Yearly Archives: 2018

The Constancy of Change

 in Blog  tagged Apollo 8 / ASI1600 / CCD / change / CMOS / Earthrise / Paramount MyT

Life changed for many of us a little over 50 years ago, when the crew of the Apollo 8 mission captured images of Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon.  It was not the first time that Earth had been photographed from far away, but it was the first time it was photographed from a “place” far away – something that gave it context.  Perhaps it was the contrast of Earth’s color and dynamic weather against the Moon’s barren gray surface, but whatever it was, it changed us.  We could recognize Earth as our home, and see that it was beautiful […]

The Longest Night of the Year

 in Blog  tagged equinox / seasons / Solstice / tilt

Today is the Winter Solstice, commonly referred to as the shortest day of the year, although astronomers are more inclined to think of it as the longest night of the year, the time that (in theory) we get to spend the most time enjoying the night sky.  In practice, this is rarely the case because of weather.  Pretty much by definition, when the day is short and the night long it’s cold outside.  And here in the Pacific Northwest there’s a very good chance that it’s also cloudy and/or wet. But what is the solstice, and why does it happen?  […]

Bits of the Magellanic Clouds

 in Blog  tagged emission nebula / LMC / Magellanic Cloud / NGC1763 / SMC

This is NGC1763, an emission nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and constellation Dorado.  I’ve been pondering why it might be that many areas of the LMC and SMC look like paint daubs – an appearance that is not common in other nebulae I have photographed.  Part of the reason might be the size and distance of the objects.  Other than these targets in LMC and SMC, almost every nebula I have photographed is between 1,000 and 10,000 light-years from Earth.  The Magellanic Clouds are more like 150,000 light-years away, but I’m using the same magnification (angular image size), […]

The Last Chance Bazaar

 in Blog  tagged 2019 Calendar / Hockinson / holiday bazaar / La Center / Space Windows

Last Saturday’s Holiday Bazaar at our local high school (in La Center, WA) was a great success.  I had never done this bazaar before, and was surprised at how good it was.  I’m guessing there were about 75 vendors, so not a huge event, but the place was busy all day, and performances by the school’s choir and bands kept everybody in good spirits. Which brings us to the last holiday bazaar of the season, Hockinson High School (16819 NE 159th, Brush Prairie, WA) this coming Saturday, Dec. 8th) from 9 to 4.  I still have copies of the 2019 […]

The Home Town Bazaar

 in Blog  tagged holiday bazaar / La Center / NGC346

This coming Saturday, Dec. 1st, I will be at the La Center High School Holiday Bazaar from 9 to 3.  Although I have lived in La Center for almost 9 years now, this will be my first time at this bazaar, so I can’t tell you much about it, but it does appear to be a popular event in the region. I decided that it would be a good idea to make more contact with my local community to let them know about Wa-chur-ed Observatory.  At the same time, I encourage everyone else in the area to come check it […]

Photo Club “Winner”

 in Blog  tagged fine art / NGC6188 / Photo Club PDX

Feeling the need to be more artistic in my photography, I recently joined a new photo club in Portland, “Photo Club PDX” (PCPDX).  They have regular monthly meetings and present a challenge to members – meant to inspire and/or cajole you into trying something different.  The first challenge for me was #10, in which we had to pretend we were submitting work to a gallery, selecting 5 recent photos and writing an artist’s statement.  The club then recruited 4 professionals to judge the submissions.  Since I haven’t done any non-astro photos for a long time, I decided to submit some […]

West Linn Event

 in Blog  tagged calendar / holiday bazaar / West Linn

This coming Saturday I’ll be at the West Linn Holiday Bazaar from 9 to 4.  This is a relatively small event, but has to be the most pleasant one every year.  There is always a great selection of handcrafted items in a relaxed, comfortable environment.  In fact, I usually end up buying some gifts there myself!  At other events I’m too busy and it takes too much time to see everything. Calendars are selling well this year, but I still have plenty – for now.  So come out to West Linn on Saturday, or order through my website.  

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday!

 in Blog  tagged holiday bazaar / Mountain View / music

This coming Saturday’s Holiday Bazaar will be at Mountain View High School, located at 1500 SE Blairmont Drive, Vancouver, WA, from 9AM to 4PM.  This bazaar supports the MVHS band programs, which are fantastic.  It is also the 2nd largest of the bazaars I do each year, the biggest being Prairie High School (2 weeks later).  In terms of the number of vendors, these two events are actually very similar, but I always think of Prairie HS as the biggest because that’s where I always have the best sales. The above photo was from last week’s event at Baker Prairie Middle School, […]

2019 Is Here

 in Blog  tagged 2019 / calendar / Night Visions

Well, the 2019 Night Visions calendar is here – hot off the press, so to speak, and available for purchase. I’m really excited about this year’s calendar.  Each year I’ve made it a little better, mostly by improving my astrophotography skills.  But this year is a giant leap for AP-kind because all 13 images in this edition were captured at the remote observatory I’ve been using in Australia, which brings numerous advantages.  Most importantly, we get to see deep-space objects that are only visible from the southern hemisphere.  In fact, the great majority of the included targets are never visible […]

Holiday Bazaars

 in Blog  tagged bazaar / holiday bazaar

  Is it ironic that the way we spell “bazaar” is bizarre?  If it were 50% more strange would it become tri-zarre? What’s really strange is that we haven’t even reached Halloween yet, but the holiday bazaar season starts just 1 week from today.  I am doing a different event every Saturday in November, and the first 2 weeks of December – six events all together.  The above flyer is for the biggest event, not the first (the smaller organizations usually don’t publish flyers like this).  The first event, on November 3rd, is Baker Prairie Middle School in Canby, OR.  […]