Random Thoughts – Page 12

Transit Webcast Comments

Almost a week later and the comments keep coming in… E-mails to the observatory, comments on my blog, people are still pulling me aside to offer their comments in person. It is somewhat overwhelming. Did we really manage to do this?

I spent 6 and change hours with you guys and I really appreciated your dedication to keeping everything up and running for us all around the world. HATS OFF YOU YOU ALL! – Kyle

We are in currently rainy Western Australia, and your webcast was the only way that we got to see the transit at all. My kids’ primary school all tuned into you at some point during the day. 🙂 – Carina

I have been reading the comments as they come in. It is truly gratifying that we managed to share this unique event with so many people.

You made my wife’s day! She was stuck at work & had you and the Keck team in the background for the entire transit! She is eternally grateful! Mahalo nui loa! – Joel

I watched your webcast of the transit from start to finish (with a few breaks here and there). What a great job you guys did! Fascinating, funny and I learned a lot in the process. Thank you for your efforts, and I too look forward to other webcasts from Keck. – Carol

I do not expect we will be doing this again right away. It takes the right sort of event. The one previous webcast was during the close approach of the asteroid 2005 YU55 in November of 2011. That time we webcast from the remote operations room in Waimea. It was also a good success, with great cooperation from the astronomers doing the observation. Need to take advantage of the best opportunities.

Thank you all for your hard work and dedication. I signed on t minus 10 min and stayed until you guys went off the air. I enjoyed myself the entire time. I know for a fact that a lot of people learned tons during this broadcast. My wish, hope and dream is that you continue to do events like this. You all gave it such a warm (beep) behind the scenes feel that made us all feel “part of the science.” The picture in picture was awesome and the graphics support mid-show was much appreciated. I can’t wait until next time! – Eric

We supported an average of between 5k and 6k viewers at any given time, with a total of over 100,000 live views. This viewer count may have badly underestimated the actual number of viewers, often the feed was being shown to large crowds at other public venues. Andrea Ghez mentioned that they were showing our feed at the UCLA event, the feed was on at at least two schools, and our own crowded Hualalai auditorium at Keck Headquarters in Waimea. I keep learning of other crowds the feed was shown to…

“Our observatory in Sonoma County was clouded out much of the day so we had your feed up for our 300+ visitors to supplement live viewing between the clouds. After sunset I went home to watch the rest of the transit on UStream and read the firehose of comments. It was a giant star party! Thanks for all the effort. Best outreach ever!” – Cecelia

A great experience shared with so many people across the globe. Thanks to everyone who made the Transit of Venus such a great day… Our Keck crew and the viewers who were there with us.

Venus Transit Thoughts

Tomorrow we will witness an astronomical spectacle that will not be seen again by anyone currently alive. The gear has been double checked, packed and loaded. Telescopes, cameras and computers are ready, with the exception of a few camera batteries awaiting their turn in the charger.

Imaging Venus in the Daytime — Testing gear for the Transit of Venus.

It is an odd sense of anticipation I feel. I have had the transit marked in my mental calendar for eight years, since I was unable to see the first transit of this pair. I have had a blog post written and scheduled for June 5th, 2012 ever since I moved to the island five years ago. Every time I logged into the administrator page, there it was, at the top of the list, ever so slowly growing closer. That day is here.

After a great deal of work, the gear is ready, a big source of apprehension has been dealt with. There is some doubt about the weather, with both high winds and possible clouds an issue. But there is nothing I can do about that. I can go into tomorrow and have fun with this event. It will be a very long and tiring day at the summit. Whatever happens, it will be a day for memories.

There is a new blog post entered now, for August 17th, 2017, another five years from now. On that day a total solar eclipse will sweep across the Pacific Northwest. We amateur astronomers schedule our lives a bit further ahead than most. I plan to be there.

More Astronomy Haiku

Dark sky filled with stars
Telescopes help us see them
Takes your breath away
– Jennifer Sanchez

Space explorers
In the night implore
Please let it not rain!
– Mz’ili McKezfue (age 7)

Falling from the skies
In our scary, lonely nights
Brightening the sky
– Angelita Camacho

It is amazing how much can be encompassed in so few words.

Poems used with permission.

More Astronomy Haiku

Stars in the night sky
Keck Observatory sees
When was the Big Bang?
– Barbara Russell

Thanks to the work of a lot of astronomers and observatories, including Keck, we can answer that one… The Big Bang was 13.75 ±0.11 billion years ago.

Modern astronomy has allowed us to answer questions that have been asked for as long as curious humans have looked at the universe around us. Curiosity as expressed in a poem is part of what we are as humans. That is why we build and maintain the big telescopes. Thanks Barbara!

Astronomy Haiku

You remember haiku? Three lines, the first line with five syllables, a second line with seven syllables, and a last line with five syllables. It may be poetry, but this is easy poetry to write, a short verse with an elegant cadence.

For an AstroDay activity, Keck held an astronomy haiku project. We have a stack of entries we are just now getting a chance to read. Winners are not yet decided, but I have found a few that are wonderful, and worth giving some recognition to.

I should be clear, these are my favorites! Not necessarily the contest winners.

Telescopes are great
They make you see very far
I love telescopes
-Madison Kobayashi (age 9)

Stars shining brightly
I look to them for comfort
In them I find you
-Lacey Siweila

Lacey is over 18 and not eligible for a prize in the contest. She knew this and enters a poem anyway. You have to love that!

The Moon is so bright
The stars help light up the night
Let’s lay out tonight
– Micah Timbresa (age 7)

All poems reproduced with permission.

Astroday 2012 and a VIS Lecture

I have not had a bad cold in quite a while. Wednesday last week I felt the first symptoms, a sore throat beginning. I expected it, Deb had been suffering for a couple days by then. Thursday morning it was inescapable, I called in sick to work. I hoped it would be over by the weekend, I had promised to help out with Astroday and present a lecture on behalf of Keck at the Mauna Kea VIS. This would be the second run across island to Hilo in as many weeks, after almost a year without visiting Hilo, funny how that works.

By Saturday morning things were better, but not great. So off to Hilo I went, a good dose of decongestant improving the situation. I may not have been at 100%, but I had commitments to keep.

David Lynn manning the Keck table at Astroday 2012

Astroday is always fun, everyone from the astronomy community setting up tables and educational exhibits throughout the Prince Kuhio Plaza Mall in Hilo. At this point I know so many of the folks there, even the guys from Hilo I only meet a few times each year. The event is really designed for kids, with plenty of activites and a little education mixed in.

I manned the Keck table for a couple hours until David relived me. We did the Astro Haiku contest again. Not bad, but it was a repeat of last year. We really need to get some science experiment bling for our table next year. I have some ideas for that.

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Adhara

The morning routine was predictable… Moments after the first notes from the alarm clock there would be a familiar thump at the foot of the bed. That would be followed by whiskers in the face. Time to get up and start the day, which included feeding the cat.

Not this morning, nor tomorrow, nor anytime soon…

Today I buried a cat that had been part of my life for 16 years.

No more expectant eyes standing on the corner of the bed, demanding a skritch while I was attempting to dress for the day. Inevitably sitting atop of whatever clean shirt I had put there moments before. Gone is the purr from beside me while I attempt to get to sleep. I remember an escape artist that defeated my ever more elaborate barriers to keep a litter of kittens safely in a linoleum floored kitchen. I remember hot days of Tucson sun, lying in the shade of the old tangerine tree. I remember hours of yowling as we drove to San Diego, the first leg of the move to Hawai’i.

I picked her from the litter, the little grey furball. Named for the star Epsilon Canis Majoris, Adhara, sometimes spelled Adara. This star was once the brightest star in the Earth’s sky, though it has faded as it has drifted away from Earth over the eons.

Now, all we have in an empty house and freshly turned earth beneath an adenium in the front yard.

Passing of an Icon

My first computer was an Apple II+, I left home with an Apple IIe, and for a few years used a Fat Mac then a Macintosh LC. I carry an iPhone, my little iPod Nano looks quite worse for wear, and I am typing this on an iPad 2. Few people have had the impact on my personal life as Steve Jobs.

We constantly receive news of deaths… newsmakers, celebrities, sport heroes. Most mean little or nothing to me. Today’s news connects in a very unexpected way. Steve Jobs was a geek like me. One of the first icons of my generation to go. The products made by Apple have impacted my life in so many ways. While typing this I am taking stock of what he meant to me, and to our technological society. It is difficult to understate his impact. I hope that Apple can continue to innovate without his vision.

He will be missed.

A Media Symposium

A substantial portion of my life is now online. In addition to my writing and photography here, I read a number of other blogs. Indeed, much of my view of the world comes from the wide variety of information sources I consume.

The era of a few authoritative news sources (newspapers, network TV, etc.) serving large segments of the public is gone. Perhaps, while this may still be true for the generations of folks who grew up with this arrangement, it is certainly not true for younger generations who have become accustom to the wide variety of information sources available today. We select our news and information sources from a bewildering array of choices. Who we are is reflected in what sources we choose.

In addition to utilizing these new services, an increasing number of people choose to contribute to the dialog. Through removing the traditional barriers, technology allows anyone to begin publishing. Websites and blogs, social networks and video services, permit any voice to be heard, widely distributed and shared with a worldwide audience.

Many news organizations are struggling to come to grips with this new model of information. This was the theme of today’s symposium. A day of seminars and discussions into this new world of journalism.

Panel Discussion — A panel discussion taking place at the UH Media Symposium, with Ian Lind, Andy Parx and John Temple

Assembled by the journalism department at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, the symposium brought together journalists and bloggers from across the state. An impressive array of names, with many of the most notable figures in Hawaiian media. Together in the same room to discuss a wide variety of issues facing the news business today.

Along with the discussions there were a number of seminars on media basics. A welcome opportunity for a rank amateur such as myself. Unfortunately these were all too brief, as we hurried from room to room through a day packed with events.

A number of the presenters brought their personal experience of living through the tumult of this transition. Folks who had pursued careers in traditional journalism, now finding themselves having to adapt to new media, and new business models. Lives upended by change, stories of loss, and how they are coping, or even taking advantage of the new opportunities. More importantly, as they enter into this new era they have attempted to bring with them the core values of traditional media, of integrity and pursuit of the story.

I may be a mere blogger, but there is always something to learn. Particularly when offered an opportunity like this symposium. I spent today learning. Learning about the business of journalism. Exploring the issues involved with providing an indispensable public service. And seeing, if dimly, where we may be going as a society. A society defined by information and what we do with that information.

(My thanks to Tiffany, who spearheaded this event. She was everywhere and kept everything moving. Well done!)

Mulched

As the big front-end loader approached my borrowed trailer with a full scoop I expected the operator to carefully dump just enough for a load. No… he dumped it all. The trailer disappeared in a cloud of dust and an avalanche of shredded mulch. As the cloud cleared, I saw that the trailer was nearly entirely buried. The loader operator cheerfully called out to me, and with a smile he asked if I wanted another scoop.

“Umm… Uh… I don’t think I need any more. Thanks!?!” A little shocked, I gazed at the pile of mulch hitched to my vehicle and wondered how I was going to get it out, profoundly glad I had remembered to bring a shovel.

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