Michigan's Astronaut, Jack Lousma

I took Thomas to the AirZoo in Kalamazoo on Saturday. One of our regular haunts, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that Astronaut Jack Lousma would be speaking at the Airzoo. Mr. Lousma spoke for almost an hour on his experience as an Astronaut and how it affect him spiritually. It was the second time Thomas and I had heard Mr. Lousma speak, the first time being a year ago at Kennedy Space Center. Mr. Lousma, as always, was gracious and allowed audience members to have pictures taken and sign autographs. Mr. Lousma's experience is vast and not only as one of Apollo astronauts (later assigned to the 3rd Skylab mission) but also was the commander of the third space shuttle mission. When Apollo 13's commander, Jim Lovell, said, "Houston, we have a problem", it was Jacl Lousma who was Houston, aka CapCom, the solitary voice that the astronauts communicated to NASA through.

Manhattan at Night

Flying back from Italy on Friday/Saturday, I snapped this photo of New York's West-Side. Given the fact that a one hour layerover turned into a six hour ordeal, I happy I had enough sense to make the best of the situation and take a few night shots as we flew back to the Midwest. Lemonade from lemons...

Full Moon Over Michigan

One of the joys of my new camera (a Nikon D60) is it's ability for astrophotography. Using the old, take a picture through a telescope by hand method, I was able to take this unfiltered picture of the moon (1/100 sec exposure). I, of course, am unable to manually compensate for sidieral motion (the motion of the stars caused by Earth's rotation), therefore I must buy a motorised tracking telescope mount eventually. I can do 30 second exposures which will allow a lot more light to show but tale-tale streaks, caused by Earth's rotation, show up instead of pinpoints of light.

When in Milan...

Through work, I find myself in Italy this week. To the surprise of many friends and collegues, it is my first trip to Europe. The work has kept me more then busy, but due to the local and planning of my coworkers based here, I have been able to enjoy some of my favorite food, straight from the source, as it were. For those that know me (even a little), being in Italy should be like being one step close to Heaven, which is seems to be. Hopefully, in a few future posts, I'll include some more details to my adventures abroad but for now, work, sleep deprevation, and limited access to the Internet will hinder me.