Stellarium

I am currently enrolled in a professional development course entitled "Basic Astronomy For Educators." We meet every Thursday evening at the Casper Planetarium. Now, I have a pretty firm grasp on the fundamental astronomical information, but I am learning quite a lot about how to teach astronomy to school children. One of the tools our instructors presented to us is a  program called "STELLARIUM."

It's a "free, open source planetarium for your computer."

And it is amazing!

It includes tracking of the skies and its heavenly bodies: sun, moon, planets, constellations, deep space objects, and more. It has a programmable calendar and an adjustable clock and can be set to show the view of the sky from just about any location on Earth.

I set it for the place of my birth, the hour and minute, and immediately I was astonished to glimpse the astronomical alignments which occurred that very day.

I urge anybody with even the faintest glimmer of interest in the sky above to check it out. It's free, and its a whole lot more interesting and educational than your average digital distraction.

Download it now for free.

Here's the link:
http://www.stellarium.org

August 21st, 2017

On August 21st, 2017, a Total Solar Eclipse shall occur above Casper, Wyoming.
Right over my house!

My brother Brandel and I have been waiting with eyes a' squintin'!
We used to watch eclipses quite often together. We would track partial solar eclipses with makeshift pinhole cameras, tracing the progressive crescents of light in an old notebook. We also filmed quite a few lunar eclipses on our  parents' Hitachi video recorder--remember, the kind that takes full-sized vhs tapes.
I remember finding out a couple decades ago about a total eclipse on its way in 2017. We were astounded. Yet, it seemed so marvelously distant. Now, we only have three years to go. My brother and I will be watching side-by-side, now with our kids.
Should you find yourself in Casper that day, you're welcome to watch with us.
Until then, be sure to stock up on eclipse glasses. (We had a partial solar eclipse a few years ago on Christmas Day. The kids just happened to find eclipse glasses in all their stockings that morning.) I'll soon be getting a few extra pairs.

Here's a bit more information on the impending event:

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/state_pages/wyoming/wyoming.htm 

Unfathomable

An eleven-year-old boy drowned in the North Platte River this past week. He and an eight-year-old friend were playing in the water when the current swept them away. The older boy helped push the younger boy toward shore but then fell under. After an exhaustive search, rescue crews found him four days later just a few dozen yards down the river.

I knew that eleven-year-old boy. I taught him at school. He was part of my fifth-grade tutor group. Enthusiastic, engaging, eager to learn, and always willing to help out, he was a great student, and I enjoyed working with him. His heroic sacrifice stands as testament to his enduring character.

After such a harrowing week for so many, here and across the world, I was moved to write this verse. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

****

Unfathomable

The River flows on,

Its waters wandering always beyond,

Shimmering in the sunlight

Of another passing day,

While across tomorrow

Yesterday is swept away.

The River flows on,

Its breadths and depths all endlessly drawn

Along a course made more sacred for each sacrifice

As it flows ever forward, even unto paradise

Whence await the waters

Of stillness and peace,

Welling with wonders

Which will never cease.

Yet the River flows on,

Each moment a memorial eternally yearning.

The River flows on,

And drifting with it, in spirit we journey.

The River flows on,

Carrying away our hopes and our fears.

The River flows on,

Now flowing ever fuller with all our tears.               

Learning Moments

Today was the last day of my three-week assignment of teaching at our school's summer "Jumpstart" program. My class consisted of second graders going into third grade.

My first real job as a teacher in charge of my own class, it proved to be a wonderful experience.

Yet, I am now more astounded than ever at how profound a moment of learning can truly be--not only as the teacher, witnessing my students learn, but also as the learner, with my students ever and always teaching me.

For Father's Day

On this, the first Fathers' Day after my Dad died, here is the poem I wrote in the remembrance card for his funeral:

A day we wish would never end

Though we know it must,

As now we abide

Before the horizon

Whilst the boundless depths

Of darkness descend

With all the relentless

Shadows of dusk.

Yet as the twilight fades

We harbour no fear nor sorrow.

For you always let us know,

Even within our souls,

That in the night, however dark and deep,

Awaits the peace of sleep and of dream,

And that as today passes away into yesterday

Still every moment remains beyond tomorrow.

So now as the day ends

Your light yet guides the way,

And by the endless presence

Of every blessed remembrance,

We abide each moment

In undying thanks

For ever having been blest

To share with you such a wondrous day.

Dies In Memoriam

Thanks, Dad.

Dial-A-Story

A week ago most of the family gathered to celebrate a birthday. Between the end of supper and the serving of cake, Danny, whose birthday it was, got the notion to help entertain the youngsters by calling "Dial-a-story," a service of our public library.

You dial the number, and a recorded voice narrates a short story, usually a fable or quick fairy tale. We used to call up quite often as kids. Long before the days of speaker phones, we would pass around the receiver, then anchored to the wall, and take turns listening. Each week held a new story. All these years later, the Natrona County Public Library still provides the service, even still has the same number.

Anyhow, last week's story was "The Wishing Ring," a folk tale about a poor farm couple who come to possess a ring that could grant them one wish. Again and again deciding to save their wish for when they might need it even more, the couple eventually discover the value of working hard to achieve their goals. A quaint tale with a quirky ending. The kids enjoyed it, and it gave all us adults a chuckle. Danny certainly enjoyed it, laughing hardest of all. Then Danny--who, unbeknownst to me, has retained the habit, these many years, of calling the library to hear the weekly tales--proceeded to tell us her favourite tale of all: "Teeny-Tiny."

Danny had real trouble not laughing as she told the story, but she recounted each part, kept the repetition, and performed the voices perfectly, even though she had not heard it in ages. Again and again, she said she wished "Dial-a-story" would play it again some day.

My wonderful, thoughtful wife then proceeded to look it up on the web and found an audio version, care of the Weber County Library System in Utah. We all listened, Danny most earnest of all.

So, Danny happened to be granted a wish--however teeny-tiny--for her birthday.

Find out if your local library participates in "Dial-a-story." Call it up. Listen with family or friends. Share with a child. Support the service and help keep it going for years to come.

Just remember to "please, hang up  the phone."



Link to "Teeny-Tiny" and other spooky tales collected as "A Corpse Claims Its Property":
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0366.html

Link to "Google Books" giving a look at pages from original collections:
English Fairy Tales
Popular Rhymes & Nursery Tales

Link to "Teeny-Tiny" classic audio version from "Dial-a-story":
Teeny-Tiny - Audio - (from the Weber County Library System)

Fundamental Fractal

I am utterly convinced of the fractal nature of the universe!

At last, after months of other matters taking priority through a long, cold Winter, I finally found the opportunity to get to work at clearing tree branches that cracked, snapped, and fell during last October's early, heavy snowstorm. My brother and I spent the last few weekends hauling branches upon branches from my yard, our parents' yard, and our aunt and uncle's yard. 
Six truckloads and four trailers full, all told. 

Carrying trunks, sticks, and sprigs, stumps, limbs, and twigs, over and over again in a seemingly incessant succession, I could not help but wonder upon the self-similarity of branch and tree, that they appear the same, and how, taken on any scale, branch and tree are part and whole, whole and part, of one another.  

Heaving armful after armful onto the truck, and I thought: from sub-atomic particle, to solar system, to galactic supercluster, thus from stick to branch to tree, all are strung together, so heavenly, so harmoniously.

Heap upon heap of broken boughs, and I felt compelled to contemplate how this universe may very well branch into infinite other universes, to compose the multiverse; and how multiverse upon multiverse make up the omniverse; and how that omniverse, reaching into realms within and beyond itself, still resembles its every infinite and infinitesimal piece--comprising, in part and in whole, the one and only universe itself. 

I pondered, as ever, how every instant of existence forks and flows ad infinitum. How each moment reaches out to touch every other moment.  How every living being influences every other living being. 

O, how the Tree of Life ramifies every single solitary soul, yet holds us, all of us, forever unified upon its eternal--and fractal--branches.

Perhaps I was simply delirious from carrying all those neverending branches. 
Nevertheless, I am now absolutely, unequivocally convinced that all of nature is fundamentally a fractal.

Explore fractals further:
http://fractalfoundation.org/resources/what-are-fractals/
http://classes.yale.edu/fractals/
http://www.coolmath.com/fractals/fractalgenerators/generator1/