Steaming pile of...

[dreadnut]

Snow!

We still have huge piles of snow left and with today's warmer temperatures, the snow is steaming. Quite foggy in certain areas, including my back yard.

 

[Guildedagain]

We had the same weird ***** a couple years ago after a big late March dump. Except for us it was thunderstorms while there was still big piles of snow, previously unseen.

 

[GAD]

I love steaming snow. Fun fact, it's doing the same thing that comets do: Sublimation. Even "funner" fact, the verb is sublime, as in "let's go watch the snow sublime."

Sublimation is the conversion of water from a solid directly to a gas without becoming a liquid first.

 

[Nuuska]

= dry evaporation ?

 

[GAD]

= dry evaporation ?

Water vapor isn't really "dry", but yes - the snow is evaporating without becoming water first.

The tail of a comet is the sublimated gas that the sun cooks off as it gets closer. The tail of a comet always points away from the sun and gets longer as it gets closer. Comets were described as "dirty snowballs" by my astronomy professor who was easily 238 years old.

 

[dreadnut]

Gee, that's young for an astronomy prof...

 

[GAD]

Gee, that's young for an astronomy prof...

Heh - yeah. The school had a full-blown planetarium and he used to fall asleep in there while we were in the middle of class. To be fair so did we. I went to night school and after a long day at work those reclining seats in the doark room under the stars were just too relaxing.

The school also had a beautiful Questar Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope that was probably worth $5000 or maybe even $10,000 at the time. Now, one of the first things you learn about nice telescopes is to not touch the mirror or the glass because if you do you'll spend the next four hours cleaning it. I watched him walk up to it, take off the dust cover, look at the objective lens, pull a hankie out of his back pocket and proceed to wipe the lens "clean". A part of me died that day...

 

[dreadnut]

Yow! Maybe it was a special hankie!

I was a member of the Grand Rapids Amateur Asrtonomical Association when I was in middle school. I was a real astronomy geek, I went to thier meetings every Saturday at the Museum/Planetarium. We helped build an observatory out n the country with a 6" and 12" reflector. That was in the '60's, they have a few other scopes now too. It is open to the public.

 

[GAD]

Yow! Maybe it was a special hankie!

I was a member of the Grand Rapids Amateur Asrtonomical Association when I was in middle school. I was a real astronomy geek, I went to thier meetings every Saturday at the Museum/Planetarium. We helped build an observatory out n the country with a 6" and 12" reflector. That was in the '60's, they have a few other scopes now too. It is open to the public.

Nice! There's a public observatory about 10 miles from my house. Sadly light pollution makes it not as fun as it used to be, but they've got a pretty big reflector out there in a permanent mount with a motorized dome. I just looked it up - it's a 26" mirror. Last time I was there it was pretty dusty because it's not in a tube and they wait until it's a real problem because cleaning it is a PITA. They need the special hankie.

I haven't been there in years. I used to cart around a big 8" Celestron Schmidt Cassegrain but it just got to be too much to lug around and I sold it. These days I just have my TeleVue 85 APO which is no slouch, especially with the rediculous eyepieces I've accumulated, but it's no light-bucket. One of these days I'm going to build me a big ol' Dobsonian but I'm afraid that will turn into me building a dome around it.

 

[fronobulax]

building a dome around it.

Double as a photography studio?

 

[dreadnut]

Tried to visit the Mauna Kea observatory in Hawaii once but there was too much snow to get up there. Hot lava flowing at sea level; complete whiteout at 14,000 feet.

 

[GAD]

Tried to visit the Mauna Kea observatory in Hawaii once but there was too much snow to get up there. Hot lava flowing at sea level; complete whiteout at 14,000 feet.

I was up there! Not much air, but so cool. I’ll dig up a pic.

 

[dreadnut]

This is the observatory I helped build when I was a kid (I hauled a bunch of cinder blocks.)

A Look at the Veen Observatory - Lowell's First Look

Online news for Lowell, Michigan

lowellsfirstlook.com

Veen Observatory | Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association

The James C. Veen Observatory, located south of Lowell, MI, is owned and operated by the GRAAA.

www.graaa.org

 

[GAD]

This is the observatory I helped build when I was a kid (I hauled a bunch of cinder blocks.)

A Look at the Veen Observatory - Lowell's First Look

Online news for Lowell, Michigan

lowellsfirstlook.com

Veen Observatory | Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association

The James C. Veen Observatory, located south of Lowell, MI, is owned and operated by the GRAAA.

www.graaa.org

Very cool!

Here's me on Mauna Kea in 1995 Along with some other photos from being up there. All scans from film taken with a Minolta X7000i.

I believe this was from the acclimation stop.

The rest are from the summit:

At 14,000 feet, this is the highest I've ever been without being in a plane. It was specifically an astronomy trip and the tour guide brought along an 8" Celestron that he mounted on permanent mounts at the acclimation stop.

There was 6-8 or us who all went in this 4WD van. The trip down was pretty terrifying but it was easy to fall asleep since there's so little air.

 

[dreadnut]

Beautiful shots. Man, the air has got to be pretty thin up there. I would need to bring supplemental Oxygen now.

 

[GAD]

Beautiful shots. Man, the air has got to be pretty thin up there. I would need to bring supplemental Oxygen now.

I was probably in the best shape of my life, training for my 2nd degree black belt at the time, and I decided to jog across the road to tell my wife something. I almost passed out and had to take a knee. It was wild.