tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-143381412012-02-16T05:12:03.906-05:00Just my $0.02!Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.comBlogger251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-24983874443884076612011-10-21T07:28:00.001-04:002011-10-21T07:28:23.014-04:00

Jerry had to fly to Chicago for the day. So I dropped him off at DCA at 4:30 am, drove home and promptly went back to sleep. Now, I'm trying to wake up but playing on phone instead... found Blogger app... But of the recent apps, I think Dropbox is the most useful. Basically get some free space in the cloud, save files to a special directory on your computer, then access and edit from any other

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0Alexandria House Condominiums, 400 Madison St, Alexandria, Virginia, United States38.812581 -77.041951tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-64694597817886792272011-07-31T13:14:00.006-04:002011-08-05T16:35:25.922-04:00

Since I run a campus observatory, I'm often asked about what I think about Pluto getting "demoted." First, Pluto wasn't demoted, it was reclassified. Unfortunately, the astronomers/IAU aren't exactly clear yet on the classifications -- I'm personally leaning towards the Star Trek classifications myself.Here's how I explain it:When you are young and you only have a few toys -- a crayon, a doll, a

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-32696765029100373392010-12-25T12:54:00.002-05:002010-12-25T13:01:15.656-05:00

Hmmm, interesting... I got an IPad from Santa... Having fun playing with it. Hunting through apps. But, help me out here... Why does one need an app to do some stuff like adding to your blog or updating your status? Wouldn't it be easier to just go to the webpage?

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-35530464093264990542010-05-25T15:08:00.002-04:002010-05-25T15:13:39.058-04:00

So I have a FB friend page for the DI Flyby primarily so that I can use that account to setup a fan page for the EPOXI mission (rather than using my login which is already being used for fan pages for the UM Observatory and MAC)... And now I've setup twitter links between the accounts. And it's a mess!So, I think that when I update the EPOXI fan page, it updates the spacecraft twitter (

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-78553477192018898672009-12-04T15:29:00.002-05:002009-12-04T15:32:46.345-05:00

So, just got back from Colorado... Thanksgiving Trip 21-28 Nov 2009... Mom, Dad and Uncle P (visiting them from Hungary) joined us... Filled up my CF card so I had to load in my second card... but I forgot that I had done that, so when I started downloading today, all I saw were the pics that I had taken onto the CF2... momentary bit of panic before I remembered CF1... which is downloading now...

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-51827777841551571092009-12-04T14:08:00.001-05:002009-12-04T14:08:58.681-05:00

Well, that about says it!!

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-18291021543827947922008-12-02T07:32:00.002-05:002008-12-02T07:38:25.386-05:00

We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend... nice in the sense that we got to relax, spend time with family, etc, but not great since it was cloudy every night so I couldn't get shots of Venus approaching Jupiter. And yesterday started out just as bad... completely clouded over in the morning, looked like it might clear up as I was heading to work, then totally overcast when we went to lunch. At

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-22262814762727391572008-09-07T22:19:00.002-04:002008-09-07T22:24:14.245-04:00

Last Sunday (31 Aug) was another one of those awesome observing nights... and since there was no work the next day... and Jerry was out of town... and it was new moon... Well, I concentrated on taking some flats and then lots of short exposures of M57... but I haven't gotten around to processing them... I'll try to do that this week along with posting some pics from a hike a few weeks ago. And I

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-87200230372782690002008-07-13T17:10:00.002-04:002008-07-13T17:14:48.192-04:00

Okay, before anyone misunderstands, we did hire a contractor to do all of the hardstuff, but Pam and I did help! I carried out trash from tearing out the kitchen floor and downstairs bath, picked up tile from Colorado Springs, washed the cabinet doors and hardware, swept and vacuumed some really gross stuff (you REALLY do not want to know!!)... She and I also painted the downstairs bath (I'm

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-17770063413877256552008-07-13T13:12:00.002-04:002008-07-13T13:21:04.643-04:00

Well, we had our vacation scheduled. Then Jerry bailed because of work. Then friends Hayden and Pam were going to join us, but Hayden bailed... so it was just us gals! Meanwhile Jerry had tasked me with doing some cabin repairs which Pam and I ended up doing. The kitchen floor got tiled. The two bathrooms, well, the downstairs was gutted when we left and supposedly the upstairs is also now gutted

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-56242627148383902492008-05-08T12:07:00.008-04:002008-05-08T12:25:00.806-04:00

Well, last night was not as clear as the previous nights. The moon was easy enough, and we did get to see Mercury through one of the telescopes before sunset (so it was still relatively high in the sky), but the haze and clouds moved in and you couldn't see it. You can see how the moon's light is diffused through the haze... See also how much the moon moves from one night to the next? Compare to

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-73171191846711400532008-05-07T18:21:00.008-04:002008-05-07T18:35:44.862-04:00

Monday night was also clear, but we had open house. Last night (tue), I had a student intern working his last night. Although it was clear, we were both working on computers inside analyzing images (me, the asteroid pics I took Sun night). About 8:50, I remembered something, jumped up, and headed outside. Had to run up the hill of our parking lot and over some to get the right angle. You can see

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-85112805374301418882008-05-07T18:08:00.008-04:002008-05-08T12:24:52.823-04:00

So, since I got home pretty late Sunday night (more like early Monday morning), I took a short 30 minute nap, then went to the roof to take a pic of this -7 IR Flare. Remember, this is from Alexandria... inside the Beltway... lots of light pollution... and processed in PS7, hence the metallic look. Jupiter is the bright object off to the right, the flare is what looks like a shooting star. From

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-70449535280341064952008-05-07T17:55:00.005-04:002008-05-07T18:16:33.707-04:00

Well, Saturn is also visible. It's over by Regulus in Leo. Okay, the pics don't look great when they're small like this... It's a short exposure and there's light pollution. Click on it to get a bigger version.Saturn is farther away than Mars, so it's motion against the background sky is not as noticeable. But if you pay close attention you'll see Saturn starting to drift away from Regulus.Image

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-39056557200764658252008-05-07T17:36:00.007-04:002008-05-07T18:16:21.790-04:00

Sunday night was a rare one... clear, dark... couldn't pass it up so I went out to the observatory to image some asteroids (no luck on those). While there I also took some sky shots.This shows Gemini with Mars just to the left of Castor and Pollux. They look like they're in a straight line almost (Mars -- Pollux -- Castor). Well Mars is moving and the alignment will change over the coming weeks.

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-19206195103943988162008-01-07T14:37:00.000-05:002008-01-07T14:41:15.883-05:00

Well, my Dad got Mom a new laptop for Christmas. While not entirely enthused about it, she is learning. It helps that the first thing we are teaching her is chatting online. Well, not sure if it helps or hurts yet, but she is able to chat with my brother in Iraq, her nephews in Hungary and me... So while we would talk maybe once a week on the phone, we now chat for a few minutes every couple of

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-25025283628147141602007-08-26T10:29:00.000-04:002007-08-26T11:08:47.216-04:00

I never got into video games. Yeah, I played Pacman. And I've heard about alot of the different games. I'm not a computer- or techno-phobe. I just never really got into that stuff. And I realize that other folks have other interests. But I don't quite get the appeal of "Second Life."I never played it, but I can understand why people would be interested in the Sims. Who wouldn't want to be a

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-60195626045824469482007-03-17T09:12:00.000-04:002007-03-17T09:19:07.331-04:00

Well, I'm a bit depressed. The little girls... they're not so little anymore... Anyway, the kids I used to babysit have all gotten married and are now having babies. Two of them have private blogs that I just learned about and I spent most of yesterday morning catching up. On the one hand, I'm super excited for them. On the other, well, they're younger than me... how come I don't feel like I'm

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-61947928349503120932007-03-15T08:24:00.000-04:002007-03-15T08:29:35.211-04:00

Maybe if I get into a routine... but should I post something first thing in the morning? Or in the evenings?Yesterday was kinda blah. I wasn't feeling well -- not sure if that's from all of the GS cookies I've been eating or the dinner from the night before. Ah, 13 Mar... normally, a pretty good day of the year for me, but not this year. So yesterday I was still a bit depressed/recovering from

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-49419268870118701672007-03-14T16:48:00.000-04:002007-03-14T16:51:19.411-04:00

Okay, I have my own personal website (which I've had since about 1995 thank you very much!) so why do I now have a separate Facebook, Myspace and Blogger pages??? I just don't get it!

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-46794431885353517472007-03-14T16:09:00.000-04:002007-03-14T16:36:56.881-04:00

My, how time flies! Has it really been over a year since my last post? Well, I'm trying! I have managed to totally revamp the MAC website. I think it looks way better now than before. And, I've managed to restart the club newsletter. Now, I'm working on updating one of my work sites. I've already redone the "look" and now I'm working on updating content (yuck), but I'm getting there. But I also

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-1137095805365772452006-01-12T14:42:00.000-05:002006-01-12T14:56:58.523-05:00

I've always felt that I was pretty well informed on the latest trends on the information highway. Well, I took a class today on blogging. Okay, the blogging part was pretty straightforward since I'm already doing that. But RSS, Flickr... And then looking at some of the websites, blogsites... well, I'm not keeping up as well anymore! Where do people get the time to update their blogs and read all

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-1131048178691943522005-11-03T15:02:00.000-05:002005-11-03T15:17:05.103-05:00

Sorry, not that anyone has been reading my blogs...For a while, I was getting really depressed/agitated when I read this other blog, but I finally realized there wasn't anything I could do to correct the misinformed idiots, so I lurked and read it as a source of entertainment... I do like scifi!So what should I talk about today? How to write an email letter...I recently got an email (names and

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-1121004988249632582005-07-10T10:04:00.000-04:002005-07-10T10:16:28.253-04:00

Hmmm. Maybe I'll use this space to vent about the incredibly rude people who send email. See, part of my job is to answer feedback questions that come in through a website. Most of the time I get questions which are already answered on our FAQ pages. We even put up a page that people would see before the form asking that they read the FAQ pages and we still get people asking the same ol, same ol.

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14338141.post-1120920259438541552005-07-09T10:32:00.000-04:002005-07-09T11:14:07.410-04:00

When I was growing up, my parents instilled in me the idea that education was very important. I was not allowed to have a job while I was in highschool beyond babysitting or yardwork. Today, I have a cool job.Unfortunately, at this cool job, I come across some very uninformed people. I just want to yell at them "See, this is why you should have taken more math and science!" Actually, in many

Elizabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01686485187373651833noreply@blogger.com0