Taking a Breath
Felt like one of the best things to sit and do with family on the morning after the day before…
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Author Archives: Clifford
New Year’s Day Sketching
Found a bit of time to start a sketch on New Year’s Day during a short family New Year’s Day picnic. Did not get to finish, but it does not matter.
Happy New Year!
Sunday Sketching
A shot of a (relatively) quick sketch in progress on Sunday, done with a dipping ink pen, and then splashing on some watercolour. Mostly just knocking rust off the sketching machinery (haven’t used these tools in a long while), and relaxing for some moments between one thing and the next … Click to continue reading this post
Conjunction
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Jupiter (with some moons) and Saturn, 21st December 2020 (click for larger view) [/caption]
Jupiter (with some moons) and Saturn, 21st December 2020 (click for larger view) [/caption]
But… while the viewing on the 21st (the peak of the conjunction) was perfect, seeing three of the Galilean moons, and the glorious rings of Saturn, very clearly, getting a decent through-the-lens photo was not so trouble-free. I was dissatisfied with the roughs of the photos I got that night, with lots of blurring and aberrations that I felt I should have been able to overcome. So I spent the next day taking the telescope entirely apart, checking everything, and trying to colimate it properly, and testing schemes for better vibration stabilisation of the camera. I was ready for another session of photographing the next night, but it was cloudy, with only about […] Click to continue reading this post
Repaired and Ready!
Well, I did what I said I’d try in the previous post. And it worked! I had a great time viewing the conjunction. I hope you did too if you found a moment and clear skies My photography was hampered by either poor stabilisation of the camera or a misalignment … Click to continue reading this post
Winds of Change!
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Broken Telescope![/caption]There’s an exciting astronomical conjunction tonight! Jupiter and Saturn (that you may have noticed have been approaching each other in the sky steadily over the course of the year) will be at their closest approach! It has already been a lovely sight in the evening sky over the last many days. Since I’d been doing a bit of observation and photography of each planet in July (click on the two below for some blurry (but exciting to me) offerings…see more photos I shared on social media – I don’t think I posted them directly here), I’ve been wondering what sort of views I might be able to […] Click to continue reading this post
This Feels Great!
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Andrea Ghez accepting the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics[/caption]You know, it is easy (and healthy) to be steadfastly cynical about the whole prize thing, but sometimes it is just great to simply cast that aside and get into the spirit of it. This is one such time. The Nobel Prize ceremony was today and you can watch the whole thing on YouTube here. (Physics starts at about 36 minutes in.) My interest was in the moments Andrea Ghez and Roger Penrose picked up (literally this year) their prizes for their wonderful work on black boles. The picture I was able to screen grab of Andrea in particular says it all.
I’ve met Andrea Ghez on an number of occasions (and communicated electronically on many more), usually because of our joint interest in making science accessible to the public through talks (where we first met during K C Cole’s excellent Categorically Not! series), TV shows (where we’ve sometimes connected behind the scenes, in the context of shows or films we’re both in, or thinking of being in), and so forth. All our interactions have been […] Click to continue reading this post
The Notebooks
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A montage of some of my notebooks. Click to zoom in![/caption]
A montage of some of my notebooks. Click to zoom in![/caption]
This is a quick montage of a selection of my notebooks over the last few years. As you may know, I often carry a little (usually black) notebook with me whenever out and about in the world (in normal circumstances at least). It is useful for jotting down or working through ideas, doing computations of research ideas, writing to-do lists, and -very importantly- it is an especially good means of reminding me to grab a moment to do a sketch. As a result, they’ve become a record of what I’ve been thinking about in certain periods, what I might have seen on the way to work (back when I was sketching faces on the subway), and also an interesting combination of marks on paper that I actually simply like just looking at.
On Thursday I’ll be taking part in a big event at the Getty […] Click to continue reading this post
Wider and Warmer
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Los Angeles. Click for an expanded view.[/caption]
Los Angeles. Click for an expanded view.[/caption]
The last post had a nice picture of the city that I enjoyed sharing with you. However, on Sunday I ran to the top of one of the highest points of the park and happened to take a much nicer photograph, showing more of the surrounds, and with warmer light. I’m sharing this one with you for sure. If you click on the image you’ll get a more detailed view. This was at about 4:15pm, in case you’re wondering.
Enjoy!
Evening Glow
It was a particularly crisp and clear afternoon in Los Angeles today. Usually one has to wait for some rain to come through to clear things up this much. But that hasn’t happened properly for sometime. Anyway it was great to be able to see all the way down to … Click to continue reading this post
Looking Forward
I found a few minutes to sketch a few days ago. Just a little bit of time. And it was one of those drawing episodes where – after three or four lines -things just fell nicely into place rapidly and I could see the way all the way to the … Click to continue reading this post
Happy Thanksgiving 2020!
Food arrived at the table soon after, but I rather liked the setting and these decorations, so thought I’d share. –cvj
Pumpkin Pie Preparations
Taking a little time to step aside and into the kitchen for Thanksgiving cooking! Here are some colourful steps in the prep of a pumpkin pie, including some pre-baking of the pie shell (covered in foil, weighted with beans). -cvj
It’s Black in Physics Week!
It is #BlackInPhysics week, and be sure to check out the various special activities at https://blackinphysics.org. It is a joy to see the faces and stories popping up on twitter under #BlackInPhysicsRollCall as physicists around the world introduce themselves. Join in! Share! Use it when people in your department tell … Click to continue reading this post
Dairy Diary
Yesterday’s kitchen science experiment was this morning’s breakfast! In explaining to my young son about microorganisms that we live with (in our bodies, and as tools of transformation we deploy in various applications like cuisine) I suddenly remembered trying to make yogurt when I was myself very young (although not … Click to continue reading this post
