Long ago, a friend asked that I arrange “a romantic night under the stars” for her Las Vegas-based supervisor and his betrothed. When I reported the plans I was making for a dark desert site, including a large telescope operated by an experienced astronomer, my friend asked, “What about a bonfire and champagne?” I explained …
Tag: Astronomy
who are we?
After I finally finished school for the first time, most new encounters eventually got around to: “What do you do?” Come to think of it, when I went back to school 20 years ago, I was old enough that people still asked that, so I guess it has more to do with being “working age” …
out and away
I was just 1500 miles into the initial 48-state portion of this continuing journey, when I stopped for a meal at a patio bistro on Missouri’s Katy Trial. The Big’s distinctive profile gets noticed, even where other bicycles abound, and a young lady at the next table asked about the bike. I explained the mobile-observatory …
cat people
I was never a cat person. I still have a scar on my left index finger, the gift of the irate Siamese who bit me when I was four. And I was allergic to cats when young. I was allergic to many irritants, actually, but cats were among the worst. My eyes would itch, then …
pollywogs
The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words – Elliot Erwitt. An able photographer would convey that the tadpoles’ shallow pool was but a small sample of roadways flooded by early-summer storms that inundated the U.S. heartlands that season, leaving destruction and yet, yes, life, in …
a good story
When he realized the load I was pedaling versus the journey ahead, a new friend chastised that I had planned poorly. Conceding I had indeed scant strategy, I continued, “But which story is more compelling? One: I anticipated and prepared for every eventuality. There were no surprises. Or two: I had no idea what I’d …
ghost over central park
She stood waiting in the lobby of her building, shushing the nurse worrying over her – both giggling – devotion, each to the other, obvious in every gesture. I gasped, “Oh, but she is gorgeous! You didn’t warn me!” My companions had described her age, but little else. Childlike yet poised, delicate yet enduring, unpretentious …
trace encounters – why we wander
“Y’all okay?” It was a bright, postcard-worthy Saturday afternoon on the Natchez Trace Parkway. A steady north breeze pushed Southern Mississippi’s oppressive humidity back to the Gulf of Mexico, to the relief of all but the few Nashville-bound bicycling tourists for whom it served a challenging headwind. “Need me to come down there?” His voice, …
aerodynamic and metabolic reality
It’s hard work pedaling/pushing a loaded bike up a mountain, but the mountain pays you back with an equal descent, right? Often the same day? (Warning: Math ahead!) But air is weighty – about two pounds per cubic yard (almost 1.3 kilograms per cubic meter) at the altitudes and temperatures where most of us live. …
why travel by bike?
I had driven the first 400 miles of monotonous interstate highway with thoughts anywhere but on the task of piloting my old van. Even at 80 miles per hour, the 1200 miles that remained seemed to pass in slow motion … until the incongruity of a fellow struggling an overloaded bike up a steep grade …
The Pedaling Astronomer Project 