Green Bank Observatory – Vicariously

My husband went to at star party at Green Bank Observatory (West Virginia) last week. I didn’t hear much from him while he was there since it’s in the National Quiet Zone (no cell phones or other communication networks). He took a few pictures and I’m experiencing the place vicariously. He arrived home on Friday afternoon after heavy rain in the morning and continuing clouds in the forecast caused him to fold up a few days early.

The observing field – where people set up their telescopes and tents – one of the radio telescopes within site.

A jerry-rigged sun shade between the back of the car and the tent. It took him time to make his sunshade; the first after was evidently hot and sunny – and the field is very open (good for observing but there are no trees, shade is only what the star party participants can make for themselves).

It required some ducking to get into a shady spot.

But once inside there was plenty of space for a chair and much of the equipment stayed in the car when it wasn’t in use at night. Fortunately, the telescope tube was back in the car before the deluge on Friday morning!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 24, 2017

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #92  and #93 – These come out every week! I can never resist looking through the photographs and picking a favorite. #92 includes a lot of birds I’ve enjoyed photographing myself…but my favorite is a close-up of a flamingo. In the second one – my favorite is Forster Tern mates.

Frank Lloyd Wright Exhibition at MoMA Celebrates the Architect’s 150^th Birthday – A little bit of architectural history

Architecture 101: 10 Architectural Styles that Define Western Society – More architectural history…a broader view. Be sure to look at all 5 pages (at the bottom there is a bar that links to the next page).

A Vessel of Life in the Philippine Seas  and Under the Mangrove Sea – Two 1Fram4Nature pieces…great images and some ideas on what you can do.

Why it’s time to stop punishing our soils with fertilizers – The more we learn about soils, the more it is obvious that applying more and more chemicals (pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, fertilizers) is killing the soil…and making it very difficult to keep it productive over the long term.

Op-Ed – Is it time for a radio astronomy national historic park? – A suggestion for a historic park similar in concept to the Manhattan Project National Historic Park where several sites across the country are part of the park. For radio astronomy, the sites might include Arecibo (Puerto Rico), Green Bank (West Virginia), and The Very Large Area (New Mexico).

2017 Kids Count Data Book – A recently released study of state trends in child well-being. The statistic that surprised me the most was that as of 2015, 65% of 4^th graders in the US were not proficient in reading. That is a lot higher than anyone would want it to be.

Infographic: Plastic Pollution – It’s not just bottles and packaging…it’s also synthetic fibers that are shed when we launder our clothes.

Father’s Day Photo Gallery – A week late…but this was a great photographic series from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

MAVEN’s top 10 discoveries at Mars – We went to the launch back in November 2013 (my blog post here) so I notice articles like this…nice that is has been successful.