VATT Slack

Back at the VATT Telescope again - had time to slack off and catch a few images of the SMT, the LBT and the VATT. Here they be.

Fine Frakin' Art . . .

A couple of weeks ago I was dragged to a charity auction by my loving and beautiful wife. Not wanting to seem unsupportive and petulant, I decided to make the best of the situation and brought my camera - least I have something to occupy myself with in the event the outting proved interminable.

Not having used my lensbaby in many months I thought I could experiment with the darker side of photography - that of "Fine Art".

Now - to explain - "Fine Art" photography to me has always seemed a polite synonym for "pictures you couldn't sell to your mother." In my experience, any photographer who calls themself a fine art photographer has a perversely odd sense of subject and composition along with an over inflated sense of self-worth. In the computer programming world they are akin to "hacks".

Not wanting to be left out - here are my submissions to the "Fine Art Photography" genre . . . My photographic vision? Yeah - whatever.

Full Impluse Power restored.

Thursday night, the 23rd of October, under pristine clear skies and no moon, the VATT telescope came back on-line for the first time since the major network and computer upgrade that took place this summer. Astronomers gave the ship a full shakedown, and after a few minor leaks were plugged - science is being done once again on the good ship VATT.

Much thanks goes to the VATT engineering crew - Ned Franz, Chris Johnson, Gary Gray and Ken Duffek. Warp engines should be back on-line next week!

Big Glass

Spent the night last night up at the 2.3 meter telescope at Kitt Peak - an engineering run to look into lunar tracking and modify the control system software user interface.

While waiting for the moon to rise, got to do some high magnification photography through the telescope. The scope is equivalent to a 20,700mm F/9 lens! A full frame Canon 5D digital camera has a field of view through this system of just 6 x 4 arcminutes! - that's just 0.1 x 0.067 degrees!

Seeing was above average for the site and most of the shots here are limited by the scope slightly out-of-collimation optics.

Grime Time

Spent the evening at Sonoran Villa Tucson - an amazingly beautiful private home which doubles as a high-end resort venue.



Members of PPA from the Phoenix and Tucson areas gathered to meet and greet famed Tucson photographer Joel Grimes. Michelle Rasmussen, Erin Durband, Casia Fletcher and myself watched Joel photograph a local model "Amanda" (loggest legs I've ever seen!) using his three-light edge technique. Here are some pics from the short event.


The Girls . . .


Joel shows us how its done.


Just how big is it Joel?


The setup . . .


Amanda . . .


Sigh.

And the Kitchen Sink

Well - its finally done. The 4 month retrofit of our 1970's kitchen is finally done . . . almost.

The finishing touches on the remodel are done - only thing let now is to replace the refrigerator. Its seems we made a small oversight however, the distances between the center island and the cabinets/wall are about 3 inches too narrow to allow the new frig to pass through or the old frig to pass out. DAOOOOO!

Here are some pics of the final product.