penmachinedad

4000 miles

2012-01-26T16:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the odometer on my old exercise bike, which I use regularly when I don't go for a walk, turned to 7000. This is measured in miles. The last times I posted anything in that regard was when the odometer turned to around 6000 miles; that was in January 2011, and 3000 miles in March 2009. So, in somewhat less than three years, I have put 4000 miles (6435 km) more onto the old, trusty "wheeled horse". The earlier post can be viewed here: http://www.penmachinedad.blogspot.com/2009/03/turning-3000.html

March 2009 January 2012

These 4000 miles represent both tragic and uplifting changes in our family. The tragic part is about our son, Derek. He died last year, on May 3 (http://www.penmachine.com/). The uplifting part concerns the birth of our niece's son Alexander, a strapping addition to our extended family. Our daughter-in-law, Airdrie, and granddaughters (Derek and Airdrie's daughters) live next door; it's wonderful to be so close to them. We consider the three of them to be "our kids", along with Lucy, the girls' little shitsu/poodle, which came into the family a couple of years ago.

My wife and I have traveled here and there in that time and met friends, old (sadly, one of them has died, too, and a couple of others are seriously ill) and new. "The kids" have done the same, but have gone to different, and more exotic places. We've had our enjoyable family gatherings for the yearly holidays and birthdays. I'm still running my small business. Life is carrying on...

Hope for a better year

2012-01-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

It's been a month since I've put up a post. In the meantime, we celebrated our family Christmas. It was a bitter-sweet experience for our immediate family. Our son Derek was not there (as he had predicted a year earlier), but we had a new addition to the family. His name is Alexander, the son of our niece and her husband; he is the first baby boy in the family, since Derek himself was born. The young people had a great time at Christmas - as usual, too many presents (they didn't mind).

My wife and I spent New Year's in Puerto Vallarta, with good friends. Our host had unfortunately contracted pneumonia earlier in December, and had just gotten home from the hospital for Christmas. Therefore, he was not quite his normally exuberant self. Talking to him today, and he sounded a lot better. We met many people we hadn't seen for a number of years and several very interesting people we had never met before.

We have visited Puerto Vallarta for New Year's for many years. The city has improved its beachfront walkway (the Malacon) wonderfully, see picture. It is always nice to walk under palm trees in warm weather when it is miserable at home.

The weather was a nice 23 to 26 degrees Celsius during the day, and not much less during the night; we spent every evening outside, or in open-air restaurants.

The Mexican people greet a new year with fireworks galore. These were going off all around us for almost an hour after the New Year arrived.

We all expressed the hope that this year will be better for all of us.

The December 10, 2011 lunar eclipse

2011-12-13T14:22:00.001-08:00

Any hobby usually requires some "sacrifice". In my case, astronomy normally requires that I be awake and up while it's dark outside (the exception is when I'm using my telescopes to look [safely] at the Sun). A lunar eclipse always takes place when the Moon is full; the Moon is always exactly opposite the Sun then. At this time of year, the Sun rises low in the SE. That means that the Moon sets high in the NW.

This month's lunar eclipse occurred a couple of hours before sunrise, and I could watch it through my west-facing office window. I set up one of my cameras (a Canon Rebel XT SLR) and took some pictures through the double-paned window, and through breaks in the clouds. Before the eclipse started, the sky had been absolutely clear, but, just around the start of the eclipse, heavy clouds began to roll in. This is Vancouver, after all. Midway through the eclipse they totally obliterated any view of the eclipsed Moon. I got only one good picture through the last cloud break. These clouds kept the day dark and gray right through the next night, until the next morning.

Here are some of the pictures:

From the top down:

The Moon before entering Earth's shadow. The area at "11 o'clock" is getting darker.

Clouds are rolling in.

Three quarters into the Earth's shadow. Picture taken through a break in the clouds.

About 5 minutes before "totality" (again a break in the clouds). The star under the Moon is Iota Tauri (Iota in the constellation of Taurus, the bull)

The last "hole" in the clouds. The clouds to the right of the dark tree covered the Moon a short time later.


Midway through totality. This picture was taken just after the one above. About half-way through totality - the Moon has moved, so now is totally covered by the Earth's shadow. The brighter part of the Moon is closer to the edge of the shadow. Notice that the star Iota Tauri is now farther away from the Moon - it's a consequence of the Moon's motion in its orbit. This is my last picture of this eclipse. A minute later, the Moon was completely covered by clouds and no longer visible. The orange colour of the Moon in the Earth's shadow is due the sunlight being "refracted" by the Earth's atmosphere onto the Moon's surface. If you were on the Moon, you'd see the dark disk of the Earth surrounded by a reddish-orange ring (a circular sunset). From the Moon, this event is a total eclipse of the Sun. You'd have an awe-inspiring sight.

The top picture was taken about two hours before the bottom one. It was a cold morning outside. This kind of thing did not bother me in the past, but now, in my old age, I enjoy creature comforts much more. I was glad to witness this in my nice, warm office.

The Green Thing

2011-12-06T16:57:00.001-08:00

The Green Thing

(forwarded by my sister)

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this "green thing" back in my earlier days."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have "the green thing" in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have "the green thing" back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have "the green thing" in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have "the green thing" back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the
mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't
have "the green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have "the green thing" back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have "the green thing" back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.
Remember: Don't make old People mad.
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.

7 months

2011-12-03T23:04:00.000-08:00

We raised a toast to Derek again at 5:40 pm. It seems like yesterday. The memory will always be with us.

A beautiful day

2011-11-30T15:56:00.000-08:00

Today is one of those "picture-post-card" days. The fresh snow on the mountains and the crisp clear air make for a wonderful view from our living room. This morning, at sunrise, the mountains looked as though they were covered in pink whipped cream, and they'll look like that again in about half an hour, at sunset. We went on our usual walk, and took our granddaughters' dog, Lucy, along. She seemed to enjoy the day as much as we.

I also went for my annual blood test this morning, and picked up the fecal blood test kit at the same time. I strongly urge everyone to have these tests, young or old. Our family can attest to the importance of this (see http://www.penmachine.com/ ).

In Readers' Digest

2011-10-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

The November Canadian edition of Readers' Digest features a 30-page excerpt of Derek's blog, available at Safeway, Shoppers' Drug Mart, and others. It's an indication of the impact his writing still has. I'm keeping Derek's memory alive at http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/can-vancouver/guestbook.aspx?n=derek-miller&pid=150846264. It will always be possible to leave messages regarding his life and writing there.

An adventurous trip

2011-10-04T12:47:00.000-07:00

We returned from a three-day repositioning cruise with an added three days in Las Vegas this last Saturday. The cruise had an "interesting" period. The "Golden Princess" is a 109,000 ton displacement cruise ship with wonderful amenities, excellent food, nice lounges, great music (including the kind of music we like to dance to). We enjoyed all this on the night we left. By midnight, just after we went to bed, the ship left Juan de Fuca Strait and turned south towards the next destination, Los Angeles. At that point we ran into an extreme low pressure system with hurricane winds and huge waves. This extreme storm was strong enough to toss the ship around like a log, making walking almost impossible. Because of the violent motions, and winds in excess of 110km/h, access to the open decks was blocked, the swimming pools were emptied, and the ship had to reduce its speed to about 13 knots. The noises generated by the wave action kept me awake all night - the most annoying noise was the constantly clicking of the empty coat hangers in the open closest hitting each other, funnily enough. After we took them off the rack and stuffed them between our suitcases, my wife got some sleep, but I didn't.

While my wife has better "sea legs" then I, she managed to get to the dining rooms at the centre of the ship at the lower levels on the following day (which was just as violent as the night). I stayed in our cabin, which was located just one level below the open decks, and near the bow, close to the ships bridge, and tried to get some sleep. In that location, the motion is probably the most extreme. I could time and anticipate whenever the ship breached a wave, and then slammed down on the next one. At that point, everything in the cabin banged, creaked, and groaned, and I felt like being inside a drum being worked by a heavy metal band drummer.

This episode lasted just about 24 hours. When we finally got out of this extreme low north of San Francisco, the day turned into a much nicer one, and the previous day was soon an "interesting experience". The captain brought the speed up to over 22 knots, trying to make up for the lost time running slowly through the previous days' storm. None-the-less, we arrived three hours late, which played havoc with many people's travel connections. As usual, it takes about three hours to disembark the passengers and go through customs.

Our own travel connection was a bus to take us to Las Vegas - we had no trouble with that because the driver had to wait for all his passengers (who were making the same trip we were). We arrived in Las Vegas around 8pm. There were two stops at hotels before we got to ours (Harrah's). The first two got people off the bus to a well-organized reception by the travel agency; our destination had no one to "receive" us. That was somewhat chaotic and meant individual check-in. We finally got to our room after 9pm, and called it a day. Our room was nice enough, but little things left an impression of neglect (loose shower head and hot water tap covers, a bit of rust here and there, hallway carpets showing wear and tear and so on)

The next day, after a so-so and expensive breakfast with indifferent service at Harrah's, we walked the strip, and started looking at the various hotels, especially the new, luxurious ones: Bellagio, Aria, Caesar's Palace, Excalibur, Mirage, Venitian, Wynn's, etc. They were all superior to Harrah's. If we get to L.V. again, we'll probably stay at one of those. They incorporate large "shopping concourses" with many nice restaurants and other amenities. In the evening, we enjoyed watching both the "volcano" at the Mirage, and the "water ballet" at the Bellagio. Since we are not gamblers, these activities were our main occupation.

The shows which might have been of interest to us (Cirque de Soleil, and other high quality ones) were always either sold out or had long box-office line-ups. We had only two days in L.V., so we passed on them. Most of the other shows were "imitation shows": Sinatra, Elvis, Rat Pack, etc. They were expensive, and, since we have seen the real artists in the past, of little interest to us.

There are very few benches to sit down in L.V. - obviously on purpose: the businesses want you to spend time in the ubiquitous casinos (almost all hotels have one or more - they all look alike, and are just as noisy). You are also almost always forced to walk through them in order to get to the shops and amenities. The nicer hotels had easy chairs and tables in the long hallways, away from the casinos, which enabled us to sit down to a leisurely coffee or ice cream and watch people (which both of us enjoy).

We went to downtown Las Vegas on the following day - bought a day pass on the "Deuce" (a double-decker bus system which runs 24 hours a day). This proved to be the most efficient transportation for us. Fremont street downtown has a two block long arched cover which is actually the worlds largest video display. It's advertised as the "Fremont Experience". We arranged to be there early for the 7pm "showing" - it was a bit of a disappointment. While technically impressive, with a Hallowe'en-related theme, the show was only 7 minutes long. The real fun part for us was watching people from a sidewalk seat at a Starbuck's - the bikers had a convention; it made for some interesting viewing.

The flight home was somewhat convoluted. We were flown from L.V. to Phoenix, changed planes there, and flew right back over L.V. on the way home. Airport security is highly inconvenient (body scanners, numerous identity checks, etc.) and takes a lot away from the actual flying, which we both enjoy. The flight itself (US Airways) was on time, we actually arrived home early.

So, what is our overall impression? Las Vegas is a city of "imitation" and flamboyance, with relatively little cultural substance. It exists to "pull money out of your pocket", and that may be it's "talent", if it can be called that. Superficiality comes to mind; everything is "show"(off). Some of the new hotels are really beautiful from an architectural point and can be considered to be counterpoints to the shallowness evident elsewhere. We may get there again, someday, passing through, but it's unlikely that we'll make a special trip with this city as the destination.

Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/6213529854/in/set-72157627696025357/

Cruising

2011-09-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted. In the meantime, I've done some astronomy, got busy with my business (schools and universities started up again after the summer break), we painted the carport, removed the accumulated algae from the front steps and generally took advantage of the nice summer weather we had until a few days ago. We're now getting ready for a minicruise to L.A. and Las Vegas. The weather is back to it's standard after-summer behaviour (rain), so we'll appreciate the warmer southern climes.

Life has settled into its new routine. I think of Derek daily (it's coming up to 5 months since he died), but my thoughts are slowly taking on some characteristics of nostalgia (in addition to the sadness). We'll be reminded of him on this coming trip too, because he and his family visited both places last year. Read the posts subsequent to the one indicated in the link, too. He also knew that it would be his last time to visit there.

Anyway, we'll enjoy this little sojourn, and I may post some pictures on Facebook.

Public Astronomy

2011-08-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

I'm going to help with this event by setting up a couple of telescopes.

Here are details:

Metro Parks Starry Nights at Deas Island
is happening today

Saturday, August 13, 2011
6:30 PM
Deas Island
River Road and 62B st,
Delta, BC V3M 0A2

10 Astronomy buffs

Weather permitting, on August 13th several RASC volunteers will bring telescopes to Metro Parks’ Starry Night 2011 event on Deas Island.

Bring the kids for a fun evening with (hopefully) a bit of stargazing.

Here’s a link to Metro Parks'
information poster on the event; the following information is taken from the poster:

Starry Night

Deas Island Regional Park, Delta

Saturday, August 13, 2011

6:30 - 9:30 pm

Enjoy an enchanted evening illuminated by starlight and lanterns. Stroll the lantern lit paths, join the drumming circle and discover the park at night. Allow 1hr to complete the walk. Bring a flashlight.

Presented by the Corporation of Delta, Parks, Recreation and Culture in Partnership with Metro Vancouver.

Everyone welcome

www.metrovancouver.org

Sponsors & Perks:
RASC-Vancouver ·

Lack of understanding

2011-08-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

I'm just reading an article in the Vancouver Sun titled "Dark side of the moon enigma solved?" It's astonishing to me, considering that we live in the age of space travel, that people still think that there is a "dark side". Everyone has seen that the moon always presents the same face to us, as it orbits around the Earth once a month (the word "month" comes from "moon"). This means that the moon turns around it's own axis of rotation once a month as well, as seen from a point outside the moon's orbit. This also means that sunlight illuminates every part of the moon in turn, as the moon travels around the Earth, just as most parts of the Earth receive sunlight every day. The side of the moon we never see from Earth is called the "far side", not the "dark side"; it gets it's sunshine just like the rest of the moon.

To see this kind of misunderstanding perpetuated in a reputable newspaper is lamentable. In my opinion, it shows a very limited knowledge of our place in the universe and a lack of scientific understanding.

A pleasant evening

2011-08-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

With the "kids" being away, the house feels somewhat empty.
But, with today being a nice day (it's 24 degrees Celsius - 72 F) right now (8pm), my wife and I decided to enjoy a glass of wine along with our evening snack on the back deck.
We do this as often as possible. The back deck is covered, sometimes we spend a good part of the day here. Occasionally, we sit here (particularly when family or friends are visiting) well past midnight.
This is a pleasant evening; there have been very few this year.

Evolution is dumb.

2011-07-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

Every day, I think of Derek. His death on May 3 seems such a waste. He was killed by the rogue colorectal cancer cells in his body, which were the descendants of one cell. This mutated cell did not stop replicating, its descendants eventually invaded many of Derek's other organs, rendering them dysfunctional.

Derek's death also meant the death of those cancer cells, certainly not advantageous to them. I fail to see any purpose in this.

In addition, the we all lost a man with a brilliant mind who helped others in so many ways, both in person, and with his online writing. The many comments on his blog (www.penmachine.com) attest to that. His presence contributed to the betterment of humanity in many ways. His loss, therefore, is also a loss for all who knew him, intimately or casually. Again, I feel to see any logic in this.

In general, evolution has the connotation of progress. In reality, to me, evolution seems to be based on random changes at random times for random causes, the vast majority of which are detrimental to any organism involved. I suppose that this is a manifestation of the increasing entropy to which the second law of thermodynamics refers. Only very occasionally, by random happenstance, do these random changes result in an improvement for, or, even more rarely, the creation of an organism. It is only because there has been an immensely long time available (billions of years), that these very rare "good" mutations "accumulated" to form the life forms we see here on Earth. This may be a point to consider when talking about "extraterrestrial" life. What is hard to construct is easy to destroy. Disorder is far more likely than order.

Evolution has no directed purpose; it is not intelligent.

Life goes on

2011-06-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

During this month my wife and I went to visit good friends in California, and yesterday, our granddaughter Marina graduated from elementary school (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157627073520948/).

We quite enjoyed our visit to California; it is always good to see friends whom you've known for a long time.

Our granddaughter's graduation was a lively affair - followed by a dance from which parents were "disinvited". She is a lovely young lady now, her dad (http://www.penmachine.com/) would have been proud of her. In fact, we had a hard time recognizing many of her school friends in their fashionable dresses; they looked so mature.

Looking at this from the perspective of our own age, we had nostalgic feelings about our own youth, now so long ago.

Life goes on...

A bit of a sad day

2011-06-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

As fathers' days go, this is a sad one today.
Since our son died on May 3, I will no longer be
getting a fathers' day card from him.

But, in future, the sad memories will be tempered
by the happy memories we have of our time together,
and this day will be bitter-sweet.

Return what you borrowed

2011-06-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

A month ago today, our son Derek died. His ashes will be dispersed in a couple of places on Earth which he considered to be some of the most beautiful.

We are all made of "star stuff"- the original hydrogen, and most of the other atoms generated eons ago in some stupendous explosion of a supernova. Our existence may be considered to be an assembly of these various atoms into the molecules which constitute you, me, Earth, and all the animals and things that surround us. When we die, these are all returned to some place in this universe - perhaps to become part of some other intelligent entity eons from now.

It is possible to say, then, that we only "borrow" the building blocks of which we are made. Derek's molecules are therefore in the process of being returned to where they came from. This resonates with me.

(pictured by the Hubble Space Telescope)

As some of you know, I've had a life-long interest in astronomy. New stars, nebulae, and planets are constantly being formed somewhere in the universe. One of those places is the Orion Nebula, pictured above. From now on, I'll forever look at the heavens with the thought in my mind that some of these future objects will incorporate some of the same atoms and molecules which were once a part of Derek.

We'll all return what we borrowed.

The New Normal

2011-05-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

The last 3 weeks have been ones of upheaval in our family, but the new reality is taking hold.

Most of you who read this blog may be aware that Derek's last post generated an unprecedented amount of traffic on his website (over 10 million hits), and a large number of comments. Additionally, local and international media picked up the story. We have been in interviews on radio and TV; had one family memorial and one public memorial for Derek, also covered by TV.

That's more or less in the past - which is just as well; there are fewer reminders of Derek's death.

For us, as his parents, our grandchildren, and our daughter-in-law, as well as our extended family, there will be no forgetting, of course. However, life carries on. Our daughter-in-law and granddaughters are in Seattle for the long weekend, along with a good friend. We are at home, looking after Lucy, their little dog. We are fortunate that we live in the same duplex, so Lucy can go to her own home for a few hours every day.

Our family routines are changing; this is the new normal.

The end of the gravel road

2011-05-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.penmachine.com/2011/04/on-the-gravel-road

Our son Derek died in the evening of May 3, 2011. He had to deal with metastatic colon cancer for four and a half years. Our family is immensely saddened, and his death will leave a large void among us. He will be deeply missed by all of us.

Derek had an extremely unique intelligence, and a multitude of interests. All his friends, and we, could ask him almost any question and he would have an intelligent and easily understood answer. His blog http://www.penmachine.com is a testament to his extensive knowledge and eclectic thinking. Through his blog, he a affected a multitude of people, and many commented on how his posts had helped them deal with adversities of their own. He was a very knowledgeable technologist - he had extensive knowledge in computer and internet technology, photography, was a musician and composer, had a degree in marine biology, and a diploma in writing (both from UBC). Writing was his passion.

Both the Province and the Vancouver Sun published articles about him today. Here is what Pete McMartin of the Vancouver Sun had to say:

(click on the image)

No medical treatment, including several operations and many sometimes very debilitating chemotherapy treatments could stop this cancer. Throughout these years he maintained his interests and wrote about them in his blog. It never became a "cancer blog".

As his parents, we have lost our only child - a part of us died with him. We are lucky to have his wife and our two granddaughters living next to us. For us, Derek lives on in them.

A memorable Easter

2011-04-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

We had our Easter family dinner at our house yesterday. My wife Hilkka cooked her specialties, and other members of our extended family brought their special food as well. Derek's and Airdrie's friend Steven, and Derek's on-line friend Jean-Hugues took part. Jean-Hugues connected with Derek when both were diagnosed with colon cancer at about the same time; he came all the way from Paris, France. Thank you, Jean-Hugues. You, Laurence, and your family paid us all a great honour.

For us, this dinner get-together was bitter-sweet: it likely was Derek's last family dinner. He managed to stay for around two hours, then he had to go and rest. Fortunately, he can still enjoy the taste of food. I think that he inherited his wide-ranging tastes from his mother.

We're lucky to have Derek, Airdrie, and our granddaughters Marina and Lauren adjacent to us - our porches connect - so it is easy to go back and forth.

This was not a maudlin occasion. Lively conversation is always part of our family get-togethers and this one was no different in that regard. Although Derek's voice has still not come back, he can "rasp" clearly enough to make his points. His mind is as incisive as ever.

Here are some casual pictures I took:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157626568915968/

We hope that you all had an enjoyable Easter.

A little cheer on a dreary day

2011-04-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I'm interested in Astronomy. Accordingly, above is a picture of a "Stargazer Lily" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilium_%22Stargazer%22, of which we have some sitting in a vase on our living room table. Notice the "liquid sugar" on the stem to lure insects, I would think. That's probably what gives these flowers their heavily sweet odour, which seems to be particularly noticeable in the evenings. Click on the picture for a larger image.

Below is a picture of the camelia "bush" in our neighbours' back yard - these blossoms were not there yesterday. Click on the image.

This has been a rather unpleasant week, and not just because of the weather. Derek has not been feeling well, and yesterday we received notice that a very good friend of ours, Al, had died. We've known Al and Ernie, his lifelong partner (over 55 years), for more than 25 years. Al was almost 85 years old, and he had not been in shape for the last four years. A sad day for all of us who knew Al.

I posted these pictures to show that there is always something beautiful in nature. A little cheer on a dreary day...

All talk-little action

2011-03-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

Last night, "Earth Hour" passed with nary a difference in our neighbourhood. We put out all lights in our house, turned off the TV and computers, lit up some candles, and had a glass of wine. Before the earth hour we had watched an episode of the "Cosmos" (Derek gave us the CD series for Christmas), and discussed the subject of that episode ("Backbone of the Night") while the lights were out.

Occasionally, I looked out of our front window to see whether other people had turned off any lights - nobody else seemed to have done so. Windows were still lit, outdoor lights were on, and the clouds were as bright as ever from the stray city lights.

For all the talk about preserving the environment, cutting energy consumption, making a smaller "footprint" on our planet, our neighbourhood at least gets a failing grade in that regard from me.

The solar flare of Monday, Feb 14

2011-02-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

Near the centre of the image is the white flare which sent a massive amount of energy to Earth a couple of days ago.

I looked at the Sun through my Hα telescope yesterday but the flare is not visible in Hα light; however, the disturbed area where it originated on the Sun is. In particular, the "striations" at the centre of this image are visible in Hα.

ultraviolet image

Image from SDO/NASA

Caution: Never look at the Sun with the naked eye! All events on the Sun must be viewed through special protective filters; these reduce the light to about one thousandth of one percent (=1/100,000).

Here's a pertinent article published by National Geographic Magazine:

Ted Chamberlain

National Geographic News

Published February 16, 2011

The most powerful solar flare in four years exploded over the sun late Monday, according to NASA.

The magnetic instability that caused the flare also unleashed a blast of charged particles that should hit Earth's atmosphere tonight, possibly sparking auroras farther south than usual, experts say.

(Video: Solar Flare Causes "Sunquakes.")

The most powerful explosions in the solar system, solar flares occur when magnetic field lines on the sun cross, cancel each other out, then reconnect.

These "explosive reconnections" release huge amounts energy as heat—in this case, a short blast measuring roughly 35 million degrees Fahrenheit (19 million degrees Celsius), according to physicist Dean Pesnell, project scientist forNASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO.

In visible light, only the small dark surface blotches of sunspot 1158, which spawned the flare, could be seen. Without the SDO satellite, "you would never have known what was happening above" the sunspot, Pesnell said.

But the satellite's ability to detect many wavelengths of light allowed the observatory to image not only the flash, in extreme ultraviolet, but also streams of charged gas arcing along magnetic field lines—a "perfect example of solar physics." (See a January picture of a large solar flare.)

Not that SDO is perfect. Its digital-imaging hardware, for example, was overwhelmed by the intensity of the flare, resulting in overexposed areas that make the flare look bigger than it was.

Imaged flawlessly, the flare, at its most intense, would "look like a ball of light floating above the surface," Pesnell said, "about the size of a house."

(See pictures of solar eruptions.)

Solar Flare Plus Aurora-Inducing "Wind"?

Monday's fleeting magnetic breakdown also sent "a firehouse of material spraying out from the sun" when "spring loaded" streams of charged gases were freed from the magnetic fields that hold them in place on the sun.

Such so-called coronal mass ejections can pose radiation threats to astronauts and overwhelm Earth's magnetic field, potentially disrupting satellite communications and power grids on the ground.

But the solar gale now heading our way isn't expected to be particularly harmful. That's because, according to predictions, "it won't hit us dead-on," Pesnell said.

Still, he said, strong geomagnetic activity is expected Wednesday night, perhaps most visibly in the form of auroras—the southern and northern lights, which occur when atoms above Earth's gain energy from solar charged particles, then release it as light.

The U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center, he said, forecasts a 30 percent chance of auroras as far south as Washington, D.C.

Stargazers below the northern U.S. should look for a diffuse reddish glow, however, rather than the neon-hued "curtains" seen around the Poles. Furthermore, the nearly full moon will effectively dim any auroras Wednesday night.

(Pictures: Huge Solar Storm Triggers Unusual Auroras.)

X-Rated Solar Flare

Monday's blast was the first X-level solar flare since December 2006—X being the highest level of the flare-rating system.

But at X2.2—or 0.00022 watts per square meter—the Valentine's Day flare wasn't unexpectedly powerful.

"It fits in just perfect" with forecasts that show the sun entering a period of increased activity, Pesnell said.

The recent explosion, he added, has nothing on the giant blasts of the early 2000s. That most recent active period spawned the biggest solar flare on ever directly measured in November 2003—a blast more than ten times as powerful as Monday's.

Compared to that "big honker," he said, this week's flare "is pretty typical—except it was beautifully typical, because we saw it with SDO."

For more on solar flares, sunspots, and solar wind, read "The Sun—Living With a Stormy Star," from National Geographic magazine >>

"Biking"

2011-01-22T14:59:00.000-08:00

Since the weather was reasonable this morning (it's getting ready to rain right now), my wife and I decided to take our regular walk around the neighbourhood. We do this as often as weather permits. For us that means that it's not raining or snowing. In that case, I substitute a half hour on our stationary bike. I've been using that bike basically by myself; my wife does her exercise by doing her normal housework - we have a "split-level" home, and she's constantly walking up and down the stairs.

By now, the bike's odometer reads just over 6043 miles (over 9700 kilometers). I commented on this exercise bike in March, 2009, at which time the odometer read 3000 miles. At an average of about 9 miles per half hour that additional distance represents roughly 330 days on which I used that bike.

It shows how often the weather around here is bad enough for us to forego taking a walk, because this means that there have been something like 170 inclement days per year during that interval; it's an indication that we live in a "high precipitation" city.

Here's the link to that previous post:
http://penmachinedad.blogspot.com/2009/03/turning-3000.html

True friends

2011-01-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

Last night, since Derek has been feeling a bit better for the last couple of days, he had a date with some of his buddies to go to dinner. They arrived in a limousine to pick him up, much to Derek's surprise. The dinner took place at Gotham's - one of the "in" dining institutions in this city (http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fflic.kr%2Fp%2F9c7N4i&h=6d43a. Fortunately, Derek has not lost his appetite; food is one of the things he can still enjoy.

What a considerate thing to do - true friends indeed.

Other "Earths"

2011-01-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

For many years, astronomers, physicists, geologists, and scientists in other disciplines, as well as science fiction writers, have speculated whether there are planets circling other stars, much like our star (the Sun) has a retinue of large and small planets circling it. Our Earth is one of those planets. The ultimate aim is to establish whether there are other planets (exoplanets - not part of our solar system) which could perhaps have liquid water on their surfaces. We see liquid water as the absolute basic necessity for life as we know it, although we are beginning to see variations of life even here on Earth which may perhaps lead us to a possibility for other life forms, not necessarily requiring water.

In any case, the underlying reason to look for Earth-like planets elsewhere is to come up with a reason to think that life is present throughout the universe (at the moment, we have absolutely no evidence that life exists elsewhere). Exoplanets have been known to exist for a couple of decades or so, but they are very hard to detect and the first ones we knew about were extremely large and could be called "failed stars".

There are a number of telescopes in orbit which are specifically designed to look for the extremely small effects which such planets have on their "suns".

http://www.astro.ubc.ca/MOST/ - This is a Canadian project, directed by Dr. Jaymie Matthews of UBC, which has detected some exoplanets as a serendipitous byproduct of its main mission (to measure tides and wave propagation in distant stars).

There are orbital telescopes specifically designed to look for exoplanets, and one in particular is designed to look for Earth-sized ones. Here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_Mission

It has just succeeded in detecting one exoplanet which is just slightly larger than Earth, albeit unlikely to be earth-like. This is the news release from NASA:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-007&cid=release_2011-007&msource=11007&tr=y&auid=7605855

(Artist's concept, NASA news release)

It'll have a profound impact on human thinking if we ever find another planet on which intelligent beings are present. If we ever get into direct contact with such a "civilization" the course of human evolution may be permanently altered.

Nostalgia

2010-12-27T16:04:00.000-08:00

We celebrated our family Christmas with a wonderful dinner at my sister-in-law's again this year. There were also plenty of presents - practical for the adults and appropriate ones for the young ones. Among the presents we received I'd like to single out just one: Derek, Airdrie, Marina, and Lauren gave us a set of DVDs of the great series "Cosmos" by Dr. Carl Sagan. At the time it was first broadcast on TV (about 1980), Derek (who was then eleven years old) and I watched it with great fascination and admiration. It left a lasting impression on both him and me (See Derek's blog here: http://www.penmachine.com/2010/11/save-a-step).

I just finished watching the first three episodes again - the series has lost none of its significance and is in little need of updates. These are included as visual appendices on the DVDs. I still feel as I did the first time around and am hopeful that young people, many of whom were not even born when the series aired will have a good look at it. The series is available on youtube: (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cosmos+carl+sagan&aq=0). While I admire the great strides technology has made since then (I am an electronics technologist myself), I think that quite a bit of its use is superficial and will have no lasting meaning. By contrast, the Cosmos series has "staying power"; it will impart a much more realistic perspective of life to our younger generation.

Watching the "rerun" (from my perspective), I was transported back to the time I first watched it - with family memories coming to mind, along with the changes in our family since then: Derek (and our nieces) growing up, getting married, having their own families, etc. - nostalgia.

Thank you, Derek, Airdrie, Marina, and Lauren.

Xmas 2010

2010-12-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2010 is a couple of days away, and the granddaughters Marina and Lauren have been busy with school and recital Christmas activities. Here are some pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157625619202316/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157625654178184/,

Also today, they continued their tradition of baking some "Pullaa"(Christmas bread) with grandma Mimi.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157625654207184/.

Perhaps these occasions will be something they'll remember fondly when they've grown up and have their own families - long after we're gone.

Long-distance practice

2010-12-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

(click on picture for larger view)

Our granddaughter Marina has taken up the baritone horn for the school band, and is very diligent about practicing for the school Christmas play. She has a friend in the neighborhood who lives half a block away, and who plays the flute for the band. Both of them have been practicing together. Yesterday they played their instruments far apart, Marina from our front steps, and her friend from the balcony at her home. They could see and hear each other, but communicated mainly by cell phone. Who but the new generation would have thought of doing it this way? I'm really proud of the imaginative ways these two think. There is hope for the future.

Along these lines, another comment: we have a party room in our house, and Marina and her sister Lauren play there quite often. Their play is always original and inventive, and it does not involve video games, but often they select music on the juke box and integrate that music into their play. We are lucky to have Derek, Airdrie, and the two granddaughters (by now young ladies) next door. It keeps us young.

Parents' nightmare

2010-11-28T16:19:00.000-08:00

As parents, you don't expect your child to die before you. Unfortunately, that is the reality for us. Derek has stopped chemo treatments, because they do not work any longer. See his blog:http://www.penmachine.com/2010/11/endgame. Our only consolation is that he'll live on for us in his daughters Marina and Lauren and our daughter-in-law Airdrie. Still, it's devastating.

More info on solar scope

2010-11-14T16:17:00.000-08:00

Some additional information: I took some trial shots on the last clear sunny day, but found that it was nearly impossible to focus the image accurately. This is due mainly to the small screen on the Canon XT DSLR. When downloaded onto the computer and displayed on the screen, the images were somewhat out of focus.

The camera can be connected to a computer so that at the time of taking the pictures, the image is captured to the computer and displayed on the screen after a few seconds delay. The software for this is on the CD that came with the camera, and I downloaded a program from Canon which allows remote control of the camera from the computer. This way, the shutter can be released from the computer. Now I'm waiting for a clear day to experiment with that. A clear day may be a long time coming here. We're more than half way through fall; rain is the norm at this time of year. Below is an example of the "tuning" referred to in my previous post:

surface details (unsharp mask in Photoshop used to sharpen the image)

prominences (lower edge - no enhancement)

These are a first try - refinement is necessary.

Sun view

2010-11-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

Today we had a sunny day. I took the chance to set up my new solar telescope (Derek wrote a blog about it - see http://www.penmachine.com/2010/10/grainy-red-sun). This time, I found enough time to experiment with using an additional etalon filter. The "double stack" of filters certainly enhances the H-alpha details on the sun. The bandwidth of this double filter is around 0.5 Angstrom. By tuning the filters it is possible accentuate various details (faculae, flares, prominences, etc.). I also got an impression of looking at the H-alpha sun in 3D. That's an illusion, but it makes the view really interesting. Below is a picture which approximates the view in the telescope.

Picture by Michael Karrer (flickr.com)

I've also come up with a system to mount a camera - when there is another chance, I'll start taking pictures.

A micro holiday

2010-10-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

We went for an extended walk again today. This time, took the skytrain to Waterfront, walked along the Coal Harbour shoreline (with a pause on the bench dedicated to my mother), walked past Lost Lagoon, along English Bay to the little ferry to Granville Island, had dinner at the Cat Social House restaurant (we call it the Cathouse), walked to the Canada line on Cambie, went downtown, back onto the skytrain, walked home from Metrotown. A Great Day - totally clear and sunny, if somewhat cooler than a summer day. This was almost the reverse of a walk we took in June, see http://penmachinedad.blogspot.com/2010/06/see-town.html
We have all this for free; tourists pay a lot of money to come here and enjoy this scenery. Let's keep it "green".

Eventful times.

2010-10-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

We've had some visitors from Europe during the last month (daughters of good friends and their partners), and have done our "tourist guide" obligations. It's always interesting to view our area through their eyes - we take so many things for granted.

The guests have left, and it's back to regular life. One of the unpleasant situations right now is that, just after going through the latest 3-day chemo session, Derek is back in the hospital with a blood clot in his left leg. This is apparently a not unexpected occurrence with colon cancer. He's on blood thinners and is scheduled to stay in there for two or three days. It has spoiled his and Airdrie's planned weekend at the Ti-Na-Mara resort on Vancouver Island; this really "sucks" - both had very much looked forward to this.

An update: the hospital doctors have determined that Derek is fit to go home, and he arrived here this evening, feeling much better. We're all happy to have him back. He'll be on blood thinners for an indeterminate time, but of all the medical problems, that's a small inconvenience. Perhaps there is a small consolation in Derek and Airdrie's missed trip to Vancouver Island: there is a big storm brewing in the area of their destination.

Parents' concern

2010-09-24T16:32:00.001-07:00

Derek is blogging and facebooking again. This means that he is feeling better after the latest 3-day chemo session (Monday to Wednesday). That makes us feel better, too.

Parental concern does not cease when your adult child has his or her own family. It includes them all.

Spider

2010-09-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Spider is back - a new net and more wasps caught. I used my trusted Canon XT and uploaded the pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157624814683502/

Spider - a set on Flickr

www.flickr.com

Two of these pictures were taken about a month ago. If it is the same spider it sure has grown since then. Judging from the latest two images he (or she - I can't tell) has been successful enough securing meals in that time.

Cancer month

2010-09-16T16:33:00.001-07:00

September is cancer month: In memory of every cancer patient, family member and friend who has lost their battle with cancer and in honour of those who continue to conquer it! Put this up for 1 hour if you love someone who has or had cancer. Many won't copy and paste, I did. Will you? (Barbra Goldman)

Playing with a new computer

2010-09-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, just as the latest weather front was approaching our area, my wife noticed an unusual cloud formation almost overhead. I quickly grabbed her little digital camera and took a picture.

Since I just purchased a new iMac a couple of weeks ago, and am still "getting the hang of it", I decided to play around with a third-party, inexpensive graphics program I bought on-line (Pixelmator, recommended by Derek) to play around with the cloud picture.

This is the original image, including a flaw in the camera which appears when the zoom is set to higher than 1.5 ( I'm getting the camera looked after under warranty).

This is a negative image, after painting out the flaw, and rotating the original. To me, it looks like a number of jet fighter planes flying in formation. Maybe aliens?

Part of the family?

2010-09-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to give my comfortable old slippers an honourable "burial". As the oldest "member", they joined our slipper family at Sechelt, on the Sunshine Coast, and served me well for over ten years. They were "born" at a shop that specializes in sheepskin products; the shop is still in business, so far as I know. Over the years, the left slipper has had a couple of duct tape repairs, but now it's time to say goodbye. Perhaps we'll get a replacement - I do occasionally go to the sunshine coast on business.

A happy occasion

2010-08-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, our family and friends took part in one of the happy events which are part of a family's history: Our niece Tarya married the love of her life, Taylor James (T.J. to all of us). We are proud of both, and wish them a long, happy, and healthy life together.

Many pictures were taken; the ones we took are on flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157624842227574

This morning, we had more happy news: Tarya's uncle became a grandfather. Congratulations to his family, too.

Another family occasion

2010-08-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

In order to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Tarya and T.J., we had an unconventional "shower" for both of them, with family and friends. Here are some pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157624791112672/

A family reunion

2010-08-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

Every now-and-then, our entire Canadian family contingent comes together to celebrate an important occasion, anniversary, or birthday. This happened yesterday, and Hilkka took these pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157624514188971/

Click on the link.

Little spider

2010-07-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

The weather has been marvellous for the last two weeks or so. We take advantage of this; we have breakfast on the back porch or the courtyard, eat lunch and supper there, all surrounded by sunshine and flower pots (meticulously tended to by my wife), and generally enjoy the summer. In the late afternoon, we pull down a sunshade. About an hour before sunset we noticed a little spider's web, being illuminated by sunlight at just the right angle, which a little spider had put up after we had lowered the sunshade. It was suspended from that sunshade, and the downpipe from the roof. The web must have been constructed within an hour by that little spider. The sunlight passed through the web just like through a spectroscopic grating - which breaks up the light (like a prism) into its constituent colours, mostly reds, because the sun was so low in the sky. It was worth a picture.

The web stayed there for a couple of days (we took care not to disturb it when rolling up the sunshade); in all that time we saw a trace of only one "catch". It seems like a lot of work for that little spider to find only one meal in all that time. Then, the next morning, both web and spider had disappeared without a trace. Did the spider "eat up" the web, so that it could spin another one somewhere else?

Sure signs of summer

2010-07-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

This week is forecast to be clear and sunny all the way. Today we placed the weeping hoses around the hedge and hung the sunshade for the back porch (our favorite place on days like this). The porch has no windows, but has a solid cover with just one smallish glass window. Those of you who attended Derek's birthday party last weekend will remember, no doubt, because his side is the mirror-image of ours (both sides are only separated by a door - usually open). Also set up the large sun-umbrella, table, and chairs in the courtyard below.

The porch is south-facing, so the temperatures there are usually about three to four degrees (C) higher than in the courtyard and inside the house. They tend to correspond to the "inland" temperatures which are forecast on the local stations. As I write this (11:40 am), the temperature on the porch is 28 C. We've been sqwaking about the cool temperatures up to now, so we got what we wished for.

Our son's birthday

2010-06-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we had a family get-together (19 people), and a great time was had by all. Food was plentiful, and almost everyone took home some "leftovers". Because the next day was a working day, and a school day for the kids, we started in the afternoon, it all ended around 9pm. What a difference to our younger years, when we wouldn't finish until the "wee hours".

Derek is going through the three-day chemo session again; he's in the resulting "chemo-fog". We'll drive him to the hospital again tomorrow, to have the last chemo bottle removed. It's no fun for him, Airdrie, the daughters, and us. Derek should be better again on Saturday, when we'll all celebrate his 41st birthday.

Hungry

2010-06-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Derek's latest 3 days of chemo were over. He seems to have come through them with less dullness than on previous sessions. We stopped at the MacDonald's again on the way back from the hospital - he had an appetite for another cheeseburger. Derek, Hilkka and I made it a MacDonald's lunch; $15 and change for 3 people. You can see why many people eat there: it's not the food so much as the low cost.

See the town

2010-06-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

We went for a nice walk yesterday. Got off the skytrain at Science World and walked to Granville Island. We had some ice cream there, then took the False Creek ferry to the Aquatic Centre, walked past Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park to the Bayshore Inn and had lunch. The next stop was the Pan Pacific Hotel for a Spanish coffee, watching the cruise ships go, and finally home via the sky train. A mini-holiday. The green hand-drawn line on the Google map shows our walking path (skytrain not shown). Click on the map for a larger view.

Back home

2010-05-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted here. In the meantime, we've been to Germany, and since our return, I've been busy catching up on accumulated activities related to my business. In Germany, we attended the wedding of the daughter of a close friend. She's stayed with us twice at our house here, each time for a three-month period, to take courses in teaching English, and is now qualified to teach ESL anywhere. Another milestone was the celebration of the 80th birthday of another close friend (who actually lives in California, but he and his wife maintain an apartment in Germany). My own birthday happened to be in that same period, and was duly feted as well.

These things all happened in a spa town (we have a number of good friends who live there), so there were get-togethers every day. The social scene in Europe always involves much food and drink, and this has resulted in a need for me to lose the pounds I gained.

We're over the jetlag by now, and things have returned to their normal routine. We enjoyed our stay over there, none-the-less it's nice to be back home with our family here.

Improvement

2010-04-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, Derek went through his chemo procedures again over the last three days. Today he got the results of his latest CT scan, and it shows another slight reduction in the size of the colon cancer tumors in his lungs. We are all gratified. It is a slow process, but as he says, it makes the chemo hell worthwhile.

We donate to the BC Cancer Society on a monthly basis. Donations also made by (I hope) many other people look like they are showing some results by way of enabling research into better chemotherapy agents; it's another way to make a difference.

We hope that the improvements will continue.

Chemical fog again

2010-04-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Just picked up Derek from the Cancer clinic - another chemo session. We had a coffee beforehand and a lively discussion, mainly about astronomical photography.

Now he's dulled down by the chemo, which goes on for three days running (he's got a bottle attached), and he'll likely spend the next four days or so in this chemical fog. We'll also get the results of his latest scan. It's a time filled with subdued anxiety.

At least Derek enjoys his food when he feels better, and so we felt great about having him, Airdrie, and Marina at our 45th wedding anniversary dinner (Fish House, Stanley Park). It's a small way for us to do something useful in his life with cancer.

Misplaced priorities

2010-04-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

For the last week or so, inordinate attention has been paid to Tiger Woods. What misplaced hero worship. This man's extramarital escapades are his own (and his wife's) problems - they are hardly worth the media frenzy so evident everywhere. The guy broke his wedding vows, no more, no less. Nothing heroic here; it's lamentable instead.

The people who are real heroes are the ones I alluded to in my previous post.
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1195286216399793210

There is an interesting article by Shelley Fralic about this in today's Vancouver Sun, to which I can only say "amen".

Here's the link
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/movie-guide/trouble+with+hero+worship/2772229/story.html

Goodbye Olympics

2010-03-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

Now that the Paralympics have run their course, too, my wife and I have some "withdrawal symptoms". All the Olympic athletes were just magnificent. We attended three Olympic events in person (thanks to our "kids"), and found the CTV coverage of the Olympic events very good, especially when one considers the immense communications infrastructure which was set up to make this possible.

A disappointment for us was CTV's skimpy coverage of the Paralympics - particularly since the infrastructure was already in place. I guess the beancounters won out over journalistic obligations. We subscribe to the Vancouver Sun, and those folks did a far better job; of course they can't do "real time".

Somewhat of a "withdrawal compensation" are the world curling championships, which are now being broadcast frequently. I suppose that could be called an "easy letdown".

All in all, it was a great time.

The candle

2010-03-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

My wife and I usually enjoy our evenings with a glass of red wine. We often light some candles and relax on the sofa. Last night, while we were watching the Paralympic opening ceremonies, I noticed a "tail" on one of the burning candles.

This looks like an unusual wax bead. Perhaps it is wax which was closer to the wick and melted during the earlier part of the candle burning, and then flowed over the edge, down the side of the candle. Now that it is farther from the wick, it seems to sit just below its melting point. Any other ideas?

Some more Olympics

2010-03-07T16:12:00.000-08:00

I'll make an apology here. At the beginning of the Olympics, after a number of disappointments in the lack of Canadian medals, I stated that we might be able to "rent" the podium next time. But many of the world's Winter Olympics' powerhouse nations also came up short - Canada was not alone at that time.

I still consider the Own The Podium theme over-hyped and presumptuous. But my comments were unfair to the athletes who still had their events coming up, and who generated so many great performances. Coming up with an all-time world record for gold medals by any country in any winter games deserves a gold medal in itself. So, congratulations to the athletes; fourteen gold medals represent a magnificent effort and reflect favourably on those athletes who earned silver and bronze medals and those who didn't make it to the podium.

We still have the Paralympics coming up. If anything, the athletes participating in them deserve an even greater hand; overcoming their limitations in addition to the dedication and sacrifices is nothing short of miraculous.

For the handling of the underlying logistics, VANOC, the Vancouver security forces, and especially the well-behaved crowds truly deserve a "high five".

More Olympic comments

2010-02-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon, we went to see the Ladies' curling at the Olympic Centre. We had tickets (again, courtesy of our son and daughter-in-law) to the 7pm section tournament. Our Canadians played against the Russian team, and won 7:3. Congratulations! Our ladies had already qualified for the semifinals, but the quality-of-play was not diminished.

To get to the venue (the Vancouver Olympic Centre), we took public transport - Sky train and Bus, and got there in less than thirty minutes. The way back was similarly efficient. We even found seats, both coming and going. Kudos to Translink!

The least pleasant part of the experience occurred at the venue itself. After passing through security (no particular hassles), we found ourselves in an uncovered holding area outside the Centre, and waited there for 45 minutes (along with several hundred others, all standing around in the rain), even though we had arrived at the recommended time of 5pm, at which time the doors were supposed to be open. No announcements regarding the delay were ever made. A little improvement in P.R. is indicated here.

None-the-less, we enjoyed the evening, and look forward to our next Olympic event on Sunday.

Olympics

2010-02-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

We've been watching the Olympics almost continuously. We admire the efforts of the athletes, but I think that the over-hyped possibilities regarding Canadian medals are intimidating some of our athletes into taking too many chances. The disappointing results for Canadians in the "marquee" events should tell our sport committees that we have some way to go. I just hope that this situation does not cause a reduction in the funding for our athletes; on the contrary, this should be a reason to increase our financial support, especially at the local level.

Maybe, four years from now, we'll be able to "rent" the podium.

And here it is...

2010-02-11T14:05:00.001-08:00

A light rain certainly didn't dampen the Olympic spirit - here it is: the torch a couple of blocks from our house.

Olympics coming

2010-02-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

While I'm personally not a sports-minded person, I have great admiration for the talents, sacrifices, and efforts to which Olympic athletes commit themselves. I actually enjoy watching the performances of these people - usually on TV. Normally I don't pay to attend hockey games or professional football, baseball, basketball, etc. I think it a bit strange that some of the more brutal professional players get paid in the millions while the doctors who repair the damage those players cause are paid a fraction of those amounts. This, fortunately, does not seem to apply to most Olympic athletes, in my opinion. Regardless of what one may think of the politics (and occasional scandals) involving the Olympic organizations and athletes, I think that the athletes generally embody the spirit of fairness and the joy of the actual competitions - the true Olympic Spirit.

We are therefore very pleased with a Christmas present we received from our son and daughter-in-law: tickets to some of the Olympic events. This gives us a chance to see these remarkable people in person, and since our ten and twelve-year-old granddaughters also have tickets for an event, they'll see what the Olympics are ideally all about. Thanks, Derek and Airdrie!

In a couple of days, the Olympic torch will pass within a couple of blocks of our house, and very close to our granddaughters' school. We'll go there to cheer, and I think the school will also let the kids see the torch.

We're glad to see Derek "facebooking" - we take this as a measure of how well he feels after the chemo sessions.

HD TV

2010-01-23T13:26:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, we purchased a 40" Samsung HD TV (actually we bought two at the time - we picked up one for Derek's family at the same time). Thinking that I'd just hook up the current TV cable and have HD TV (after we purchased the correct package and rented two HD decoder boxes from Shaw) I found that this wasn't quite so simple. It turns out that we got next to no HD and digital channels on our side of the house. The regular TV channels which we had been getting before were still available.

The cause turned out to be an antiquated cable feed which was installed when cable TV first became available, and the original external splitter from which a couple of cables ran into the house. So Shaw installed new cables to the house from the pole across the street, a new distribution box, and two new cables from this box into the house (the installer did a neat job - those cables are barely noticable). This improved the situation somewhat for our side - i.e we got some HD and digital channels, but certainly not all of what we contracted for. Derek seemed to get all the channels on his side of the house - he uses a video signal amplifier.

Splitters take the incoming video signal and split it into two or three cable circuits for use with additional TV sets. This comes at a cost, of course. The signal coming out of each the splitter outlets is usually attenuated by 3 DB (more for cheap ones). Without getting into the mathematical details, this means that each loss of 3 DB means that signal strength is cut in half. If you have a couple more splitters "downstream" from the first splitter, you lose another 3 DB for each splitter. This can result in a very weak signal at the far end of the cable.

Since the above-mentioned original external splitter seemed to be at least partly responsible for the problem, I reconfigured the TV cabling on the inside of our side of the house to do away with all splitters on the way to the HD decoder box. Lo and behold, all standard, digital, and HD channels could now displayed on the HD TV.

We have several additonal (cathode ray type) TV sets on our house; the cable re-arrangement resulted in no signal to them. The solution turned out to be relatively simple. The HD box has a built-in bypass, which connects the incoming cable to an identical standard cable outlet, while at the same time feeding the original decoded signal through an HD cable to the HD TV. I used the standard cable outlet on the HD box as a source for all the remaining TV sets in the house - with the various splitters in the original configuration to each remaining TV set. They all work as before, provided that the HD box bypass is turned on.

What's the lesson? Use no splitters on the way to your HD set, and connect your remaining TV sets through splitters only after the you HD set has it's full-strength signal. All our TV's are now working as intended. While I did not purchase one, a video signal amplifier (available at electronics distributors) would also likely solve this issue.

I want to say that Shaw Cable certainly lived up to their end of the bargain. They came to install whatever was necessary to make the HD system work for us whenever they said they would come, and got everything operational. Most often, we only hear about problems with regard to missed appointments; I think that a good job also deserves mention.

Derek is in the middle of another "chemo weekend". I think that he may be feeling a little better, because he posted a comment on Facebook a couple of hours ago.

Skating widower

2010-01-17T12:21:00.001-08:00

My wife is an avid fan of figureskating and this weekend is full of scheduled CBC TV broadcasts. Since Shaw cable has not been able to provide us with the requisite digital and HD signals (they are scheduled to replace the cables running to our house next Wednesday), she is watching some of these events on the internet. CBC is streaming the skating, and one of our computers is now temporarily dedicated to that purpose. I've become a skating widower this weekend.

Derek's chemo has been postponed for a week, because his blood chemistry isn't quite up to scratch. So he has to recover from the last session some more. This means a "nausea-free" weekend for him, which he obviously welcomes. He'll probably have his next chemo session on Friday. A rescheduling of our granddaughters birthday parties and other social events is therefore necessary.

As I said in my last blog: it's a rollercoaster.

Mood swings

2010-01-06T14:55:00.001-08:00

Derek had his most recent chemotherapy treatment on January 1st. It makes him sick, of course. The recovery period after each treatment appears to be the better part of a week. Speaking just for ourselves, Hilkka and I always feel down when Derek is dealing with the chemo effects, and our mood improves as he starts feeling better. I suppose that's true for any parent, your children will always be your children, regardless of their age.

We talked to Derek a couple of hours ago; he said he was feeling quite a bit better - so we feel quite a bit better, too. It truly is a rollercoaster.

A New Year

2009-12-30T14:34:00.001-08:00

My wife and I wish all our family and friends a Healthy, Prosperous and Happy New Year.

Who knows what it'll bring?

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T10:02:00.001-08:00

Hilkka and I wish all our family and friends a Merry Christmas. We're looking forward to our traditional annual Christmas evening get-together tomorrow.

May you enjoy health, happiness and love.

Another year

2009-12-20T16:34:00.000-08:00

Another year has gone by and today was the day for this year's Christmas piano recital and pancake breakfast arranged by Lorraine Crowe's Music Studio. The weather outside was terrible - lot's of rain - so it felt very cozy inside. Our daughter-in-law Airdrie, our granddaughters, Marina and Lauren, attended, and the music students played music, violin, and sang Christmas songs (the audience sang, too - with a lot less skill).

Santa paid a visit and Marina and Lauren must have been "nice"

Marina playing solo

And a duet with Lorraine.

Unfortunately, Derek could not attend this year, because he was dealing with the side effects of his chemo treatment. Right after the recital, I picked him up from home and drove him to the cancer clinic to have the portable chemo bottle removed, marking the end of this session. He was tired, of course, and it'll take a couple of days for the effects to wear off. The girls stayed at the Burnaby Village (the recital location was the historical ice cream parlour there) with Mom and grandma Mimi to enjoy the rides, blacksmith shop, and the other historical exhibits.

Next Round

2009-12-18T14:29:00.000-08:00

Derek just went through his second chemo sitting in the current series. This time, he says that he feels quite a bit better than the last time. We think that there still may have been some residual effects from the Cediranib which he discontinued prior to the last chemo session.

I dropped him off this morning and picked him up just about an hour ago. His long-time friend (and ours, too), Seb - he and Derek started their first music band in our basement years ago - also visited, and we all conversed about things technical while waiting for the end of Derek's chemo session. Derek is tired now, of course, and going to bed. But so far, this session appears to have been much less troublesome for him. We're all thankful for that. Just the same, it'll likely be a lost weekend for him again, but perhaps with fewer of the side effects. He has a bottle of 5-FU attached to him for the next couple of days, and that one will be removed on Sunday.

Maybe he'll even blog or "facebook" a little.

Winter is early

2009-12-13T09:52:00.000-08:00

This week has been colder than normal here; arctic outflow winds have frozen any standing water and cooled the surroundings to below freezing. There has been only a dusting of snow at our house so far. With the cold environent and a return of the more normal Pacific airflow, and moisture forecast to arrive, a heavier dump is expected. There has been lots of snow on the local mountains; that's where it should stay, from my point of view. It bodes well for the Olympics. There is still more than a week to go before winter arrives officially. As I write this, I see snowflakes starting to come down; they are not melting as they hit the ground. We've bought another snow shovel and about 130 pounds of road salt to keep the sidwalks clear; maybe we are prepared enough. I'm looking forward to the days getting longer again.

Derek has had lunch with us a couple of times this week. This is made easier because we live in a side-by-side duplex, and all we have to do is walk across the common back porch to get to each other's place. The granddaughters can drop in at any time, too. We can also help out quickly if required. All this makes things a little easier; at least we can help a bit in Derek's fight with cancer.

Addendum at 4:45pm

Even though we got only a centimetre or two of snow today, I went out to do the first shovelling of the season. I also added some of the salt and it is making the packed footprints melt fast. The new snowshovel has a somewhat longer handle; I found that I didn't have to bend so far down to get a good angle on the snow. The shorter standard handles have always been a bit of a problem for me(I'm 6'3").

A Better Day

2009-12-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

Derek is feeling a lot better today. He had the attached bottle taken off late yesterday.

The granddaughters dropped by on their way to school to pick up their daily "Advent's Calendar" treat. This is a childhood tradition of mine, which gives little treats to children every day before Christmas, starting on the first day of December.

It's been a beautiful, clear week, weatherwise. But it's cold outside, and the arctic outflow wind makes it seem even colder. Prairie folks would laugh at us, of course, -7 degrees C (19 degrees F)is springlike to them.

Along with Derek, we all feel better this morning.

Recuperating

2009-12-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

Derek had his chemo yesterday. Airdrie tells us that he spent most of the night sleeping - with the help of the anti-nausea drug, which seems to help quite a bit. He still has a bottle of chemo medicine attached until tomorrow, so he'll probably feel lousy for the whole weekend. This controlled poisoning is no fun for any of us, least of all Derek himself.

Today, our grandchildren set up our "Christmas village"

and helped with setting up the Christmas tree. It was a welcome activity for all of us.

Action

2009-12-03T11:10:00.000-08:00

As you can imagine, we've had an anxious week. Today, Derek had an appointment with his oncologist. His chemo starts tomorrow. Understandably, he's not looking forward to the side effects, since he knows what to expect from his previous round of treatments. Apparently there is a new anti-nausea drug, though, and we're hoping that it will help diminish some of those side effects.

At least there is some action. It eases the anxieties a bit.

Thinking in the night

2009-11-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

I am a light sleeper, and have inherited my sleeping patterns from my mother. Usually, I wake up around 2 a.m. Nowadays, at my age, nature calls me to the bathroom about three to four hours after I fall asleep anyway. I am usually awake for at least two hours after that. That's the time when I think through recent events and what I may be doing after I get up in the morning.

In the last few days, this pattern has been disrupted. The reason is obvious: Derek's cancer medication has become ineffective. Today, I was awake all morning from 2 a.m. on, thinking about Derek, Airdrie, Marina and Lauren, Airdrie's parents, us, our other family members - what is ahead? As Derek says in his blog post: Time to walk into the unknown future again.

Bad news

2009-11-26T19:51:00.001-08:00

Today Derek and we found out that his cancer has grown substantially in his lungs.

This is devastating.

Back home

2009-11-21T14:54:00.000-08:00

We were away in Germany for a couple of weeks and since our return, I've been catching up in my business. So today is the first chance I've had to relate some things related to the trip.

We attended the 40th wedding anniversary of close friends who live in an area not too far away from the North Sea, and had a Family meeting in Berlin as well. I have two aunts in their mid-nineties there, and we visit them as often as we can. One of them is my mother's sister - she's the last one of her siblings. She's in good shape, but unfortunately totally deaf. We communicate by writing our comments on paper. The other aunt is a former sister-in-law of my mother. Both she and my mother were widowed twice; in each case they lost their first husbands because of the second world war. She is slowly going blind, but lives in a first-class old-age home, has a friend there, and the two support each other.

I have another aunt in Vienna, also of that advanced age group. We didn't get there this time and we're hoping to see her next year, if our family situation allows.

It's important to maintain family connections.

The Ghouls at work

2009-11-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

Last Hallowe'en night, we had a large number of kids, and also teenage "kids", collecting their "dues". We must have done something wrong, because, as I write this, we've been subject to a power failure for about an hour by now. We had another one about a week ago as well - before that, we hadn't had one in a long time. I suppose the ghosts are evolving along with our technology; how else, considering that they've been around since the dawn of humanity, would they know that a power failure would be exactly the right thing to stop us in our tracks and make us acknowledge them? Now I have to go around and reset all the digital clocks in the house AGAIN!

One thing the ghouls couldn't interrupt is my access to the internet. I connect through one of Rogers' portable modems, and I have backup battery power for it. I run my stuff on a laptop, So I can be independent of the power grid for this purpose at least. A small defiance...

Vancouver Harbour

2009-10-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Derek's post of October 13, referring to the change in the Vancouver skyline over the last 50 years or so prompted me to dig out a couple of my own pictures of the Vancouver harbour view. I photographed the top image in 1956, the bottom one dates from 2008. Both pictures were taken from the same spot (within a couple of meters, or so). While the cameras and angle-of-view for the two source images are very different, I made an attempt to crop and resize the pictures in such a way as to make them appear similar. Click on the image for a larger view.

The change is astounding. The only edifice I can discern in both pictures is the spire of the Holy Rosary Cathedral on Dunsmuir Street in downtown Vancouver. The arrow in the top picture points to it. You can also spot it among the high rises in about the same relative position in the lower picture.

The two tallest structures in 1956 are the Vancouver Hotel on the right, and the Marine Building on the left. Both buildings are still in existence, but they are obscured by the newer high-rise buildings which have since sprung up.

Ah, progress!!

Crash Landing

2009-10-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

After much hype in the media, the actual preplanned collision of the LCROSS (NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite)with the Moon was a visual disappointment for me. At first I was contemplating setting up my 200mm (8 inch) telescope, using my "new" eye, but advance information suggested that the telescope would have to perform at its very limit, and in excellent conditions - i.e no light pollution, absolutely clear and dark sky (an impossibility in this light-polluted city of Vancouver). I therefore decided to watch the NASA coverage instead, if I were to wake up around 4:15 in the morning. Well, I did watch it, but the images sent down from the Moon did not show me any impact. I've watched the replay several times, but to no avail.

Later today, NASA published more pictures, after analysis and using images from a "medium infrared imager" (MRI) camera. It showed the impact a little better, but I saw no sign of the calculated 10km debris plume, which was to expose any water ice possibly located in the permanently shadowed impact crater.

(both images from the NASA website - click on them to enlarge)

Here is the impact image the way I saw it. It shows the visible light image - the way you and I would see it if we were on board of the LCROSS satellite. I can't identify any crash.

This is the MIR image. Infrared shows hot spots a lot better, but the human eye cannot perceive infrared light.

Here is an excerpt from NASA's media advisory describing the mission:

MEDIA ADVISORY : 09-131AR

NASA Spacecraft Impacts Lunar Crater in Search for Water Ice

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, created twin impacts on the moon's surface early Friday in a search for water ice. Scientists will analyze data from the spacecraft's instruments to assess whether water ice is present. The satellite traveled 5.6 million miles during an historic 113-day mission that ended in the Cabeus crater, a permanently shadowed region near the moon's south pole. The spacecraft was launched June 18 as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "The LCROSS science instruments worked exceedingly well and returned a wealth of data that will greatly improve our understanding of our closest celestial neighbor," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator and project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "The team is excited to dive into data." In preparation for impact, LCROSS and its spent Centaur upper stage rocket separated about 54,000 miles above the surface of the moon on Thursday at approximately 6:50 p.m. PDT. Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the Centaur hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. Oct. 9, creating an impact that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m.

A new view

2009-10-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Well, as mentioned in my previous post, I had cataract surgery on my right eye on September 30. The procedure itself was painless, although I liken the level of comfort during the operation to the experience of having your teeth cleaned by a dental hygienist - i.e. slightly discomforting.

The result is absolutely astounding, though, and well worth a bit of uneasiness. My right eye can now discern fine detail I haven't seen in decades. Since I'm into astronomy, that result is exactly what I had hoped for.

At the moment, I have to take some care - no heavy lifting, and an interwoven schedule of taking medication in the form of eyedrops - but I'm looking at the world with a new eye (pun intended). Until now, I hadn't realized how much I was really losing, when looking around, and am now aware that my left eye, which was the better eye lately (using glasses) would also benefit from this kind of operation.

So, at the moment, I'm using eyeglasses in which the left part of the frame retains the bifocal lens formulated for my left eye; I have removed the right-eye lens altogether. The result, for distance viewing, is a reasonably close balance between my two eyes, with the right eye outperforming the left one by a noticable margin. It also makes it possible for me to read the newspaper and books (and typing this story on the computer) because, at my age, reading glasses are usually necessary. My reading is done with my left eye, through the "reading section" of the lens. This is no problem for me, because my right eye had deteriorated to the point at which I could not use it for reading anyway.

If and when I finally get my left eye "restored" in the fashion described above, I won't need glasses for distance view (that includes naked-eye astronomy, and watching TV, for instance). For reading, I can purchase some of those inexpensive, off-the-shelf reading glasses available anywhere. I'll then use both eyes for reading and close-up viewing.

In short, from my experience, if you are contemplating cataract surgery, go for it.

Plugging along

2009-09-29T17:58:00.000-07:00

My busy days (Sept 19) have continued. Our friends who reside in Mexico, have just returned from their Alaska cruise, and are staying with us.

Every now and then, there is a bit of a break in all this. For example, last Sunday, the Vancouver Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada hosted the Paul Sykes Lecture (an annual event, funded through an endowment from Paul Sykes), hosted a talk by Dr. Neil Turok - the eminent mathematical physicist, and collegue of Dr. Stephen Hawking. His topic related to the evolution of the early universe, which is one his fields of interest. Dr. Turok presented the subject in a most engaging, humorous way, and did not shy away from telling us how little concrete information we have - even though there have been astounding breakthroughs achieved in accumulating accurate data. My wife, whose interests only peripherally include astronomy, enjoyed the talk, and said so several times.

After the meeting, the RASC's council invited Dr. Turok to supper, and a few of the council members (of whom I'm one) joined in spirited, wide ranging discussions about the various aspects of theoretical physics. A good time was had by all.

The Paul Sykes lecture is free to the public - come and join next year.

Tomorrow I'm slated for cataract surgery - another break in the routine.

Busy time.

2009-09-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

I run a business which involves many of the larger educational institutions in our area. Since school started earlier this month, I've been very busy, including weekends. In addition, we have good friends visiting, and staying at our home. That has meant no time for blogging. For those of you who may be wondering, both my wife and I are ok - we're just involved in our various activities at the moment. This is a chance to write a little note here, before I continue with business today.

A somber weekend

2009-08-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

There are periods when personal events induce a state of introspection and contemplation.. This weekend was one of them.

On Friday, we attended the memorial service for a good friend, who died a couple of weeks ago. Kilby Gibson was my sister-in-law's long-time friend (the two of them roomed together in their early twenties), and we had gotten to know Kilby at one of our family get-togethers many years ago. My wife, my sister-in-law, Kilby, and her sister Sheila used to meet for lunch on a semi-regular basis. In the last seven years Kilby had been battling lymphoid cancer, but never lost her vivaciousness and fighting spirit. She was politically active at various levels, and contributed a great deal to the betterment of those around her. Our hearts go out to her husband Gordon and his family.

Everyone is aware of the death of Ted Kennedy in the United States. He was also someone who worked for and had a great influence on the policies regarding less fortunate people in the U.S., and in the world. While his fight for universal health care in the U.S. is still ongoing, he's certainly put this issue in the centre of that nation's political attention. He will be missed.

Within our own family, our son Derek's fight with cancer is always on our mind. There are times when we all get a feeling of sadness (and rage) because of the unfairness of it all. This weekend was one of those times.

Time with the granddaughters

2009-08-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Since Derek and Airdrie are at Gnomedex, we have our two granddaughters to look after these days. Thursday we explored the new Canada subway line to the airport, yesterday we spent all day at the PNE (we sat on the grass for the "Beatle Anniversary" performance, too). Big crowds.

The "Canada Line" day was an all-day event for us. We decided that four of us would take public transport to get to all the places we were going to visit. The "Skytrain"is our elevated/subterranean remote-controlled light rapid transit line which has existed since the year of "Expo 86" (i.e. 23 years), and has become an integral part of the public transportation system in our "lower mainland" cities. One of its larger stations is located a 10 minute walk away from our house, so we walked and bought a day pass for all of us. At a total of $27, that turned out to be a bargain.

To begin with, we rode the skytrain to the Waterfront station, and then changed to the Seabus (a ferry service to North Vancouver, part of the public transportation system), to have lunch at Lonsdale Quay. The kids and my wife picked their traditional Chinese food; I don't particularly like Chinese food and ate a more traditional sandwich instead. Our older granddaughter also bought a new pair of shorts. We then returned via the Seabus to the Waterfront station, which is also the terminus of the new Canada Line subway.

The trains on that line consist of two cars (all pictures below are from the Translink web sites), connected by a "flexible" passthrough, much like subway trains in other parts of the world. The stations on the Canada line are just long enough to accommodate their combined length, so coupling two of these trains together would make them too long for the stations. The Canada Line train cars are wider than the Skytrain cars, making the cars incompatible with each other's stations. In fact, I don't know of any track connection between the two. That makes it necessary to have two different parts and maintenance centres. Personally I find this incompatibility illogical. I can understand that such incompatibilty might exist in some of the older cities in Europe, which started their electric subway services over one hundred years ago, but the skytrain line is still young (23 years), and the underlying remote-control technology cannot be that much different.

Another question I have is the use of only a single track into the airport itself - it means that only one train at a time can be at the airport station. I suppose that the underlying reason is the same as always - money, money, money. There was a big "Ahead-of-time, on-budget" statement from both our provincial government, and the public transit authority, made possible only by what I consider "corner-cutting"; even the underground track section which was originally meant to be a "bored" tunnel was actually built using the "cut-and-cover" method. That caused a great deal of financial losses to, and the closure of a number businesses along the Canada Line. Courtcases are still pending in that regard.

Notwithstanding all the above, the ride to and from Richmond and the airport is smooth, efficient, and will likely become popular with the commuting public and travelers from the airport to downtown. While most of the line is underground, the elevated and above-ground sections offer a grand view of Vancouver's spectacular scenery (that's true for the mostly elevated Skytrain too, of course).

The PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) is the granddaughters' perennial favourite. While the younger one is more interested in the rides at Playland, the older one is developing a taste for the agricultural and "arts-and-crafts" aspects. Our granddaughters' maternal grandparents (we're the paternal ones) are both wonderful and accomplished people and very artistic, and they really involve the granddaughters in that way when they are staying with them.

Both granddaughters enjoy the animals at the 4-H displays. As usual, we consumed the obligatory junk food offerings (corn dogs, mini doughnuts, hamburgers etc...).

An added feature this year was an open-air performance in honour of the Beatles - on their 45th anniversary. The theatre grounds were jammed with people. The band "Revolver" performed ably, and had the crowd highly motivated - everyone seemed happy. The amazing thing is that our granddaughters knew and sang along with all the songs; we ourselves, being of a generation well ahead of the Beatles, could not do that.

Marina (the older one) is also developing a talent for photography. She has a camera cellphone and took some interesting and artisic pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigm/.

All-in-all we are having a great time with the two of them.

Less heat

2009-07-31T20:15:00.001-07:00

Here in our town, we've had a record-breaking heatwave for over a week, highly unusual. Our entire province has been subject to the same phenomenon. As a result, there have been a number of serious fires caused, and new ones started by, sad to say, careless people and also thunderstorms. We had a spectacular storm here a few days ago. Our son took some great pictures. After that storm, the sunset was an eerie orange-red (picture taken through living room window). I suppose that the cause was the smoke from the various wildfires, even though those are some distance away from our city.

The heatwave here made all of us look for ways to cool down (temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius - about 100 degrees Fahrenheit). The night temperatures stayed at what are normally our summer daytime values - so cooling fans were in great demand. As usual, kids are inventive, and our younger granddaughter and a friend made use of the garden sprinkler hose to get cool.

The ravens, which are numerous in our area, were also "taking baths". One took advantage of the birdbath in our back yard. I admire these clever and inventive birds. When they look at you, the intelligence in their eyes is obvious. Who knows, if we manage to wipe ourselves out, maybe they'll become the dominant species?

Today, temperatures have moderated, and we're very happy to sit outside to enjoy another beautiful day and evening.

Past glory

2009-07-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of interest and comment today regarding the exact day, 40 years ago, on which humans first set foot on the Moon. To me, this is a bittersweet memory. The sweet part relates to the fact that our son, whose birth had occurred three weeks before, was having his mother's milk while we were watching the landing on TV. At the time I wondered whether he would grow up to be one of many future space travellers who would naturally go to space, with an ease similar to travel by airplane. In my mind, the image of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon's surface will forever be linked with those memories.

The bitter part of that memory is that mankind's ability even just to repeat that forty-year-old feat has withered on the vine. We are reduced to admiring achievements which occurred four decades ago, and treat them as though they are today's. No one is in a position to place a human on the Moon now, both for technical and financial reasons. It is sad to think that much of the talent and money which could have furthered our progress in space was instead directed toward, and wasted on, conducting useless wars and persuing infinite greed.

I find it a hopeful sign that a return to the Moon, and also an expedition to Mars are seriously being contemplated. Maybe our son's daughters will one day go into space. I wonder whether I'll be around to see it?

Musical Telescopes

2009-07-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, the Vancouver Symphony put on a concert at Deer Lake park here in Burnaby. This is a casual affair for the listeners (there is no cost), and everyone is free to bring their own lunch, chairs, etc. It's a "picnic atmosphere". For the occasion, food vendors, and others interested in making the public aware of what's going on in the community, are set up as well. Among the latter, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, of which I'm a member, showed telescopes, handed out brochures and other astronomy related publications. We would have pointed the telescopes at stars and other interesting objects in the sky, had it not been cloudy. As it was, we picked some distant targets to show what telescopes can do, and how they work. Here are some pictures:

The orchestra playing

The audience

People at the telescopes

Looking through the C-8

Pseudo vacation

2009-07-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks, at various times, we've had visitors from both Mexico and Germany. Since the weather here has been great during the last six weeks or so, we decided to show our guests around. We went to the various Vancouver showpieces, and also included a trip to Whistler.

At Whistler we spent a day which included taking a ride on the new Peak2Peak gondola. This is a great experience, and I recommend it to anyone not afraid of heights. We went all the way to near the top of Blackcomb mountain ('seventh heaven') which gave us a great view of the snow-covered mountain peaks for 100km around. The viewpoint is located above the Horstman Glacier; we had a birds-eye view of the skiers and snowboarders who were displaying their talents.

Last weekend, Derek had his 40th birthday bar-b-q at home, attended by about one hundred of his friends, and our family and friends as well. Lots of food was consumed. The next day we took part in an open house at Derek's friend and former IHR partner Paul Garay's house in Maple Ridge - again with lots of food.

The last two weeks have therefore been filled with many social activities for my wife and me. Every now and then, though, I had to do things related to my business, but since the universities and colleges are running on summer hours right now, I wasn't too busy.

So this episode has been like an unplanned break - a "pseudo vacation" .

Update: Here are a few pictures from the Whistler excursion:

(click on any frame)

Pictures by K. Pelk

Ferries

2009-06-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had some business in Victoria; So my wife and I took the ferry from Tsawwassen (Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (Victoria). For the trip to Victoria, we caught one of the Spirit class of ferries. We had a buffet breakfast on board (all you can eat, about $17.00 per person). You get a nice window table, if get there early enough.

"Spirit class" (BC Ferries' web page)

These vessels are 11,700 ton ships, built about 16 years ago, can carry over 400 cars at a time, and were the "stars" of the BC ferry fleet on the Vancouver-Victoria run until the arrival of the Super-C ferries within the last year, or so. They are capable ships, and are an important part of BC's transportation system.

Since we hadn't been on one the new ships yet, we arranged to return on the "Coastal Celebration", one of the three new Super-C class ferries. These are somewhat smaller than the "Spirit" vessels (10,100 tons - about 370 cars at a time). The major difference is that they are "double-ended", so they head straight into and out of their docking berths. By way of contrast, the Spirit ships need to turn around before they dock (Swartz Bay) or after they leave(Tsawwassen) the dock.

Super-C class (from BC Ferries' web page)

In other respects, the new ships have perhaps slightly more comfort and convenience in the on-board services, but they don't differ substantially from the older ships in that regard. A ferry trip to Vancouver Island always feel like a "mini-cruise" to us - the beautiful scenery through which BC Ferries' ships sail makes this a "word-class" experience, in our opinion. If you intend to visit Vancouver Island, this is a nice way to go.

Progress

2009-06-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

37 years have elapsed since a human being last set foot on the Moon. Had the story continued as many space science pundits predicted at the time, we would have had space colonies there by now, and would be making ready for a manned expedition to Mars. As it has turned out, the political will (and that is what it was to begin with - a political exercise to 'win the race to the Moon' against the Russians) to do that disappeared after the US succeeded spectacularly. Right now there is no nation which has the capability to place humans on the Moon (including the USA).

Lately, there has been a concerted effort to "restart" a (continuous) human presence on the Moon, this time with the USA as only one of the "contenders". Some others are China, Japan, India, and the Europeans, all of whom seem to be at various stages of "fleshing out" the idea. The severe constraints to spending money in this field imposed on the USA by its immense deficits may mean that one of the other nations involved will be the next to land a human being on the Moon.

A continued human presence on the Moon requires the availability of "local" raw materials (the most important being water in either frozen or liquid form). Notwithstanding the comparative proximity of the Moon to Earth, in some respect we know less about the presence of water on the Moon than on the planet Mars. The robotic landers and orbiting satellites which are currently exploring Mars have given us very good evidence that water is present there in sufficient quantities to make human habitation possible.

A first step towards an expedition to Mars (a return trip would take several years) would involve learning about the details of maintaining human life on an extraterrestrial body; the Moon is the closest and most easily reached. There are many ideas about such an endeavour (an example: http://www.geoffreylandis.com/pole.html). It is important to have the necessary resources wherever humans may find themselves. To that end, the US is preparing to send some orbiters back to the Moon to explore specific areas - particularly the north and south poles where there are some spots which have eternal sunlight (for energy to supply a human settlement), and perpetual shadow (for possible water ice). For all the lunar observations which have taken place over the past four centuries or so, both from Earth and by lunar rovers, humans on the Moon, and samples brought back from there, we know little about what may be found at the lunar poles.

Another of the concerns to be addressed in any extraterrestrial human undertaking is how to deal with illness. While we are far from knowing all the answers, I feel that medical science here on Earth has made tremendous strides since the time of the Moon landings. As an example, our son's fight with cancer is certainly helped by the availability of drugs which did not exist at that time (as his parents, of the greatest importance to us). This is one area where progress has been greater than predicted.

I have a hope that I'll see more Moon landings in my lifetime, and, with luck, even a landing on Mars. Personally, the closest I can come to a "landing" is to look through my telescopes, and to use the internet links which keep me up-to-date in that regard.

Mutations

2009-05-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my wife and I stopped by Granville Island for lunch, and to pick up some fruit and vegetables at the Granville Island Market. The little over 1 pound of cherries we bought came prepackaged in a cardboard box (the proprietor emptied them into a plastic bag after we had purchased them).

Today, we had some of them as a snack. About 20% of them exhibited some marked deviations from the norm. Several had some "outgrowths"; some of those suggested another cherry (an identical twin, if you like) which did not develop properly. A couple of them were actual twins, and the weirdest one had some hairy growth breaking through its skin (see picture at left, below). I broke open the one with the hairy outgrowth (see picture at right). It looks to me as though there may have been a new cherry tree in the making - perhaps the cherry was germinating while still on the tree. Any ideas?

The old and the new

2009-05-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

The other day, CBC radio aired an episode about things old and new. The theme concerned typewriter keyboards, and other older technology. The question in the background was why some of the old technologies have survived and been incorporated into the latest technologies, and why some people stick with the older technologies (I'm one of those).

For example, the sound equipment in our home is decades old. The radio show (Spark) mentioned and interviewed a number of people who have the same philosophy as I, namely: if it ain't broke, don't fix it (or throw it away). As far as I'm concerned, use this older equipment, take reasonable care of it, and it'll serve you for many years. This goes for our cars, television sets, computers, kitchen utensils and equipment, and generally for all those things which are subject to the exhortations of the people who want to sell you new stuff.

That's not to say that I'm against the new technologies. We own digital cameras, a flat-screen computer display, an MP3 player, etc. I also own a computer-driven telescope which has been updated from its original state - I bought the telescope itself about 32 years ago at which time computer control of amateur telescopes was extremely rare. In the 1980's I wrote a computer program for an Apple II, as well as constructed the necessary mechanical additions for the telescope to make this telescope obey computer navigational commands. I have now replaced all that with up-to-date hardware and software. This is to show that I like new technology too, I'm certainly no Luddite. I definitely wouldn't be running my business if new technology was my "enemy".

This weekend, my wife organized a family dinner (for my 70th birthday - we usually have around 20 people on occasions like this), and even though we asked for no presents, I received some very nice ones. Derek, being the technical "geek" in our family, presented me with a portable GPS car display (a Tomtom ONE), with which I have played around for the last couple of days. Today my wife and I went for a walk in the neighbourhood, and I took it along. It's amazing how well that unit showed our position in real time all along the way. Being into astronomy, electronics, and computers, I well know the amazing underlying technologies that make this possible. I'm very pleased with this unit and will likely use it for many years to come.

So. I'll adopt any new technology which I consider useful, but I'll certainly not buy anything that is intended to replace those things that work well and whose replacement would result in little improvement. I really don't care about what's fashionable - for me it's what's practical.

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

The years go by in a hurry when you're our age.

Yesterday our granddaughters lived up to family tradition and made some "Mother's Day" bread for their Mom. The breadmaking session was all part of my wife's making a large loaf for the granddaughters' piano recital which took place today.

At that recital, our older granddaughter played a moving interpretation of the "Moonlight Sonata", the younger one played a wonderful rendition of "the Lion sleeps tonight"; she also sang a medley of Beatle tunes. Both of them teamed up to sing a duet towards the end of that medley. Each has a beautiful voice (no bias here!) - we're proud grandparents.

Time goes by.

Since it was Mother's Day, the many mothers who go through a lot of effort to make it possible for the music students to attend the Crowe Music Studio were given their due recognition - as was Ms. Crowe (the teacher, mentor, confidante) herself. All her family was in attendance; they handed her a nice flower bouquet. It was nice to see them all. We've come to know Ms. Crowe as a wonderful and accomplished music teacher (she's also an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music) - and it showed in the calibre of the students' recitals. There is also another connection: Ms. Crowe and I both have German roots. When I drop off our granddaughters for their lessons, we occasionally converse in that language - to the apparent wonderment of most of the students attending her studio at the time.

Here are some pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157617884534175/

Astronomy Day May 2, 2009

2009-05-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), along with many other like-minded groups is "observing" Astronomy Day with a host of activities for all ages and involving many space-related topics. Here in the Vancouver area, telescopes, talks, and exhibits will be set up at the "Gordon Southam Observatory" (GSO), next to the Planetarium in Kitsilano. Here are a couple of links to further information:

http://astronomy.meetup.com/131/calendar/9744297/
http://rasc-vancouver.com/

The event will take place rain or shine. If weather permits, you can view the Moon, the planet Saturn, and other interesting astronomical objects through various telescopes.

The event is free to anyone.

Have an educational time!

A few travel notes

2009-04-19T08:30:00.001-07:00

As mentioned in my last post, we've spent some time with friends in California, and travelled there by car. We returned yesterday, taking four days to come back, and driving along some of the roads less travelled.

While the American interstate highway system goes through some magnificent scenery (the view at left is of Mount Shasta), the smaller roads offer some wonderful, sometimes unexpected views of nature as well.

As an example, we stayed in Calistoga, a small city in the Napa Valley of California (this area is known as one of the top wine-producing areas in the world). The hotel was a beautifully restored place, reminiscent of high-class hotels of about 100 years ago, mixing "Art-deco" and "American-West" styled rooms with present-day wireless internet access, DVD players, and TV in every room.

On our way out, just outside of town, we stopped at a place featuring the smaller sibling of "Old Faithful" (in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming), also called "Old Faithful", seen at left. This geyser erupts every ten minutes or so. Each eruption is preceded by about a minute of bubbling, gurgling sound, not unlike that of our electric coffee maker at home. The geyser is located on private land, so we had to pay some admission ($6 each); we considered it well worth the experience. Since we had arrived early, we were the only visitors and could look at the geyser, the museum and videos at leisure and without interfering with anyone.

During our travels, the other amazing thing to consider was the fact that all the roads on which we travelled were either blacktopped, or concrete-covered. The picture shows the road through a part of California's famous Redwood Forest. If you consider the immense road system in the USA alone, how much does this represent in natural resources and evironmental alteration? How could the majority of people learn to appreciate these natural wonders without such cost?

Our vacation ended on a beautiful and romantic note. We headed to Cannon Beach (Derek's family's favourite vacation spot), on the Oregon Coast, for our last evening "on the road". It happened to be the day of our 44th wedding anniversary. Accommodation was in a beachside hotel room with balcony, looking west over the Pacific Ocean. With a bottle of red Oregon wine, and a couple of piccolos of champagne, we had a nice, sunset French "Dinner" on the balcony (consisting of French bread, some cheeses and sausage, rather more like an elaborate picnic). This was a fitting end to a trip which included the reunion with many good friends and good times with them.

Southern California?

2009-04-14T14:52:00.001-07:00

We have spent the last week here in San Diego visiting close friends. The occasion was a birthday get-together with some of the members of our "travel group" (we meet in various places at unspecified times). This time, my wife and I travelled here by car. On the way, we hit a lot of "unCalifornian" weather - strong winds and rain. It DOES rain in Southern California, notwithstanding the hit song of three decades ago. Fortunately, the days on which the birthday festivities took place, and on the day of the Easter Sunday brunch, the sun was shining and the temperature was more like what you'd expect. Today, it's cold and windy again, and it just rained for a few minutes. Feels more like home.

All this pales in comparison to better news. Derek's latest CT scan shows that his cancer has been stable over the last two months - as his parents that means more to us than anything.

Halo

2009-04-04T14:40:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, I was sitting in the back yard, soaking up some sun. The sky was somewhat hazy. Momentarily glancing at the sky in the direction of the Sun (with my eyes shielded against it), I noticed a faint halo around the Sun. Here is the image, taken with a Canon Rebel Xt, 18-200mm Sigma zoom lens at 18mm, ISO 100, f22, 1/1000th sec exposure.

According to Wikipedia, a halo is an optical phenomenon that appears near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. There are many types of optical halos, but they are mostly caused by ice crystals in cold cirrus clouds located high (5–10 km, or 3–6 miles) in the upper troposphere. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals is responsible for the type of halo observed. Light is reflected and refracted by the ice crystals and may split up into colors because of dispersion, similarly to the rainbow.

Disappointing Earth

2009-03-30T09:09:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, the hour from 8:30 to 9:30pm was designated "Earth hour". The idea started in Australia, and its purpose is to cut down on energy consumption for that hour. In most cases, this means shutting off extra lights, computers, and other unused appliances in one's house.

We lit a few candles, shut off all our lights (we use the non-incandescent bulbs anyway), the network computers in our house, and did not turn on the TV, even though one of the programs we regularly watch was scheduled for that time.

I looked out our windows during that hour. Sad to say, I noticed absolutely no difference from the normal situation. All our neighbours' lights were on as usual, the highrises in our neighbourhood were lit up like Christmas trees (as usual), and the sky did not look one whit darker (it was as light-polluted as ever). If I want to be charitable, I'll say that most people did not even know about this hour; otherwise I have to assume that people around us just don't give a damn.

As it turns out, our city, along with many others, saved less energy this time than last year. What does that say about individual people's attitude towards "Global Warming" and climate change?

Hazy Astronomy

2009-03-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before, this year is designated as International Year of Astronomy (IYA). To that end, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC - I've been a member for more than 30 years) is undertaking many public activities, free for all to take part in. Worldwide, there are many astronomy associations and educational institutions involved in the same activities.
After several locally scheduled events were "rained out" lately, last night turned out to be more promising. A clear evening was predicted by Attilla Danko's "ClearDarkSky" program which uses data from Environment Canada's weather forcasting system.
Things turned not quite as clear as predicted - there were thin, hazy clouds drifting across the sky all evening. However, they were transparent enough to show the brighter objects, one of which was the planet Saturn. Three of us were slated to run this meeting, and two of us had committed to set up our own telescopes at the H.R. McMillan planetarium for this date, so I set up my Celestron C-8 in front of the Gordon Southam observatory. The third member in our group operated the observatory telescope itself.
This year, Saturn's rings are seen almost edge-on. That's a consequence of the tilt of Saturn's axis of rotation with respect the plane of its orbital plane and generally all the major planets' orbits. This presents some interesting viewing since some of Saturn's moons, most of which orbit Saturn in the same plane as its rings, can occasionally be seen crossing Saturn's disk, along with their respective shadows. Since the hazy clouds had a detrimental effect on seeing some of the very fine details through the telescopes, such an event would be somewhat difficult to perceive. However, the rings and Saturn's bright moon Titan were easily visible. To the left you see what Saturn and Titan looked like as seen through a telescope, at a magnification of about 90 power. Click on the picture for a larger view.
There were more than 100 people who took advantage of the occasion - some had been attending a show at the planetarium, others just happened to be out for a walk. Many had never had a look through an astronomical telescope, and were very impressed about what could be seen. It's amazing how interested people are in what's going on in space; many just don't know how to meet people with similar interests. So this get-together fulfilled its primary purpose of bringing these people together. Some enquired about how they could get more involved. Here is one possibility: the RASC member meetings and sky observing sessions are open to the public, and are free. If you become a member, there are a number of privileges which you'll enjoy. In Canada, for more information, go to http://www.rasc.ca/, and pick the link to your closest local centre. If you live elsewhere, look for an astronomy club in your area - IYA is a worldwide effort.

Turning 3000

2009-03-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

About 3 years ago, my brother-in-law's brother and wife gave us an exercise bike which they were replacing with a more up-to-date version. At the time, it's speedometer indicated about 300 miles. It is a totally mechanical bike, with an adjustable tension roller pressing against the wheel, which makes it possible to simulate mountain "grades" and, if adjusted properly, will make us work hard. On the days when weather or a particluar time commitment prevents us from going for our walk, we use this bike for about one half hour - and for myself, I adjust it so that I work up a real sweat. On average, I cover about 9.3 miles in that half hour (according to the odometer). If I do any less, I'm not working hard enough. Both my wife and I are making pretty good use of it, but since she gets quite a bit of exercise around the house, it is I who does the bulk of the pedalling on the bike (90%, or so).

In the winter, the bike is used almost daily. In the summer we're much more likely to walk - our neighbourhood is hilly, and a good walk is good exercise. In any case, the other day, when I was doing my usual half hour on the bike, the odometer turned 3000 miles (it's an older bike, and still calibrated in miles). This means that we've added about 2700 miles (a bit more than 4300km) to its total use. That's the distance from Vancouver, BC (our city) to Halifax on the East Coast. It also means that the bike has been used about 320 times by us (it's getting close to the equivalent of one year's worth of half-hour per day pedalling). I never thought we'd "bike" all the way across Canada - we did it "virtually", of course. Luckily, the bike doesn't simulate any inclement weather "along the way".

The bike works just fine - I've oiled the various bearings, chain, and especially the pressure roller about 3 times. I expect it to last a lot longer still.

Looking for Life

2009-03-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

Most of the mainstream media don't pay much attention to the efforts being made regarding our search for the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe - including our own solar systems. Now and then, you are made aware of temporary highlights (the Kepler space telescope launch just yesterday, for example), but in general, ongoing coverage is not available.

You can find this kind of information on the websites maintained by the space agencies involved in these endeavours.

Here are some links for proposed space missions related to this topic:

Europa Jupiter System Mission
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=808

Titan Saturn System Mission
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=810

This is the International Year of Astronomy. Astronomy is closely involved with the search for life elsewhere. Amateur and professional astronomers are making many varied efforts to promote the awareness of this ancient science. Here, for the area where I'm at home, are a couple of links indicating the locations where observation of the sky, seminars on various astronomical topics, and other related efforts are taking place :

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vancouver Centre
http://www.vancouverastronomy.com/

Local meetings
http://astronomy.meetup.com/131/

There are similar events scheduled all over the world. Check you local astronomy club or association for more details.

More window views

2009-02-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, during one of the frequent rain squalls which are common in our city, a momentary break in the clouds was the cause of a beautiful rainbow. The picture on the left was taken from the front stairs. The rainbow appears high in the sky, because it was late in the day, around 20 minutes before sunset.

This picture was taken through the living room window. Notice the secondary rainbow, the intense colours, and the difference of the sky colour inside and outside the rainbow.

Last night, Venus (at the moment the evening star) and the Moon were in conjunction, an astronomical term for the appearance of two or more objects close to each other in the sky. It does not mean that they were physically close, it is just a view from our perspective on Earth. In reality, Venus was about about 140 times further away than the Moon. Click on the picture for a larger view. The view is through my double-paned office window. It was taken with a 200mm Sigma zoom lens, set at 200mm. This is an enlarged section of that image.

Venus also shows a crescent, just like the Moon (both somewhat distorted, due to the window glass). If you have a reasonable pair of binoculars (7x50 or 10x50, say), and mount these on a photo tripod, or hold them very steady, you'll also see the tiny crescent of Venus. You'll be able to look at Venus for the next couple of weeks, or so - weather permitting. Look for the brightest star in the west after sunset. Its crescent will grow a bit larger and get thinner as Venus moves closer to Earth towards the line between Earth and the Sun. This also means that Venus will set in the west sooner and sooner after sunset. On March 27, it will pass north of the Sun (don't try to look for it then - you could damage your eyesight if you look directly at the Sun!) and then become the morning star.

A Picture Postcard day

2009-02-15T10:08:00.001-08:00

Today is one of the days which keep my wife and me "glued" to the window. The scenery is one of the reasons why we love living in our house.

At left, you see a picture of Grouse Mountain, one of the "North Shore mountains" in Vancouver, taken with a 200 mm lens, through our double-paned living room window. The triangular area slightly above centre is the upper ski area, sometimes called the "upper cut".

This is the same area taken through a C-90 Celestron telescope, for which I have the appropriate adapters to attach my Canon Rebel XT digital SLR camera. This turns the telescope into a 1000mm f11 lens. Because there is no electrical connection between the telescope and the camera, the automatic features built into the camera cannot be used - manual focussing and exposures are required. The exposure for this picture was 1/4000 of a second at ASA 400. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, and look closely, you can see some tiny dots (skiers) near the lower left of the ski area, and the plume (or dirty exhaust?) from a (snowmaking?) machine at the top. Being a creature of comfort, I took this picture through the living room window as well. That affects the "definition" of the image, because the window glass is optically not perfect. I used Photoshop to increase the contrast somewhat, and also sharpened the picture a bit, to help overcome the effects of the window on the image.

Regarding the skiers visible in the picture, I'm always amazed about how small people are when compared to the grandeur of nature. Even Grouse Mountain, at about 1250m (4000 ft) a modest mountain, dwarfs a human being by a huge margin.

Woodpeckerwar

2009-02-08T15:05:00.000-08:00

As Derek mentioned in his blog, the woodpecker which last year decided to use our kitchen stove exhausts on the roof as territorial markers, has come back to re-establish his claims. I had wrapped the exhausts with bubble-wrap to discourage this "disturbing" behaviour (the 'pecker sometimes "rings the bell" just a little after sunrise), but the ravages of time destroyed that wrap. I removed the remnants some time ago.

For the last couple of days, the 'pecker has again made sure that we couldn't sleep in. So today I decided to frustrate him - and to allow us to extend our morning bedtime. I purchased some wire mesh and fashioned it into a kind of "cage" which now covers the exhausts (see picture of one). The cage is secured to the exhaust by means of an appropriate piece of wire coathanger, so that this undoubtedly clever little monster can't lift it up and out of the way. We'll soon see whether peace has returned.

More on the lens adapter

2009-01-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

In my previous post, Derek's comment regarding the labelling of the focal length of the lenses involved in my test of the new adapter I bought for my Rebel XT, I came to the conclusion that the labelling on my Sigma 18-200mm zoom lens was the "full-frame" equivalent value. Yesterday, I repeated a couple of the flower basket shots, but in addition, I also took some long-distance shots to compare the Bausch and Lomb and Sigma 200mm performance.

Figure 1 shows the flowers taken with the Sigma lens at 200mm again, and figure 2 is an image of the same flowers, taken the Bausch and Lomb 200mm from the same position. The B&L image is obviously larger.

In figure 3 (the Grouse Mountain ski area as seen from our front window), taken with the Bausch and Lomb lens at 200mm, and the same picture (figure 4) taken with the Sigma lens at 200mm, there is no difference in scale. What's the reason?

Well, I neglected to take account of something I routinely do when I use the Rebel XT on one of my telescopes to take pictures. Depending on the accessories used in the process, the effective focal length of the telescope changes considerably, depending on the focussing adjustments required to get a sharp image. The pictures of the flowers were taken at a distance of about 2.5 meters (appr. 8 ft.), which is the closest distance to which the B&L lens can be focussed. The B&L lens focuses by moving the entire set of lens elements forward for close-up work; the Sigma lens adjust focus by changing relative positions of its internal lens elements. You can see the difference in the pictures of the B&L lens in its long distance (infinity) focus position (figure 5), and its close-up focus position (figure 6).

As you can see, the barrel length of the B&L lens in its close-up focus position is appreciably longer than when it is focused at infinity. The effect of the close-up position is that the lens appears to have a focal length of about 230mm, not 200mm. This naturally results in a larger image. The Sigma lens does not physically move lens "outward", and therefore maintains the 200mm distance from the camera's CCD. When both lenses are set to infinity, the scale of the pictures is identical.

This means, contrary to what I said to Derek in my reply comment, that both the Sigma and the B&L lenses are labelled with their correct focal length - there is no full-frame equivalent marking on the Sigma lens. Click on each picture to see it in larger format.

Figure 1
200mm Sigma zoom lens (flowers are 2.5 meters away)

Figure 2
200mm Bausch and Lomb lens from the same position as Sigma lens.

Figure 3
Grouse Mountain taken with the B&L lens at 200mm

(notice the snow-making plume near the top of the "cut")

Figure 4
Grouse mountain taken with the Sigma lens at 200mm
(snow-making plume has changed)

Figure 5

Bausch and Lomb at infinity (figure 3 focus)

Figure 6

Bausch and Lomb at closest focus (figure 2)

penmachinedad

4000 miles

Hope for a better year

The December 10, 2011 lunar eclipse

The Green Thing

7 months

A beautiful day

In Readers' Digest

An adventurous trip

Cruising

Public Astronomy

Lack of understanding

A pleasant evening

Evolution is dumb.

Life goes on

A bit of a sad day

Return what you borrowed

The New Normal

The end of the gravel road

A memorable Easter

A little cheer on a dreary day

All talk-little action

The solar flare of Monday, Feb 14

"Biking"

True friends

Other "Earths"

Nostalgia

Xmas 2010

Long-distance practice

Parents' nightmare

More info on solar scope

Sun view

A micro holiday

Eventful times.

Parents' concern

Spider

Spider is back - a new net and more wasps caught. I used my trusted Canon XT and uploaded the pictures here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157624814683502/

Cancer month

Playing with a new computer

Part of the family?

A happy occasion

Another family occasion

A family reunion

Little spider

Sure signs of summer

Our son's birthday

Hungry

See the town

Back home

Improvement

Chemical fog again

Misplaced priorities

Goodbye Olympics

The candle

Some more Olympics

More Olympic comments

Olympics

And here it is...

Olympics coming

HD TV

Skating widower

Mood swings

A New Year

Merry Christmas

Another year

Next Round

Winter is early

A Better Day

Recuperating

Action

Thinking in the night

Bad news

Back home

The Ghouls at work

Vancouver Harbour

Crash Landing

A new view

Plugging along

Busy time.

A somber weekend

Spider is back - a new net and more wasps caught. I used my trusted Canon XT and uploaded the pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157624814683502/