My First Foray Into AstroPhotography

For a while I’ve been wanting to try my hand at astrophotography.  I had a decent wide angle lens for my Canon 60D, the Rokinon 14mm aspherical lens, and my wife gave me the “ok” to relinquish Dad duties for the evening and I jumped. Light pollution is a problem for most people trying to capture the Milky Way so I decided to tackle that problem first.  Knowing we’d found a spot, Jim and I headed for a state park outside of Montpelier VT., which is about 3 hours from where I am 95% of the time. We found a perfect …

DWTS Chose The Wrong Super Scientist!

Most Americans have heard of Dancing With The Stars” on ABC. I’m sure that some of the guest dancers are surprisingly good, and some that have been not so good. Case in point, Bill Nye.  While I’m not a viewer of show I am fan of super smart people, which led me to this video. While I’m sure he’s probably having fun, he’s also displaying an amazing amount of courage to even be on this stage. Be forewarned, it’s painful to watch if you’re a Bill Nye fan! Every time I watch that video I keep thinking she’s going to …

3 Years of our Suns Evolution in 3 Minutes

It’s hard to contemplate all the things that had to go right for life to evolve on earth.  It’s also difficult for the average joe to comprehend how old our Sun is, and how long it’s got left.  It’s fun to think of the enormous amount of energy expended by the sun in a human’s lifetime…and then compare that lifetime to that of our Sun. So much energy being expended.  I’m glad we’re harnessing it as much as we can. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piuKlpJmjfg&w=640&h=360] How much energy do you use and how much do you expend?  Are those two values proportional? According to NASA Astronomer …