Cosmic Strings

Two years ago I endeavored to learn about the local wildflowers around Lick Observatory. I headed out with a digital camera and took pictures of every flower I could find while hiking around the mountain and driving down Mount Hamilton Road. Now that some of the spring flowers are starting to bloom I’m going to head out again to see if I can find flowers I’ve never seen before and get better pictures of the ones I have. It never ceases to amaze me how many wildflowers are around here that I’ve never seen before. Anyway, you can see the Mount Hamilton wild flowers I’ve managed to photograph so far (more will surely come sometime in the future). I’ve also added a link to the wild flower pictures that Henry Coe State Park put on line. Many of the flowers are also seen on Mt. Hamilton, but some are only seen at the lower altitudes of Coe Park.

Here I am at the telescope waiting for the rain to stop so I can actually look at something astronomical instead updating the blog. One of the things astronomers have to make peace with is the weather. Telescope time is meted out to various different observers and there are no rain dates if the weather is bad. This was disappointing earlier this week when we wanted to observe Jupiter’s moon Io while it was in eclipse to see if we could measure the infrared emission of the active volcanoes on its surface without any confusing reflected sunlight. Sadly, it poured rain and there was no telescope action. Maybe tonight the weather will clear and we can do something….

Last year (Jan 2004) I took a fantastic vacation to Costa Rica to see the wildlife. I decided this would be a good time to try and see if I could add my web page of the best or most interesting photos to the links section of my blog. It seems to be successful.

Spring has arrived at the base of the mountain, as signaled by the blooming california poppies. Fields of wildflowers are beckoning me to head out with my camera to capture the beauty. Spring hasn’t quite hit the top of Mount Hamilton yet. Only the sky lupines are starting to bloom at and near the summit. A little further down the hill the mosquito bills and indian warrior are blooming.

Though spring is slowly on its way, we are still in winter and it could snow at any time on Mount Hamilton. The thing I haven’t gotten used to is winter in the Bay Area. I grew up in Connecticut where winter is white and the trees are bare, but in the springtime absolutely everything turns green. Here winter is the rainy season, where the oak trees are devoid of leaves, but the grass is growing and very green. By late spring the rain will have stopped, the trees will have leaves, but the grass will be golden brown. Certainly not like the winters and springs I grew up with.

Why am I starting a blog? For a couple reasons really, but originally I hadn’t even thought
of writing a blog until a friend set up this site for me. That pushed me over the edge to
actually doing something (and a long night at the 3m Shane Telescope gave me time to think
about this). I figure that my life on Mount Hamilton, home of Lick Observatory, might
have some interesting tidbits for others that are published nowhere else, such as little known bits of the Observatory history or the flora and fauna of Mount Hamilton.

Check out the HamCam to see what the view is like right now from Lick Observatory.

What am I doing? Starting a blog? I must be insane.