Comet Lulin

I'm at the observatory right now, and there happens to be a comet up: Comet Lulin. Since the weather has not been great -- lots of cirrus and such -- and I can't do science-grade imaging, I decided to take some shots of Lulin.

Here's one shot, showing its coma (the extended fuzz around the nucleus) and tail:


Lulin is just passing by the Earth (about 0.4 AU, or 40 million miles) and moving fast through the sky. You can really see this in the next shot, where I have changed the intensity stretch so you can see the nucleus. See how it's a fuzzy blur? That's because the comet moved that far in the 10 minute exposure.


These images are about the size of three full moons, by the way. And the comet looks orange because of the colormap I'm using, not because it's actually orange. Its actual color is kind of greenish. But I didnt take a color image....

Sadly, as pretty as it looks here, it's pretty faint -- just barely visible to the naked eye if you live under a very dark sky (and most of us don't). But if you are interested, more information about Comet Lulin can be found at
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/35992534.html

Charlotte's Web

So this seems to be a part of growing up for young readers: dealing with the end of Charlotte's Web. I certainly remember it from when I was a kid, and now it appears to be Abra's turn. I just got the following note from Brenna (I'm away at the observatory right now....):

So I went up to check on Thalia, at about a quarter to ten. Abra was the one still awake. She's a chapter or two into Charlotte's Web, and of course she knows what ultimately happens to Charlotte since she saw the movie. But when I went up, she was bravely trying to stifle tears--she explained to me that she was just reading over the last page, which really is very sweet and sad. Talking about how as much as Wilbur loved all the other generations of spiders, none of them ever took Charlotte's place in his heart. And she just couldn't squelch anymore, and just started crying, poor thing. So she had a good cry and then was ready to get to sleep, I think.

The girl has a huge heart...

Supermodels!

So who are those two gorgeous little girls on the website of the University's Annual Report?

(This is all Lisa's doing, by the way.)

Musical Education

As part of a proper upbringing, I have been teaching the girls all about the Rolling Stones. For example, they each can recite by memory all the band members (well, the current ones, anyway), and they recognize a lot of the songs. And long-time blog readers may remember the discussion we had about Brian Jones last year....

A few weeks back we all watched Shine a Light, Martin Scorsese's movie filmed at one of the Stones' concerts a few years ago. That was absolutely great -- the camera work and, in particular, the lighting were both amazing. The girls were fascinated while watching. Abra said that Keith Richards' eyes "freaked her out" (to which I replied the fact that Keith was still alive at all freaked me out), and was worried that Keith smoked too much. She also asked if Mick was married to Christina Aguilera. I deftly sidestepped the long discussion of Mick's various marriages by quickly changing the subject. Both girls were floored (and rightly so) by Buddy Guy's voice.

But I heard a lot of comments about "They look so old. Why are they so old?" from both girls, and so I wanted to show them what the Rolling Stones used to look like. So I got a copy of Gimme Shelter from the library to show them what the Stones were like in the 60s. And it's been ages since I've seen that movie.

Brenna and I watched it last night -- there is some great footage from the 1969 tour that resulted in Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, which in my mind is one of the best live albums ever recorded. But it's also the tour that ended in Altamont, and the footage from Altamont was downright scary.

Anyway, this morning we showed the girls a highly edited version of Gimme Shelter -- just the concert clips from early in the movie, and none of the Altamont stuff. Again the girls were fascinated. Abra commented that when Mick kept shaking his hair onstage, he looked like Prince Charming in Shrek, and I had to admit she had a point.

But probably the best part was listening to Abra sing along to "Satisfaction." And then at the end, Thalia looked at Brenna and said "Mommy? I like the Rolling Stones more than the Jonas Brothers."

I'm so proud of them.

Update: As Thalia was buckling her seatbelt in the car this afternoon, I heard her singing to herself "...but if you try sometimes, you get what you need..."

Chip Off the Old Block...

Abra's class wrote letters to President Obama. Here's Abra's:



Heh: "Make thi[n]gs cost less."

THAT'S MY GIRL!