Venus, Jupiter and the Moon

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 that point, I had given up so I hadn't bothered to really head out of the office at sunset to check... Well, about 5 minutes before I had to head off to teach class at the Observatory, I started getting phone calls about what the bright “stars” are beside the Moon (I run the campus observatory)… After dutifully answering that the “stars” were actually the planets Venus and Jupiter, I hopped up and ran to the car to get my tripod and set the camera up and took a couple of shots. Headed off to class and took some more with the students in the foreground. Will get the pics downloaded and posted this morning…

Recent activity...

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 still need to process a bunch of pics that I took while visiting MAC friends down in SC...
And my 20yr high school reunion is coming up...

Cabin Trip - Clarification

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 trying to keep that secret from Jerry so that it will be a surprise when he goes out in late August)...

Cabin Trip

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... hopefully, the floor and shower tiling will get done this week. Also, the roofing. And I made a list for next year... Anyone want to come visit and help??

But while we were out there, Pam and I did manage to get a little hiking done... I came home with 600 pictures (okay, they are not all great... alot of quasi-duplicate ones from taking sunrise pics and fireworks....). But here's a nice one...

I've posted some other wildflower pics on my Facebook page...

Oh, well

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 Tues night.

Image details...
Camera: Canon 20Da, f/5.6, ISO 800
Date/Time: 5/7/2008 8:40:01 PM
Exposure: 0.6sec
Lens: 17.0 - 85.0mm at 35.0mm

But since we were out there, I did get some pics of the moon through my telescope ... The horizon is not great, so I couldn't get Mercury in mine. Besides which, it would still have only shown up as a dot in a photo through that scope. So here's the moon...

Why is the sky so dark considering the time I took it? Well, I applied auto-color in PS7...

Image details...
Camera: Canon 20Da, ISO 800
Date/Time: 5/7/2008 8:18:51 PM
Exposure: 1/60sec
Lens: Astro-Physics Starfire 152mm (6") f/9 refractor

Moon and Mercury

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 the nice little crescent moon. Look at the larger version and you'll see Mercury as the little "star" down and left of the moon. Once I saw that I could see the Moon and Mercury, I hollered to my intern so he could take a look. Then I went about rushing to get my camera setup because of course it was all setting very quickly and as you can see, I don't have a good horizon in that direction!

Image details...
Camera: Canon 20Da, f/5.6, ISO 800
Date/Time: 5/6/2008 8:58:00 PM
Exposure: 2.5sec
Lens: 17.0 - 85.0mm at 72.0mm

I also wanted to get some zoomed in shots, so I connected the camera to my Orion Shorttube 80. By this time, they had disappeared behind the tree line so I had to go over into the landfill which has higher ground... just enough to get a few more shots...

Tonight (wed), the moon will be above Mercury and getting closer to Mars...

Image details...
Camera: Canon 20Da, f/5, ISO 800
Date/Time: 5/6/2008 9:10:02 PM
Exposure: 1.6sec
Lens: 400.0mm

Up already, why not?

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 my perspective, this was a very slow moving flare, so the exposure ended up a bit longer and the stars had time to trail.


Here's an 'unprocessed' version to be fair...

Image details...
Camera: Canon 20Da, f/5.6, ISO 800
Date/Time: 5/5/2008 3:29:47 AM
Exposure: 37sec
Lens: 17.0 - 85.0mm at 26.0mm

Rare Night, pt 2

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 details...
Camera: Canon 20Da, f/5.6, ISO 800
Date/Time: 5/4/2008 9:37:33 PM
Exposure: 8sec
Lens: 17.0 - 85.0mm at 35.0mm

Rare night

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. In the full size image, you can also see M44, the Beehive Cluster, in the upper left.

Fri (9 May) evening, the crescent moon will be below Mars. For some parts of the world, the moon will occult (eclipse) Mars during the night (but it won't be visible from east coast USA). Saturday evening, the waxing crescent moon will be above Mars and just below the cluster (use binoculars).

Although the sky is slowly setting, Mars is drifting east. On May 19, Mars will be at the corner of Cancer. And over the next several nights, it will drift through the small constellation and through the Beehive Cluster. That will be a nice photo op!

Image details...
Camera: Canon 20Da, f/5.6, ISO 800
Date/Time: 5/4/2008 9:34:48 PM
Exposure: 10sec
Lens: 17.0 - 85.0mm at 38.0mm

New Computers

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 days. And in order to chat with her, I had to get an MSN account as well. But I've also been able to chat with my cousins... pretty much for the first time in years... so even though we are scattered, maybe we will get closer now. We'll see.

Second Life

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 god-like figure? But Second Life? As a game, okay, you create an alter ego. And you do some stuff -- go to parties, play games with other residents. And that's neat when you have people scattered all over the country and world. What I don't get is when as part of the game you start to do stuff that you should be doing in your first/real life! Like working, going to school.

I have a hard enough time trying to maintain my website, posting a blog every couple of months, and scanning through various group listserves. But I also work. Have a home and family. I'm already overbooked in my real life! I don't see how I could even dream of living a constructive second life. Oh, that might be the key... give up sleeping.

So if one of the goals of Second Life is to have a successful alter ego, wouldn't that require you to be creative, constructive and all of the other talents that define successful? So why waste all that talent on an alter ego? Why not apply it to your real ego?

I guess that's what I don't understand. So long as people approach Second Life as a game, it's one thing. But when it somehow becomes their primary life instead of the real world, then something is wrong.

Babies

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 old enough to have kids yet? (Mind you, I'm closer to 40 than 30!) I'm sure this is driving my mom crazy, but she's been great about not nagging or hinting.

Good Morning!

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 the 13th.

And spring is in the air! I think I'll put the plants out on the balcony so they can get some fresh air.

keeping track

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!

cliche, I know

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 have to start thinking about two other websites and start working on those as well in the next couple of weeks. And I've promised to redo a friend's site. I actually started working on that using the yahoo editor, but I don't like the results. I need to figure something out using CSS.

Do you want to see the websites I'm working on? Check out the links at right...

keeping up...

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 of the feeds?? Feeders, aggregators... Help!

writing emails...

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 other identifiers removed)

We would like to use one of the ... Observatory telescopes to make observations, drawings, and photographs of
Mars.

We would use what we obtain with this telescope to enhance the public programs that we conduct for the .....

And, of course, we would give full credit to the ... Observatory for providing access and use of its fine telescope and facilities for this purpose.

Unfortunately, your astronomy open houses are not appropriate for us to do this, as they are too few, too crowded, and end before Mars transits.

So we were wondering if you, your staff, and/or students, are using the observatory on other dates and times more amenable for Mars? If so, then could we accompany you?

Alternatively, are you willing to schedule time for us on one of your telescopes when they are not being used? We are even willing to be scheduled between Mars transit and dawn, should that be the only time when it is available.

We would ultimately like to use one of your fine instruments on at least a few nights around Mars opposition with clear enough transparency and good enough seeing.

You may confirm who we are, and the legitimacy of our request, by checking with our .... point-of-contact ....

We are already familiar with the ... Observatory telescopes, their observatory building, and surrounding grounds. So we would need only a minimum of initial instruction as to their proper utilization and are.

We are sending this same request to both your office and personal e-mail addresses in case you are out of your office today.

My first thought was, who are these people? I didn't learn their names until the signature at the end. And they would like to use the telescopes? Well I would like to win a million dollars! "... the legitimacy of our request..." How is a request legitimate??

I showed the email to an office mate and we decided that maybe the writer was a student intern at the institution. Turns out, that's not the case. After writing back with some comments, one of which was, Who are you? I got a lengthy response... and the answer to my main question...

As far as who we are, since 1988, one or more of us have been working with the ... Planetarium as volunteers developing and participating in public programs that attempt to inspire, inform, and hopefully educate the public on matters astronomical.

-- One or more of us?? What you don't know what you do??
-- Really? Then how come I never met you when I worked there for 2 years??

Heck, even the various african spam emails do a better job of introducing themselves than this crew!!

So, if you are writing an email to a stranger asking for a favor, it is best to
-- address them with their proper name/title, not their first name!
-- introduce yourself(s)
-- explain your project/dilemma
-- explain why you are asking for their help
-- don't insult their programs

I'll end it here...

Rude people

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. No problem. I respond thanking them for their interest and link them to the relevant FAQ page or other site page.

But lately, we've been getting folks who are incredible impatient and rude. Most are uninformed about the scientific process and expect results immediately. Just because we have the pretty pics does not mean we have the results! But at least when they write to ask about the results, they are not overly profane. But I do get a few who cuss, etc. I just want to write back to these and ask "Where the heck are your manners?!" I wish there was some way I could forward the messages to the parents of some these people. Why do the feel that they need to cuss? Others manage to ask the same question nicely, why can't they? Oh well, you'd think I'd know better than to check my work email from home.

Why education is important!

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 cases, I want to tell them that they really just need to go back to school!

So today, as I am checking my email, I come across a response with a link to a blog. So I check out the blog. And it is just unbelievable. How can anyone be that stupid? Well, I guess the people who read and believe that blogger. Which is very unfortunate.

In that case, the blogger needs to go back and take some more English classes and learn about comparisons. If a scientist says something is like beach sand, it does not mean that it is beach sand. It means that the substance in question has similarites to beach sand possibly in texture or composition, but that since no new word exists to describe it, that beachsand is what comes to mind. Our language is very limiting at times. Coming up with new words is not easy, so when scientists describe stuff, they often have to use comparisons.

Enough for today. I'm not exactly comfortable yet with this blogging thing. I was just so frustrated.