Practical uses

As most of you know, I'm sure, there are a number of satellites orbiting the Earth with astronomical purposes as their primary or only function. The most famous of these is the Hubble Space Telescope; who hasn't seen at least some of spectacular images that telescope has produced over the years? Above you see Hubble images of the planet Jupiter and the inside of a gaseous nebula known as M17 (In binoculars, visible as a small "blob" - both it, and Jupiter and its four big moons are easily seen from your back yard with binoculars, especially if they are attached to a photo tripod or similar support.)

There are a number of other artificial satellites making astronomical observations at electromagnetic wavelengths that do not penetrate our atmosphere (infra-red, ultraviolet, certain radio frequencies, etc...). A couple of these, the Spitzer and the Chandra space telescopes, were recently in the news with regards to "missing black holes".

Space telescopes provide data for basic research, and their resulting data sets have less direct application to everyday life, though some the published pictures resulting from their activities are aesthetically pleasing, and grace the walls of planetariums (planetaria?) and museums (musea?), and probably quite a few private residences the world over. They also have scientific value; so one can say that there is perhaps some direct effect.

There is another class of Earth satellites which very directly affect our lives - the "weather satellites". There are several which provide up-to-date weather information and make today's weather forecasts so much more accurate. For instance, here is an image picturing some pertinent current conditions relayed by one of those satellites. The International Space Station and NASA's space shuttle also have a role in this regard, many important weather pictures have been taken by people occupying these vehicles.

Information such as this helps people prepare for these occurrences, and saves many lives. While this is not astronomy activity in the strict sense, the technologies developed for astronomical purposes certainly have important applications in this field of meteorology (this name itself shows the connection, meteors are certainly considered to be astronomical phenomena).

Practical uses of science, for sure.

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The haunted abode

It's this time of year again: we're haunted. The ghosts and goblins appear in our windows and doors - time to appease them with gifts of candy and other goodies.

These goblins were created by Marina and Lauren and Marina's classmate Chayenne.

Halloween recital

Marina at the piano













The proud parents (Derek and Airdrie)















Lauren at the piano













Marina singing







Derek and Airdrie invited us to come to the annual Halloween recital which Lorraine's music students put on every year. This time, it took place at a well-known local pizza restaurant. Both Marina and Lauren displayed their great talents for all guests. A huge surprise for us was that Marina also sang ("Butterfly" was her selection). She has an amazing voice, and a totally relaxed poise in front of an audience. We were all totally thrilled. Marina must have inherited some of that talent from her dad, as well as her Great-Grandfather (my wife's father and Derek's Grandfather), who was a singer, musician, and composer.

A moonrise from the window

Having just returned from California, it is a nice surprise to have a beautiful, clear day and evening - free of all the smoke. Even more lovely was the full moon rise over the northeast mountains, as viewed from our living room window (see picture).


The full moon always appears opposite the sun in the sky. At this time of year the sun sets fairly low in the southwest (and it'll get lower still until December 21). This means that the full moon rises high in the northeast, and sets high in the northwest. In the summer, the sun rises and sets that way, and at that time the full moon rises low in the southeast and sets low in the southwest. A quick rule of thumb: summer sun equals winter full moon, summer full moon equals winter sun. You can also say that sun and full moon are always two seasons apart.


The picture on the left was taken through a double-paned window and shows some faint smudges and reflections as a result. It is actually a combination of two pictures, one exposed to show the bushes, trees and mountains, the other to show the details in the moon's "face". In the first picture the bushes and mountains are correctly exposed, but the moon is overexposed and shows no detail. In the second picture (not shown in this posting), the moon is correctly exposed, but the bushes are barely visible. Consumer type digital camera CCDs do not have the dynamic range of the human eye; the eye perceives detail in both bright and dark areas at the same time. Using Photoshop, the two pictures were combined to give the same impression that I had when I looked at the scene.




This picture is one of several which were taken from the front steps a little later. The histogram of the moon's image in this picture was adjusted to bring out the detail, and the contrast in the whole picture was increased to enhance the appearance of the bushes. This is a single picture, not the combination of two. It played no part in the combined picture above.

Smoke gets in your eyes

We have just returned from a short trip to San Diego. Most of you are aware of the extremely vicious wildfires currently affecting that area. While the location of our stay with friends at La Jolla Shores was not directly in the path of the fires, their effects could be felt, none-the-less. There was a constant trickle of fine ash particles; my wife found that the smoky smell affected her breathing, and I had an irritated feeling in my eyes. None in our group was seriously inconvenienced, but in general, the media reported a prevalence of breathing problems.

We have our share of natural disasters here, but I cannot think of another calamity short of an earthquake which would be as destructive as these fires, and so far beyond human control. The only option if you don't want to take chances is not to live in the areas subject to disasters. That's like saying that if you don't want to get rained on, move to a place where it doesn't rain. Generally, desirable locations (mountain slopes, picturesque valleys, lakeside or oceanside viewpoints, etc.) are also subject to some sort of problem (slides, floods, wave erosion, and so on...).

No enjoyment without some risk...


Here are some pictures:







an eerie sun



















orange beach scene















From the plane on the way home: smoke as far as you can see.

The next cycle

Dereks' started a new cycle of chemotherapy, which was planned some time ago. So far he has few side effects. We're glad to hear this. Derek says that is feeling reasonably well, which is wonderful, considering what he's had to go through this year.

On a different note:

A few days ago, I bought a Samsung mp3 player and a little FM tunable transmitter. The idea is to be able to play mp3 music through the car radio/cd player in my van, which can't handle mp3 natively. This seems to work quite well. Both units can work on their internal batteries, or you can connect them to an external power supply (including the cigarette lighter) for external power. The mp3 player's battery can be recharged through a USB connection to a computer.

In use, the trick is to find some unused portion of the FM band, to minimize interference from FM radio stations.

I've found one quirk: if you connect both the player and the transmitter to the cigarette lighter, there is some kind of positive feedback which generates an inordinate amount of noise in the radio. If you connect one or the other only, everything's fine. So, I'm using the mp3 player on its internal battery, and the transmitter is powered through the cigarette lighter.

The sound quality in the car is quite good. The mp3 player has a standard headphone output connector, which allows it to be hooked up to external sound equipment, with excellent results. As I type this, I'm listening to it via the computer speaker system normally connected to my laptop.

Music selections are copied to the transmitter from a computer via USB, using software which comes with the player. This software also manages (delete, sort, etc.) what is stored on the player. Capacity is 2 Gbytes, enough for about 500 music selections. At an average of about 3.5 minutes each, that translates to about 30 hours worth of music.

You can also store photos, videos, text files, and games on the player, as well as listen to FM radio or use it like a voice recorder. Versatile enough for me.

Giving thanks

Here in Canada we celebrate thanksgiving day in October. This year, even the weather was worth some thanks. Our sister-in-law and brother-in-law invited the whole extended family. We do have a lot to be thankful for. Dinner was plentiful - obligatory turkey, ham, several "ethnic" dishes (we counted French Canadian, Native Canadian, Danish, Finnish, German, Austrian, Scottish, Ukranian, and Carribean ancestry in the "family" tree). As usual, a great time was had by all, thanks to everyone's efforts. The dining room overflowed. We see our family expanding.

My wife and I appreciated that Derek much enjoyed the dinner, too. You can see that he has a lot of backup, if needed.