It was a hot, clear day in Beaverton, Oregon and the evening was very comfortable for some astronomy. I cleared off the back porch (no tripping tonight!) and got the tripod set up with the brace solidly in place. I should get a safety badge now (purple heart?). I get my stitches out Monday... still suffering a little soreness, swelling and discoloration right now.
About 11:30pm I got the telescope and camera hooked up to observe and photograph Jupiter. The sky became pretty hazy, but as bright as Jupiter is, I could still see it. One of the many photos is shown below and at least three moons are present (not sure about two of the objects that are off the equator). It was very difficult to see any features in the atmosphere, probably because of the haze. I was also photographing in-between gusts of wind, so there could have been some motion.
I'm looking forward to getting some shots in the (hopefully) clear skies of Eastern Oregon next week. It will be very interesting to see if the cloud bands become visible.
Also posted is a picture of Mizar (double star, second in the handle of the big dipper). It is the lower right pair in the image.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Astrophotography... almost
Last night, bringing my kids home from a late movie, I saw Jupiter, bright and beautiful, fairly high in the sky. I felt the strong urge to get my telescope out and continue my Nikon astrophotography experiments.
Well, there are no pictures of Jupiter posted here yet, so you may be wondering what happened. What I learned last night were two Telescope Safety Tips... 1) When you have a heavy scope, always tighten up the leg braces of the tripod before tryng to move it, and 2) Always make sure your observing area is free of tripping hazards.
At about 1 a.m. I had my tripod positioned in-line with Jupiter but after the telescope (with camera attached) was mounted I realized it was 180 degrees off. So I picked it up and in the semi-dark tried to rotate it around. As I set it down one of the legs collapsed, followed shortly by the collapse of my own legs as I stumbled over some old lawn edging laying around on my back porch. It was like a slow-motion fall as I struggled to protect the telescope while my body twisted down to the ground. During that fall, my face and the telescope or tripod collided and a wave of numbness rolled across my left cheek. I knew some damage had been done, but was focused upon righting my telescope and determining whether either it or my camera had been damaged. When I realized I was bleeding, I abandoned that and went inside to check out the damage and get help. 'Twas a nasty, deep gash near my lips that seemed to go all the way through to my mouth. It wasn't bleeding much on the outside but was on the inside.
Well, to make a long story short, about seven or eight stitches and 3 hours later I was home and in bed, thinking of all of the ways the night could have gone differently. With this being the second accident within the last week (my wife suffered some soft-tissue damage in her foot at Seaside last weekend when her foot got caught behind the pedal of the surry we were riding as we were backing up), I'm beginning to see the truth to the concern that when you retire and start getting a lot more active your accident rate goes up. At this rate, will I last a year?!
I promise to all a nice photo of Jupiter posted here by June 30th. There's supposed to be nice clear skies this weekened, lows in the low-60's and I should be feeling a bit better.
P.S. - Yes, thanks to my self-sacrifice, it appears that my camera and telescope weathered the fall (at least the telescope's front glass-plate and mirror are uncracked). BTW... Jupiter is at opposition on July 9th (closest of the year). Hopefully I'll have some shots from eastern Oregon so that you can compare city and dark-sky views.
Well, there are no pictures of Jupiter posted here yet, so you may be wondering what happened. What I learned last night were two Telescope Safety Tips... 1) When you have a heavy scope, always tighten up the leg braces of the tripod before tryng to move it, and 2) Always make sure your observing area is free of tripping hazards.
At about 1 a.m. I had my tripod positioned in-line with Jupiter but after the telescope (with camera attached) was mounted I realized it was 180 degrees off. So I picked it up and in the semi-dark tried to rotate it around. As I set it down one of the legs collapsed, followed shortly by the collapse of my own legs as I stumbled over some old lawn edging laying around on my back porch. It was like a slow-motion fall as I struggled to protect the telescope while my body twisted down to the ground. During that fall, my face and the telescope or tripod collided and a wave of numbness rolled across my left cheek. I knew some damage had been done, but was focused upon righting my telescope and determining whether either it or my camera had been damaged. When I realized I was bleeding, I abandoned that and went inside to check out the damage and get help. 'Twas a nasty, deep gash near my lips that seemed to go all the way through to my mouth. It wasn't bleeding much on the outside but was on the inside.
Well, to make a long story short, about seven or eight stitches and 3 hours later I was home and in bed, thinking of all of the ways the night could have gone differently. With this being the second accident within the last week (my wife suffered some soft-tissue damage in her foot at Seaside last weekend when her foot got caught behind the pedal of the surry we were riding as we were backing up), I'm beginning to see the truth to the concern that when you retire and start getting a lot more active your accident rate goes up. At this rate, will I last a year?!
I promise to all a nice photo of Jupiter posted here by June 30th. There's supposed to be nice clear skies this weekened, lows in the low-60's and I should be feeling a bit better.
P.S. - Yes, thanks to my self-sacrifice, it appears that my camera and telescope weathered the fall (at least the telescope's front glass-plate and mirror are uncracked). BTW... Jupiter is at opposition on July 9th (closest of the year). Hopefully I'll have some shots from eastern Oregon so that you can compare city and dark-sky views.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Free thinking
The realization that the universe is "natural" is a first step towards free thought, as expressed in Ingersoll's vow:
"When I became convinced that the Universe is natural--that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world--not even in infinite space. I was free--free to think, to express my thoughts--free to live to my own ideal--free to live for myself and those I loved--free to use all my faculties, all my senses--free to spread imagination's wings--free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope--free to judge and determine for myself--free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past--free from popes and priests--free from all the "called" and "set apart"--free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies--free from the fear of eternal pain--free from the winged monsters of the night--free from devils, ghosts, and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought--no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings--no chains for my limbs--no lashes for my back--no fires for my flesh--no master's frown or threat--no following another's steps- -no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.
And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain--for the freedom of labor and thought--to those who fell in the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains--to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs--to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn--to those by fire consumed--to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still." Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
This isn't the last step towards being a free thinker. Unfortunately, that process is one of many steps that, like the search for 'truth', only can acheive an ever-better approximation. The focus for everyone desiring to go further is upon one's self... honest introspection and a realization of the self-imposed rails on one's thinking... fears, desires, ego, cultural constraints, etc. For anyone who wants to completely unleash the power and creativity of their own mind this is the difficult road that must be traveled.
Ingersoll's Vow
"When I became convinced that the Universe is natural--that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world--not even in infinite space. I was free--free to think, to express my thoughts--free to live to my own ideal--free to live for myself and those I loved--free to use all my faculties, all my senses--free to spread imagination's wings--free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope--free to judge and determine for myself--free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past--free from popes and priests--free from all the "called" and "set apart"--free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies--free from the fear of eternal pain--free from the winged monsters of the night--free from devils, ghosts, and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought--no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings--no chains for my limbs--no lashes for my back--no fires for my flesh--no master's frown or threat--no following another's steps- -no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.
And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain--for the freedom of labor and thought--to those who fell in the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains--to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs--to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn--to those by fire consumed--to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still." Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
This isn't the last step towards being a free thinker. Unfortunately, that process is one of many steps that, like the search for 'truth', only can acheive an ever-better approximation. The focus for everyone desiring to go further is upon one's self... honest introspection and a realization of the self-imposed rails on one's thinking... fears, desires, ego, cultural constraints, etc. For anyone who wants to completely unleash the power and creativity of their own mind this is the difficult road that must be traveled.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Human nature and its implications
One of the best non-fiction books I've read was "The Human Mind Explained", edited by Susan A. Greenfield. While we certainly are far from knowing everything about how the human mind functions, this book makes it clear that scientists now have an understanding of some of the basic physical processes that are essential to human thought, one of which is the firing of the synapse and the generation of a 'brain wave'. The diagrams and explanations in this book are excellent and made it easy to understand, even for someone like me who is not well educated in biology (though my education in basic chemistry and physics certainly helped).
If there weren't enough already to make it clear that our consciousness has a physical basis (e.g. the affect of drugs and brain trauma, split-brain effects, affect of amydala function on temperment), this information should be enough to convince anyone with an honest, open mind who is willing to seriously consider its implications. Of course, it doesn't convince many people simply because they don't want this too be true and their instincts tell them that it is not. The immediate implication is that there is no after-life... that death equals non-existence. With that conclusion, their primary reason for believing in a God disappears and with it the emotional support that comes from believing that their lives are part of a plan in which God is looking after their interests. It of course also means that they will not see again all of their loved ones who have died. Of course there is a cascade of further implications, but that should be enough to make the point. The transition from a belief in a 'soul' that is separate from the physical body (aka, "The ghost in the machine") is too overwhelming for most people to accept.
I've just finished another book ("The Blank Slate", by Steven Pinker) which mentions "The ghost in the machine" along with another commonly accepted faith, "The noble savage", but focuses in upon the appealing idea that every childs mind is a 'blank slate' in that anything can be written upon it and anyone can become anything they (or their parents, government, etc.) want to be. Pinker presents the case for there being an evolved 'human nature' (though both 'nature/genes' and 'nurture/environment' are shown play a role in our behavior) and discusses several aspects of this, 1) the backlash from the public and even some scientists against this notion, 2) a rebuttal of their arguments (which amount mostly to fears), and 3) examples of how this different way to look at human behavior can impact the way we deal with societies problems (e.g. education, violence, crime and punishment, discrimination based upon gender).
Pinker describes how the political ideologies of the far left and far right have folded into their justifications the concepts of the 'noble savage' and the 'blank slate' and how this was part of the explanation for the huge backlash against scientists proposing that even a portion of our behaviors are explained by our genes. I found this very interesting, because my own centrist political philosophy has been based upon the idea that 'liberals' and 'conservatives' (amongst others) are different by their very nature and that we cannot expect them to change... that we must have a system that accomodates our inherent diversity. The ideals of one group run contrary to the nature of other groups and their political ideologies are doomed to eventually fail (which Pinker also notes and gives examples of). I believe that the founders of American government went a long way towards accomplishing this goal of building a society that accomodates diversity and that they were on the right track. It is a society based upon meeting the needs of people as individuals, but this does not mean that society will suffer... in fact I believe society likely can maximize its success along such a path (see Pinkers discussion of the evolution of ethics).
These books and the ideas they stimulate are what I mean in my Blog self-description when I talk of developing a philosophy driven by our understanding of nature. This course in life demands a love of, and dedication to, scientific inquiry and it means able to be self-honest and self-critical when it comes to deciding what you 'believe'. At the same time it means that 'belief' is endlessly subject to change as our understanding of nature improves. It does NOT mean that science is my 'faith', for I fully recognize its potential to be wrong. At the same time I DO recognize its capability, proven time and again, of identifying its errors and improving its models. Anyone sharing this perspective: I'd love to see your 'favorite non-fiction book list' and hear how this learning has affected your political or philosophical views. If you have a blog... please send me the link!
If there weren't enough already to make it clear that our consciousness has a physical basis (e.g. the affect of drugs and brain trauma, split-brain effects, affect of amydala function on temperment), this information should be enough to convince anyone with an honest, open mind who is willing to seriously consider its implications. Of course, it doesn't convince many people simply because they don't want this too be true and their instincts tell them that it is not. The immediate implication is that there is no after-life... that death equals non-existence. With that conclusion, their primary reason for believing in a God disappears and with it the emotional support that comes from believing that their lives are part of a plan in which God is looking after their interests. It of course also means that they will not see again all of their loved ones who have died. Of course there is a cascade of further implications, but that should be enough to make the point. The transition from a belief in a 'soul' that is separate from the physical body (aka, "The ghost in the machine") is too overwhelming for most people to accept.
I've just finished another book ("The Blank Slate", by Steven Pinker) which mentions "The ghost in the machine" along with another commonly accepted faith, "The noble savage", but focuses in upon the appealing idea that every childs mind is a 'blank slate' in that anything can be written upon it and anyone can become anything they (or their parents, government, etc.) want to be. Pinker presents the case for there being an evolved 'human nature' (though both 'nature/genes' and 'nurture/environment' are shown play a role in our behavior) and discusses several aspects of this, 1) the backlash from the public and even some scientists against this notion, 2) a rebuttal of their arguments (which amount mostly to fears), and 3) examples of how this different way to look at human behavior can impact the way we deal with societies problems (e.g. education, violence, crime and punishment, discrimination based upon gender).
Pinker describes how the political ideologies of the far left and far right have folded into their justifications the concepts of the 'noble savage' and the 'blank slate' and how this was part of the explanation for the huge backlash against scientists proposing that even a portion of our behaviors are explained by our genes. I found this very interesting, because my own centrist political philosophy has been based upon the idea that 'liberals' and 'conservatives' (amongst others) are different by their very nature and that we cannot expect them to change... that we must have a system that accomodates our inherent diversity. The ideals of one group run contrary to the nature of other groups and their political ideologies are doomed to eventually fail (which Pinker also notes and gives examples of). I believe that the founders of American government went a long way towards accomplishing this goal of building a society that accomodates diversity and that they were on the right track. It is a society based upon meeting the needs of people as individuals, but this does not mean that society will suffer... in fact I believe society likely can maximize its success along such a path (see Pinkers discussion of the evolution of ethics).
These books and the ideas they stimulate are what I mean in my Blog self-description when I talk of developing a philosophy driven by our understanding of nature. This course in life demands a love of, and dedication to, scientific inquiry and it means able to be self-honest and self-critical when it comes to deciding what you 'believe'. At the same time it means that 'belief' is endlessly subject to change as our understanding of nature improves. It does NOT mean that science is my 'faith', for I fully recognize its potential to be wrong. At the same time I DO recognize its capability, proven time and again, of identifying its errors and improving its models. Anyone sharing this perspective: I'd love to see your 'favorite non-fiction book list' and hear how this learning has affected your political or philosophical views. If you have a blog... please send me the link!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Some astrophotography
I did some astrophotography for the first time tonight with my Nikon D40 connected to my Celestron C-8 (prime-focus photography). I got some decent pictures of the moon and Saturn. There was still quite a bit of twighlight in both photos (more so for the moon). I've included below two moon photos (Northern and Southern Hemisphere).
P.S. : I added one of Saturn. You can see the moon Titan off to the right.
P.S. : I added one of Saturn. You can see the moon Titan off to the right.
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