Field Notes

Be sure to check out my Podcast on todays 365 Days of Astronomy.

Be sure to check out the 07/10 pod-cast for 365 Days of Astronomy.  It is dedicated to my best friend Jeff Medkeff, aka The Blue Collar Scientist who passed away last August.

Do me a favor.  The next time someone take time to teach you something, be sure to show your gratitude.  My family and I all miss Jeff very deeply.  I am glad I had every minute I did with him.

As always Jeff, thanks for your teachings, your friendship, your caring and for being there when I need an ear.

Congratulations to the Kepler team.

This is totally awesome!

Kepler Launch

If you have not been to

How to Grow Your Geek

or

Small Steps

you should!

Thanks to Elizabeth Warner at the University of Maryland Observatory, I have decided to help out with the Globe At Night.  I knew this had something to do with light polution but just never took the time to really check it out.  What a neat idea.  I encourgae everyone to get out there and participate.  Take your kids outside. Get them involved in something bigger than they are.  A fun activity is to do the sky eval when you travel.  Do it at your home and report that.  Traveling somewhere on vacation?  Maybe over the river and through the woods.  Try it there and see how it compares to your home.  You don’t have to be an astronomer for this.  It is also a great way to learn how light polution robs us of the beauty of the best show on eart, the night sky.

This might be a great site to share with local goverment if you want to take action against light polution and light trespass.  Also check out International Dark Skies Association.

The Media Just Missed the Target

DISCLAIMER:  I am grateful to the Free Lance Star for taking an interest in the International Year of Astronomy.  I am writing this because I believe it is the job of the media to keep all sorts of entities accountable, to report the facts, to show the other side of the story, and most of all to inform and educate the public.  However, the most important element of this is accuracy.  I must also write this because I am not a narcissistic headliner who wants his 5 minutes of fame.

For anyone who has read my blog, you know I LOVE astronomy and I love Education and Public Outreach (EPO) for astronomy.  So, throwing myself into the IYA point of contact for my astronomy club seemed like a natural progression.  So to help “get the word out” about the International Year of Astronomy, I turned to my local newspaper.  I started with a simple email to the community editor telling about the many wonderful things the IYA has up for the year, about the two major astronomy clubs in the area, and about two sentences about me, to give some credibility to my knowledge base.

After some help from one of the other club members who had a connection at the paper I received a call from one of the reports.  To say I was ecstatic is an understatement.  I met with the reporter about two weeks ago.  He asked a lot of questions about me, to which I kept reminding him that the article’s focus really should be the IYA.  He nodded and continued.  I told him about the 100 Hours of Astronomy, The Galileoscope Project, the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, and the traveling exhibit From Earth to the Universe.  Despite his continued desire to learn about me, I kept trying to bring him back to IYA.  The following day I responded to an email from the reporter about my career path.  Yet again I empahsized that the article really should focus on IYA.

So this morning, 02/10/2009, the article was published.  Does anyone want to take a guess as to what the main subject was?  Was it:

a)  The International Year of Astronomy

b)  Me

c)  Galileo

d)  Saturn

e)  The economy

If you guessed b,c, & d you are correct.   Now please read this:  I am GRATEFUL to the paper for taking an interest in the IYA and amateur astronomy.  But I am not worthy of the attention.  The IYA is.

Back to our rant.  Now,  did he mention the IYA?  Sure, in two sentences within 8-10 inches of article.  (That’s A LOT of space in a newspaper for those who may not be familiar with the newspaper industry)  I know the media has this chip on its shoulder that they pick the angle.  But hell, when someone hands you a GREAT subject to write about that makes good copy, RUN WITH IT.  I am probably the most boring person you could meet.  Well maybe not THE most boring and certainly not after a few Harps or Scotch and coke but certainly not as interesting as the grander subject of astronomy.  Now, I know the IYA is about Galileo’s 400 anniversary of using the telescope for astronomy; however, that isn’t the only point.  And where did the whole Saturn thing come from?  Yes, it was a pivotal moment for me in developing my interest in astronomy.  Yes, it is beautiful.  But it isn’t enough of a focus for a entire highlight box in the article.

Not once did the reporter mention the upcoming events for IYA.  Not once did the reporter mention the individual elements of the IYA.  The reporter did not even provide the IYA web address in the little pop out box.  What other errors were in the article?

It was Franklin & Marshall College where I first saw Saturn, not Marshall College. (-5 points)

My wife and I did not meet in Florida.  Although we did live in Florida for a time.  ( only -2 - partial credit)

The aperture of the telescope IS NOT THE EYEPIECE!  After more than a decade of amateur astronomy, I got this one down.  (-10 for lack of attention to detail)

To call binoculars “Two telescopes side by side” is a bit misleading but you can argue this a bit.  (no point loss but a bad analogy)

He spelled my wife’s name wrong.  ( not a major issue you say? It is if you live with her. -10 points)

So fellow amateur astronomers where does this leave us?  If you want to promote the IYA to the local media, use a press release.  Write it, get Dr. Pamela Gay from the New Media Comittee to approve and submit it.  For the love of God don’t tell them anything about yourself.

I guess I should just be glad it all came out astronomy and not astrology.

I'm a nerd

So is that a quote from “Revenge of the Nerds” or what I learned tonight?  It is what I learned to tonight.  My wife found a link to Nerd Test on The Mud Flats blog.  So I thought, “What the hell, I’ll take that.”  Apparently I am a MAJOR nerd.  According to the test, I scored a 97.  Only 3% of the people taking the test scored higher.  Because of this the site states “All hail the monstrous nerd. You are by far the SUPREME NERD GOD!!”  Life is good.

Las Vegas.  What does that location say to you?  Fun?  Shows?  Gambling?  Partying?  A good friend of mine once said that Vegas is a two star experience with a four star façade.  Where else will people wait in line to sit on the outside patio of a restaurant that is totally enclosed within a larger environment.  I’m thinking Dysan Sphere without the tech.

So here I am, stuck here in Vegas for eight days on a business trip.  Since I don’t fancy gambling away my money on the extremely remote chance of a large payoff nor does drinking until I have an intimate relationship with the toilet sound appealing, I am at a loss to find activities to pass the time.  I guess blogging is a good one.  So, how did I address this Vegas dilemma?  I got into the rental car and took a drive.  Unfortunately, it didn’t help.  I found the area surrounding the Vegas strip to be reminiscent of a demilitarized zone.  Grant it there was no checkpoint, but the constant construction took on the appearance of the constant repair from shelling and fighting in a war zone.  The presence of tactically armed security in every 7-11 validated the warnings that locals said about the danger off the strip.  It was like gangland.  The graffiti on the walls showed loyalties to various street gangs.  Early morning street corners were populated with day laborers looking for work.  The same locals who commented about the dangers also said that no one lives in that area.  I would have to disagree.  I saw many housing areas with easy crime distance of the strip.

So what is Las Vegas?  For those who have never visited, let me try to describe the environment.  Imagine a place like Disney World, only instead of focusing on childhood fantasy and family fun, it is an artificial world created to serve the root and inner most basic vices of man; greed, opulence and sex.  Now before you go linking me to radical Christians or label me a prude, DON’T.  I have no problem with wealth and certainly hope to have some one-day.  I have NO issues what so ever with people enjoying their sexuality, dressing hot (by the way, spandex is a privilege NOT a right), or having a good time.  Hell, I think prostitution should be legal, taxed and regulated with mandatory health screenings.  As the late George Carlin used to say, “F**king is legal.  Selling is legal.  Why is selling f**king legal?”  The issue I take with Vegas is that it is a lie.  It is an over priced mediocre attempt to create a fantasy world.  If a comparison were drawn to Disney World, I would say that at least Disney makes no bones about the price and provides you an exceptional experience.  In Vegas, your experience is only exceptional, as it applies to rooms and food, assuming you pay an arm and a leg for your room or meal or you are upgraded because you are gambling away your life savings thereby making it the most expensive facade you ever experienced and out costing Disney by a long shot.  I think what has and continues to occur is that people travel to Las Vegas to experience a piece of Americana or American iconography.  The majority of the people I saw are sad, uneducated, desperate, misguided, and old; people burning away social security; people who you can tell obviously are not people of means who are throwing away their mortgage payments and life savings at the off chance of striking it easy rich.  Perhaps it is a falsely perceived opportunity to either rube elbows with or imply a sense of equity to the extremely wealthy, or at least the lifestyle portrayed as the extremely wealth by television and moves.  My personal experience has been that the wealthier people are the less likely to find them throwing their money away on gambling.  This is how they stay rich.  If you ever go to Vegas or the next time you go, have a seat for a while and people watch.  The facade does not end with the architecture and environment.  It continues on to the people.  This place is white trash Disney.  I have never seen more sleeveless shirts, fu Manchu mustaches with mullets, gaudy clothing, women wearing clothing they never could wear and especially shouldn’t be at 50+ and 5” spiked mules that scream Chiaro.  The men take on a persona and posture of the tough guy image made popular by the biker, gang and mobster sect.  People say Vegas is a place where you can be your real self.  What is you’re an asshole?  Here is an idea, be your self ALL the time.  To thine own self be true.

Perhaps Vegas is an extension of the American persona.  Perhaps it is a place where everyone, regardless of their income level can pretend to be wealthy, jet-setting elitists.  The saddest part is that when the trip is over, I am certain that the majority of the people walking past me right now will go home to their trailer, but with significantly less money.

My best friend passed away Sunday August 3rd.  Jeff Medkeff was an amazing person.  A scientist.  A critical thinker.  A skeptic.  An astronomer.  But most of all he was a self-less friend.

I first met Jeff in the spring of 2004 at an astronomy day event in downtown Anchorage, AK.  Jeff and I became instant and the best of friends.

Many people in the astronomical arena, both professional and amateur, know Jeff.  If they did not know him personally, they knew of him.  Jeff was a contributing editor to Astronomy and Sky and Telescope magazines.  During his 40 years of life he owned a computer company and a robotic observatory company.  Jeff’s numerous contributions to astronomy are cataloged in the 100s of asteroids he and amateur astronomer Dave Healy discovered, the countless people whose lives he has enriched through his public outreach on astronomy and science.  Jeff was the consummate writer.  Articulate, funny, and able to cut to the chase and find humor in absurdity.  My personal favorite is when he would point out the GIGANTIC holes in creation science, noting that belief in creation is not science at all.  I am sure Jeff and God are now having some amazing conversations and hopefully having a good laugh about 6000 year old Earth theories.

Jeff gave of himself without reservation.  He was there for me when my daughter was born with Down’s Syndrome and I needed someone to listen.  He and I spent many a Tuesday evening at Jitter’s Coffee house in Eagle River.  We talked of science.  Solved the worlds problems.  Pointed out how the rest of the world was obviously wrong for not thinking like us.  (This would often make us laugh.  As we said “Too bad everyone isn’t as smart as we are.”  We were of course kidding.)  Jeff was always there to teach me about astronomy, even when he was trying to take a break from it, he would always help me because he knew it was my passion.  Jeff knew I didn’t have the money to buy expensive equipment for astronomy.  So when I decided to try and make a computerized mount out of a Celestron CG5 with a Meade Autostar, we spent HOURS trying to design the motor mounts and gear system.  It looked like something Rube Goldberg would draw.  When I told him of my desire to do variable star studies, he even offered to send me his SBIG camera.

I admire Jeff so much.  He taught me how to think better.  He advanced my astronomy knowledge.  He taught my son how scientists think and discover.  But my son and I were not alone in the gift of knowledge from Jeff.  As a science and astronomy popularizer and educator, Jeff taught many classes at various science centers and schools.  Like all gifted teachers, Jeff had a depth of knowledge that allowed him to take complex concepts and reduce them to understandable levels so everyone in the audience could take away new knowledge.  Even when challenged by, shall we call them fundamentalist thinkers, Jeff addressed their questions with respect and courtesy.

Jeff was also a photographer.  I recall how enthusiastic Jeff was to take a portrait of my family on a rare occasion when my parents, both my brothers and their families were in Anchorage.  It is an amazing picture.

I am a better person because of my friend Jeff.  He taught me to believe in myself, my abilities and my dreams.  As they say on NPR, “This I Believe.”

I think everyone has some type of crutch they turn to when they are under extreme stress.  I too have mine and beyond the amazing support I get from my wife and kids, I find peace and comfort in watching Cosmos.  Ironically, when I was a kid, I could never sit still long enough to actually sit through the entire presentation when it first aired in the 70’s.  But now, when life stresses begin to wear me down, I frequently seek solace in the calm reassuring voice of Carl Sagan.  He reminds me of why I keep fighting to claim my free time to pursue astronomy.  Why I want to obtain a degree in physics and astronomy.  Carl, wherever you are, thank you for all you did and the mental fortress of solitude you provide me in repeatedly watching Cosmos.