The Serried Multitude of the Stars @serriedmultitude - Tumblr Blog

Our Computers Are Made of Meat

This is an unofficial sequel to Terry Bisson’s “They’re Made out of Meat”. I sent it to Terry Bisson when I wrote it back in 2004 and he enjoyed it. I’ve also posted it elsewhere, but am consolidating some of my past writing to this blog. Enjoy!

Our Computers Are Made of Meat

Wow, I didn't think they'd ever leave!

Yeah, that was a close call. If they'd stuck around any longer, they would've discovered our entire operation for sure.

No kidding. Those surveyors are supposed to locate and contact newly intelligent worlds, but thank goodness even they were completely disgusted by these sentient meat creatures.

Well, they are pretty revolting.

Ain't that the truth! I can still barely get over it--intelligent beings made out of nothing but oozing liquids and squishy membranes. Frankly, I don't envy you operations folks working out here so close to them. I'm happy being a bean counter back at headquarters. Yuck.

Very true, but they're the key to our profits!

Well, that's why I'm here for your thousand year review of revenue and expenses. Thanks for taking the time to show me the operations.

Happy to do my part. You'll see that we run a really tight ship here. Basically, we're running a contract data processing center using these meat computers in a distributed computing model. Each meat brain is relatively weak, about 100 trillion operations per second, but by splitting up the processing into smaller chunks to be run in parallel, we can undertake very complex, large-scale processing. Each brain is only about 1.5 kilograms, but requires a mobile meat container weighing 80 kg on average, so they're not very mass efficient. We refer to the whole thing, the brain and its container as a meat. But the upside is that the meat is extremely energy efficient--each meat requires only about 100 watts to operate. That's right, they can do a trillion data operations on a single watt of energy! Of course, we can build more energy efficient computers, but that would require us to actually build them! Imagine the crazy luck when our VC-drones stumbled upon this remote and otherwise useless planet with 5 billion of these meat things just sitting around doing nothing! Running at 33% utilization, our current benchmark, that comes to over 14 thousand yottabits per day. I've already mentioned how energy efficient they are, but the best part is that the meat gathers its own organic fuel. We don't even have to maintain them!

Can you explain why utilization is only 33%? That seems quite inefficient.

The meat brains actively operate only 2/3 of each planetary cycle, directing their containers to collect and consume fuel, to make copies of themselves, and a variety of other seemingly random and useless activities. For the remaining 1/3 of each day, the meat, both brain and container are inactive. It's during this downtime that we load and run programs in the meat brains via femtowave transmission.

What do you mean they're inactive?

They just shut down. They don't do anything.

I can understand if the meat container needs to refuel or repair itself, but why does the processor need to be inactive? I find it extraordinary that any sentient lifeform would evolve so that its brain shuts down for a third of every planetary revolution. It's a complete waste! What's the point of it?

Haha! The point is more money for us!

Heh heh. Well, that's true. By charging our customers market rates for computing resources, and paying nothing for the processing time, it's like money lying on the ground for the taking. But there's something I'm curious about: if we weren't running our distributed computing program, would the meat have any mental activity during their daily downtime? What I mean to ask is, do meat computers dream during organic sleep?

Sure, but their dreams are completely disorganized, there's probably no recognizable patterns, and certainly nothing like the elaborate, object-oriented program logic that we load in there.

Aren't you afraid that the meat will find these dream programs disturbing or that they'll figure out that they're being externally manipulated? I mean, don't they find it weird that so many of them have similar dreams?

Well, they interpret the program objects and processes as other meat and events from their waking lives. It's all a random, illogical mishmash that they can't make heads nor tails of. Plus, we coordinate so that co-located meat don't run the same program during the same cycle. If we have to violate that precaution to meet a big deadline, we make sure they forget enough of their dreams so that they can't compare them too closely. Plus, meat is just not that bright.

Still, is what we're doing really right? I mean, stealing processing cycles is a crime, isn't it?

Of course, stealing computing time is wrong. Hijacking someone's brain and controlling their thoughts is the worst violation imaginable. It's a far worse crime than any form of physical violence. But it's not like these meat beings are real people. They can hardly control their own thoughts when they're awake, and certainly not while they're sleeping. It's not stealing if they're not using their brains in the first place! Plus, they don't even know what's being done to them, so what's the harm? If anything, we're doing them a favor by doing something productive with their brains. Heaven knows they don't ever do anything useful with them.

Okay, I see your point. And even if we're not doing anything illegal, we sure don't want to share these meat computers with anyone else, do we?

Heck no. We found 'em first, and we're gonna keep this little gold mine a company secret as long as we can.

No question about that! So what are you running tonight?

A batch of the usual stuff. First, we've got the relativistic gravitational modeling. That's one of our oldest data sets.

Ah yes, the "Falling and Flying" series. The clients have asked how much longer until the results will be available?

Oh, another two thousand years or so, but tell them three. Better to underpromise and overdeliver. Oh, and we're ramping up volume on the quantum incompleteness queries.

Oh, that new "I Forgot to Wear Pants" analysis! We've booked very healthy revenue on it already.

Yes, that one's been giving us some very promising results. And tonight, we're doing an inner join against "I Forgot to Study for the Final Exam". That one's really new, only a few hundred years. It's a replacement for "Forget Bring Spear to Hunt" that started returning null data a while ago.

Gosh, I must say that getting out here to the front lines is much more interesting than I expected. I always assumed it was just shoving data into the meat and letting them run.

Oh, far from it! They're really quite temperamental. It's more of an art than a precise science.

Well, we appreciate your hard work keeping things running smoothly here. You're our most profitable division, thanks in no small part to your expertise with these meat computers. Do you see any major challenges or opportunities on the horizon?

Well, the meat computers are getting less efficient with time--we used to run a solid 33% daily utilization, but they seem to sleep less and less all the time, and many of them have started using chemical sleep inducements which makes it impossible to load the programs. Fortunately, the number of meat keeps multiplying all the time and that's certainly not slowing down, so our overall output continues to increase. At some point, we'll probably max out, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

According to your figures, these meat computers basically cost us nothing to operate, so you should remain quite profitable barring any unforeseen efficiency decreases. Sure, at some point we'll have to consider reallocating resources, but that's not going to be for quite a while.

Hmmm...

Did I say something troubling? No need for worry; everything seems in order and I'll be submitting a very positive report.

Oh, it's not that. I was just wondering what it'll be like for them, the meat, that is, when some day they suddenly stop having dreams.

Oh my, I think you've been working with this meat too long. It's not like they are true intelligences. When one of us powers down, who knows what happens to our true essence? Does the abstract truth of our self-looping, information super-pattern persist when we enter the sudden, mysterious blackness of non-computation? I doubt anything so profound could happen to this meat when it shuts down for the night. It's just meat, after all.

#scifi #fiction

Soul Sisters, Oprah and Six

We lost our kitty Six two days ago and I have been heartbroken over it. In addition to the purer sadness of simple loss, I am still working through murky feelings of guilt that I could have made different, better treatment choices for her. I am making progress and arrived at this point today:

Our pets love us and trust us not because we are perfect, but simply because they know we will love them the very best that we can.

An interesting thing: a consoling presence has been the memory of our old cat Oprah. It is calming to think about her and to remember our special relationship. My wife reminded me of how difficult it was when we lost Oprah, but, strangely enough, my memories of that pain are not so much erased, but more streamlined and elusive. I mostly just retain an abiding love. Maybe self-protective amnesia or, perhaps, just natural, healthy perspective. I look forward to that feeling with my memories of Six.

I was on Livejournal back when Oprah passed away. I replay that post below because it’s comforting to see how the leaden pain of that time has now transmuted to mellow sweetness.

The Dene people have a belief that the Northern Lights are pathways to guide spirits to the next world. Hopefully, Oprah lit up a path for Six and greeted her on the other side, just as her memory guides me forward.

###

Oprah Jan. 25th, 2008 7:12 pm

Oprah on her last day with us.

As cerambycidae wrote in her post, we had to put our cat Oprah to sleep today.

Two months ago I wrote that "I didn't want to make any big decisions for a long time". Ha ha. Thank you, universe, for kicking me in the pants and reminding me that life is not optional. It comes when it comes, good and bad, large and small, and either it finds you ready or it finds you wanting. But this has been harder on me than it should be, coming on the heels of losing my mom just under three months ago. I do know that it was the right thing to do for Oprah, but it hasn't been easy, reliving in miniature so many of the things we went through with Mom. The parallels and reminders are numerous and wrenching. Getting through grief is like rebuilding a house after a part of it has been ripped out--you do it a little bit at a time, piece by piece, brick by brick. But mortar needs time to set. When the next storm blows in before you're ready, the raindrops hit like cannonballs, and the wolf can blow down your defenses like a house made of straw. Through my mom's illness and death, I always had so many urgent external matters, practicalities, and other people's needs to put first. To say that my own emotions went unattended is definitely not accurate, but at the least, I found that I could sort of ride the emotional coattails of others, specifically both my parents--I could do my own emotional processing largely by helping them through theirs. But this pain is Carol's and mine, unfiltered through the lenses of others. And grieving for a pet is a simpler and purer thing, unfreighted by the larger questions of one's own mortality, the unfairness of good people suffering, and the complexity of human relationships. It is more purely about sudden physical absence and the pain of that loss. How does a 6 lb. ball of fluff become such a large part in the lives of a few humans? Love knows no rules about size or speciation. Today, it is our Gödel statement, the unrepentant modernists' version of divine mystery. His Incompleteness Theorem perfectly captures that mysterious divinity--without love our frameworks are incomplete, yet its truth can not be logically proven, it can only be stated, and it can only be known as true by stepping outside and above our logical rule-set. Was it out of mere whimsy that Schrödinger chose a cat as his iconic example of quantum uncertainty? Or was there a beloved feline in old Erwin's life whom he had in mind, through his science plumbing sentimental depths for which he's never been given due credit. Is the cat alive? Is it dead? Or is it in both states simultaneously until the box is opened? The question is no longer academic when the cat in question is one you love. It is much like the Little Prince's beloved rose, unique to him out of all the roses in the world, who may or may not be in danger depending on whether or not a certain goat has gotten out of his pen. Are the stars laughing tonight? Or are they all crying? I think they are all crying because the rain was coming down hard as we buried our little friend today. We miss her dearly.

#six #oprah

It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.

"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . ."

The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.

"Please--tame me!" he said.

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--

"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."

"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"Then it has done you no good at all!"

"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added:

"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."

The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.

"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."

And the roses were very much embarassed.

"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.”

And he went back to meet the fox.

"Goodbye," he said.

"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."

"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

--The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

#six

The 144 Martyrs of Granitewoman

I wrote this a long time ago and thought I’d share it now (with light editing). Every event and character (including names, professions, backstories) are exactly as they occurred or appeared in a playthrough of Dwarf Fortress. I have only provided the words.

Excerpts from the Histories of Xah Alu, the Dimension of Wind The 144 Martyrs of Granitewoman

===

The following are excerpts from the personal log of Kogan Crowglaze, last mayor of the Granitewoman settlement.

Early summer, the year 256

I have taken over the mayorship from Sazir Hardygirders, who was well overtaxed by leadership duties beyond her abilities. It is judicious timing for me to have been sent here amongst the most recent reinforcements from the Lantern of Merchants. Even in the best of times, it would have been too much responsibility for a simple fishery worker such as Sazir. And these are surely not the best of times.

When my party arrived last month, we were shocked to see the surrounding fields littered with dwarven bodies and parts of bodies, and the walls within the fortress dripping with blood. Some could barely stand the sight and smell of the gore. I personally have a very high tolerance for such things. We were surprised to learn that these handful of survivors had embarked on an honorable, yet seemingly futile, effort to entomb every last fallen dwarf. We could not see the wisdom of expending further effort and exposing others to further risk for such a lost cause.

Yet having worked alongside these shattered survivors now, I am beginning to understand why this melancholy endeavor must be completed. I will endeavor to provide more explanation at a later date.

Respectfully, Kogan Crowglaze

===

Late summer, the year 256

Between the heavy work of hauling coffins and dwarven remains, I have had ample opportunity to speak at length with Sazir, the former mayor, and the other survivors. I have learned much about the mayor prior to Sazir, one Edzul Clutchmanors, who died a few months before my arrival here. The following is based on my conversations with Sazir and others-- it is a story of horror, grief and, at least one may hope, redemption.

Edzul Clutchmanors had been one of the first settlers at Granitewoman, arriving in 251 in the first migration after its founding. That very first winter, her infant son Rimtar was abducted by a goblin. This was an ill omen and Granitewoman teetered on the brink of survival those first years. But she gave birth to another son the following year, who was named Medtob, and it seemed that hope had returned to both her and to Granitewoman.

The year 254 will become known as the Year of Bleeding Granite, as it was during that year that events descended from a simple struggle for survival into abject horror. That year, Granitewoman was again beset by goblins. In one bloody skirmish, Edzul's baby met his end at the point of an iron spear. It may be that her son's body saved her from a thrust meant for her, but it was surely too dear a price to pay. And he was certainly not the only casualty. As often happens after such tragedies, the fortress descended into a chaos of bickering and madness. In one of the ensuing brawls, Edzul's husband Mafol was murdered. In late autumn of 254, Edzul became mayor of the remaining traumatized survivors, a mere twenty or so adult dwarves in number. Perhaps it was a poor choice to saddle one so stricken by grief with such duties, but their numbers were few and the capable even fewer.

Edzul's first decision was to bar the doors and fire the furnaces and smelters--the dwarves of Granitewoman would make ready for war! They’d had enough of cowering and waiting for the next goblin attack. There was plenty enough wood and ore to outfit every last of the remaining score of dwarves. They would finally meet the goblins head on and either end that menace or perish themselves in a final glorious death. Their armor would glow the copper of the setting sun and their hammers would fall upon their foes like silver lightning!

And then in the winter of 254, the bonecarver Dodok Abbeywrung was suddenly taken by a mood--she went berzerk and slew her own baby with her spear. She certainly could not have been in her right mind to have done such a horrific thing. Even if she had retained any shred of self-possession at that moment, surely this irreparable act would have been more than enough to fully overthrow what was left of her mind. As the militia and wardogs descended on her and tore her to pieces, this was still a more merciful end than for her to regain her sanity and comprehend the acts of her own hands if not her mind.

And it was only then, as the survivors were thrown into further despair, that the vision came to Edzul Clutchmanors. Not after the kidnapping of her first son, not after the murder of her second son or her husband. It was only after the bonecarver’s nearly unimaginable act of madness that Mayor Clutchmanors conceived of the Tomb of Martyrs, as we have come to call it.

Some say it was was the ghost of little Mafol Workedfloors, the bonecarver’s son, that whispered the idea to the mayor during her fitful sleep. Many claim to have witnessed his spirit near the spot where he was slain by his mother.

And so for the past year and a half, the dwarves of Granitewoman have done nothing except producing coffins and burying the dead.

At one point the remaining survivors were only two in number: the mayor and one other dwarf, Lor Boulderbells. One carved coffins while the other placed them and filled them. And there in that lonely place of the dead, Granitewoman finally began its transformation from a hall of death to a place of peace, and these two scarred, grieving dwarves even knew contentment.

Additional migrants arrived from other Lantern settlements and were quickly drafted into the slow work. Ironically, some themselves fell to death in the effort and were added to the number of the dead.

One day this past spring, Edzul Clutchmanors, mayor and savior of Granitewoman and creator of the Tomb of Martyrs, was out beyond the moat, scouring the surrounding fields for the remains of our dwarven brothers and sisters. She was ambushed and cut down by a goblin spear, just as her own child was slain while in her arms. Perhaps it was then that she finally knew peace. Perhaps it was later, when we laid her in a coffin of her own within the Tomb of Martyrs.

Respectfully, Kogan Crowglaze

===

Early autumn, the year 256

We have finally completed the Tomb of Martyrs. We have accounted for every last dwarf fallen within or near these walls. Within the tomb stand now 144 coffins, twelve by twelve, each filled with one of our brothers or sisters. In addition, we have erected three memorial slabs, one for the baby Mafol, whose remains reside within a beautiful coffin, itself a masterpiece of craftsdwarfship, and two other slabs for other babies who were lost to us. We have also placed the crafted artifacts of Granitewoman within the tomb. They were created at the cost of those lives, and should reside with the dead. We will seal the doors and then build walls over them so that the tomb will be forever hidden from despoilers.

Speaking of which, we have been besieged by goblins and trolls. No matter--we have literally walled over the outer doors and we have ample stocks of food and ale (though some variety in beverages might be welcome). We shall wait them out, and then make our escape after they are gone. If we become overly bored, we may attempt to carve some fortifications in the outer wall and fire some arrows at them, as they have neglected to bring any archers.

In any case, we are all relieved to be done. I have ordered extra ale for everyone.

Respectfully, Kogan Crowglaze

===

Late autumn, the year 256

This is my final entry as the mayor of Lolokaral. The besiegers left without incident. I suspect that an elven caravan may have fallen victim to them, but that is no concern of ours. The way is now clear and we are deconstructing the outer walls to make our escape. Our work is done and we leave now. We are twenty-nine in number, well equipped and provisioned, and I am confident that we may reach the nearest settlement without difficulty.

I will have this log delivered to the headquarters of the Lantern of Merchants to chronicle these efforts that I and the others have carried on in the memory of little Mafol Workedfloors and to the honor of mayor Edzul Clutchmanors, who lost so much, but never forgot her duty.

On a personal note, I have learned much about the value of dwarven life and death, honor, and nobility. It has given me much to ponder.

Sincerely submitted, Kogan Crowglaze

===

Editor's note--The astute reader may recall that Kogan Crowglaze was discovered to be the alias of none other than the infamous vampire Meng Channelcrafts, herself responsible for at least 435 grisly murders, including one of the aforementioned Martyrs of Lolokaral--the metalsmith Onul Giftwound died shortly after Meng Channelcrafts became mayor, the cause recorded as being drained of blood. Her last confirmed sighting was her disappearance into the jungle with the other survivors of Granitewoman. When the party eventually returned to the Lantern settlement of Vesselwind she was not with them and has not been seen since.

#pc games #dwarf fortress #fantasy #fiction

Aurora Borealis Trip Report—February, 2016

We took a trip to Canada to view the aurora borealis!

Here’s my Flickr album

Here’s Quicktime movies of photo sequences I stuck together.

The main part of the trip was 3 nights of aurora viewing in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. You connect through Calgary to Yellowknife and flying the entire way gets you there too late for aurora viewing on the first night.

So we decided to do a 3-night detour trip to Banff (90 minute drive from Calgary) on the way north. This worked out perfectly. Banff and Lake Louise are amazing and deserve a full travelogue of their own.

Here’s the quickie summary:

Sun: afternoon flight SFO to Calgary, rent car, drive to Banff, arrive ~9 pm at the Rimrock Hotel (beautiful, nicest views in Banff, highly recommended).

Mon: Banff. Icewalk through Johnston Canyon, drive around to Lake Minnewanka, Vermillion Lakes, etc.

Tues: Drive to Lake Louise for sightseeing, Kingmik Dogsledding (5 stars ***** highly recommended), snowshoeing (rent from the awesome shop Snowtips).

Wed: Vermillion Lakes sunrise, drive to Calgary, fly to Yellowknife arriving mid-afternoon, check in to Explorer Hotel.

Wed night: First night of aurora viewing. Light clouds, with moon rising on the early side. Isolated aurora at many times during the night. By midnight, the clouds rolled in, obscuring any remaining auroras.

Thurs night: Second night aurora viewing. Light, scattered clouds. Moon rose later than the night before (this is always the case, in case you didn’t know). Active aurora from 10:00 on and then it just blew up at 11:00. Isolated arcs stretching horizon to horizon, but they moved and changed so fast it was like smoke being blown across the sky. Incredible. Light clouds rolled in after midnight, with some minor aurora activity.

Fri night: Third/last night aurora viewing. Crystal clear sky. Moon didn’t rise until 11 pm (thanks, Moon!). Amazing aurora show. We could see active aurora at 9:30 during the bus ride to the village. It increased, spread, and remained active until after 11:00. At times, the aurora nearly filled the entire sky from horizon to horizon. Different than the previous night--covering much more of the sky, but not moving/changing as quickly, except some isolated movements. It became very active again at 12:30 am right before we left. This was the coldest night we had. Temps hit -24 F/-44 F with windchill. This is well into frostbite danger territory. It felt like my face was being stabbed with knives.

Sat: Yellowknife-Calgary-SFO

That’s it! It was an incredible trip that I recommend to everyone.

##############

Details below if you want to see it for yourself

Yellowknife/Aurora Village We booked a package tour with Aurora Village that included 3 nights aurora viewing, hotel, transportation, and rental of cold weather gear (parkas, pants, boots, gloves, balaclavas).

I highly recommend Aurora Village and their package tour. The “village” itself is a developed viewing location about 30 minutes bus ride from the city of Yellowknife.

The other aurora viewing options are typically a dude with a van/minibus who drives you around to different places to see the aurora. Riding

on bumpy roads at night cooped up in a van sounds unpleasant to me.

Great things about Aurora Village tours:

They drive you airport to hotel door-to-door. It is entirely possible to get from the airport to your hotel without arctic gear.

The rental clothing is waiting for you in your hotel room. It was far warmer than anything I own, especially the Canada Goose parka which apparently cost a bazillion dollars and is worth every loonie.

Tour guides are great. For the aurora viewing, you are broken into groups by language, and assigned a guide and tipi for the night. Your guide meets you at your hotel and makes sure you have and know everything you need. Our guide Carmen was awesome!

The tipis are great--they have wood stoves and you can retreat inside to warm up, drink some coffee/tea/hot water, mess with your camera and clothing. If the aurora is not active you can just hang out and play cards and the guide will tell you if the aurora starts.

Enough different viewing areas that the crowds are not overwhelming in any one place. The main area is a frozen lake, which is nice and wide open and also seems well sheltered from the wind. There is a hill you can walk up to with a clear 360 view.

Far enough away from Yellowknife to eliminate minimize light pollution.

The other tourists are very nice—most of the other people are Japanese and Korean tourists with the balance being American and Canadian tourists of all races/ethnicities. Everyone was very nice.

Everything is orderly, clean, and well-run.

You have 3 - 3 1/2 hours viewing, which can be extended by 90 minutes or 3 hours for a small fee. But the normal viewing period was quite enough for us—we were pretty exhausted at the end of each night.

Okay things:

Indoor toilets—these are not flushing toilets or even pit toilets, but what I’d refer to as “camping” toilets, basically a seat on a sealed receptacle that some poor staff person must empty out later on. Not great, but at least they are warm, clean, and don’t smell bad.

Fair amount of people—it never felt crowded, but there are definitely other people around. If you want a remote, isolated experience, then this is not it.

Gift shop—it was perfectly fine and unremarkable. The prices were reasonable. Most things were also available from the visitors center in town, so if you miss anything here, it’s not a big deal.

There’s a lodge and restaurant, but we didn’t go inside.

Bad things? Nothing really.

General viewing advice:

Aurora forecasts are like weather forecasts—maybe valid from a statistical prediction standpoint, that is, more likely to be right than wrong, but not useful for your individual expectations or decisions. Of the three nights, our best viewing was the night the aurora was forecast to be weaker.

The weather forecast is more important than the aurora forecast. If the aurora does become active, you want the clearest conditions possible. We still enjoyed the aurora with light, scattered clouds, but the best viewing was the clearest, darkest night. Clouds not only block the sky, they also scatter moonlight and light pollution.

The moon is more important than the aurora forecast. You can definitely enjoy the aurora when the moon is out, but it reduces the visual contrast of any aurora. As with astronomical viewing, the moon phase is only part of the equation--a full moon is not a problem if it’s not above the horizon when you’re out viewing. Our best night was the last night—the moon was still waning gibbous, but didn’t rise until 11:00 pm. The worst conditions are moon+clouds.

Bring contact lenses if you wear glasses. I had a hell of a time trying to keeping my glasses from fogging up. At some points, my glasses were literally covered in a thin layer of ice.

Aurora photos look way more green than to the naked eye, so manage your expectations. On the most active nights, the aurora did look green to our eyes, but it is a very, very pale green.

But they also look way more amazing in person than any photo or video.

You may not see the aurora at all. Our guide said that weeks can go by without seeing the aurora. We got incredibly lucky to see it 3 nights in a row.

We also considered Alaska, Norway, and Sweden, but the Alaskan options looked unpleasant (aesthetically and nutritionally) and Scandinavia seemed too far away and too expensive a wager given the possibility of NOT seeing any auroras .

Photography advice:

You don’t need a super expensive camera. My trusty (i.e., old) Canon Powershot G6 worked surprisingly well. I saw other people getting good results with newish point-and-shoot cameras.

A tripod is mandatory, even a simple one. I used a mini-tripod, which worked great, except for portrait orientation.

There’s a tradeoff between ISO setting and shutter speed. I used various settings from ISO 50 to 400 and shutter from 5 to 15 seconds. I eventually settled on ISO 200 @ 15 second shutter, which is nice for a relatively stable aurora and not too grainy. If the aurora is changing quickly, you’ll want a higher ISO and shorter exposure. When it’s moving fast, even a 5 second shutter will be too long to capture the changing shapes.

Obviously, F-stop should be low as possible to grab the most light.

Set manual focus to infinity.

A wide-angle lens is very nice.

Self-timer delay is simpler and more reliable than a camera remote. I fussed with my IR remote, but it was cumbersome to use with gloves, then stopped working, perhaps due to the cold (infrared vs. extreme cold). I don’t know if a bluetooth remote would work better.

Don’t bother with video, unless you have very expensive/professional equipment with extremely high ISO settings (EDIT--for example, a Nikon D5 or similar). My iPhone 6 could not pick up anything on video. Besides, most of the aurora “video” I’ve seen on the internet is really just stitched together photos.

I’ve see smartphone photos of the aurora borealis, but I didn’t bother trying.

You’ll never capture the experience of seeing it in person, so don’t sweat it.

Other advice, mostly food-related:

Vegetarian eating is do-able in Yellowknife. Eating vegan is difficult.

Zehabesha Ethiopian restaurant is legit good (and we have some very good Ethiopian food in Berkeley-Oakland). The other “ethnic” food in town, not so much.

Explorer Hotel has one of the better restaurants in town and has some solid choices for vegetarians/vegans.

Explorer Hotel is the first drop-off and last pickup for the Aurora Village buses.

#aurora_borealis #yellowknife #banff

The Specimen

Here’s a little flash fiction to start your week:

The Specimen

Broadleaf stretched her awareness through the root network. She said to Thickroot with alarm, "I told you it was a mistake to capture a motile creature! It's not just loose. It's feeding on us."

He replied, "That's ridiculous. Those forward facing eyes--it's obviously a predator, a carnivore. When it tore up those poor greenstalks, it was just scared and thrashing about."

Her leaves quivered, "Listen to me. I'm the xeno expert here. I examined it. I knew there was something strange about it. The teeth... yes, it had canines... but also those molars... This isn't a carnivore. It's an... an omnivore."

There was a pause before he replied, "What are you saying?"

"I'm telling you--it eats plants."

"Compost! Just... just calm your thorns, alright?! I'll propagate more snap traps and mucilage traps."

She rustled with anger, "You idiot! Don't you understand? We don't have time for those to grow. We don't have days or even hours. We sit here, rooted in one place, while this thing... Did you see it? It's fast... it moves so fast. Your traps are useless. It's not just a stupid beast. It's intelligent. It's learning. And it's hungry."

Thickroot rubbed his branches together, a nervous tic, “So, what do we do?”

“Encode and disperse the seed pods. Warn the other study ships: stay away from the third planet of this star.”

“Then?”

Broadleaf gathered her thorny vines around herself, a reflex she knew would be useless against the creature's opposable appendages, “We wait to die.”

#fiction #scifi #flash fiction

1938 Advent poster

This poster was originally printed by the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio in 1938.

On death: "Relax" and "If You Knew"

Last week, we attended a memorial service for a dear friend. She'd recently died from cancer, not yet 50 years old.

At the memorial, I was talking with another friend about the relative reluctance in our society to discuss death openly or even acknowledge it's inevitability and universality. I said, "It's the one thing, in addition to being born, that everyone has in common." She told me about two poems, by poet Ellen Bass.

This first poem is obliquely about death, referencing a traditional Buddhist allegory about death (and life). The second one more directly addresses the topic.

Relax Bad things are going to happen...

If You Knew What if you knew you’d be the last to touch someone?...

#Ellen Bass #poetry #death

Observing Report—Glenwood, NM, March 29, 2014

(I wrote this a long time ago, but never got around to posting it.)

Part 3 of my trip to New Mexico... (Part 1 and Part 2)

My last evening of observing on Saturday was a short one for several reasons. I had to get up at a normal time on Sunday to drive back to Phoenix, I didn't have that many objects left on my target list, and the night's forecast called for increasing clouds.

I returned to the Cosmic Campground around sunset and prepared for a relatively leisurely night. It had the feeling of the last lap of a race, the final few miles of a long bike ride. I observed the following:

Coma Star Cluster

M32

M31

M76

M34

I wanted to see a couple of other objects in Andromeda, but low clouds to the northwest said otherwise, plus it was really a bit too late in the year for Andromeda anyway.

By midnight, the sky was fairly clouded over, so I packed up and bid farewell to the spectacular Cosmic Campground.

The next morning I made the beautiful daytime drive through the Gila National Forest back to Arizona.

Over the three nights in New Mexico, I added the following to my observing log:

70 Messier objects

8 NGC objects (New General Catalogue)

I've been completing the Messier objects for the past few years, but in a haphazard manner. After these marathon sessions, I have only 14 more Messier objects to see. I should complete them this summer and fall. It's only a few objects, but the Earth and sky run on their own schedules and certainly not by ours.

Overall, it was a challenging, exhausting, and incredible adventure for which I am grateful. To sit in silence for hours on end. To immerse oneself in the cosmos through a tiny tube of metal and glass and an ephemeral thread of photons. It is simultaneously tenuous, yet all-encompassing. It is fleeting, yet eternal. It is solitary and monastic, yet in numinous communion with all existence.

Partial Solar Eclipse--Thursday, October, 23, 2014

Heads up! There will be a partial solar eclipse this Thursday afternoon!

Here are the event times for Berkeley, CA.

Partial eclipse starts 1:52 pm PDT

Maxium eclipse 3:15 pm PDT

Partial eclipse ends 4:32 pm PDT

At maximum eclipse, 50% of the Sun's diameter and 39% of its area will be obscured

Here's some info and diagrams from NASA with tables and a calculator for other locations.

REMEMBER--DO NOT LOOK AT AN ECLIPSE WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE EYE PROTECTION.

Acceptable eye protection means approved eclipse viewing glasses, solar filter, projection device, etc. More safety info here.

I have some extra eclipse glasses if anyone wants to borrow a pair.

EDIT--This page has a neat animation of what the eclipse will look like in San Francisco.

Camp Elsewhere's Tensegrity Shade Structures

I was maintaining the documentation of our tensegrity shade structures on my website (bweebweebwee) for a while, but have now retired that site.

These may eventually end up somewhere else, but this blog seems like a perfectly fine place for the time being. So here are the original instructions, over ten years old now. I will append some newer notes below.

Camp Elsewhere's Tensegrity Shade Structures

The idea behind a tensegrity structure is that the solid members are loaded under pure compression with ropes or cables providing all the tension. This allows them to be very strong while using a minimum amount of materials. The first of these tensegrity shade structures was built and used at Burning Man in 1998. In 1999, we redesigned them and made a bunch more. They work well for Burning Man because they are:

1) cheap to build, 2) fairly easy to transport, 3) fast and easy to set up, 4) nice and cool with maximum airflow, and 5) best of all for the playa, they are pretty much indestructible.

A bonus is that they are more minimalist, unique, and, in our humble opinion, more attractive than the sea of white pvc and blue tarp shanty structures which blanket Black Rock City. The downsides are:

1) they have a fairly big footprint for the amount of shade they provide so they may not work if you are camping in a crowded area. 2) as currently used they are not intended to block the wind or rain at all, they are for shade when it is nice and hot, although with the addition of more walls, they could provide some wind protection, and 3) idiots trip on ropes.

You can make structures like these with all sorts of variations in size and geometry which will all work just fine. Here is what you need to buy or steal to build one like ours.

Materials

Three 8 foot beams. These can be any material that is light, stiff, and can be easily drilled. We used cheap 2x3 lumber, but aluminum, steel or pvc pipe would probably work provided they are stiff and strong enough. Your mileage may vary.

A whole crapload of rope, at least 200 feet and more like 250 feet, depending on how efficient you are with cutting and tying knots. We use truck rope, that black and orange stuff, because it is cheap, very very strong, is weather resistant, and does not stretch. Downside is that it does not knot very easily. You can get them in 100 foot rolls at hardware stores. I usually use 1/2" because I like overkill, but you can probably get away with smaller. Do not burn this stuff, at least not anywhere near me, as it is plastic and will give off nasty fumes which I do not want to breathe. Any other rope that does not stretch too much should work fine. Steel cable would kick ass. One of our people made a structure using detachable rope hardware which made set up and take down a snap. Go nuts.

6 pieces of rebar. At least 2 feet long and 3/8" diameter and I personally like 3 ft x 1/2 inch cuz that's the kind of guy I am. Do not attempt to put up one of these structures with tent stakes or even with wimpy rebar. You will end up being a sad panda.

Fabric for shade - We used white cotton cloth custom sewn for our structures with many, many, many grommets. One triangular piece for the top and one rectangular piece for a wall which could be moved around. Our fabric was pretty sturdy in strong wind, but we always took it down during major windstorms. If you intend to leave your shade material mounted in major storms then you should think about some very heavy duty grommets or webbing or other suitably strong attachment method. Recently, we have been using old sails lying over the top of our structures and staked directly into the ground. This is very strong and provides a lot of shade and decent wind protection, as well.

That's it - that's all the materials you need!

Tools you will need to build

Drill and drill bits Knife Maybe a lighter to melt off plastic rope ends. A couple of big pieces of pipe, about 3 feet long each and big enough to slip over your rebar.

Tools you will need to set up

Sledgehammer - everyone should own at least one big ass sledgehammer.

How to make the thing

I am not going to go through how to tie knots and loops and such because I don't know much about this myself and there is no one correct way to tie these things together. Do it however it works for you. I find that figure-8 knots work well for the permanent loops at the ends of the anchoring ropes. If you don't know how to make a figure 8 knot ask a friend who rockclimbs.

Step 1: Basically, just drill some holes sideways though the beam at the top and bottom big enough for your rope to go through. I used one hole at the bottom and two at the top (one for the top rope and one for the anchor ropes). The first structure used 1 inch eye screws in the ends but this is just something else to fail. Holes are better. Lookee at Diagram 1

Step 2: Then lay the beams out on the ground and tie it all together with loops at the end of the anchoring ropes. You may want to make a few of the anchoring ropes with adjustable loops/knots (e.g. a trucker's hitch) to make adjustments to the structure. Lookee at Diagram 2

There are only two different lengths of rope you need to remember.

Top ropes = 14 feet Anchoring ropes = 10 feet 7 inches

These lengths are based on 8 foot beams, a 14 foot radius hexagon footprint, and the beams ending up at 60 degrees from horizontal and are the theoretical point to point distances in the final geometry. In practice they end up being a little shorter because the holes in the beams where the ropes are attached are not at the exact ends. As with every thing else, you can vary the geometry however you like, but found that these measurements provide a nice symmetrical small to medium sized structure that can fit about a half dozen people under it comfortably.

Basically, the tops of the three beams are connected in a triangle 14 feet on a side. And each of the three beams has 4 anchoring ropes coming off of it, two from the top and two from the bottom with a loop at the end of each.

Step 3: Bend your rebar. Stick a rebar into a pipe with about 10 inches of rebar protruding. Slip the other pipe over the protruding rebar leaving a few inches of rebar visible. Bend the top 6 inches back so it ends up looking like a candy cane. With 1/2 inch rebar this will not be easy. Have some friends stand on the pipe covering the long section of rebar or stick it in a huge vice. Do not hurt yourself doing this and do not sue me. Lookee at Diagram 3

Setting Up 1: Precise Method (need only 2 people, maybe 1 if you are desperate and have no friends)

1. Lay out a hexagon on the ground which is 14 feet in radius, 14 feet on a side. You can do this more easily by tying yourself a piece of rope with two loops 14 feet apart and use it with a couple of pieces of rebar like a big compass.

a) mark a center and draw a big 14' radius circle b) pick a starting point on the circle and then use the 14' rope to find your other points along the hexagon. Lookee at Diagram 4

2. Hammer in your rebar at the six points but not all the way in - allow enough room to slip your anchor loops onto the candy cane sections. 3. Lay out your beams with tops in toward the center of the circle and bottoms out 4. Have a friend hold up one of the beams in close to its final position and attach its anchor loops and hammer the 2 rebar most of the way in (leave a little bit out in case you need to change something). Your other two beams will be all over the place now. 5. Have your pal hold up the 2nd beam and attach and hammer in the ropes from this one. Things will look a bit better now. 6. Continue on and do the 3rd beam. 7. If everything looks good. Hammer the rebar in so they are flush with the ground. 8. There will probably be some looseness in the structure. Adjust the knots so that everything is taut. There should be very little to no slack in any of the ropes. The structure should be rock solid now. 9. Attach whatever shade material you have fashioned.

Setting Up 2: Easy Method (need 4 people - works remarkably well)

1. Get three people to hold up the beams in more or less the final configuration (leaning away from each other about 60 deg from horizontal with the top triangle as taut as possible 2. Run around and hammer the 6 rebars into the ground, anchoring the 12 anchor ropes to the ground so that the structure is nice and taut and not too crooked. 3. Adjust or tighten any of the individual ropes as needed. 4. Attach shade material.

It's a good idea to practice putting one up near your home.

Structure test in Santa Cruz

Shade material test in Santa Cruz

Here are pics from Camp Elsewhere - Burning Man 1999 showing the shade structures under construction and being used.

Logan finishes her structure (layout of beams and ropes are shown clearly and labeled)

A bare structure in the background (ignore the choad blocking the view)

Jila attaches her shade material

Easy livin on the playa

Blowin in the wind (and Tammy with her birds)

Camp Elsewhere

The structures are strong enough to support a hammock.

Thanks Big shout outs to Elsewhere campers Layla, Logan, and Jila who put a lot of time and effort into the design and building of these structures. Big ups to Jon Luini, Logan, jD, and Lettuce for providing all the photos. Diagrams are by me.

==================

2014 Updated notes/comments:

The scholarly observer will note that these structures are not pure tensegrity structures from a mathematical standpoint because they are not freestanding--they rely on attachment to the ground. I find that precise definition to be less relevant when discussing architectural structures. After all, bridges and buildings are always assumed to have at least one fixed point. And these structures do satisfy what I consider to be the key quality of tensegrity--the rigid members are loaded under pure compression, with no torsion.

The most apt description I have seen of ground-dependent structures like these are "open tensegrity structures" as opposed to "closed" or self contained ones.

Anyway...

Since 2000, the structures have remained exactly the same. In fact, most of the original structures are still intact and in occasional use. We stopped going to Burning Man years ago, but continued to camp on the Black Rock Desert for many years after.

The one thing that changed drastically was the covering materials that we used.

For a few years we experimented with using old sails. These were indestructible and provided tons of shade, but they were overkill--extremely heavy and difficult to transport.

We also tried different types of woven materials and attachment methods.

The final design I settled on and still use is heavy canvas. I bought a bunch of 12 oz. canvas 12'x15' drop cloths (available at any hardware store) and arrange them in various configurations on the ropes.

The attachment points are 1" nylon webbing sewn into the corners and edges with heavy duty thread. These points are then attached to the ropes with heavy duty reuseable cable ties (these must be the beefy ones, like 100 lb tensile strength) and roped to additional ground anchor points.

Here is a photo showing the attachment points I currently use.

If you look at the high-res original, you will see that the black nylon makes a 'U' shape. I put one piece along the edge of the canvas, which is stitched down at both ends with a 1-inch crossed box like you normally see with nylon webbing. The middle is free and is where the cable tie or rope goes through. Then over each end I sew in two additional pieces that extend in from the edge. The idea is to distribute the load away from the edge of the fabric which is where it will always tear first.

At the corners, I likewise sew several pieces of webbing extending inward to distribute the load. I also add a perpendicular piece to secure the edges and keep them from tearing in that direction. This can also be done with one very long piece folded in half to form the loop and then both "legs" sewn into the fabric parallel to each other and diagonally in from the corner.

Heck, this is hard to explain. Just to show you how much I care, I went downstairs and pulled out a shade cloth to take these pics of the corner and edge attachment points.

Corner attachment point -- you can see there's actually some fraying/tearing of the canvas at the corner, but it stops right there at the nylon webbing.

Edge attachment point

Here are some more high res pics of the structures being set up and used.

In the sidebar are some ways to contact me if you have questions.

Peace, Dan

Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind...

I came across the Kickstarter for the Black Rock Observatory to build a small observatory at Burning Man with a 20" Dobsonian telescope, science exhibits, and some solar scopes.

I am all for astronomy and science outreach and the Black Rock Desert is an amazing dark sky location, but there's a few issues here.

If you've been to Burning Man, you know that the dust, smoke, and light pollution can be significant. I hope they don't depend on seeing much in the way of nebulae or galaxies, at least from Thursday on.

Jupiter will set before 7 pm.

Saturn and Mars will set before 11 pm.

Uh oh: "Dust!? We got this covered. Our telescope will resolve the Galilean Moons of Jupiter, the Rings of Saturn and 5 of its moons, Martian polar ice caps and the outer planets. We'll be exploring faint galaxies many thousands of times too dim to view with the naked eye and distant nebula..."

On the plus side:

They'll be on the "outer playa" which I assume means near the wind fence. So depending on the direction of the wind, the sky facing away from the city may be clear. I hope they can put themselves south of the city and the Man if they plan on observing Sagittarius (M8 and M20 are mentioned on the project website).

At least the moon will be setting pretty early those days.

The nice thing about that observatory is that it will block the winds, which are hell on image stability out there, even with a small telescope.

The solar scopes should be really cool (provided the daytime dust cooperates).

This would be fantastic to have out there when Burning Man is not happening, perhaps during 4th of July (which I already stopped attending because it's too crowded now).

This is a great way to get people to buy you a 20" dob.

I'm not saying that this is not a great project, just that I hope they temper their expectations about what people will be able to observe through their telescope.

I may back it at $25 and get a cool patch.

Observing Report—Glenwood, NM, March 28-29, 2014

Part two of my trip to New Mexico... (part 1 here)

I woke up mid-afternoon, Friday, March 27, prepared for my day, and then went to scope out the best observing sites. I drove through downtown Glenwood, which took about 30 seconds, and visited a local ranger station to get the lay of the land.

My Airbnb host had told me about her friend's amazing project to establish a dedicated astronomy campsite within the Gila National Forest:

The Cosmic Campground

The campsite's precise location is a bit difficult to find on the website, but it is located at (according to Google):

33°28'47.2" North, 108°55'20.1" West (33.479778, -108.922250)

But how to get there is the trick. Even the ranger was unclear about where to turn off from the highway (understandable, given that the campsite is still under construction and not featured on any official maps).

The turn off is located at:

33°29'17.9" North, 108°55'35.4" West (33.488301, -108.926504)

Basically, just go north up US 180 from Glenwood and turn right at 13.9 miles onto a dirt road that has a cattle guard. Google Maps directions.

The site itself is just a 5 minute drive straight down the dirt road.

The site is currently cleared and open for use, but without any facilities. The plan is to add pit toilets and concrete pads for telescopes. The site is amazing, with views nearly to the horizon in 360° and is completely shielded from the highway by low rolling hills. There is a tiny bit of skyglow to the south, probably from Silver City, but it is barely noticeable. You really have to look for it.

Here's some friendly cows. They were blocking the road when I checked out the site during the day, but courteously got out of my way.

The view spanning north to southeast.

The view spanning from south to northwest.

I returned a little after sunset at 7:30 and was ready to start observing by the end of astronomical twilight. It was another incredible night. Clear except for some small scattered clouds in the evening that disappeared by midnight.

Even though it was slightly warmer than the night before, around 40° F, it felt much colder due to windchill. It wasn't terribly gusty and didn't interfere with the stability of my scope, but the slight wind was enough to suck any warmth right out of me. I had to retreat to my car a couple of times to eat, hydrate, and thaw out by running the engine and heat full blast (with a window cracked, of course). Thank goodness the little Hyundai had heated seats.

That night, I observed the following:

M109

M40

M106

M63

M101

M68

M104

M83

M107

M12

M10

M14

M80

M62

M19

M23

M20

M21

M24

M16

M18

M17

M28

M69

M25

M22

M70

M54

M55

M26

M11

M52

M103

M78

M38

M36

M37

M35

M79

M50

Yes, that is a lot of Messier objects.

With the clearer horizon, the Milky Way was an even more incredible sight than the night before. After I had completed my above list of targets for the night, I went back to observe some of the finer sights, such as the incredibly rich areas of Sagittarius and Scorpius. I spent many minutes observing M42 Orion Nebula, which I can do at home, but in such perfect conditions, it popped with detail and texture like I had never seen through visual observation. And then I spent a lot of time just leaning back against the side of the car staring agog at the enormous Milky Way.

One exciting thing happened. In the wee hours, probably sometime between 2 and 4 am. I heard a few isolated howls and then a whole chorus of them, echoing all around me. Yikes!

Now this is not the first time I've encountered howling coyotes while out observing in the night. It always excites some primal alarm bells. But on those occasions, I hadn't been that far out from civilization and other people. Rationally, I knew that coyotes were harmless. Still, there I was, alone, with the closest human being probably 10 miles away. I was about a half mile from the highway as the crow flies, and about a mile by the road. My host sort of new where I was. Sort of. I immediately sized up my situation. Was there anything I could wield as a weapon? My telescope and tripod? Nope, too heavy. Maybe my telescope case could be a decent shield. Nah. I figured the best bet would be retreat. I made sure that the car door closest to me was unlocked. Also? Please don't be wolves. Please don't be wolves.

In retrospect, I had on a million layers of clothes, a brown jacket and dark red pants so I probably looked like a bear. Not exactly something other predators would mess with.

I stayed out again until about 5 am, then packed up using only red lights to preserve my night vision. I spent a last few minutes enjoying the Milky Way before heading out. (I will say that after spending 8-9 hours with fully dark-adapted vision, car headlights are incredibly bright.)

On the drive back up the road to the highway, I came across tons of jackrabbits. So I knew what those coyotes or wolves were so excited about.

I found some bluegrass guitar on the radio for the drive back to my cabin and was in bed before the sun came up around 7. Another epic night!

Camelopardalids Meteor Shower, May 2014

Here's the skinny (especially for Northern California):

The peak time for the meteor shower is projected to be 6:00 - 8:00 AM UTC on May 24, 2014.

For Pacific Daylight time this is FRIDAY NIGHT, May 23rd, 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM Saturday.

Look almost due north, slightly left of and below Polaris. The radiant point (where meteor trails originate) is projected to be in the constellation Camelopardalis at RA=122.8°, Dec=+79.0° (source: arXiv:1311.0235).

The source of the meteors is the comet 209P/LINEAR.

The moon will set in the afternoon and not rise until 3:21 AM. This is good!

I don't have my Stellarium in front of me, but I will post a diagram with the projected radiant point before Friday.

EDIT--here's a diagram showing the approximate radiant point at 11:00 pm on Friday, May 23rd from San Francisco. Created with Stellarium planetarium software.

(click through to Flickr)

ASTRONOMY RIDDLE FOR THE DAY The word camelopardalis is the Latin combination of the Greek words for camel and leopard, describing an animal that looks like a combination of both. The constellation is named for its resemblance to this animal.

What is the animal that looks like a combination of a camel and a leopard?

Read the wikipedia entry for the answer.

Observing Report--Glenwood, NM, March 27-28, 2014

I had a fortuitous opportunity to take a memorable astronomy trip this past spring. I was due in Phoenix, Arizona for a professional conference at the beginning of April and I'd often heard that the southwestern United States has some of the best dark skies in the world. Scanning the various dark sky maps and astronomy sites, I realized that Phoenix was about half a day's drive away from several excellent dark sky areas including northeast Arizona, Arizona Sky Village in southeast Arizona, and western New Mexico.

Likewise, the weekend prior to my conference would have perfect timing in terms of a total absence of moonlight. In fact, the All-Arizona Messier Marathon was scheduled for that weekend just a few hours west of Phoenix.

After looking at all the options, I decided to rent a car and drive to the Gila National Forest in western New Mexico. This seemed like a rare opportunity to observe under real black skies with ideal moon conditions. So I booked three nights at an Airbnb guest house in Glenwood, New Mexico. Glenwood is a tiny town at 4,760 feet elevation at the edge of a black zone in most dark sky maps.

On the evening before my flight, I packed all my gear including my Orion ED80, Vixen Porta mount, finderscope, Telrad reflex site, and a selection of eyepieces. This was the first time I'd flown with a telescope, so I was a little worried about transporting my equipment but everything went off without a hitch, including airport security. I have a very sturdy Stellarvue carry-on hard case that fits the ED80, diagonal, Telrad, finderscope (underneath the Telrad in this picture), and eyepieces. The only eyepiece that doesn't fit in the hard case is the big 40mm Williams Optics wide angle, which I carried in its box in my backpack. And the Vixen Porta, once disassembled, fit (rather snugly) into a suitcase borrowed from my friend jD.

In addition to the astro equipment and cold weather gear, I also had to pack for my conference, so I pared down to essential equipment only. In terms of atlases and books, I brought only the Pocket Sky Atlas and my Nexus 7 tablet (more on that in another entry).

On Thursday, I flew to Phoenix, took the shuttle to the rental car center, loaded my suitcase, telescope case, and backpack into the car, and started driving. With only a stop for groceries along the way, I made the beautiful 5 hour drive to Glenwood.

I arrived at my Airbnb guest house around 7 pm. The host turned out to be wonderful and the property beautiful (message me if you're interested in details). I quickly got settled in and prepared for my first night's observing. I'd arrived too late for my preferred practice of surveying the area for choice sites, so I just went up on the raised levee adjoining the property. Despite some scattered clouds and nearby mountains slightly impeding the horizon, the conditions were beyond anything I've experienced. I stayed out from the end of twilight around 9 pm to about 5 am. It was cold, in the mid-30's, but the area was sheltered from wind, so it was quite comfortable. I wore the following:

long underwear

ski pants

thick socks and boots

long undershirt

long sleeved shirt

wool sweater

fleece jacket

gore-tex shell with hood

neoprene facemask

wool cap

windproof liner gloves

snowboarding mittens (when not handling equipment)

The list of objects I viewed that night/morning:

M95

M96

M105

M65

M66

NGC 3628

M98

M99

M100

M84

M85

NGC 4388

NGC 4435

NGC 4438

NGC 4461

NGC 4473

NGC 4477

NGC 4478

M86

M87

M88

M91

M41

M47

M46

M93

M48

Around 3 AM, the Milky Way came up above the mountains to the east and were like nothing I've ever seen. I've camped under the black zone skies of northern Nevada, but with either moonlight or light pollution from other campers, RVs, etc. At first, I actually thought the Milky Way was intruding clouds, but then realized that they couldn't be because there was no light pollution to illuminate clouds. Under black skies, clouds simply appear as the absence of stars, like blotches of nothingness in the tapestry of the night. This was the Milky Way, brighter and clearer than I've ever seen. With dark-adapted eyes, it was like something seen only in photographs. Sagittarius was astounding. I'm sorry that I just don't have words to do justice to the beauty of it.

I packed my gear around 5 am and returned to my cabin. I ate a ham sandwich (famished), chugged some V8 (parched), washed up, and then collapsed into bed as the pre-dawn glow grew in the eastern sky.

More from the following nights to follow soon...

Observing report: August 17, 2013--Nova Delphini 2013

On August 14, amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki discovered a nova in the constellation Delphinus. He did this with a 180 mm reflector telescope.

For comparison, my Zhumell Z8 is a 200 mm reflector. Amazing job, Mr. Itagaki! (His reflector is probably on an equatorial mount as his discovery was through photographic comparison).

We had a nice viewing of it on Saturday night, Aug. 17th. I was able to spot it very quickly with 12x70 binoculars and Sky and Telescope's helpful star map:

1. Start at Delphinus

2. Scan north-northwest to locate a funny, lopsided trapezoid with two little "eyes" in the middle.

3. Move west a couple of degrees to the nova. For orientation, a magnitude 5.7 star lies just 1 or 2 degrees N-NE of the nova. Both that star and the nova have slightly dimmer close neighbors, though these may not be visible in binos. The 4 stars together form a long, narrow rectangle.

I used the ED80 (80mm f/7.5) at 20x (30 mm William Optics widefield eyepiece) for a more detailed comparison to the Uranometria 2000.0 star atlas and to share the views with others. Through the ED80, the nova appeared to me to be at least 5.5 in magnitude, by rough comparison to its 5.7 neighbor, which is in the ballpark of professional estimates.

So what is this nova thing? From the Sky and Telescope article:

A classical nova happens in a special kind of tightly-orbiting binary star system: one where a relatively normal star pours a stream of hydrogen onto the surface of a companion white dwarf. When the layer of fresh hydrogen on the white dwarf's surface grows thick and dense enough, the bottom of the layer explodes in a runaway hydrogen-fusion reaction — a hydrogen bomb in the shape of a thin shell roughly the size of Earth. The underlying white dwarf remains intact, and as new hydrogen builds up, the process may repeat in a few years to tens of thousands of years.

Overall, it was a fun treat to witness such a relatively ephemeral cosmic event. Thank you, Mr. Itagaki!

EDIT--Here's a neat diagram from the wikipedia entry on novae.

EDIT 2--I misread the chart I found. What I took for star designations were actually just the magnitudes. I've corrected the above entries.

EDIT 3--This article at Universe Today has the clearest diagrams I've found that show the exact location of the nova.

Early winter treats--Orion, Pleiades, Jupiter in conjunction with Taurus

The skies were clear tonight and the weather was slightly less ridiculously cold than it has been recently. I did some quick observing of a few standard winter treats including M42 Orion Nebula, M45 Pleiades, and Jupiter which is just past opposition and a very nice sight even in my small ED80 telescope. Both equatorial belts were easily visible. I thought I saw the Great Red Spot, but I just checked my Stellarium software, which tells me that the GRS didn't come into view until after I came inside. Ah well, wishful thinking.

Jupiter is in conjunction with HIP 20417, a lovely red star in Taurus. Tonight, it looked like an eccentric fifth Galilean moon, hanging just southeast of Io. I snapped a few pics of the evenings events.

Jupiter and the Galilean moons with a guest

M45 Pleiades

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