This first entry was published in Astronomy Magazine October 1985. Why I wrote it is explained in the article. Unlike styles, politics,and many other things in 1985 the sky and the home view of it is the same now in 2010. The fascination has lasted us a life time. Astronomy Magazine published my stories as I submitted them, and I thank them... perhaps just a tad late.
A Guide for the "Wet Astronomer"
Here we are! Your new astronomers. A group that grows larger every night. To the world of fantastic amateurs and brilliant professionals comes the new breed...the Wet Ones! we consist mainly of people, who if you say "east" automatically look right. It used to be we only looked up to see if it was going to rain. Now wet and warm in our outdoor hot tubs we have discovered the sky.It's a discovery that is absolutely inevitable. I wish I had known about it before installing the hot tub. Hot tubs are extremely difficult to relocate. Perhaps we can get a warning printed by, oh NASA or somebody, and have it attached to newly manufactured tubs. "WARNING! SITTING IN A HOT TUB AT NIGHT MAY LEAD TO AN ADDICTION TO SKY WATCHING. USE EXTREME CAUTION IN PLACING THIS TUB SO OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE SKY WILL NOT FRUSTRATE YOU."
In any case the hot tub astronomer will become a specialist, concentrating only on that part of the sky yhat passes through his own view from the hot tub. The rest of the heavens will remain in Siberia as far as he is concerned.
People jump into hot tubs for a variety of reasons therapeutic and social. A survey at the local spa shop revealed a host of replies.
Question: "Why are you buying a hot tub?" Answers: "For my Arthritis." " The neighbors have one." "To attract chicks!" "Why not?" In short not one person said, "To become an astronomer." Little do they know the fate that awaits them. Soon they will be checking out the price on better binoculars, only to buy a telescope instead. (I will add at this point that 25 years has brought great change to this field.) Without the proper pre-care in the installation phase they may soon lament. "If only I had known I would put the tub over there"...pointing to an open space now occupied by the dog's house. Here is a short list of things new spa owners need to know. 1. LOCATION. Don't place the tub so you can see it from the house. Put it where you can see the sky from the tub. The dog would probaby like that spot in the shade of the eaves better anyway. 2. LIGHTING: The less the better. 3. HEIGHT: Don't sink the tub into the ground like a swimming pool. You will want the seat to be chair high. This will give you a decent height for looking through your telescope and it is very difficult to have a conversation with those out of the tub if you are talking to their ankles. 4: Decor: The decorators have designed an array of cute little lattice buildings to put over and around the spa. We fell for an adorable gazebo look. Since we got it, we have removed so many slats in order to see out that it looks as if a tornado came though. However if you plan it right you can use it to block undesirable light.
Next read #2 A Star for Everybody (and many more)
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Hot Tub Astronomy, 2: A Star for Everybody
This story appeared in Astronomy Magazine, December, 1987. I'll edit it down a bit and add some up-to-date comments regarding the children mentioned. We eventually acquired 14 grandchildren.
Hot Tub Astronomy, A Star for Everybody
Grandchildren give you a chance to do the things you didn't have time for or didn't think of when you were busy raising your own family. When the children of two of our daughters and our son were going to be spending the night with us ... all at the same time while their parents were away, their grandfather wanted to plan a special treat for them.
He decided that if the youngest children took good naps, he was going to let them stay up late, have their first "Hot Tub Astronomy" lesson, and even pick a star for their very own.
Fortunately it was dark and clear that night as Grandpa, the five excited boys and two wide eyed girls marched to the hot tub. I cleverly stayed out to man the towels.
It didn't take long for the youngest girl to spot the star she wanted. She went for the brightest one, and almost before we were started six year old Libby was the owner of Sirius. Her younger brother, Scott,wasn't happy with anything second to his sister's, but with Sirius spoken for he would have to choose something else. "What's second brightest?" he inquired with resignation. "Canopus can't be seen tonight, too smoggy, and you can't see it from your house anyway, because the star is too far south." Grandpa explained. Scott sat back and stared at the heavens to think about it.
Meanwhile three of his cousins had been led to choose the belt stars in Orion. It was a natural for the three brothers, but posed one problem. Our charts showed the names of the large stars on the corners of Orion, but not the names of the center three. It would defeat the purpose if the boys couldn't learn the names of their own stars.I went in to hunt through some more books and star atlases. Mike, who was eight and could read was pouring over the chart with a flashlight. He did not want to make such an important choice based on sight alone. First he would read what else was out there. "Look!" he told his sister, "Cygnus!" That's what Grandpa Swan in Massachuetts named his boat. It means Swan! Grandpa I want Cygnus!" "That's a whole constellation. How about the star Denab in Cygnus?" "Where is it?" Mike looked up hopefully. "It's on the other side of the house. I'll have to show it to you later, but it's a good choice. Very easy to see from your house."
I returned with the names of the belt stars. The left belt star was named Alnitak. It would go to the oldest of the three brothers, Tripp, who was seven. He repeated the name while staring at the star. The second brother, Grant, would have Alnilam and three year old Andrew would get Minataka, fortunately the name was easy for the three year old to pronounce. Now all of the grandchildren wanted to look at their stars with the binoculars. But when the children held the expensive binoculars in the hot tub Grandpa became nervous, and the children were never quite able to find anything with them, so he came up with a way to show them their stars and keep the binocs dry. He held the binoculars and centered a star in them, then he moved his right eye to the left eye piece, the child put his eye on the right so they were cheek to cheek each peering through a monocular.
The tub was bubbling over with cookie crumbs and excitment. Scott tried again to find something equal to his sister's star. "Isn't there anything brighter than Sirius?" "Yes." His grandfather answered, "The Moon and Venus are brighter. But Venus would be a lot of work for a five year old. It's a planet and doesn't stay in the same place the way the stars do. If you want to do the work of tracking it... it's yours." "I will!" said Scott eagerly. The oldest girl, Ashley, chose Polaris for it's simplicity. Everyone enjoyed his or her choice and the word spread. Our youngest daughter's two boys soon asked for their own stars and Grandpa obliged. J.J. chose Aldebaran, and Robert wanted the entire Pleiades.
Months passed and Bob wondered if the children had kept in touch with their stars. When next the three brothers returned, they burst up to Grandpa full of excitment. "Guess what?" Tripp announced, "Today in school my teacher talked about the stars and I told her I had a star of my own and pointed to Alnitak. I even told them my brother's and cousin's stars. All of the kids thought that was really rad! and some of them came up to me later and asked if my grandfather would give them a star, too. Will you?"
Bob laughed. "How do you like that? as if I don't have enough kids, I just inherited the whole third grade." "Rad," I said and added, "Tell the kids there are plenty of stars for everyone. Tell them to look carefully each night and choose one. Then get someone to tell them their star's name. As long as they can find it and say it's name it's theirs." "That reminds me." said Tripp. "Mom said we need a fourth star." Grant added, "We're going to get a new baby brother!"
The boys chose to give their baby brother, named, John, the Orion Nebula just below their belt.
An early interest in the sky stayed with them. I can tell you now that when John was in High School, he started their first Astronomy Club. Grant became an Airforce Test Pilot and is now stationed in England with his wife, two year old son and a baby on the way , Tripp is a Lawyer and Andrew is an Architect. Libby graduated from Cal Tech and went on to become a Veterinarian, married a Doctor and has two little boys. Scott worked in Finance, when he's not tracking Venus, and is now back at UCLA for a higher degree. Mike joined the Navy's Air Sea Rescue to jump out of helicopters to save downed pilots. He now works for a computer firm, and is the father of a baby girl. Ashley graduated from Cal State, married a Lawyer and is the mother of two precocious children, a boy and a girl, the first of our 9 great-grandchildren. Another grandson, Cecil, flies charter jet planes for a living and has a new baby girl, his brothers, J.J. and Robert work for the family medical business. Rob has a sweet little daughter. I am gripped with grandparenty pride and want to add that these boys also have a brother, Cliff and a sister Kelly, who are in college. Libby and Scott too have a younger sister, Mackenna, who just passed the bar in New York. Suddenly like an Acadamy Award winner on T.V., droning on and on... I want to grab the mike and thank my great husband, Bob, and our wonderful kids, Nancy, Pam, J.R. and Bonnie. As I hear the music growing louder and before it can drown out my voice I panic and quickly add, "...and to the spouses of all these, you know who you are and so do I... I wish to thank you all so much for being the "Stars of Happiness" in my life. I am dragged off stage throwing kisses. Beverly
Hot Tub Astronomy, A Star for Everybody
Grandchildren give you a chance to do the things you didn't have time for or didn't think of when you were busy raising your own family. When the children of two of our daughters and our son were going to be spending the night with us ... all at the same time while their parents were away, their grandfather wanted to plan a special treat for them.
He decided that if the youngest children took good naps, he was going to let them stay up late, have their first "Hot Tub Astronomy" lesson, and even pick a star for their very own.
Fortunately it was dark and clear that night as Grandpa, the five excited boys and two wide eyed girls marched to the hot tub. I cleverly stayed out to man the towels.
It didn't take long for the youngest girl to spot the star she wanted. She went for the brightest one, and almost before we were started six year old Libby was the owner of Sirius. Her younger brother, Scott,wasn't happy with anything second to his sister's, but with Sirius spoken for he would have to choose something else. "What's second brightest?" he inquired with resignation. "Canopus can't be seen tonight, too smoggy, and you can't see it from your house anyway, because the star is too far south." Grandpa explained. Scott sat back and stared at the heavens to think about it.
Meanwhile three of his cousins had been led to choose the belt stars in Orion. It was a natural for the three brothers, but posed one problem. Our charts showed the names of the large stars on the corners of Orion, but not the names of the center three. It would defeat the purpose if the boys couldn't learn the names of their own stars.I went in to hunt through some more books and star atlases. Mike, who was eight and could read was pouring over the chart with a flashlight. He did not want to make such an important choice based on sight alone. First he would read what else was out there. "Look!" he told his sister, "Cygnus!" That's what Grandpa Swan in Massachuetts named his boat. It means Swan! Grandpa I want Cygnus!" "That's a whole constellation. How about the star Denab in Cygnus?" "Where is it?" Mike looked up hopefully. "It's on the other side of the house. I'll have to show it to you later, but it's a good choice. Very easy to see from your house."
I returned with the names of the belt stars. The left belt star was named Alnitak. It would go to the oldest of the three brothers, Tripp, who was seven. He repeated the name while staring at the star. The second brother, Grant, would have Alnilam and three year old Andrew would get Minataka, fortunately the name was easy for the three year old to pronounce. Now all of the grandchildren wanted to look at their stars with the binoculars. But when the children held the expensive binoculars in the hot tub Grandpa became nervous, and the children were never quite able to find anything with them, so he came up with a way to show them their stars and keep the binocs dry. He held the binoculars and centered a star in them, then he moved his right eye to the left eye piece, the child put his eye on the right so they were cheek to cheek each peering through a monocular.
The tub was bubbling over with cookie crumbs and excitment. Scott tried again to find something equal to his sister's star. "Isn't there anything brighter than Sirius?" "Yes." His grandfather answered, "The Moon and Venus are brighter. But Venus would be a lot of work for a five year old. It's a planet and doesn't stay in the same place the way the stars do. If you want to do the work of tracking it... it's yours." "I will!" said Scott eagerly. The oldest girl, Ashley, chose Polaris for it's simplicity. Everyone enjoyed his or her choice and the word spread. Our youngest daughter's two boys soon asked for their own stars and Grandpa obliged. J.J. chose Aldebaran, and Robert wanted the entire Pleiades.
Months passed and Bob wondered if the children had kept in touch with their stars. When next the three brothers returned, they burst up to Grandpa full of excitment. "Guess what?" Tripp announced, "Today in school my teacher talked about the stars and I told her I had a star of my own and pointed to Alnitak. I even told them my brother's and cousin's stars. All of the kids thought that was really rad! and some of them came up to me later and asked if my grandfather would give them a star, too. Will you?"
Bob laughed. "How do you like that? as if I don't have enough kids, I just inherited the whole third grade." "Rad," I said and added, "Tell the kids there are plenty of stars for everyone. Tell them to look carefully each night and choose one. Then get someone to tell them their star's name. As long as they can find it and say it's name it's theirs." "That reminds me." said Tripp. "Mom said we need a fourth star." Grant added, "We're going to get a new baby brother!"
The boys chose to give their baby brother, named, John, the Orion Nebula just below their belt.
An early interest in the sky stayed with them. I can tell you now that when John was in High School, he started their first Astronomy Club. Grant became an Airforce Test Pilot and is now stationed in England with his wife, two year old son and a baby on the way , Tripp is a Lawyer and Andrew is an Architect. Libby graduated from Cal Tech and went on to become a Veterinarian, married a Doctor and has two little boys. Scott worked in Finance, when he's not tracking Venus, and is now back at UCLA for a higher degree. Mike joined the Navy's Air Sea Rescue to jump out of helicopters to save downed pilots. He now works for a computer firm, and is the father of a baby girl. Ashley graduated from Cal State, married a Lawyer and is the mother of two precocious children, a boy and a girl, the first of our 9 great-grandchildren. Another grandson, Cecil, flies charter jet planes for a living and has a new baby girl, his brothers, J.J. and Robert work for the family medical business. Rob has a sweet little daughter. I am gripped with grandparenty pride and want to add that these boys also have a brother, Cliff and a sister Kelly, who are in college. Libby and Scott too have a younger sister, Mackenna, who just passed the bar in New York. Suddenly like an Acadamy Award winner on T.V., droning on and on... I want to grab the mike and thank my great husband, Bob, and our wonderful kids, Nancy, Pam, J.R. and Bonnie. As I hear the music growing louder and before it can drown out my voice I panic and quickly add, "...and to the spouses of all these, you know who you are and so do I... I wish to thank you all so much for being the "Stars of Happiness" in my life. I am dragged off stage throwing kisses. Beverly
Hot Tub Astronomy, 3: What Is Your Sign?
Hot Tub Astronomy 3 What is Your Sign?
This article was published in SKY AND TELESCOPE magazine in the May 1988 issue.
At the same time TIME magazine had a cover story May 16,1988 featuring First Lady, Nancy Reagan, called "Astrology in the White House." As both magazines were on the stands together, I took a double interest in this story from White House chief of staff, Donald Regan because of my own "What is Your Sign?" and because I had just completed my Nancy Reagan Doll for the collection of 19 inch china dolls. I had been working for years and years on First Lady dolls, each dressed in a tiny copy of the dresses featured in the "First Lady" collection in the Smithsonian Institution. So I tucked an issue of "Time" in with my First Lady reference books, used to write about each lady as I worked on her porcelain replica. And I added another with my Astronomy stuff. This story will explain why.
YOU'RE AN ASTRONOMER? WHAT'S YOUR SIGN?
I'll bet there's not an astronomer alive who wouldn't like to have a clear night for every time he or she has heard that one.
Astrology! how could anyone be idiot enough to mix that up with Astronomy? Yet it happens again and again. I remember the first time I heard the two confused. My husband Bob and I were sitting in a steaming hot tub at a ski lodge high in the Sierra Nevadas. We were treating ourselves to a vacation planned to consist of glorious sunny days of sking followed by crisp clear nights of star gazing. At first the strangers sharing the huge tub with us spoke only of the days skiing. Then slowly they settled back to relax sore muscles and get to know one another. The steadily rising steam fogged the pool area and obscured the night sky. Even if it had not, the many unshielded lights flooding the lodge grounds would have squelched the possibility of observing nearby. "So much for astronomy tonight." I said quietly, seeing that my partner was too exhausted to drive out of the area in search of darker skies. "Oh, are you two into astronomy too?" squealed the pretty blonde sitting next to Bob. "What a coincidence! So are we," she giggled, tugging on the hand of the young man beside her. "I'm a Libra, and Jeff's Gemini. What's your sign?" Using all the ettiquette instilled in me by my determined parents, I managed not to show my dismay at the childish error. I simply smiled politly and replied, "I'm an Aries." When it came to astrology I knew little else. That didn't really matter though because the rest of the group perked up and rallied around the question. I didn't need to say another word, only listen with indignant facination as a discussio.n about the professed personality traits of the various zodiacal signs transformed the former stranger's dispositions from happy to serious to downright silly.
Several months later I had a humbling experience that both helped me to understand the confusion between astronomy and astrology and gave me the resolve to meet it head on when next I encountered it. As a student of history, I collect old books, largely Presidential wives for the reason mentioned . One day I came home with a coffee table size book on the history of astronomy filled with gorgeous, glossy color prints of astronomical art and gilded star maps. As I pored over a series of quaint old drawings of constellations framed with strange, colorful creatures, Bob walked in and glanced at me with surprise "That's a strange choice of reading." he exclaimed. "A history of astronomy? Why?" I answered. "That's not what it says on the cover." Bewildered, I closed the book and turned to it's worn, old, spine. There I found the words in faded silver letters, "Encyclopedia of Astro....ummm ...logy". I had to laugh. Somehow while juggling an armload of other books I had misread the title of this one. Still it was a beautifully bound leather edition, however faded.. I decided to take advantage of my mistake and read up on the history of Astrology.
I learned that Astrology, Astronomy, Religion and Medicine arose together thousands of years ago and were apparently embodied in a highly revered priesthood. All four have been intertwined in popular myth, tradition, and superstition ever since.
Astrology appeared in different forms among the various Eurasian cultures. The version most of us are familiar with arose in the Middle East. There early peoples believed that as the Sun, Moon, and Planets wandered along what we now call the ecliptic, they exerted their vast heavenly powers to cast sins and virtues on the newborn.
Throughout much of the Old World, people looked to Astrologers to guide their behavior and divine the future by interpreting signs like comets and conjunctions. In their effort to make reliable predictions, the practitioners of this art kept detailed accurate records of celestial motions. Indeed much of what we know about ancient astronomy comes from the writings of early astrologers.
But not everyone held astrology in high regard. As early as A.D. 77, Pliny the Elder wrote that everyone wants to know his or her future, so obviously there will be people who take advantage of others' gullibility.
In 16th-century France, physician, Henry Cornielius Agrippa said astrology was based upon no other foundation but upon mere trifles, and feignings of imaginations." And Johannes Kepler called it "Astronomy's foolish daughter."
After the invention of the telescope astronomers discovered new planets and astrologers struggled to fine the niches where these bodies were surely meant to fit in the grand cosmic scheme. This done they felt assured that their predictive powers were now greater than even. But the same discoveries helped scientists repudiate astrology and label it pseudoscience at best.
Today astronomy and astrology have divorced completely, at least as viewed by astronomers. Scientists have spilled gallons of ink debunking the "science" behind casting horoscopes. Nevertheless, millions still consult their newspaper's astrology column before starting each day. Some do it out of need or desire to believe that some mysterious force controls their lives. Others surely do it just for fun. Either way they probably out number those of us who relate to the heavens
through astronomy, and their unbridled enthusiasm cannot be denied.
So today when I find myself talking with someone who is bubbling over with appreciation for astrology, I remember Griffith Observatory Director, Edwin Krup. He wrote that scientists should try to gain the higher ground by expounding "Astronomy's sense of the mystery and wonder of the cosmos of the Earth, and of human history."
That ends the Sky and Telescope article. I would like to add that in the years since this was written, the Griffith Observatory has been greatly remodled. Many of the old displays that Bob's father worked on in the early years have been preserved as a museum, while new Hubble Space telescope observations keep being updated. It's a wonderful place to visit when in the Los Angeles area. My, how fast the entire universe has grown since 1988!
Now a word about the First Lady Dolls. Just after I completed the Laura Bush doll, I gave the entire set of 55 dolls to my daughter Nancy. She had them on display at a political party, and someone inquired if she would be willing to donate them to the Nixon Library. She asked me if I would mind. We both agreed that a library would be a good place for them. Later, I made them a doll for Michelle Obama just as the National Archives took possession of the entire set. I can only add that I feel very proud that they wanted them.
Watch for thr next Hot Tub story
This article was published in SKY AND TELESCOPE magazine in the May 1988 issue.
At the same time TIME magazine had a cover story May 16,1988 featuring First Lady, Nancy Reagan, called "Astrology in the White House." As both magazines were on the stands together, I took a double interest in this story from White House chief of staff, Donald Regan because of my own "What is Your Sign?" and because I had just completed my Nancy Reagan Doll for the collection of 19 inch china dolls. I had been working for years and years on First Lady dolls, each dressed in a tiny copy of the dresses featured in the "First Lady" collection in the Smithsonian Institution. So I tucked an issue of "Time" in with my First Lady reference books, used to write about each lady as I worked on her porcelain replica. And I added another with my Astronomy stuff. This story will explain why.
YOU'RE AN ASTRONOMER? WHAT'S YOUR SIGN?
I'll bet there's not an astronomer alive who wouldn't like to have a clear night for every time he or she has heard that one.
Astrology! how could anyone be idiot enough to mix that up with Astronomy? Yet it happens again and again. I remember the first time I heard the two confused. My husband Bob and I were sitting in a steaming hot tub at a ski lodge high in the Sierra Nevadas. We were treating ourselves to a vacation planned to consist of glorious sunny days of sking followed by crisp clear nights of star gazing. At first the strangers sharing the huge tub with us spoke only of the days skiing. Then slowly they settled back to relax sore muscles and get to know one another. The steadily rising steam fogged the pool area and obscured the night sky. Even if it had not, the many unshielded lights flooding the lodge grounds would have squelched the possibility of observing nearby. "So much for astronomy tonight." I said quietly, seeing that my partner was too exhausted to drive out of the area in search of darker skies. "Oh, are you two into astronomy too?" squealed the pretty blonde sitting next to Bob. "What a coincidence! So are we," she giggled, tugging on the hand of the young man beside her. "I'm a Libra, and Jeff's Gemini. What's your sign?" Using all the ettiquette instilled in me by my determined parents, I managed not to show my dismay at the childish error. I simply smiled politly and replied, "I'm an Aries." When it came to astrology I knew little else. That didn't really matter though because the rest of the group perked up and rallied around the question. I didn't need to say another word, only listen with indignant facination as a discussio.n about the professed personality traits of the various zodiacal signs transformed the former stranger's dispositions from happy to serious to downright silly.
Several months later I had a humbling experience that both helped me to understand the confusion between astronomy and astrology and gave me the resolve to meet it head on when next I encountered it. As a student of history, I collect old books, largely Presidential wives for the reason mentioned . One day I came home with a coffee table size book on the history of astronomy filled with gorgeous, glossy color prints of astronomical art and gilded star maps. As I pored over a series of quaint old drawings of constellations framed with strange, colorful creatures, Bob walked in and glanced at me with surprise "That's a strange choice of reading." he exclaimed. "A history of astronomy? Why?" I answered. "That's not what it says on the cover." Bewildered, I closed the book and turned to it's worn, old, spine. There I found the words in faded silver letters, "Encyclopedia of Astro....ummm ...logy". I had to laugh. Somehow while juggling an armload of other books I had misread the title of this one. Still it was a beautifully bound leather edition, however faded.. I decided to take advantage of my mistake and read up on the history of Astrology.
I learned that Astrology, Astronomy, Religion and Medicine arose together thousands of years ago and were apparently embodied in a highly revered priesthood. All four have been intertwined in popular myth, tradition, and superstition ever since.
Astrology appeared in different forms among the various Eurasian cultures. The version most of us are familiar with arose in the Middle East. There early peoples believed that as the Sun, Moon, and Planets wandered along what we now call the ecliptic, they exerted their vast heavenly powers to cast sins and virtues on the newborn.
Throughout much of the Old World, people looked to Astrologers to guide their behavior and divine the future by interpreting signs like comets and conjunctions. In their effort to make reliable predictions, the practitioners of this art kept detailed accurate records of celestial motions. Indeed much of what we know about ancient astronomy comes from the writings of early astrologers.
But not everyone held astrology in high regard. As early as A.D. 77, Pliny the Elder wrote that everyone wants to know his or her future, so obviously there will be people who take advantage of others' gullibility.
In 16th-century France, physician, Henry Cornielius Agrippa said astrology was based upon no other foundation but upon mere trifles, and feignings of imaginations." And Johannes Kepler called it "Astronomy's foolish daughter."
After the invention of the telescope astronomers discovered new planets and astrologers struggled to fine the niches where these bodies were surely meant to fit in the grand cosmic scheme. This done they felt assured that their predictive powers were now greater than even. But the same discoveries helped scientists repudiate astrology and label it pseudoscience at best.
Today astronomy and astrology have divorced completely, at least as viewed by astronomers. Scientists have spilled gallons of ink debunking the "science" behind casting horoscopes. Nevertheless, millions still consult their newspaper's astrology column before starting each day. Some do it out of need or desire to believe that some mysterious force controls their lives. Others surely do it just for fun. Either way they probably out number those of us who relate to the heavens
through astronomy, and their unbridled enthusiasm cannot be denied.
So today when I find myself talking with someone who is bubbling over with appreciation for astrology, I remember Griffith Observatory Director, Edwin Krup. He wrote that scientists should try to gain the higher ground by expounding "Astronomy's sense of the mystery and wonder of the cosmos of the Earth, and of human history."
That ends the Sky and Telescope article. I would like to add that in the years since this was written, the Griffith Observatory has been greatly remodled. Many of the old displays that Bob's father worked on in the early years have been preserved as a museum, while new Hubble Space telescope observations keep being updated. It's a wonderful place to visit when in the Los Angeles area. My, how fast the entire universe has grown since 1988!
Now a word about the First Lady Dolls. Just after I completed the Laura Bush doll, I gave the entire set of 55 dolls to my daughter Nancy. She had them on display at a political party, and someone inquired if she would be willing to donate them to the Nixon Library. She asked me if I would mind. We both agreed that a library would be a good place for them. Later, I made them a doll for Michelle Obama just as the National Archives took possession of the entire set. I can only add that I feel very proud that they wanted them.
Watch for thr next Hot Tub story
Hot Tub Astronomy, 4: Navigating the Celestial Hot Tub
Navigating the Celestial Hot Tub 4
Printed in Astronomy Magazine, March 1992
After much careful thought, we enrolled in our local college's class on celestial navigation. But why?
We soon noticed that our fellow students either already owned yachets capable of sailing at least to Hawaii, or had been building a boat for years and now, about finished, were eager to embark on long dreamed cruises to the unknown. A couple of hearty young men had obtaineed good paying jobs on fishing boats. Most all had perfectly logical reasons to be in this class.They were preparing themselves for possible life and death struggles with the open sea.
On the other hand our two very small boats, lying on the sand below our deck (one a row boat for fishing, the other a catamaran, sort of a beat up trampoline with pontoons) were clearly meant for staying fairly close to shore. If we should find ourselves in need of navigation for either, we would definately require the services of the Coast Guard. So why were we spending two nights a week
studying celestial navigation? I think it was the word Celestial. It has such a nice ring to it. So Bob and I decided to enroll. I reasoned: You never knew when we might be tempted to take a Love Boat Cruise. Remember the Titanic!
The first thing I noticed after paying the tuition and investing in the books and equipment, was that the three very large textbooks seemed to contain more letters than numbers. Oh, oh... this is going to be a long semester! I'm not a number person. The best thing was that celestial navigation lent itself very well to hot tub study. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.
Luckily we found ourselves in the hands of an excellent teacher, who had years of experience sailing around the world and an inexhaustible supply of breathtaking sea stories. And a way of making us all understand the importance of studying well.
The first thing we learned was that from now on we had to suspend belief in all that we had learned about astronomy From this day on the Earth is the center of the Universe, and all bodies, the Sun, the Moon, Planets, and Stars are all rotating around us. We were all now on the Terrestrial Sphere and all else was on the Celestial Sphere. What we would learn to do is measure the distance of a given star or planet above the horizon. We would accomplish this with the help of newly issued sextants and our copies of the Nautical Almanac. By finding the star on our charts and plotting its altitude, we could determine just where on Earth we were. Sounds simple enough!
Failing that, our teacher said, "You can always use the butter method to get to Hawaii." With all the curious eyes on him, He continued. "Take the butter out of the icebox, set it on the counter and sail south until the butter melts, then turn right, and Presto! Hawaii!"
After learning a host of new terms and our way around the gadgets on the sextant,
we were taught how to shoot the Sun at meridian passage (high noon) and to sight the moon. We accomplished this by standing on the rocks by the nearby jetty, and often from the school sail boat, a beat-up craft, apparently sea worthy, donated to the school. Soon we were, hopefully, ready to sight the stars.
W climbed a board the good ship "Hot Tub" a little early the next night, anxious to try on our own. Our Nautical Almanac contained a chart for each day of the year, and on this day's chart we found the time of the end of civil twilight in our latitude, that's when the sun is six degrees below the horizon. At that time we must be prepared to take our star's sighting.Before that time it's too light to see the stars and very soon after it;s too dark to see the horizon.
At this time that I used to simply call, sunset, I sat comfortably warm in the bubbling water, and adjusted the mirrors on my little plastic sextant, thinking all the while of those intrepid explorers who struggled aboard heaving ships, constantly fighting the wind, cold and salty spray as they worked their way across the oceans. This funny little sextant must have been very badly needed, for it was invented similtaneously in England and America in 1735.
I was fiddling with the mirrors, trying to determine possible sextant error by looking at the split in the horizon (the two images had to coincide) I slowly and carefully brought the image of Sirius down to the edge of the water. "Mark!" I punched the the stopwatch. When the book says "time", it means the exact time to the second. That means learning how many seconds your watch is off from the time signal from the Atomic clock in Washinton D.C. WWV.
Next I turned on my flashlight and squinted to read the delicate altitude numbers etched on the sextant. After writing these things on my sight reduction chart, I waited for the next star. I already knew it would be Betelegeuse, followed by Rigel. Orion hovered in its celestial location. The plotting would be done later at the kitchen table. I hoped the sightings would show that we were some place close to 33 degrees, 27 minutes west 117 degrees, 41 minutes north---our known position.
Actually, I was disapointed. My sightings moved our hot tub about a mile inland, with no view of the ocean. However our teacher said that in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that was a passable sighting.
This class was very enjoyable, even for a semi-landlubber.
Next, we decided, we will sign up for the class in "Pilot Ground School", even though we don't have an airplane. Bob flew C47 transports in World War ll. When you're retired you can do whatever you find interesting, Right?
Update....
That was twenty years ago. We took the Pilot ground school and really enjoyed it. It was taught by an ex-Navy Jet Jockey, who was very knowledgeable. I was in way over my head, but Bob tutored me along and the teacher was very tolerant of those in the class who had no intention to actully fly. When it came to the final exam, I paid close attention to my husband, tutor, experienced pilot and memorized all he taught me. Then a funny thing happened. I got all of the questions right and Bob missed one!
I aked him how that could happen, when all of my answers came directly from him. He said he got to thinking about one and changed... "Oh so that's it. you understood it and could think about it. I know nothing except what you taught me and could not think about it at all."
The late 2000's found our son, J.R. and family living in a Texas Airpark with a hanger in back of the house and a cute little plane inside. And one of our daughters, Pam, now a grandmother with her pilot's license, part of a flying club with planes and a member of the Civil Air Patrol.
What we took for fun! They took seriously! Hooray!
Watch for the next hot tub story, "The mystery of the Red and Green Lights5
Printed in Astronomy Magazine, March 1992
After much careful thought, we enrolled in our local college's class on celestial navigation. But why?
We soon noticed that our fellow students either already owned yachets capable of sailing at least to Hawaii, or had been building a boat for years and now, about finished, were eager to embark on long dreamed cruises to the unknown. A couple of hearty young men had obtaineed good paying jobs on fishing boats. Most all had perfectly logical reasons to be in this class.They were preparing themselves for possible life and death struggles with the open sea.
On the other hand our two very small boats, lying on the sand below our deck (one a row boat for fishing, the other a catamaran, sort of a beat up trampoline with pontoons) were clearly meant for staying fairly close to shore. If we should find ourselves in need of navigation for either, we would definately require the services of the Coast Guard. So why were we spending two nights a week
studying celestial navigation? I think it was the word Celestial. It has such a nice ring to it. So Bob and I decided to enroll. I reasoned: You never knew when we might be tempted to take a Love Boat Cruise. Remember the Titanic!
The first thing I noticed after paying the tuition and investing in the books and equipment, was that the three very large textbooks seemed to contain more letters than numbers. Oh, oh... this is going to be a long semester! I'm not a number person. The best thing was that celestial navigation lent itself very well to hot tub study. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.
Luckily we found ourselves in the hands of an excellent teacher, who had years of experience sailing around the world and an inexhaustible supply of breathtaking sea stories. And a way of making us all understand the importance of studying well.
The first thing we learned was that from now on we had to suspend belief in all that we had learned about astronomy From this day on the Earth is the center of the Universe, and all bodies, the Sun, the Moon, Planets, and Stars are all rotating around us. We were all now on the Terrestrial Sphere and all else was on the Celestial Sphere. What we would learn to do is measure the distance of a given star or planet above the horizon. We would accomplish this with the help of newly issued sextants and our copies of the Nautical Almanac. By finding the star on our charts and plotting its altitude, we could determine just where on Earth we were. Sounds simple enough!
Failing that, our teacher said, "You can always use the butter method to get to Hawaii." With all the curious eyes on him, He continued. "Take the butter out of the icebox, set it on the counter and sail south until the butter melts, then turn right, and Presto! Hawaii!"
After learning a host of new terms and our way around the gadgets on the sextant,
we were taught how to shoot the Sun at meridian passage (high noon) and to sight the moon. We accomplished this by standing on the rocks by the nearby jetty, and often from the school sail boat, a beat-up craft, apparently sea worthy, donated to the school. Soon we were, hopefully, ready to sight the stars.
W climbed a board the good ship "Hot Tub" a little early the next night, anxious to try on our own. Our Nautical Almanac contained a chart for each day of the year, and on this day's chart we found the time of the end of civil twilight in our latitude, that's when the sun is six degrees below the horizon. At that time we must be prepared to take our star's sighting.Before that time it's too light to see the stars and very soon after it;s too dark to see the horizon.
At this time that I used to simply call, sunset, I sat comfortably warm in the bubbling water, and adjusted the mirrors on my little plastic sextant, thinking all the while of those intrepid explorers who struggled aboard heaving ships, constantly fighting the wind, cold and salty spray as they worked their way across the oceans. This funny little sextant must have been very badly needed, for it was invented similtaneously in England and America in 1735.
I was fiddling with the mirrors, trying to determine possible sextant error by looking at the split in the horizon (the two images had to coincide) I slowly and carefully brought the image of Sirius down to the edge of the water. "Mark!" I punched the the stopwatch. When the book says "time", it means the exact time to the second. That means learning how many seconds your watch is off from the time signal from the Atomic clock in Washinton D.C. WWV.
Next I turned on my flashlight and squinted to read the delicate altitude numbers etched on the sextant. After writing these things on my sight reduction chart, I waited for the next star. I already knew it would be Betelegeuse, followed by Rigel. Orion hovered in its celestial location. The plotting would be done later at the kitchen table. I hoped the sightings would show that we were some place close to 33 degrees, 27 minutes west 117 degrees, 41 minutes north---our known position.
Actually, I was disapointed. My sightings moved our hot tub about a mile inland, with no view of the ocean. However our teacher said that in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that was a passable sighting.
This class was very enjoyable, even for a semi-landlubber.
Next, we decided, we will sign up for the class in "Pilot Ground School", even though we don't have an airplane. Bob flew C47 transports in World War ll. When you're retired you can do whatever you find interesting, Right?
Update....
That was twenty years ago. We took the Pilot ground school and really enjoyed it. It was taught by an ex-Navy Jet Jockey, who was very knowledgeable. I was in way over my head, but Bob tutored me along and the teacher was very tolerant of those in the class who had no intention to actully fly. When it came to the final exam, I paid close attention to my husband, tutor, experienced pilot and memorized all he taught me. Then a funny thing happened. I got all of the questions right and Bob missed one!
I aked him how that could happen, when all of my answers came directly from him. He said he got to thinking about one and changed... "Oh so that's it. you understood it and could think about it. I know nothing except what you taught me and could not think about it at all."
The late 2000's found our son, J.R. and family living in a Texas Airpark with a hanger in back of the house and a cute little plane inside. And one of our daughters, Pam, now a grandmother with her pilot's license, part of a flying club with planes and a member of the Civil Air Patrol.
What we took for fun! They took seriously! Hooray!
Watch for the next hot tub story, "The mystery of the Red and Green Lights5
Hot Tub Astronomy, 5: Mystery of the Red and Green Flashing Lights
The "Mystery of the Red and Green Flashing Lights" was published in Astronomy Magazine in about 1989. I have misplaced my copy and am not certain of the issue.
The night was very clear, so we climbed into the hot tub fully equipt with binoculars, star charts and both hot and cold drinks. We cruised the skies confortably aboard our tub of bubbling hot water, looking at the sky above the cold water of the Pacific ocean. I looked from the sky above the waves and back at the chart puzzeled. "I have never noticed a star so low in the sky before." I told Bob. He turned his binoculars on the star in question.
"Funny thing about your star." My husband said. "It has red and green lights flashing on it."
"Then what is it? An airplane, helicopter,what? It's too high to be a ship mast. If it were a plane it would be moving faster. I took the binoculars and there they were, the red and green lights, twinkling on both sides of the white light. My new star was just two fingers above the horizon, an area often obscured by a peach colored finger of smog, floating down in the distance from Los Angeles.
"Maybe it's a weather balloon." Bob suggested.
"Probably it's on a tether to keep it from drifting away." I was losing interest and began casting about in search of a high traveling satellite. Bob spotted one once, I was still looking.
I glanced back at my low star and measured it with my two fingers. I looked up at the Gemini twins, Pollux and Castor always just four fingers apart. With that confirmation of my accurate measure, I turned back to the "star". Now a tiny bit lower than two fingers and just a tad further from the apartment building on our right that I had measured it against with my hand. Maybe the balloon was tied to a boat and bobbing about on the waves. "Oh well!" I was getting water logged watching the star move so slowly. Bob rose to get out and commented,
"The Navy has a base on San Clemente Island. Perhaps it's something of theirs."
"Probably. But it sure looks like a star."
The next night we noticed first thing as soon as we settled in was that our low star was still there. Two fingers up and three hands from the apartments.
"I called around and tried to find someone who knew what that light was." Bob told me. "No luck though. No one knew what I was talking about."
"Who did you call?" I wondered.
"The Weather Bureau, the Coast Guard, and the Harbor Patrol. I figured if it wasn't theirs, one of them would have seen it and know what it is.."
"Did anyone?" He shook his head, no. "No one had ever heard of it or even remembered seeing it. It must not be very important, what ever it is."
That night we began to notice that it moved exactly with Sirius, which was right above it. That became our way of finding it. We'd look up at Orion, then left, over to Sirius and down almost to the water. Some nights the low smog or clouds over the horizon obscured it. If it was clear, it was there: a white star that flashed red and green into the binocs, which none of our Star maps explained. We showed it to all guests, who began to refer to it as "Your flying saucer".
I have now given enough clues for a serious astronomer to know what we had found. Indeed the first "Real Astronomer" we asked knew exactly what we were seeing.
We decided, one Sunday to take a drive to Mount Palomar. We knew that they had a huge 200 inch telescope that had been caravaned up the mountain road at night because the truck carrying it took up the whole road. I don't remember the year, but I was a school girl at the time. I couldn't think why it took us so long to get around to going there.
We signed up for the guided tour with 30 other visitors, led by a young man from Cal.Tech. He did a wonderful job discribing the three large telescopes and explaining their different uses. Afterwards, he stood patiently and answered questions from the group. Most wanted to know more about him and his interests.
"He explained that he was a student of astronomy and yes, he did get time at the big scopes. He would make those his life's work..."not giving tours," he added with a smile.
Bob finally asked him about the light we saw from our perch at sea level in Laguna Beach. "It seems to be a star, "he explained carefully, "but the flashing red and green lights we saw in the binoculars confused us.
"I understand." he told us at once.
At last someone who doesn't act as if we are seeing flying saucers! We moved in closer as he explained, "What you are seeing is Canopus in the southern hemisphere. It's in the southern constellation, Carina, part of Argo. It's the brightest star in the southern sky." Some of the group left, others closed in to hear the explaination of this odd star, Canopus which they had not seen or even heard about. "Technically, it cannot be seen from here, which is why it is not shown on star maps of the Northern Hemisphere. However," he added with a little smile, "if the conditions are just right, the bright light from Canopus is bent by our atmophere, and it appears to be just a couple of degrees above our horizon.The red and green flashing lights are the result of the starlight traveling at different speeds through the Earth's atmosphere. To you it will seem to set into the Pacific Ocean just a little way from where it first appears as it follows it's arc across the sky, right ahead of our Orion, as you may have noticed."
"It must be easier for you to see, way up here on top of this mountain." I suggested. This brought a big smile from our young host.
"Yes indeed!" He laughed, "Just as the flea has a much better look at the moon, when he jumps on the dog's back." Now we all laughed.
We thanked him for solving our mystery and left very contented.
Watch for the next Hot Tub story.
The night was very clear, so we climbed into the hot tub fully equipt with binoculars, star charts and both hot and cold drinks. We cruised the skies confortably aboard our tub of bubbling hot water, looking at the sky above the cold water of the Pacific ocean. I looked from the sky above the waves and back at the chart puzzeled. "I have never noticed a star so low in the sky before." I told Bob. He turned his binoculars on the star in question.
"Funny thing about your star." My husband said. "It has red and green lights flashing on it."
"Then what is it? An airplane, helicopter,what? It's too high to be a ship mast. If it were a plane it would be moving faster. I took the binoculars and there they were, the red and green lights, twinkling on both sides of the white light. My new star was just two fingers above the horizon, an area often obscured by a peach colored finger of smog, floating down in the distance from Los Angeles.
"Maybe it's a weather balloon." Bob suggested.
"Probably it's on a tether to keep it from drifting away." I was losing interest and began casting about in search of a high traveling satellite. Bob spotted one once, I was still looking.
I glanced back at my low star and measured it with my two fingers. I looked up at the Gemini twins, Pollux and Castor always just four fingers apart. With that confirmation of my accurate measure, I turned back to the "star". Now a tiny bit lower than two fingers and just a tad further from the apartment building on our right that I had measured it against with my hand. Maybe the balloon was tied to a boat and bobbing about on the waves. "Oh well!" I was getting water logged watching the star move so slowly. Bob rose to get out and commented,
"The Navy has a base on San Clemente Island. Perhaps it's something of theirs."
"Probably. But it sure looks like a star."
The next night we noticed first thing as soon as we settled in was that our low star was still there. Two fingers up and three hands from the apartments.
"I called around and tried to find someone who knew what that light was." Bob told me. "No luck though. No one knew what I was talking about."
"Who did you call?" I wondered.
"The Weather Bureau, the Coast Guard, and the Harbor Patrol. I figured if it wasn't theirs, one of them would have seen it and know what it is.."
"Did anyone?" He shook his head, no. "No one had ever heard of it or even remembered seeing it. It must not be very important, what ever it is."
That night we began to notice that it moved exactly with Sirius, which was right above it. That became our way of finding it. We'd look up at Orion, then left, over to Sirius and down almost to the water. Some nights the low smog or clouds over the horizon obscured it. If it was clear, it was there: a white star that flashed red and green into the binocs, which none of our Star maps explained. We showed it to all guests, who began to refer to it as "Your flying saucer".
I have now given enough clues for a serious astronomer to know what we had found. Indeed the first "Real Astronomer" we asked knew exactly what we were seeing.
We decided, one Sunday to take a drive to Mount Palomar. We knew that they had a huge 200 inch telescope that had been caravaned up the mountain road at night because the truck carrying it took up the whole road. I don't remember the year, but I was a school girl at the time. I couldn't think why it took us so long to get around to going there.
We signed up for the guided tour with 30 other visitors, led by a young man from Cal.Tech. He did a wonderful job discribing the three large telescopes and explaining their different uses. Afterwards, he stood patiently and answered questions from the group. Most wanted to know more about him and his interests.
"He explained that he was a student of astronomy and yes, he did get time at the big scopes. He would make those his life's work..."not giving tours," he added with a smile.
Bob finally asked him about the light we saw from our perch at sea level in Laguna Beach. "It seems to be a star, "he explained carefully, "but the flashing red and green lights we saw in the binoculars confused us.
"I understand." he told us at once.
At last someone who doesn't act as if we are seeing flying saucers! We moved in closer as he explained, "What you are seeing is Canopus in the southern hemisphere. It's in the southern constellation, Carina, part of Argo. It's the brightest star in the southern sky." Some of the group left, others closed in to hear the explaination of this odd star, Canopus which they had not seen or even heard about. "Technically, it cannot be seen from here, which is why it is not shown on star maps of the Northern Hemisphere. However," he added with a little smile, "if the conditions are just right, the bright light from Canopus is bent by our atmophere, and it appears to be just a couple of degrees above our horizon.The red and green flashing lights are the result of the starlight traveling at different speeds through the Earth's atmosphere. To you it will seem to set into the Pacific Ocean just a little way from where it first appears as it follows it's arc across the sky, right ahead of our Orion, as you may have noticed."
"It must be easier for you to see, way up here on top of this mountain." I suggested. This brought a big smile from our young host.
"Yes indeed!" He laughed, "Just as the flea has a much better look at the moon, when he jumps on the dog's back." Now we all laughed.
We thanked him for solving our mystery and left very contented.
Watch for the next Hot Tub story.
Hot Tub Astronomy, 7: Halley's Comet
Hot Tub Astronomy 7
Pulling the Plug and Hitting the Road in Search of Halley's Comet
The year was 1986. We watched the last of the hot water gurgle out of the Hot Tub and spill out under the surprised rose bushes. We snapped on the cover then threw our star charts and magazines into the camper with our warm clothes, and about a weeks supply of camping stuff and a couple days worth of food and drinks. Everything else we'd buy as needed.
We would head for the mountains and hopefully open skies away from city lights.
This was brought on by a business trip we had recently experienced in Palm Springs. Out on the high California desert we expected to find dark, open skies that would give us a good view of the expected Persied meteor shower. That night we bundled up warm and went outside. Not another soul was in sight. Obviously the rest of the guests hadn't heard about it. The air was dry and sharply cold. Straight above we could see stars were up there, but only straight up. The rest of the sky was obliterated by the lights around the pool, tennis courts, parking lot and bright neons blinking yellow red and blue atop the Hotel. So much for the dark desert sky!
This time we would go where there were no hotels, tennis courts or lights.
We pulled the plug on the comforts of home and headed up to the mountains. We didn't expect too much competition for an R.V. site as it was October.
Our main goal was to find Halley's Comet.
At our first camp in many years we found a lovely spot at the edge of the giant redwood trees, a short stroll to an open field.
We crept quietly out in the middle of the night. Our feet crunched on the soft pine needles as we made our way into the open. I wondered if other campers turned over in their sleep and thought they heard bears walking by. I wondered if bears really did walk by. Then suddenly in the open I was so overwhelmed by the stars that I forgot about the bears and just stood looking up. There were so many stars I was lost! Together we scoped out our old hot tub friends, Orion, Tarus, Pleiades, and worked our way out from there. It was marvelous, but no Halley.
Each day we drove and each night we camped and looked. No Halley!
Finally we found Halley! In San Francisco! In the Golden Gate Park Planitarium at 9:o'clock in the morning!
We arrived just in time to march in with a large group of third graders being herded in two by two, led and followed by two teachers.
"I'm sorry," We were told at the door "The lectures are for schools by reservation only. This lesson is aimed at the seven and eight year olds."
We asked if we could please sit in. Hopefully the third graders were not too far ahead of us..starwise. We were asked to wait until the classes were seated and then they would see. "But the lecture is for the very young," they warned.
Soon we were ushered to a pair of seats in the rear.
I felt rather large in the back row behind the tiny wide-eyed eight year olds.
The lecturer, taking the age of the audience into concideration went carefully and slowly into the night.
A large dome above us became pink with sunset and after pointing out North, South, East, and West, she drew our attention to the buildings that were silhouetted around the rim just below the dome:all landmarks of San Francisco. With a magic light wand that placed an arrow on the dome, she pointed out the Golden Gate Bridge, then where Jupiter could be seen as a bright dot, then a full color NASA photo of the real thing. One by one she described Jupiter's moons. Slowly the sky grew darker and stars appeared. She paused and looked at the children.
"Students," She said, "We have a problem. We are still in the city and lights are making it difficult to see the stars. Let's all work together and see if we can turn the city lights out." Take hold of the right arm of your seat and squeeze hard, maybe we can turn the city lights out together." The lights behind the black silhouettes of buildings and bridges etc. dimmed to off and it became amazingly dark. A darkness that in many circumstances would have set some of the children to crying for their mothers. Instead, sitting in the darkness of their own making, the room was filled with oohs and ahhs as the children took in the breathless beauty of a very realistic sky, just as we had seen in the mountains, but without the pine scented breeze.
Slowly the sky turned, or as our lecturer skillfully pointed out, WE turned, and were treated to sky lore with brilliant pictures occasionally imposed atop the stars.
At Halley's Comet time we were shown some pictures from the past. Then told exactly where we could see it tonight. Just what we wanted to know.
The dawn turned the east pink all too soon. The children buzzed with excitment of all they had seen. Not single child had fallen asleep. Some walked to the center of the room for a closer look at the machine that had created the sky for them. It was wonderful. I would gladly share my sky with the third graders again. We thanked the young woman who had conducted us on the tour with such skill. Soon we would find Halley for ourselves.
That night it was cloudy.
We camped our way North. In Oregon we lost our Astronomy Magazine to a couple who read it one day and even got up at night to look at stars with us. When it was time to leave we didn't have the heart to ask for it back. We bought another in Reno.
The Grand Canyon beckoned us, but they were booked up. We drove up anyway just for a look. However the news was good and bad. They had so much dense fog hiding the famous canyon, that some vacationers had left and we a got a charming little log cottage right on the edge of the canyon, which the young man showing us the way, said was really and truly there, and tomorrow if it clears we'll be very happy with it. Whereas it was semi-clear on top where we stood, we looked down at such dense clouds it seemed as if we could walk on them.
The young man was right! We woke up to a breathtaking view of the entire Grand Canyon. We sat on the edge of the world with our coffee and just watched the colors change as the sun moved across the rocky cliffs. Later we took the fabulous helicopter tour of the Canyon.
That night we stood on the edge of Earth and actually found Halley's Comet. Really! It was just a white smudge but we had a feeling of accomplishment.
Now that Bob knew where it was and what it actually looked like, he knew he could continue to track it from home. So home we went to enjoy Halley with our family.
Pulling the Plug and Hitting the Road in Search of Halley's Comet
The year was 1986. We watched the last of the hot water gurgle out of the Hot Tub and spill out under the surprised rose bushes. We snapped on the cover then threw our star charts and magazines into the camper with our warm clothes, and about a weeks supply of camping stuff and a couple days worth of food and drinks. Everything else we'd buy as needed.
We would head for the mountains and hopefully open skies away from city lights.
This was brought on by a business trip we had recently experienced in Palm Springs. Out on the high California desert we expected to find dark, open skies that would give us a good view of the expected Persied meteor shower. That night we bundled up warm and went outside. Not another soul was in sight. Obviously the rest of the guests hadn't heard about it. The air was dry and sharply cold. Straight above we could see stars were up there, but only straight up. The rest of the sky was obliterated by the lights around the pool, tennis courts, parking lot and bright neons blinking yellow red and blue atop the Hotel. So much for the dark desert sky!
This time we would go where there were no hotels, tennis courts or lights.
We pulled the plug on the comforts of home and headed up to the mountains. We didn't expect too much competition for an R.V. site as it was October.
Our main goal was to find Halley's Comet.
At our first camp in many years we found a lovely spot at the edge of the giant redwood trees, a short stroll to an open field.
We crept quietly out in the middle of the night. Our feet crunched on the soft pine needles as we made our way into the open. I wondered if other campers turned over in their sleep and thought they heard bears walking by. I wondered if bears really did walk by. Then suddenly in the open I was so overwhelmed by the stars that I forgot about the bears and just stood looking up. There were so many stars I was lost! Together we scoped out our old hot tub friends, Orion, Tarus, Pleiades, and worked our way out from there. It was marvelous, but no Halley.
Each day we drove and each night we camped and looked. No Halley!
Finally we found Halley! In San Francisco! In the Golden Gate Park Planitarium at 9:o'clock in the morning!
We arrived just in time to march in with a large group of third graders being herded in two by two, led and followed by two teachers.
"I'm sorry," We were told at the door "The lectures are for schools by reservation only. This lesson is aimed at the seven and eight year olds."
We asked if we could please sit in. Hopefully the third graders were not too far ahead of us..starwise. We were asked to wait until the classes were seated and then they would see. "But the lecture is for the very young," they warned.
Soon we were ushered to a pair of seats in the rear.
I felt rather large in the back row behind the tiny wide-eyed eight year olds.
The lecturer, taking the age of the audience into concideration went carefully and slowly into the night.
A large dome above us became pink with sunset and after pointing out North, South, East, and West, she drew our attention to the buildings that were silhouetted around the rim just below the dome:all landmarks of San Francisco. With a magic light wand that placed an arrow on the dome, she pointed out the Golden Gate Bridge, then where Jupiter could be seen as a bright dot, then a full color NASA photo of the real thing. One by one she described Jupiter's moons. Slowly the sky grew darker and stars appeared. She paused and looked at the children.
"Students," She said, "We have a problem. We are still in the city and lights are making it difficult to see the stars. Let's all work together and see if we can turn the city lights out." Take hold of the right arm of your seat and squeeze hard, maybe we can turn the city lights out together." The lights behind the black silhouettes of buildings and bridges etc. dimmed to off and it became amazingly dark. A darkness that in many circumstances would have set some of the children to crying for their mothers. Instead, sitting in the darkness of their own making, the room was filled with oohs and ahhs as the children took in the breathless beauty of a very realistic sky, just as we had seen in the mountains, but without the pine scented breeze.
Slowly the sky turned, or as our lecturer skillfully pointed out, WE turned, and were treated to sky lore with brilliant pictures occasionally imposed atop the stars.
At Halley's Comet time we were shown some pictures from the past. Then told exactly where we could see it tonight. Just what we wanted to know.
The dawn turned the east pink all too soon. The children buzzed with excitment of all they had seen. Not single child had fallen asleep. Some walked to the center of the room for a closer look at the machine that had created the sky for them. It was wonderful. I would gladly share my sky with the third graders again. We thanked the young woman who had conducted us on the tour with such skill. Soon we would find Halley for ourselves.
That night it was cloudy.
We camped our way North. In Oregon we lost our Astronomy Magazine to a couple who read it one day and even got up at night to look at stars with us. When it was time to leave we didn't have the heart to ask for it back. We bought another in Reno.
The Grand Canyon beckoned us, but they were booked up. We drove up anyway just for a look. However the news was good and bad. They had so much dense fog hiding the famous canyon, that some vacationers had left and we a got a charming little log cottage right on the edge of the canyon, which the young man showing us the way, said was really and truly there, and tomorrow if it clears we'll be very happy with it. Whereas it was semi-clear on top where we stood, we looked down at such dense clouds it seemed as if we could walk on them.
The young man was right! We woke up to a breathtaking view of the entire Grand Canyon. We sat on the edge of the world with our coffee and just watched the colors change as the sun moved across the rocky cliffs. Later we took the fabulous helicopter tour of the Canyon.
That night we stood on the edge of Earth and actually found Halley's Comet. Really! It was just a white smudge but we had a feeling of accomplishment.
Now that Bob knew where it was and what it actually looked like, he knew he could continue to track it from home. So home we went to enjoy Halley with our family.
Hot Tub Astronomy, 8: Meteorites: My Sky Diamonds
Hot Tub Astronomy 8
Meteorites: My Sky Diamonds
After one carries on a hobby for many years, it is often difficult to remember the when, how and why it had all started. But I am often asked that and how many meteorites do you have? Obviously my collection is minor compared to those meteor hunters like O. Richard Norton, who scour the Earth the world over. But it is our collection and people we show are usually impressed. They want to handle them one after the other, touch the magnet to them and look at the pictures I show them in my books.
Because of the intense interest of children, I have begun to keep a small pile of the tiny chips my favorite rock store, Kristalle's of Laguna Beach, often carries. I was told that they get them from an Australian fellow, who finds them when cleaning a storm drain. Most of the little rocks that seemed to clog it up were bitty meteorites washed in from the small muddy river on his ranch. When he had enough to bother with, he put them on the Web at the per ounce price, where Kristalle's became his steady customer... and we theirs!
With some small plastic boxes, I could say to a child who was reluctant to leave my assortment when it was time to leave, "Would you like to have a small one to keep?" I then showed them the small dish that contained the chips. And let them choose just one to put in the box and take home.
This always reminded me of how I actually got started collecting with a chip also that small..
The find was tied to our 1986 road trip to hunt for Halley's Comet.
One of our stops was at an Arizona museum where they sold very small chips of iron-nickel meteorites, each one in a little plastic box. I bought one and felt as thrilled with my purchase as these little kids seemed to be when given one of mine. I often liked to take mine out to handle it and wonder about space and distant things. I guess I hoped this child would do the same.
My most interesting book, Rocks from Space, by O. Richard Norton, came several years later with my next meteorite.
One of our anniversaries was coming up and Bob was hinting around trying to decide on a gift for me. "What would you like?" he finally just came out and asked. "Would you like another diamond? Maybe a new ring or a necklace?" A reasonable guess as diamonds are my birth stone and everyone knows they are a "girls best friend."
But I knew instantly what I wanted, I had seen it in Kristalle's Rock shop.
"I would much rather have that piece of metorite we saw the other day!" This was not a chip, but nice 461 gram slice of iron-octahedrite from Toluca Mexico, cut open on one long side showing a beautiful, silver Widmanstatten pattern the other side coated with a rust colored ablasion crust it had developed burning it's way to Earth. The Widmanstatten.is an unusual design of crossing lines, almost forming a plaid effect in the cut and treated metal and is the result of the rocks, thrown into space from an exploding star then cooling slowly over millions and millions of years. So obviously man could not make an earth rock of iron and nickel metals and then cool it properly to fake the meteorite effect.
The one I loved felt heavy as it fit the length of my hand, and I wanted to own this "Diamond from the Sky" much more than another diamond anything .
After I opened it on our anniversary, those people present were amazed, or appalled, that Bob had given me a rustly rock as a gift! But I was thrilled because even though I had asked for it, I really wasn't sure that he would spend that much money for a rock.
It was given a place of honor on the piano, sitting on a wooden base where others could see it and even handle it, thinking what ever they chose to think. I loved it! The "Rocks from Space book came with it, and I read every word! I learned that the Widmanstatten Pattern that defined a meteorite from a simple iron earth rock was discovered similtainiously by Count Alois von Widmanstatten in Vienna and William Thompson in Naples. However, Count Widmanstatten had published first, so he got the name. As I often stumbled over that unfamiliar German pronounced name, I wished good old Will Thompson had been a little quicker to publish.
The "Rocks from Space" book was so popular that we needed to buy a new copy quite often. The guests who picked up my heavy meteorite and couldn't put it down, were directed to the Rocks in Space book which I called "the most interesting book I have ever read." It not only contains the human history of meteorites, it's full of very interesting individual stories about exceedingly large ones found and exploited, and lots of photos. If anyone wanted to borrow it I let them. As often as not, I was soon called to be told that they had finished it, but wanted a son or daughter,.. or someone else important to read it. Where could they buy it?
I sometimes replied. "Keep that one. I'll pick up another from Kristalle's. They're just a couple of blocks up the street from us. We had been in the habit of dropping in when we walked with a grandchild to show the rocks and interesting things to them and look over the new stuff. After I had read that book, I now had an opinion about what kind of meteoite I wanted to own next. I had learned about Stony-Pallisites and Carbonaceous Condrites and that almost every type of gem stone had been found in these types of rocks. Now I wanted one of those.
However my next rock came from Quartzite Arizona, and was another nickel-iron like my first.
We were returning from a vacation, on which I carried the very strong, little magnet that I had purchased to test rocks, hoping to find my own meteoite lying around somewhere. However,I was never quite in the right somewhere, but it was in my purse just in case. So this time when the road home took us past the tiny, almost non-existant, town of Quartzite, we were surprised to see hundreds, no thousands, of cars parked all around a tent covered field that turned out to be a "Rock Show". We stopped and began the long dusty trek walking between the rows of tents where rock folks had put up their booths to sell whatever they had been gathering over the year. Many had tables full of grimy, dirty, rocks for sale to those who knew what they were seeing. I held my little magnet in my hand and put it close to the black familiar looking ones, but found nothing of interest.
We asked around if anyone knew of a meteoite collector. We were directed this way and that, but didn't find a soul who had a meteoite. Some of the tables had real glass booths where the finished products of their rocks were displayed as Jewelry or brilliantly shined pieces of carved Art. Eventually we were directed to a numbered booth that someone was sure had meteoites. When we found it, we were disappointed to learn the he did have several, but one man had bought them all: a Jewelry Maker.
The dust and dry heat were getting to us, so we decided to give it one more aisle to try to find the guy who bought them all.
You would have to see what we were up against. We had only gone up and down about half of the aisles. At the edge of the field we could see an even larger field where I can't begin to guess how many RV's and tents were congregated into the huge temporary "City of Quartzite" for the duration of the show.
The Jewelry People seemed to have a long aisle of their own, and after discovering it, we asked until we found him.
A goodlooking young man was leaning over his work table and it was easy to see he was cutting and polishing stones and would rather not stop. Racks on his display case dripped with chains of lovely shined rocks and matching bracelets and earrings. I ran my fingers through them. He did very nice work. The sign on the tent behind him read , "Stoneage Jewelry by James Haas of Almont Colorado."
He stood almost reluctantly to take care of a possible customer; Us.
Bob asked him right off about meteorites. He showed us the little slices polished to show the etched Widmanstatten Pattern, that hung on the chains, tie clips, key chains , cuff links, and all of that girly stuff I mentioned. "No." Bob explained, "We want to buy a rock. A whole rock."
He shook his head, no. "I cut them into pieces and make them into things to sell in my Colorado shop."
"May we at least see one?" Bob inquired. Young Mr.Haas reached under the counter and pulled out a rock, from which he had just cut off the end.
. He held out the small triangular piece to Bob. I thought maybe he was considering selling him that end. Bob held out his hand to receive the bigger chunk also. He fitted the little one to the cut on the big one.
"See?" we were told proudly, "I just etched the little cut end to assure myself that it was a meteorite." We both examined it. The tiny triangle end gleamed with the Widmanstatten Pattern. Our books tell how to achieve this, but it requires chemicals we are not familar with and seems a little complicated, still it is the only sure way to tell a meteoite from a meteorwrong.
"What would you charge for this?" Bob asked, bouncing the chunk in his hand. I took it. It was heavy...clearly bigger than mine at home. The boy hesitated, "I can make more cutting it." He said slowly, as he put the rock on a scale behind him before adding, "I'd have to ask $500. dollars for the big one." Inside I gasped. Bob didn't blink. He made an offer.pointing out that a profit could be made with less overhead. "Cash, if I can have the little end with the pattern on it also."
The deal was made, and we left Quartzite with our prize, a 2nd meteorite!. It was better than winning in Vegas.
We now have a total of 17 meteorites. There are stories about all of them, like the one our daughter, Nancy, found in a shop in Paris France, the little ivory hand holding a silver Widmanstatten etched ball another daughter, Bonnie, found on her vacation and the wrist watch with a meteorite face our son, J.R.'s family gave to Bob. Beverly
Meteorites: My Sky Diamonds
After one carries on a hobby for many years, it is often difficult to remember the when, how and why it had all started. But I am often asked that and how many meteorites do you have? Obviously my collection is minor compared to those meteor hunters like O. Richard Norton, who scour the Earth the world over. But it is our collection and people we show are usually impressed. They want to handle them one after the other, touch the magnet to them and look at the pictures I show them in my books.
Because of the intense interest of children, I have begun to keep a small pile of the tiny chips my favorite rock store, Kristalle's of Laguna Beach, often carries. I was told that they get them from an Australian fellow, who finds them when cleaning a storm drain. Most of the little rocks that seemed to clog it up were bitty meteorites washed in from the small muddy river on his ranch. When he had enough to bother with, he put them on the Web at the per ounce price, where Kristalle's became his steady customer... and we theirs!
With some small plastic boxes, I could say to a child who was reluctant to leave my assortment when it was time to leave, "Would you like to have a small one to keep?" I then showed them the small dish that contained the chips. And let them choose just one to put in the box and take home.
This always reminded me of how I actually got started collecting with a chip also that small..
The find was tied to our 1986 road trip to hunt for Halley's Comet.
One of our stops was at an Arizona museum where they sold very small chips of iron-nickel meteorites, each one in a little plastic box. I bought one and felt as thrilled with my purchase as these little kids seemed to be when given one of mine. I often liked to take mine out to handle it and wonder about space and distant things. I guess I hoped this child would do the same.
My most interesting book, Rocks from Space, by O. Richard Norton, came several years later with my next meteorite.
One of our anniversaries was coming up and Bob was hinting around trying to decide on a gift for me. "What would you like?" he finally just came out and asked. "Would you like another diamond? Maybe a new ring or a necklace?" A reasonable guess as diamonds are my birth stone and everyone knows they are a "girls best friend."
But I knew instantly what I wanted, I had seen it in Kristalle's Rock shop.
"I would much rather have that piece of metorite we saw the other day!" This was not a chip, but nice 461 gram slice of iron-octahedrite from Toluca Mexico, cut open on one long side showing a beautiful, silver Widmanstatten pattern the other side coated with a rust colored ablasion crust it had developed burning it's way to Earth. The Widmanstatten.is an unusual design of crossing lines, almost forming a plaid effect in the cut and treated metal and is the result of the rocks, thrown into space from an exploding star then cooling slowly over millions and millions of years. So obviously man could not make an earth rock of iron and nickel metals and then cool it properly to fake the meteorite effect.
The one I loved felt heavy as it fit the length of my hand, and I wanted to own this "Diamond from the Sky" much more than another diamond anything .
After I opened it on our anniversary, those people present were amazed, or appalled, that Bob had given me a rustly rock as a gift! But I was thrilled because even though I had asked for it, I really wasn't sure that he would spend that much money for a rock.
It was given a place of honor on the piano, sitting on a wooden base where others could see it and even handle it, thinking what ever they chose to think. I loved it! The "Rocks from Space book came with it, and I read every word! I learned that the Widmanstatten Pattern that defined a meteorite from a simple iron earth rock was discovered similtainiously by Count Alois von Widmanstatten in Vienna and William Thompson in Naples. However, Count Widmanstatten had published first, so he got the name. As I often stumbled over that unfamiliar German pronounced name, I wished good old Will Thompson had been a little quicker to publish.
The "Rocks from Space" book was so popular that we needed to buy a new copy quite often. The guests who picked up my heavy meteorite and couldn't put it down, were directed to the Rocks in Space book which I called "the most interesting book I have ever read." It not only contains the human history of meteorites, it's full of very interesting individual stories about exceedingly large ones found and exploited, and lots of photos. If anyone wanted to borrow it I let them. As often as not, I was soon called to be told that they had finished it, but wanted a son or daughter,.. or someone else important to read it. Where could they buy it?
I sometimes replied. "Keep that one. I'll pick up another from Kristalle's. They're just a couple of blocks up the street from us. We had been in the habit of dropping in when we walked with a grandchild to show the rocks and interesting things to them and look over the new stuff. After I had read that book, I now had an opinion about what kind of meteoite I wanted to own next. I had learned about Stony-Pallisites and Carbonaceous Condrites and that almost every type of gem stone had been found in these types of rocks. Now I wanted one of those.
However my next rock came from Quartzite Arizona, and was another nickel-iron like my first.
We were returning from a vacation, on which I carried the very strong, little magnet that I had purchased to test rocks, hoping to find my own meteoite lying around somewhere. However,I was never quite in the right somewhere, but it was in my purse just in case. So this time when the road home took us past the tiny, almost non-existant, town of Quartzite, we were surprised to see hundreds, no thousands, of cars parked all around a tent covered field that turned out to be a "Rock Show". We stopped and began the long dusty trek walking between the rows of tents where rock folks had put up their booths to sell whatever they had been gathering over the year. Many had tables full of grimy, dirty, rocks for sale to those who knew what they were seeing. I held my little magnet in my hand and put it close to the black familiar looking ones, but found nothing of interest.
We asked around if anyone knew of a meteoite collector. We were directed this way and that, but didn't find a soul who had a meteoite. Some of the tables had real glass booths where the finished products of their rocks were displayed as Jewelry or brilliantly shined pieces of carved Art. Eventually we were directed to a numbered booth that someone was sure had meteoites. When we found it, we were disappointed to learn the he did have several, but one man had bought them all: a Jewelry Maker.
The dust and dry heat were getting to us, so we decided to give it one more aisle to try to find the guy who bought them all.
You would have to see what we were up against. We had only gone up and down about half of the aisles. At the edge of the field we could see an even larger field where I can't begin to guess how many RV's and tents were congregated into the huge temporary "City of Quartzite" for the duration of the show.
The Jewelry People seemed to have a long aisle of their own, and after discovering it, we asked until we found him.
A goodlooking young man was leaning over his work table and it was easy to see he was cutting and polishing stones and would rather not stop. Racks on his display case dripped with chains of lovely shined rocks and matching bracelets and earrings. I ran my fingers through them. He did very nice work. The sign on the tent behind him read , "Stoneage Jewelry by James Haas of Almont Colorado."
He stood almost reluctantly to take care of a possible customer; Us.
Bob asked him right off about meteorites. He showed us the little slices polished to show the etched Widmanstatten Pattern, that hung on the chains, tie clips, key chains , cuff links, and all of that girly stuff I mentioned. "No." Bob explained, "We want to buy a rock. A whole rock."
He shook his head, no. "I cut them into pieces and make them into things to sell in my Colorado shop."
"May we at least see one?" Bob inquired. Young Mr.Haas reached under the counter and pulled out a rock, from which he had just cut off the end.
. He held out the small triangular piece to Bob. I thought maybe he was considering selling him that end. Bob held out his hand to receive the bigger chunk also. He fitted the little one to the cut on the big one.
"See?" we were told proudly, "I just etched the little cut end to assure myself that it was a meteorite." We both examined it. The tiny triangle end gleamed with the Widmanstatten Pattern. Our books tell how to achieve this, but it requires chemicals we are not familar with and seems a little complicated, still it is the only sure way to tell a meteoite from a meteorwrong.
"What would you charge for this?" Bob asked, bouncing the chunk in his hand. I took it. It was heavy...clearly bigger than mine at home. The boy hesitated, "I can make more cutting it." He said slowly, as he put the rock on a scale behind him before adding, "I'd have to ask $500. dollars for the big one." Inside I gasped. Bob didn't blink. He made an offer.pointing out that a profit could be made with less overhead. "Cash, if I can have the little end with the pattern on it also."
The deal was made, and we left Quartzite with our prize, a 2nd meteorite!. It was better than winning in Vegas.
We now have a total of 17 meteorites. There are stories about all of them, like the one our daughter, Nancy, found in a shop in Paris France, the little ivory hand holding a silver Widmanstatten etched ball another daughter, Bonnie, found on her vacation and the wrist watch with a meteorite face our son, J.R.'s family gave to Bob. Beverly
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