LeviChandlerMaaia

Safari 4 breaks some WordPress features

For those of you using Wordpress and a Mac be warned before you upgrade to the Safari 4 beta: Building The Perfect Beast » Blog Archive » Safari 4 Breaks Some WordPress Features.

Comet Lulin sighted

After further examination on Wednesday of the early morning’s photos with a colleague, Adam, we discovered that I had indeed captured a frame with Comet Lulin. The first photo, from last night, is a little wider angle shot than the one originally posted.   This reveals that the comet was in fact right under my nose.  The red arrow points to the greenish hued comet. The tail can be just barely seen extending toward the 8 o’clock direction. The streaking effect is due to the movement of the earth during the 30 second exposure. Real star photogs have rigs that track the movement to eliminate that during long exposures.

After making this discovery, I decided to take Daniela on an outing this evening to see if we could spot this green comet again. After 20 minutes of sky-searching I was able to get this second shot.

Taurus XL rocket launch

Last night I stayed up to look for Comet Lulin near Saturn and to see the launch of the Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO).  A 30 second exposure to the south in an attempt to reveal the green comet yielded the shot to the right.  At first I thought my camera was shaking, but upon further examination it appeared that a 30 second at 300 mm is enough to reveal streaks from the spinning of the earth on its axis!  Wow, we are moving.

By 1:30 am PST I had abandoned the search for Lulin and turned my tripod to the north toward Vandenberg AFB.  The Taurus XL was set to lift off at 1:50:30 PST.  I had the laptop on the top of the car streaming NASA TV and the countdown.  At T-plus 00:00:10 I saw a fireball rocket in the northwestern sky heading south.  As I raced to get my camera off of bulb-exposure mode (in the excitement and darkness I failed to be prepared) what appeared to be the first stage of the rocket separated in a puff of smoke.  Then, as  it crossed the western sky southward, there was another puff, this one larger than the last.  In the photo on the left there is a clear stream streak on the lower left of the frame which is the glowing rocket flame.  To the top right side of the frame there is an eerie “cloud” which is the position in the sky at which I observed the second poof.  The “cloud” remained for several minutes. 

This morning I learned that the launch had failed and the satellite had crashed into the ocean near Antarctica after a rocket stage failed to separate properly.  Which leaves me wondering if the mysterious “cloud” is the moment of failure.

A view from Santa Ynez Peak

more photos…

Great Barrier Reef job application

Below is my video application for island caretaker job in the Great Barrier Reef.  Please take 10 seconds and vote by giving me 5 stars at this link.

Facebook’s privacy policy uproar

A buzz on Facebook’s (FB) privacy policy  has been working its way throughout the social networking site this week.  Apparently folks are up in arms about specific language which give FB the “non-exclusive license” to redistribute users’ posted content in perpetuity.  While the langage of FB’s site is similar to many social networking and collaboration sites like Google Docs, FB’s is perhaps most intrusive given the amount of content its users post (ie photos, videos, original songs, etc.).

The debate has gotten so much attention that FB has responded with an official corporate discussion board.

This site does a nice job of comparing social networking sites’ terms of service.

The new site

This is the first day of the new site design.  I realized that I had far too much fragmentation online so I decided to make this site a single portal to the work I am doing.  Periodically there will be posts in the main blog as well as updates here about what’s new inside.  Have a look around, check out the photos, and please, make some comments.

-LCM

Santa Ynez roadside

See more photos in my new photo section!