Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Parks Astronomy
This last Saturday, the Vancouver Parks Board set up a public evening called "Night Quest" at the Pacific Spirit Regional Park. It involved naturalists talking about creatures of the night, and also included sky watching. To that end, the Vancouver Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) was invited to participate. We had about 10 of our members (including me) set up telescopes in a parking lot which unfortunately is surrounded by trees and affords access to only a limited area of the sky. None-the-less, we could look at the planets Venus and Jupiter through the trees (no leaves yet), and occasionally also see the Moon. There were hundreds of people who got a glimpse of these through one or the other of the telescopes. My own scope was trained on Venus all evening. At the moment, Venus is in a position of its orbit around the Sun (as seen from Earth) which makes it look through a telescope like the first quarter moon. Many people mistook it for the Moon at first glance, and were amazed to see that Venus could look like that. Lively discussions followed regarding why such a thing happens. I think some people gained a much better appreciation of the geometry of our solar system.
Later, clouds covered up the sky, and we put our telescopes away. Just as the event ended at its scheduled time, the sky started to clear up again. We get suckered in like that quite often in this city.
I enjoyed the evening, explaining things astronomical to the public. I find that this is what I like most about doing astronomy now: public events, or astronomy nights with other members at our standard venues. These events are all open to the public. The scientific contributions I used to make when I was in my teens and twenties (mostly regarding variable stars) are no longer my main interest in that field.
Some additional information about things astronomical, not necessarily involving Vancouver Parks:
There are several interesting astronomical events coming up this year. Two interesting ones are an "annular" eclipse of the Sun late in the afternoon on May 20 and a transit of Venus across the Sun (again, as seen from Earth). The best place to see the annular eclipse would be for us to go to Redding, California, or Reno, Nevada, but we'll see a partial solar eclipse from Vancouver, too. The other event, the transit of Venus directly across the Sun on June 6, will again happen late in the afternoon. It will be visible from Vancouver, starting about 5 pm, and lasting into sunset. Spanish Banks or any place with an open view of the Salish Sea (Georgia Straight) is a good spot from which to observe. This is the second of a pair of transits 8 years apart. The last one (the first of this pair) occurred on June 8, 2004. The first one of the next pair happens on December 11, 2117, the second one of that pair on Dec 8, 2125. I don't think that I'll wait for those.
Annular solar eclipse, picture taken by RASC member Roy Bishop in 1994 near Sambro, Nova Scotia.
This image of the transit of Venus was taken by Murray Paulson, of St. Albert, Alberta, at Hersonissos, Greece, on June 8, 2004
Both images taken from the Observer's Handbook 2012 published by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, editor David Chapman, printed in Canada by Webcom, Inc.
Later, clouds covered up the sky, and we put our telescopes away. Just as the event ended at its scheduled time, the sky started to clear up again. We get suckered in like that quite often in this city.
I enjoyed the evening, explaining things astronomical to the public. I find that this is what I like most about doing astronomy now: public events, or astronomy nights with other members at our standard venues. These events are all open to the public. The scientific contributions I used to make when I was in my teens and twenties (mostly regarding variable stars) are no longer my main interest in that field.
Some additional information about things astronomical, not necessarily involving Vancouver Parks:
There are several interesting astronomical events coming up this year. Two interesting ones are an "annular" eclipse of the Sun late in the afternoon on May 20 and a transit of Venus across the Sun (again, as seen from Earth). The best place to see the annular eclipse would be for us to go to Redding, California, or Reno, Nevada, but we'll see a partial solar eclipse from Vancouver, too. The other event, the transit of Venus directly across the Sun on June 6, will again happen late in the afternoon. It will be visible from Vancouver, starting about 5 pm, and lasting into sunset. Spanish Banks or any place with an open view of the Salish Sea (Georgia Straight) is a good spot from which to observe. This is the second of a pair of transits 8 years apart. The last one (the first of this pair) occurred on June 8, 2004. The first one of the next pair happens on December 11, 2117, the second one of that pair on Dec 8, 2125. I don't think that I'll wait for those.
Annular solar eclipse, picture taken by RASC member Roy Bishop in 1994 near Sambro, Nova Scotia.
This image of the transit of Venus was taken by Murray Paulson, of St. Albert, Alberta, at Hersonissos, Greece, on June 8, 2004
Both images taken from the Observer's Handbook 2012 published by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, editor David Chapman, printed in Canada by Webcom, Inc.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Another sadness
Our good friend Ernie, whom we visited in Puerto Vallarta at New Year's, took a turn for the worse and died on February 6, 2012. He had been flown to San Diego and spent his last days with members of his family and friends who live there. From what they tell us, our friend had experienced another stroke, which made it impossible for him to swallow or taste any food. Since Ernie had been a restaurateur all his life, and food had been a major love, he felt that he did not want the medical interventions which would have provided nourishment by means of stomach feeding tubes and intravenous supplements.
We had known about this situation, of course, because we stayed in daily touch with our (and his) San Diego friends and acquaintances. During that time, we had reports regarding Ernie's health which were indicating improvement one day, and a reversal the next. So when he decided that he wanted no more of this, and to have it all come to an end, we felt very sad, of course; we had known each other for about twenty-five years. We were also reminded of the ups and downs our son went through in his final stage of colorectal cancer, and the helplessness we felt in the face of the inevitable progress of a disease to its final conclusion. It was hard to take then and this time, and it will affect us for the rest of our lives, but we respected our son's and our friend's decisions to die. We think that, after going through a situation like this with the people you love and who support you, and after making all the necessary arrangements, we have the right to determine how to end our own lives.
In the middle of the month, his nephew arranged for a party to celebrate Ernie's life; we were invited, and booked a short trip to San Diego. The party was full of many happy memories of our travels together and other gatherings; Ernie was the catalyst and driving force of these events. This was a party as Ernie would have wished it to be. It's sad to think that we'll probably not see some of these people again - only the closer friends are likely to stay in touch; it's human nature.
So far, this is not the the better year we had hoped for at New Year's (http://www.penmachinedad.blogspot.com/2012/01/hope-for-better-year.html).
We had known about this situation, of course, because we stayed in daily touch with our (and his) San Diego friends and acquaintances. During that time, we had reports regarding Ernie's health which were indicating improvement one day, and a reversal the next. So when he decided that he wanted no more of this, and to have it all come to an end, we felt very sad, of course; we had known each other for about twenty-five years. We were also reminded of the ups and downs our son went through in his final stage of colorectal cancer, and the helplessness we felt in the face of the inevitable progress of a disease to its final conclusion. It was hard to take then and this time, and it will affect us for the rest of our lives, but we respected our son's and our friend's decisions to die. We think that, after going through a situation like this with the people you love and who support you, and after making all the necessary arrangements, we have the right to determine how to end our own lives.
In the middle of the month, his nephew arranged for a party to celebrate Ernie's life; we were invited, and booked a short trip to San Diego. The party was full of many happy memories of our travels together and other gatherings; Ernie was the catalyst and driving force of these events. This was a party as Ernie would have wished it to be. It's sad to think that we'll probably not see some of these people again - only the closer friends are likely to stay in touch; it's human nature.
So far, this is not the the better year we had hoped for at New Year's (http://www.penmachinedad.blogspot.com/2012/01/hope-for-better-year.html).
Thursday, January 26, 2012
4000 miles
Yesterday, the odometer on my old exercise bike, which I use regularly when I don't go for a walk, turned to 7000. This is measured in miles. The last times I posted anything in that regard was when the odometer turned to around 6000 miles; that was in January 2011, and 3000 miles in March 2009. So, in somewhat less than three years, I have put 4000 miles (6435 km) more onto the old, trusty "wheeled horse". The earlier post can be viewed here: http://www.penmachinedad.blogspot.com/2009/03/turning-3000.html
March 2009 January 2012
These 4000 miles represent both tragic and uplifting changes in our family. The tragic part is about our son, Derek. He died last year, on May 3 (http://www.penmachine.com/). The uplifting part concerns the birth of our niece's son Alexander, a strapping addition to our extended family. Our daughter-in-law, Airdrie, and granddaughters (Derek and Airdrie's daughters) live next door; it's wonderful to be so close to them. We consider the three of them to be "our kids", along with Lucy, the girls' little shitsu/poodle, which came into the family a couple of years ago.
My wife and I have traveled here and there in that time and met friends, old (sadly, one of them has died, too, and a couple of others are seriously ill) and new. "The kids" have done the same, but have gone to different, and more exotic places. We've had our enjoyable family gatherings for the yearly holidays and birthdays. I'm still running my small business. Life is carrying on...
March 2009 January 2012
These 4000 miles represent both tragic and uplifting changes in our family. The tragic part is about our son, Derek. He died last year, on May 3 (http://www.penmachine.com/). The uplifting part concerns the birth of our niece's son Alexander, a strapping addition to our extended family. Our daughter-in-law, Airdrie, and granddaughters (Derek and Airdrie's daughters) live next door; it's wonderful to be so close to them. We consider the three of them to be "our kids", along with Lucy, the girls' little shitsu/poodle, which came into the family a couple of years ago.
My wife and I have traveled here and there in that time and met friends, old (sadly, one of them has died, too, and a couple of others are seriously ill) and new. "The kids" have done the same, but have gone to different, and more exotic places. We've had our enjoyable family gatherings for the yearly holidays and birthdays. I'm still running my small business. Life is carrying on...
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Hope for a better year
It's been a month since I've put up a post. In the meantime, we celebrated our family Christmas. It was a bitter-sweet experience for our immediate family. Our son Derek was not there (as he had predicted a year earlier), but we had a new addition to the family. His name is Alexander, the son of our niece and her husband; he is the first baby boy in the family, since Derek himself was born. The young people had a great time at Christmas - as usual, too many presents (they didn't mind).
My wife and I spent New Year's in Puerto Vallarta, with good friends. Our host (and good friend) had unfortunately contracted pneumonia earlier in December, and had just gotten home from the hospital for Christmas. Therefore, he was not quite his normally exuberant self. Talking to him today, and he sounded a lot better. We met many people we hadn't seen for a number of years and several very interesting people we had never met before.
We have visited Puerto Vallarta for New Year's for many years. The city has improved its beachfront walkway (the Malacon) wonderfully, see picture. It is always nice to walk under palm trees in warm weather when it is miserable at home.
The weather was a nice 23 to 26 degrees Celsius during the day, and not much less during the night; we spent every evening outside, or in open-air restaurants.
The Mexican people greet a new year with fireworks galore. These were going off all around us for almost an hour after the New Year arrived.
We all expressed the hope that this year will be better for all of us.
My wife and I spent New Year's in Puerto Vallarta, with good friends. Our host (and good friend) had unfortunately contracted pneumonia earlier in December, and had just gotten home from the hospital for Christmas. Therefore, he was not quite his normally exuberant self. Talking to him today, and he sounded a lot better. We met many people we hadn't seen for a number of years and several very interesting people we had never met before.
We have visited Puerto Vallarta for New Year's for many years. The city has improved its beachfront walkway (the Malacon) wonderfully, see picture. It is always nice to walk under palm trees in warm weather when it is miserable at home.
The weather was a nice 23 to 26 degrees Celsius during the day, and not much less during the night; we spent every evening outside, or in open-air restaurants.
The Mexican people greet a new year with fireworks galore. These were going off all around us for almost an hour after the New Year arrived.
We all expressed the hope that this year will be better for all of us.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The December 10, 2011 lunar eclipse
Any hobby usually requires some "sacrifice". In my case, astronomy normally requires that I be awake and up while it's dark outside (the exception is when I'm using my telescopes to look [safely] at the Sun). A lunar eclipse always takes place when the Moon is full; the Moon is always exactly opposite the Sun then. At this time of year, the Sun rises low in the SE. That means that the Moon sets high in the NW.
This month's lunar eclipse occurred a couple of hours before sunrise, and I could watch it through my west-facing office window. I set up one of my cameras (a Canon Rebel XT SLR) and took some pictures through the double-paned window, and through breaks in the clouds. Before the eclipse started, the sky had been absolutely clear, but, just around the start of the eclipse, heavy clouds began to roll in. This is Vancouver, after all. Midway through the eclipse they totally obliterated any view of the eclipsed Moon. I got only one good picture through the last cloud break. These clouds kept the day dark and gray right through the next night, until the next morning.
Here are some of the pictures:
From the top down:
The top picture was taken about two hours before the bottom one. It was a cold morning outside. This kind of thing did not bother me in the past, but now, in my old age, I enjoy creature comforts much more. I was glad to witness this in my nice, warm office.
This month's lunar eclipse occurred a couple of hours before sunrise, and I could watch it through my west-facing office window. I set up one of my cameras (a Canon Rebel XT SLR) and took some pictures through the double-paned window, and through breaks in the clouds. Before the eclipse started, the sky had been absolutely clear, but, just around the start of the eclipse, heavy clouds began to roll in. This is Vancouver, after all. Midway through the eclipse they totally obliterated any view of the eclipsed Moon. I got only one good picture through the last cloud break. These clouds kept the day dark and gray right through the next night, until the next morning.
Here are some of the pictures:
From the top down:
 |
| The Moon before entering Earth's shadow. The area at "11 o'clock" is getting darker. |
 |
| Clouds are rolling in. |
 |
| Three quarters into the Earth's shadow. Picture taken through a break in the clouds. |
 |
| About 5 minutes before "totality" (again a break in the clouds). The star under the Moon is Iota Tauri (Iota in the constellation of Taurus, the bull) |
 |
| The last "hole" in the clouds. The clouds to the right of the dark tree covered the Moon a short time later. |
 | |||||||||
| Midway through totality. This picture was taken just after the one above. About half-way through totality - the Moon has moved, so now is totally covered by the Earth's shadow. The brighter part of the Moon is closer to the edge of the shadow. Notice that the star Iota Tauri is now farther away from the Moon - it's a consequence of the Moon's motion in its orbit. This is my last picture of this eclipse. A minute later, the Moon was completely covered by clouds and no longer visible. The orange colour of the Moon in the Earth's shadow is due the sunlight being "refracted" by the Earth's atmosphere onto the Moon's surface. If you were on the Moon, you'd see the dark disk of the Earth surrounded by a reddish-orange ring (a circular sunset). From the Moon, this event is a total eclipse of the Sun. You'd have an awe-inspiring sight. |
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The Green Thing
The Green Thing
(forwarded by my sister)
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this "green thing" back in my earlier days."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
She was right -- our generation didn't have "the green thing" in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have "the green thing" back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have "the green thing" in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have "the green thing" back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the
mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't
have "the green thing" back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have "the green thing" back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have "the green thing" back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.
Remember: Don't make old People mad.
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.
(forwarded by my sister)
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this "green thing" back in my earlier days."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
She was right -- our generation didn't have "the green thing" in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have "the green thing" back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have "the green thing" in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have "the green thing" back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the
mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't
have "the green thing" back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have "the green thing" back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have "the green thing" back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.
Remember: Don't make old People mad.
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.
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