Larry on top of world
This shot is too good not to pass along. Son Larry is spending a few months in Bisbee, Arizona, this winter and doing a little sight-seeing. Here we have in one view 50 million-year-old rocks, 100 year-old trees, a 57 year-old man, and perhaps a bunch of 20-year-old microwave and cellular towers, all happily coexisting. The location, according to the file name, is Juniper Flats. I hope Larry will... [Read more]
Say ‘cheese’
From today’s Wall Street Journal: Eastman Kodak Co. is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection in the coming weeks, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would cap a stunning comedown for a company that once ranked among America’s corporate titans. It is interesting how certain events seem to mark the ending of an era (think Pujols). How long has it been since you bought one... [Read more]
Year-end at the lake
Since mankind (I refuse to say humankind) has always sliced the inexorable passage of time into four-season packages, and since package #2011 is drawing to a merciful end, and since I now find myself at our Lake of the Ozarks hideaway with time to ponder, please humor me by reading a few public ponderings. When winter closes in on the lake, quiet descends and snatches of the real nature of this beautiful... [Read more]
Madman Muntz
As I was browsing through the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this morning, an article about the 1961 Plymouth Fury caught my eye. What was I doing in 1961, I thought? Oh, yes, I had been working at Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids for several years. And before that, I was selling and repairing TVs. What kind of TVs? Among others the “gutless wonders” manufactured by one Madman Muntz. I wonder if... [Read more]
Curiosity Rover
You absolutely must carve out 11 minutes and 20 seconds of your time to see this animation of the voyage of Curiosity Rover to Mars. View the beautiful lift-off for the mission. I can’t help but ponder the theological implications of this unbelievable NASA mission. Why would God enable some of his creatures the ability to conceive and prosecute such a super-ambitious project? Will it successfully... [Read more]
Confessions of a closet goldbug
I might as well ‘fess up. It’s the glitter that gets me. Like that fraud on TV, I just like the heavy feel of a fistful of gold coins. I wish I had more of ‘em. I wish I had the Midas touch, except perhaps when reading Acts 20:33. I remember, back in the 1980s, buying gold coins and watching their price skyrocket to about $800/Oz. (Please don’t check me on that price; my memory... [Read more]
Early bummer color
For years I have observed a special two-season calendar with my summer starting with major league baseball spring training and ending with the last pitch of the World Series. My second season is “bummer,” which started a week ago on October 29 and will last for another five months or so. (Sigh!) I usually try to post photos of a spring and fall walk. Below are a few photos from recent walks.... [Read more]
Where’s the Pelican?
I gathered these photons using a newly available telescope located near South Alpen, France. If you’re curious, it’s the center telescope picture here. For my first test of using this large telescope, I exposed “luminance” images of the Pelican Nebula (no color for now). From Wikipedia, The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC5070 and IC5067) is an H II region associated with the... [Read more]
Sunflower galaxy
A Kansan at heart, I like the looks of Messier 63, aka Sunflower Galaxy. I used Jim Misti’s raw data to follow a PixInsight tutorial, and this is the result. I keep saying this, but Real Soon Now I will resume using photons that I have gathered myself. It appears that my favorite LightBuckets site is being reborn and relocated to southern France. It may go live any day now. Image data acquired... [Read more]
Collision course
Here is another of my practice images using raw image data generously offered by Jim Misti. One of these days I hope to be acquiring my own photons again. But in the meantime, here is my version of the Andromeda Galaxy, about the size of our Milky Way and on a collision course with our home galaxy. Fortunately, you may have to wait for, say, 4 or 5 billion years for the clash, but it should be a dandy! Image... [Read more]
