night after night, and never acknowledged by my two blinkers. I mean I cannot even tell you the last time I had sat out at night and looked at this beauty. I just sat there for a few minutes and took it all in and I realized you really had to look because a lot of the stars cannot be seen at a glance, you had to give them a minute. Then I remembered reading about star clusters and there being so many I was hoping to eventually learn to recognize all of them. So I set out to find my first star cluster. 


My newly recruited assistant was my eight year old daughter Jenny. She had been sitting with me the whole time, quiet as a well fed mouse, but then she squealed, "there's the big dipper!

Human ear like cluster

I looked at what was for sure our first sighting of a cluster, but I was not sure yet if it was what she said it was. I had my pen and paper ready to sketch out my first cluster since my camera battery had not yet arrived (long story, too upset to tell it). At first sighting it looked a bit like a human ear.

My big dipper

After a few more minutes of focusing on the whole cluster together, still with the unaided eye, I saw it. It WAS the big dipper. I drew it the way I saw it after a few minutes, and the excitement between Jenny and myself was so great, it was as if we had landed on the moon. For me this was a wonderful discovery for the day and, eclipse forgotten, I marched my victory sketch back inside. We had found our first official personally sighted cluster, Ursa Major-The big dipper.
We had not even used the binoculars.

Equipment, Equipment.

May 19, 2012

I woke up to gather equipment for my first night under the stars. The website I had been using, due to lack of a real mentor to shadow, suggested a telescope was a bad idea for someone new to this; since it cost a lot and  one would not want to spent hundreds of dollars on a fine telescope just to find that it was the wrong fit. I was better off with a pair of binoculars, any binoculars. I scrolled through a bunch of ads on craigslist but this proved to be a disappointment. After another twenty minutes browsing numerous sites for information and pricing I realized I was too sleepy for such an exercise. I had been at work all night til 6a.m. and was gearing up for another long shift tonight so I was in no condition for all this nonsense. I needed something today though since I was getting myself equipped for the big annular eclipse tomorrow. I had decided that since I was no expert on solar eclipses and how far out of range they could be sighted I was going to get myself ready for tomorrow's just in case. I even seriously considered driving to Lubbock,Texas, two hours away,where it would you could see it for sure. I went digging through my stuff and was delighted to find an old Minolta- Maxxim 70 on a top shelf in a closet. There was also an extra lens that could focus up to 300 ft. This was awesome, except for the fact that I had no battery or film for this non-digital 20th century device. After interrogating the spouse to find out everything he knew about the camera (he had originally purchased it for himself during his short lived obsession with professional cameras); I was reassured that it  would produced some really good pictures. By now I was exhausted, so I decided to lower my standards on binoculars for now and headed for Target. Three kids in tow, each whining for some ridiculous toy that we could not afford, made this trip too eventful for my liking. I found the binoculars and settled for a pair of Bushnell 8x21 binoculars. I was proud of my accomplishments for the day and headed home to go nap a bit before I had to head to work and go love on some sick people.

Moons and Holes.

May 11, 2011



For the first time since I could remember, I jumped of bed and with kids fed, dressed and assigned to activities according to their interests, I made a beeline to my PC. My first search directed me to a picture of what was described as ' hungry black holes' that were apparently causing a lot of mayhem for the stars in the sky but the images and videos of a hungry black hole swallowing a star were so beautiful to look at. I set out to learn how to identify this happening and how to be able to tell this from my own telescope or binoculars and maybe even get my own pictures of such a tremendous event. I felt little guilt that some poor stars would have to be sacrificed for my own personal pleasure and achievement.
After much time spent on numerous videos I stumbled upon solar eclipses and learned of one expected
soon, May 20th to be exact and I was going to witness this event as closely as I could. Since it would not be happening close to where I lived I committed to being ready for the next solar eclipse coming my way, even though my poor new-to-astronomy self had no idea when that would be.


I  realized this would require equipment that I did not have and I would therefore have to find out what it was that I needed and get it, before black holes and solar eclipses and possible new planets or anything else decided to pop up in the skies. My personal collection of star gazing and other things space turned out to be not too shabby as far as a camera and sad as far as binoculars and telescopes.      

What in the world?

May 10 2012


I woke up this morning and went to visit my friend who was recovering from a very complicated spinal surgery. This was her second surgery this year and despite having a neck brace and being confined to the house you would never known unless she mentioned it. She was dressed and smiling and eager to chat. her account of the grueling week she had had was unbelievable. She was so full of life and laughter, and ready to live life to the fullest no matter what was happening to her.




When I got back home later, I sat down at my computer and was wondering about this reaction to a circumstance in a way that was completely opposite to how I often reacted to the relatively trivial problems of my personal life. Somehow this brought me to a state of mind where I was now frantically trying to find something to add a fullness to my life. I had a wonderful family and I had a job that was personally fulfilling, despite not being anything most people wanted to do. However, today was a day off and children went to school and spouses went to work. What was my personal passion, the light that burns in my heart that makes me want to jump out of bed everyday and spend as much time with it as I could; something that would bring me joy and warm my heart no matter what was going on with life, work, or at home.




I would love to tell you that it hit me like a ton of bricks and the impact threw me off the couch I was web surfing on. I would love to tell you that some memory of wise words said to me finally clicked and pointed me to the stars. I can not tell you that because the revelation did not come in any exciting way. I simply found myself, out of nowhere, typing in the word astronomy. I was aware of what astronomy generally encompassed, but I was not prepared for the emotional and mental shot of pleasure from just very basic information. I found out what an amateur astronomy enthusiast needed to get the most out of the experience, where I could find equpiment, what to buy first and even learnt about a something called "star parties" when I was looking for the local planeteriums. My blood was boiling with excitement and all of a sudden my schedule was instantly filled up and I was so eager to find out everything there was to learn about astronomy. I was going to join the local Museum of Science and History and try out a star party and use a telescope. I went to bed that night, excited and ready to jump out of bed and use every spear minute I had that day to discover the life in the skies.