Author Archives: Mike

Vincent and Walt

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Mike

Have you read Vincent’s letters to his brother Theo? I haven’t yet. I found this quote in Gardner’s Art Through the Ages (page 918): Perhaps death is not the hardest thing in a painter’s life. . . . [L]ooking at … Continue reading →

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The Stars Will Outshine Us

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Mike

Like you, I read a fair bit, and sometimes a poem or piece of prose affects me, and I want to share it with others. Sometimes these pieces are even related to looking up, or space, or even equipment and … Continue reading →

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Dew Heater for Telrad

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Mike

I’ll be buying parts and making a dew heater for my Telrad in the next few days. Want me to make you one too? Here’s a pdf file with the instructions in case you’d rather make one yourself (scanned from … Continue reading →

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CalSky

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Mike

I’m still tinkering. I’ll keep varying the header and background photos because there are so many beautiful photos at the Hubble site. And I’ve added a few links that I intend to really use. For example, CalSky (which is not … Continue reading →

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Mike

Today’s APotD reminded me of a book I want to recommend to you: Rare Earth: why complex life is uncommon in the Universe, by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee (Copernicus, an imprint of Springer-Verlag, 2000). It’s full of interesting … Continue reading →

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Dew heater

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Mike

One of my problems using my telescope for long periods here in San Rafael is dew. I need to make a little heater for the Telrad to start. There’s an electronics parts store downtown I’ll visit tomorrow. (I know this … Continue reading →

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Sagittarius star cloud

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Mike

The background is a tiled version of a Hubble photo of the Sagittarius star cloud. Copied on March 1, 2011 from: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire/pr1998028d/large_web/ Credit: The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA) ~mfd

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Carina Nebula

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Mike

I uploaded a cropped version of a Hubble Space Telescope photo of the Carina Nebula as a header theme. Southern hemisphere beauty, but when else will we see it? I copied it from this web page today, March 1, 2011: … Continue reading →

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