Amazing Mars

You know, since I'm in astronomy for a living and there are all kinds of amazing images and discoveries coming in everyday, you'd think I would have been blogging about astronomy more. And since I love science in general, you'd think I'd be blogging about all science more too! Well, hopefully this post will be the first of many more to come of things that catch my eye.

Mars is currently being studied by five spacecraft, and until recently it was six (since Mars Global Surveyor seems to have gone bye-bye), so there has been no shortage of incredible images and science coming from the Red Planet recently. Of course, there was the water announcement last week, for starters. Then there are the rovers Spirit and Opportunity that keep on roving and sending back amazing pictures. And the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which has the highest resolution camera ever to photograph Mars onboard. Mars Odyssey is the fifth spacecraft for those keeping count.

The picture up top is the latest release from the Reconnaissance Orbiter. In addition to the incredible details and the interesting science from the image, it's just plain pretty to look at.

No dragons were harmed in the making of these sausages...

Or, in Monty Python parlance, Welsh Dragon sausages without so much dragon in them (or spam, for that matter).

From the BBC:

Trading standards said Black Mountains Smokery in Powys must also include the type of meat used in the sausages - pork - to meet labelling regulations. ... Jon Carthew said: "I don't think any of our customers actually believe that we use dragon meat in our sausages.

Full article

Texas Renaissance Festival

In the busy week and head cold that followed it, I forgot to post a link to the photos I took at the Renaissance Festival on Nov. 4. Click on the photo at the top to go to the Flickr set.

We had a good time, as always. I've been going to TRF for 20 years now and I've pretty much had every type of weather Texas can throw at you in October and November, except ice and snow (we got close one year at 35F and raining... I think it turned to sleet that night after we were home). This year was lovely... around 70 and partly cloudy.

I've taken my camera many times, but other than the first year I went, I think this is the largest number of photos I've taken. I guess I get sidetracked by shopping and music and forget the camera most of the time!

Busy day and not over yet... while coming down with a cold

Besides staying up way too long to watch election results last night, I have had a totally busy day today. Depending on where on you were, you may have been able to watch Mercury transit the sun. It's one of those types of astronomical events that some people find really neat and others can't figure out what the big deal is. In this case, Mercury is very small and it moves pretty slowly across the disk, but the alignment is fairly rare (the next one is 10 years away and the last one visible from Austin was in 1999). I've linked the above image to a photo I took of the image from our solar telescope at work. It's actually projecting against a wall, so it may look a little weird in places where the paint has chipped a little. All-in-all, it was a neat transit. Now I have the Venus transit of 2012 to look forward to!

And right now I'm sniffling my way through the night-time public viewing on our 16-inch telescope. It's a nice night and I've been clouded out for 4 weeks straight, so it's kind of nice to finally open up again. I just wish I didn't feel so terrible! The next few days at work should be slow (especially compared to today and the very busy few weeks I've had up to now), so hopefully I can take it easy...

Photos from the Air and Space Museums now up

Air & Space Dulles Photo Set

Air & Space Downtown Photo Set

The new Air and Space out at Dulles was absolutely wonderful for a space junkie like me. I also loved some of the old aircraft, especially the early Pan Am commercial airplane. Seeing the Enola Gay in one piece was neat too, since only half of it was in the American History Museum (I think...) 10 years ago, and the other have was getting restored at the Paul Garber facility. So, I have seen both halves separately and together now. Getting to see a space shuttle up close was pretty awesome too!

I had been to the downtown Air & Space nearly 10 years ago, but it was nice to get back there too. They had a new exhibit of the Wright Flyer and they have added the SpaceShip One - the first privately funded ship to go into space. I was also happy to get some better pictures of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega, since the photos I took last time didn't come out very good and I was quite disappointed. I took lots and lots of photos, but I just chose a few to put up on Flickr since the world only needs so many photos of an SR-71...

Aaahhhhhhhhh

I love fall. No two ways about it, it's my favorite season although it's followed closely by spring and all the beautiful wildflowers it brings to Central Texas. I figure this comes from being a life-long Texan and when that first strong cold front of the season comes through and finally breaks the heat, it is such a welcome relief.

The first burst of Canadian cold air is working its way through town right now and it is finally starting to feel like fall in Texas. Now if we could just get some of those cool fall colors on the trees...

Washington DC Photoset up

I've put up a new Washington DC photoset over on Flickr of some of the photos I took when we were walking around DC a couple of weeks ago. If you like those, you might want to take a look at the photos from my last trip to Washington and Baltimore in 1997.

More new photosets coming soon!

Austin Area Quilt Guild 2006 Show and Photos

I went to the AAQG 2006 quilt show over the weekend. I only took pictures of some of the quilts that particularly caught my eye because I forgot to bring my larger compact flash card for my camera! Here's the Flickr photoset

Also over the weekend I finally finished stitching the binding on a quilt I have been working on for ages. I'll take some photos of my own stuff and get them up on the website eventually. :)

National Cathedral Photos Up

See, I did actually get some photos up on Flickr: National Cathedral photoset

Back from short Washington DC trip

We spent a long weekend in the DC area to celebrate a family birthday, but we also had a few chances to go into town and sightsee. We went to the National Cathedral on Sunday, which was quite interesting. In style, it closely resembles cathedrals that I've visited in the UK (Westminster Abbey, Canterbury, etc.), but the building is less than 100 years old! We also went over to the Folger Shakespeare Library, where I finally got around to buying the Disappearing Wives of Henry VIII mug and some other goodies. We also wandered around for a few hours on Monday, where I managed to completely destroy my feet by wearing an old pair of aerobics shoes that were way too worn out to be comfortable for all that walking. I'm going to throw them away as soon as I finally unpack our suitcase... they aren't even worth donating.

I'm still sorting through the photos, but I'll upload them to Flickr and post the link to the set in the next few days! (Really, I will! I promise!)