Night of the Perseids

 I tried again. With limited success. I was able to do better in a different location. But, as would be the case, nature failed to cooperate. I got some better images of the Milky Way. But, I didn't catch a single meteor in my images. Save for a short trail at the very bottom of one image. Not even worth posting.

So here's one decent image I caught of the Milky Way. Pretty cool to think that the white-ish haze is really lots and lots and lots of really distant stars. Not too much different than our own Sun. Except that those stars are so, so far away that the light they emitted hundreds or even thousands of years ago is just NOW reaching us. So, traveling at the speed of light, that light is only NOW reaching us. 

So, when we look up at the night sky, we are actually seeing history. We are are not seeing the way the universe is today. We are actually looking back in time. I find that kind of awesome when I stop and think about it. 

Alright. Enough mind blowing for the moment. Here's the image I took of the Milky Way.

To see the complete image, you need to open it up by clicking on it.

A few days later, I decided to invest in an equatorial mount clock drive. I will be able to align the axis of the drive unit with the polar axis of the Earth. Then, I will be able to have my camera track the stars across the sky as the planet rotates. 

This will keep the view of the sky for the camera stationary within the frame. I'll be able to make long exposures without any blurring of the stars. And, I will be able to make multiple exposures of the same patch of the sky and then, digitally, layer them together when I do my editing. 

I have high hopes for this endeavor.

Astrophotography anyone?

 On Saturday night the 5th of August, I drove up to Montebello Ridge off Page Mill Road. I tried taking a few images of the night sky in hopes of seeing the Perseid Meteor shower. This was about a week before the predicted peak, but I was still optimistic. Perhaps, overly optimistic. Because I didn't see a single meteor in the two hours I was in that location.

I tried doing a few time exposures and I got mixed results. The one thing that did surprise me was that I was able to actually see the milky way from this close to the Bay Area. I guess the sky was clear enough and the light pollution was low enough that I could easily make it out as a sort of light thin cloudy trail across the sky. In fact, I first thought it was just a thin trail of clouds. 

I opened an app on my phone called Sky Safari and the app put up a display of the stars according to my actual location and which way I pointed the back of the phone. I could easily pick out the names of the stars, constellations, and planets by aligning the display with the points of light in the sky I could see. The app played a soothing music in the background as I amused myself with the display. 

Below is a five minute exposure I made on that night.

My plan is to try again from a different location. About 1.8 miles further West. That will be over the ridge and I shouldn't have as much light pollution from the Bay Area. Of course, wishing is not the same as having. So I'll just have to see how it goes.

I'm becoming less than optimistic about the future

 I know things change over time. I won't start saying those stereotypical phrases one expects to hear from an old person. Something like, "Back in my day." Or, "This younger generation is ruining things."

Nope. Not going to do that. It is my belief that the current state of affairs is primarily due to the contributions of my generation. I remember how the internet was going to be a terrific thing. It was going to democratize the spreading of information. No longer would oppressive governments stifle the truth about what was really going on if that truth contradicted what that government wanted the general public to know.

Now, the internet has become both a wealth of information and a cesspool of disinformation. All at the same time. It is possible to do a search and actually learn something you may not have already known. Or, you could fall down the proverbial rabbit hole of one-sided political views or outright fabrication of information. Constructed in such a way as to provide confirmation bias to support such ideologies.

Combine that with a large swath of the electorate who are both gullible and unwilling to accept accurate information as truth, if it conflicts with their staunch preset beliefs or idologies. Then they elect into office individuals who are either no more able to sort fact from fiction than the electorate or they are so self-motivated that they play upon the beliefs of whatever demographic numbers can keep or put them into office.

In short, a phrase comes to mind. The blind leading the blind. 

Experimenting with some image editing software.

 Recently, I have been questioned about providing some assistance with using a DSLR camera with interchangeable lenses. Also, about what type of image editing software I use. To date, I have not yet been available to make any recommendations about the use of a DSLR. 

So I recently collected a small group of my more recent images and I "pushed" them through PhotoShop Elements. In some of the images, I altered the appearance ever so slightly. Just enough to "enhance" them from the way I had originally presented them. In other images, I went over the top by altering the colors, and the contrast, or by applying different PSE image filters. Just to see how abstract I could make the image appear.

You may notice I seem to have a fascination with water, water droplets, or just the reflections on the surface of the water.

Here is a short collection of those images. Clicking on an image will expand all the images.

Our next and long over due real return to space.

 This morning I watched the splashdown of the Artemis One spacecraft. I had a link to the live feed in my morning news from the Washington Post. It was most inspiring. And yet, I still felt an emotional sadness of the event. As the coverage continued from when I connected to the link, the news person was saying how there was some number of minutes until the spacecraft was to enter the Earth's atmosphere. It would be traveling at over 25,000 mph when it started to descend.

In an attempt to put that into some kind of perspective. Think of it like this. When you're outside in the winter and you want to warm up your hands. One way of doing this is by briskly rubbing your hands together. The friction of your palms rubbing past each other creates a small amount of heat. Now even if you might be doing this really, really fast. You are probably now moving your two hands any faster than five or ten mph relative to each other. So the amount of heat you are generating at that speed is enough to slightly warm your hands.

It is the heat of that friction that I want to focus on here. The heat generated at five to ten mph compared to the heat that is generated at 25,000 mph. The amount of heat generated is probably comparable to that at the surface of the sun. And yet, some very, very smart people have figured out a way to address this problem and protect the spacecraft. The friction of the spacecraft hitting the atmosphere slows down the forward velocity of the craft. The by-product of that friction is the amount of heat generated. I think that is just staggering that we have figured out a way to manage that problem.

Then, a bit longer into the coverage of the splashdown, the news person announces that the spacecraft has passed through the "blackout" phase of re-entry and radio contact with the spacecraft has resumed. A few moments later, the news person informs that the drone chutes have opened and are slowing the spacecraft's speed of descent. He said the velocity of the spacecraft was now traveling at ONLY 259 mph. 

Now, before I continue, think back to your days in high school. Back to seeing those videos where you would see the crash tests of vehicles being done at 40 mph or 50 mph. Remember seeing the dummies in the car flinging forward on impact? Now think about how that would feel going from 150 mph to 0 in about 1 second. That's the kind of shock on the body that occurs during an opening of a parachute. It's very survivable, but it's something you will never, never forget. I know this personally. Because I felt that when I did a parachute jump when I was in the Navy. Which is a long story I could tell you another day.

Now back to the re-entry news. A camera was mounted inside a part of the Artemis spacecraft that looked into the compartment where the parachutes were located. From that camera, we could see the main canopies deploy and snap open. I think there may have been a video feed delay from that camera because the video of the chute opening seemed jilted. Sort of like a series of stills instead of a smooth continuous motion.

The coverage continued with actually seeing the splashdown and recovery. Which, I think was nice but, a little less dramatic. The announcer then went on to say how this was another historic moment that demonstrated how when we put our best and our brightest to the task. We can achieve great things. It was at that point when I felt that tug on my emotions. It is true that when we, as a people, work together, can achieve great things. When we think things through using reason and logic, we really can achieve great things.

Earlier this week Janet and I watched the recently released movie "Good Night Oppy." It's a movie about the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers. If you liked the movie Big Hero 6. You are sure to like the movie Good Night Oppy. I would give it an enthusiastic two thumbs up. Below is a link to the trailer of the film on YouTube.

Good Night Oppy

You can stream the full movie on Amazon Prime video. Although, be warned. You may, as with me, feel that same emotional tug that I felt at the end. Seeing how we, as a people, actually can achieve great things. But I don't think the numbers are on our side for how it will go for us. The number of smart people is overwhelmingly shadowed by the "not-so-smart" people.

The ones who believe the elections are fake if they don't win. The ones who believe there is a deep state of lizard people who eat babies. The ones who believe in Q anon. The ones who believe that only white Christians should be in power in our country and/or the world. Personally, I think white supremacy is just a form of white fragility. They would rather put down some demographic rather than do something to elevate themselves. It's the path of least resistance for them.

Then there are the ones who believe climate change is fake. The ones who believe vaccines plant mind-controlling chips in our brains. I could go on and on and on. But, I'm sure, you've heard of all this and probably a lot more.

It is when I weigh what we have done and can do against the things so many would rather believe. It is that, that make me feel sadness. It is that other part of our population who would rather choose to believe it's not their fault their lives are so miserable because it conveniently gives then an easy out. It is when I see that, my feelings of joy are deflated when I see that we can do great things. I wish it were different. But, wishing won't change the way things are. My optimism is slipping away for humanity. The numbers just don't seem to be on our side.

A Little at a Time

 It seems to me that we are slowly creeping toward the downfall of our democracy. With each passing day, the news reveals more information about the previous man-child who managed to become our country's leader. Or more information about players and participants of the cult who blissfully follow whatever contrived conspiracy put forth that supports their ideology. 

Previous political right agenda administrations have used the tired and simple-minded tactic of "The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend." To this same philosophy, the followers of the right have comfortably fallen in line. The demographic who are less educated, less creative, and less open-minded have too found comfort in using that same simple-minded philosophy. They hate liberals and inclusiveness, so if some politician incites hatred by the left, then that person must be the one the right will stand behind. The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend.

In a way, I believe, this is much like a hard-core religion. If you consider yourself a member of this group, then you don't need to think about what is right for you or the country. Just follow the politician who is hated by the group you hate. Nothing more to think about.

Every day, we slide a little more down the hill. A little further from becoming a country rich in diversity with a place for everyone to contribute. Instead, we grow more and more divided. More delusional about what is real and what is a contrived, made-up, and imagined conspiracy. 

When I was young. I believed that with the passage of time, humanity would continue to mature and find ways to improve. Now that I am old, I have less and less faith in humanity being able to mature. We seem to be locked in a spiral. Circling and circling. Changing this technology for that. Using a national and global communication network to do little more than perpetuate contrived stories that previously were left on the walls of public restroom stalls.

My faith in a better tomorrow is all but evaporated. We have often asked the existential question, "Are We Alone in the universe?" I suspect we very well could be alone. 

On one side of this question, I think we are witnessing the very reason why we have not seen or heard of any evidence that there could be a civilization on another planet. Because that other civilization likely followed the same path we are now on.

On the other side of that existential question, here is what I suspect. There could be other civilizations in the universe that may have discovered our existence. But, they wisely decided to study us before revealing themselves to us. And, after studying us and our ways, they decided it was best to leave us alone. We were either totally uninteresting to those observers or they found us so repulsive that they decided it was best we were left alone. Almost like a parent telling a child. "Yuk! Don't touch that!"

In either case. We are for all purposes and considerations, alone in the universe. Either by something as simple as fate.  Or because we are being left alone by those more mature than we are.

Can our democracy survive the lowest common denominator?

 Are we reaching a milestone or a threshold? It's between the politics, the pandemic, and the scammers. I see all three of these things converging as a growing threat to our democracy. That, and what I see as the cognitive limits of a large part of the electorate. The gullible who believe nearly everything. So long as it comports with their ideology. 

We have proven to be intelligent enough to create the technologies we all use. We have figured out that when a star collapses into a black hole, it creates a gravity wave that travels throughout the universe. On top of that, we have built devices that can measure these waves down to the resolution of the diameter of a proton.

And yet, we have a population of people in our country who gather by the thousands in Dallas Texas awaiting the arrival of a politician who has been dead for decades. So that he can reinstate Trump and hold mass executions of the lizard people in our government who eat babies. The same people who believe if they cover themselves with or eat magic dirt, they can purge their bodies of the harmful effects of a vaccine and cure themselves of the Covid virus. After being pressured to receive the very vaccine that would help not only protect those people but the rest of society with whom they interact.

These are the people who are choosing our political leaders and making the decisions that will affect not only this generation, but generations to come. It is that part of our population who would rather believe in what they want, instead of the actual reality in which they are living. 

I see this happening and I feel a growing doubt in my mind as to the long-term viability of our species. As an individual, I can only influence a limited number of people. I can only encourage a limited number of individuals to challenge what they choose to believe in the face of actual reality. 

So, I do what I can to escape the nonsense I see closing in around me. Sometimes I just get on my bike and ride. Sometimes I lose myself in photography of the macro world or more globally the world as I see things. 

Here are a few of those images. In no particular order. Because sometimes that is how life happens. Not in the way we thought we had planned. Merely in the way life comes to us.