Monthly Archives: November 2015


Next Up:

This Saturday, Nov. 28, I’ll be at the Heritage High School Holiday Bazaar (https://www.facebook.com/events/1689150001322104/) from 9 to 4.  I’ve haven’t been to this one before, so don’t know what it’s like, but they do have larger spaces for vendors than others, which means that I’ll be able to show more photos! If you’re going to be in the Vancouver area on Saturday, this would be a great place to start your Christmas shopping.  I always cover the sales tax for events in WA, and many other vendors probably do the same.  


Where Does it Go?

Almost all of the profit I make from selling astro-photos goes back into the effort to capture more and better images.  My most recent acquisition toward that goal is this Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens and Vello intervalometer.  They are shown here attached to my old Nikon D300, but the lens can also be used with my QSI CCD cameras, or even a Canon DSLR. This fairly wide angle and very fast lens will allow me to try more “night sky landscape” photography – something I have been wanting to do for years, having long admired the work of people like […]


A Big “Thank You” to Grout Elementary School

Yesterday’s bazaar was great! Although it is a relatively short and small event, the organizers did a fantastic job and the shoppers were enthusiastic. In addition to the pancake breakfast, there were carolers (high school students) and then a guitar/drum duo that was very nice.   My sales were actually slightly more than the previous week, which was a bazaar at least 4 times the size of this one! I’m looking forward to doing this again next year.   I really enjoy talking to kids about astronomy, and there were lots of them at Grout Elementary.


This Saturday

  I’ll be here: https://www.facebook.com/GroutHolidayBazaarandPancakeBreakfast/?fref=nf   It’s a fundraiser to send kids to science camp, so come out and enjoy the handmade crafts.


New: Astro-Flash Viewer

For several years now I have offered a collection of my best astro-photos on a USB flash drive for use as a slide show, screen saver, wallpaper, etc.  The collection has now grown to over 45 images and I’ve added an application (for Windows computers only) that does a slide show with configurable text overlays. Each image has 3 type of information available; the title, object information, and technical data.  The “Setup” menu allows you to select which of these 3 is displayed during the slide show, but you can also switch it “on the fly” using hotkeys.  For example, […]


MVHS Follow-up

I’m going to call it a success!  There were some problems getting checked in and setting up, but everything was ready whenthey opened the doors at 9AM.  The attendance was good, as were my sales.  Maybe a little less than last year, but I was expecting that due to the bad weather and the horrible events in Paris yesterday. Some people at the bazaar today asked me whether I will be at other such events in the coming weeks.  I couldn’t remember all of them off the top of my head, so here is the list: Nov. 21: Grout Elementary […]


Mountain View High School Bazaar

Now open for business, and BUSY!  If you’re in the Vancouver area today, come by and get an early start on holiday shopping – or just enjoy the great displays of handmade crafts. And astro-photography, of course.


The Holidays Begin

Starting next Saturday, Nov. 14, I’ll be showing my astro-photography prints at various holiday bazaars each weekend until mid-December. First up is the Mountainview High School bazaar (http://www.mvband.org/holiday-bazaar.html), one of the biggest and best such events in the area. I particularly like this one because it is a fund raiser for the school’s band program, which is just awesome. So please come out and get an early start on your holiday shopping. It’s great fun to see all the hand-made crafts and socialize with some very creative people.


Spooky!

Last week it was announced that a large asteroid would be passing close by Earth on Oct. 31 – Halloween. It has already passed as I write this and nothing extraordinary happened, except that a very spooky image of the asteroid was captured by bouncing radar pulses off it. As Phil Plait (famed “Bad Astronomy” blogger) explains, this isn’t really a photograph, but a 2 dimensional plot of certain characteristics of the radar signal. Nevertheless, that this would happen on Halloween seems a little too coincidental! http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/10/31/_2015_tb145_animation_of_asteroid_rotating.html


Dark Skies

This video has a powerful message about light pollution – please watch it (thanks to Lia for bringing it to my attention). I think the best way to make things better right now is to focus on the efficiency of better lighting. The video mentions that LED light fixtures are (usually) better at directing light where it is needed. That’s not inherent in LEDs, it happens because the people designing these fixtures are thinking about it – because it saves energy. With regard to street lights, the really good news is that LED fixtures can do something that other common […]