PARI

Hidden Treasure

When I first heard of this place, I thought Mike (N4OFA) had been in a closed room with his paint fumes for too long… An old spy-satellite station up in the mountains ? Huge radio telescope dishes ? And they let him pull cables and work on stuff ? Had to be the paint fumes. Over the years tho, I have come to learn more of the history of the old Rosman Tracking Station.
And more importantly, some of what is going on up there these days.
Visit PARI.EDU on-line to find more detail….

So – I introduced myself to PARI and some of the folks there, and have been to visit a few times. On this most recent trip I became an official volunteer, and will be helping to establish more functionality into their Information System Infrastructure management activites, and to further document the networks and the systems that support the PARI mission & operations.

Recently PARI has installed the upgraded feedboxes for both of the 26m dish antennas, and expect to be testing, calibrating, and all that other magic stuff to integrate this into a world-class interferometer. These are certainly exciting times up on the hilltop in Western North Carolina. Hidden Treasure indeed.

I’ll be back to this blog from time to time, with more pictures and stories to tell.
Thanks  /;^)

ARISSat-1/KEDR On-Air Test

A test of the system will be conducted on the ISS from 1915 UTC July 30 to 1430 UTC July 31. The standard ARISSat-1/KEDR 2m downlink band plan should be transmitted. The satellite FM signal will also be downlinked on 437.55 MHz. ( borrowed from the details at www.AMSAT.org – go read more !)
Here is the posted frequency chart. Testing is about to start .!.!.

2011_ARISSat-1_Frequency_Chart

Dark Skies without lights

One of the more enjoyable features of our extended power outage after the tornado events in April, stars…   Stars like you never saw anywhere.

Looking south east towards Huntsville

You can click these images for a larger one. Typically this view is mostly illuminated haze from all the lights to the east towards Huntsville. This is a time-exposure, with the shutter held open for about 30 seconds.

Shoot, in the summer – we often don’t even get a dozen stars bright enough to make it thru the humidity and the haze of humanity. This was a treat. I usually have to go to North Carolina, up on the Blue Ridge Parkway to see this many stars, especially with such clarity.

For a day or so after the tornadoes, the humidity was very low – and with no power to flood the sky with lights – we had a magnificent view of the heavens.

Looking south west towards the airport

The airport has generator power and was open. This glow was from those lights about five miles away. After a few days tho, the neighbors were also running generators and aside from the lights, the noise was enough to keep me inside when I was home at night. I’m glad I caught these pics when I did, as it wasn’t long before the humidity shot back up, and the lights and noise took over again.

Sure was nice while it lasted.

I tried to get some pictures that didn’t reflect only the damage and destruction. I’ll try to get those posted here as well; as even in the chaos, there is always beauty in nature – if you seek it out and preserve it. Photos are great for that. These are two such photos, barely 48 hr after such a disaster ..

Thanks to everyone who has offered support and solstice in my wrestle with the flooding emotions that seemed to haunt me in the weeks after these storms. Also thanks to everyone who has helped and continues to support the on-going recovery effort for our neighbors here and across the US. I was really surprised that this has affected me so deeply. I do understand that talking & writing like this is helpful in my recovery, and I am mostly beyond the challenging parts.
I let myself get very close to this. That is not always a good thing.
I will never be the same, as I still feel that some of the most significant work I have ever done, was in this response. Anything else I do here on out is just the icing on that cake.
Hope I never need to, but I’d gladly do it all over again.

But – it is not about me. Continue to do the good work, and go the extra miles for your friends and neighbors. Your reward is in the pride and joy of helping….
Trust me – it is well worth the effort. Try it – you will like it ..!..

Thanks  /;^)

Sunset approach

Approaching 18R in Alabama twilight.

Here we have a flight on approach to HSV for a landing on 18Right, the time-exposure catching the strobe lights as they pass behind a tree at Dublin Park in Madison (click the pic for a bigger one). The clouds had some promise earlier for sunset color, but clouds further west limited the dazzle of the show tonite. This color was very subtle, as this was about a 15 second exposure to bring it out. You can see some stars starting to show up. The next shot you can clearly see Orion and Sirius (click for a bigger pic). This was only about 9 minutes later, but about a 20 second exposure. I love makin pictures in the dark.

spring-time Orion in twilight

 Thanks for lookin .. /;^)