Posts Made By: Christine Canelos Welsh

Scary.....I was just thinking that I should put up a TFTD - we haven't had one from Mike W. since he got sucked into "Politics". ;-]

So here's mine:

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
--Andre Gide

"Injustice results less often from malice than from willed inattention."
--Guy C. Quinlan

I had never seen so many stars in all my life. The sky was so transparent as to seem three-dimensional. At first I was hard pressed to pick out the constellations that I had tried to learn from my urban landscape. I raised my binoculars and saw nothing but star soup. Once I got my bearings I navigated my Messier list and found my objects easily, barely taking the time to make notations in my logbook before going on to the next one. I even went back to those objects I had already logged to marvel at them against the striking blackness I had been so long denied. M36, M37, & M38 were an easy sweep through Auriga. In Gemini, M35 practically jumped through the glass. No mere fuzzy patch, the Andromeda Galaxy filled my binoculars, its bright core distinct within its blanket of light. M44 was a naked eye object, a possibility that I had never realized before. Never mind trying to count the Pleiades.

After a while I went back to the house to get my eight year old son. “You have got to see this,” I told him. He came out into the yard and uttered a single “wow”. Then much to my chagrin he said, “Hey, it looks just like the planetarium!”

That year, with my son in tow, I had been volunteering at a small school district planetarium, giving public programs on weekends to introduce people to a sky that many of them had never seen. I pointed out constellations and showed visitors where & when to look for planets. But most of all, I told stories. Stories from cultures all over the world, from a time when people knew the sky well; people whose well-ordered view of the cosmos came from what they saw with only their unaided eyes. Although he had learned much from the experience, my son had not made the connection between the planetarium dome and the real thing. Like most people today, he spends his life under city skies and this view is not part of his awareness.

Nice shots all, Tyler, I can almost smell the blooms!
regards,
clc

Tyler, have you seen the movie "Wild America"? I highly recommend it - great family film. Wrong forum, I know, but there is a scene with a moose that's hilarious.

If anyone was a fan (like me) of Marty Stauffer and the old "Wild America" series, they will love this movie.
clc

This one was taken in the early 70's I think. He had a collection of old cameras, we wish we knew what happened to them. After he died in '96, I did get his old Army issue Petri, which I recently had repaired and gave to his daughter.

She and her daughter (my great-niece and namesake, Christine), are happily taking roll after roll of film with the Petri. Jim would be pleased.

Cool 3D effect!

Very surreal - and very cool!

I told you she was smart!
;-]

I sure do have to bathe her a lot though.
:-\

Hmmm....sounds to me like you have an STD.

(Seductive Telescope Duet)

;-]
clc