Jim Dailey

I’ve always loved science and astronomy … from the time I was a kid saving my quarters to buy a mail order telescope.  Admittedly it wasn’t much … a couple of sliding cardboard tubes and simple glass lenses.  I remember, even then, reading about the 1911 Halley’s Comet hoping to be alive for the 1986 return.  Well, I was alive and just like the telescope, even though I saw it, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as I had envisioned.

Since then, I’ve seen partial solar eclipses, one total solar eclipse,  several total and partial lunar eclipses, many meteor showers … including one Leonid when I got the kids up at 2:00 AM and it was the wrong night for the peak.  Needless to say … I do love this stuff.

Last Saturday night was another celestial highlight … Comet NEOWISE.  My wife, my baby sister … who eats this stuff up too … and my brother in law set out to see the comet starting at one of the highest points in Little Rock.  Unfortunately, the sky was hazy and the city lights were too much.  However, I did get a couple of respectable evening sky shots of the horizon with Pinnacle Mountain in the foreground.

Around 8:45 we made the decision to get in the car and drive out West beyond the city lights.  When we pulled over and got out of the car, I glanced to the NW and … yes, there it was … even with the naked eye.  We were all mesmerized … my sister, almost giddy.  Well, I am certainly no night sky photographer but here are a couple of shots  I took with a 200mm lens mounted on a tripod.

NEOWISE VS. 2017 TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE.  No doubt …. NEOWISE was one of most awesome celestial  events I have ever seen but I must still give the nod to my favorite …  The August 21, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse.  To make that even more special, it was our 51st wedding anniversary.  How can anything top that?   The eclipse is featured in a 2017 blog but I simply had to include a couple of my photos from that day.

I will wrap up by saying to everyone … get away from the city lights, look up and Be Awestruck … It’s a spiritual experience. What a magnificent Cathedral.

Here’s a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Think me not unkind or rude … that I walk alone in grove and glen … I go to the God of the wood … to fetch his word to men.