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24 for 24: Foto(ein)s in 2024

Above/featured: “Hashtag Wienliebe” (Vienna love), Rathauspark. Photo, 15 Jul 2024 (P15).

2024 has been an interesting year of personal challenge and discovery. A conclusion for the family house provided fresh impetus to inhabit (in the short term) new spaces and places to improve overall health and happiness. In Vienna, I spent a full month for the third consecutive summer. Yes, it was continent hot, but time in the Austrian capital was both glorious and productive as expected. In Calgary is a city I hadn’t visited in many decades, and I witnessed a very happy aunt surrounded by many family members on her centenary year. In California’s Bay Area is a place where I hadn’t set foot in over ten years, but whose daily temperatures and chances of consistent sun offer a higher level of content.

( Click here for images and more )

The strange and familiar (BA11)

(nerding out at SETI)

I hadn’t seen J and J in almost 13 years.

The last time took place in La Serena, Chile at the end of 2011. Not only was it goodbye to Gemini South and Chile after 5 years, I said farewell to astronomy after almost 20 years.

But time is a tricky thing, and the moment had arrived: I had another promise to keep.

Fast forward to 2024, and I’m in the Bay Area. After reaching out a number of weeks ago, it’s wonderful to see them again after many years. They’ve kindly invited me to the SETI Institute where they work. I split from day-to-day science, but science never left, because I’m nerding out in a big way at the home of a big scientific effort: the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

*Cozy wide-open space, to house a number of multidisciplinary scientists to explore and study SETI themes.*

*J&J, whom I met at Gemini, moved onto SOFIA: Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, fitted into a modified Boeing 747SP.*

*Dr. Frank Drake: 1st pres., SETI trustees board.*

*I’m nerding out in a big way: Leonhard Euler, and the famous Euler identity: e^(i•pi) = -1.*

1593: Giordano Bruno suggests possibility of life on other planets; tried & executed for heresy. 1610: Galileo Galilei discovers 4 moons orbiting Jupiter, evidence against geocentric universe; convicted of heresy & sentenced to house arrest.

I have fond memories of seeing this on the big screen. 1997: the movie “Contact” is released with Jodie Foster in the lead role as Dr. Ellie Arroway, based loosely on SETI Institute co-founder Dr. Jill Tarter.

*“To the SETI Institute gang, all my best! Jodie Foster.” (Arecibo)*

*“To the SETI Institute: live long and prosper! Leonard Nimoy.” (Celebrating 40 Years of the Drake Equation)*

*2020: COSMIC SETI installed at the VLA in New Mexico. 2022:* 🇨🇦 *CHIME in operation at SETI Institute’s HCRO in northern California.*

*Model of a segment for the 6.5-metre (21.3-foot) primary mirror of the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope).*

*Meeting room with SETI timeline on the wall.*

*Dr. Frank Drake and his equation to estimate the number of civilizations in our Galaxy.*

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 8 Nov 2024 (travel day 11 in the Bay Area). This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

Drumheller AB: badlands, dinosaurs, oh my!

(Relatively short drive from Calgary)

In south-central Alberta, a leisurely 1.5 to 2 hour drive northeast from Calgary takes me past trucks, farm equipment, drilling rigs; through undulating hills and open fields of grain.

Population at a touch under 9-thousand, the city straddles the gentle flow of the Red Deer River. I’m led here by the notable attractions, and integrated over a couple of days here, they do not disappoint.

*“Welcome to Drumheller”: sign and pullout next to highway AB-9, on approach into town from the south. Photo, 25 Sep 2024.*

Aurora borealis, 49°N: 11 Oct 2024

Northern lights over New West

Notices quickly went out, even saw alerts from scientists whom I follow on social media. Big solar storm detected, big aurora display expected.

The colours: reds & blue-greens for oxygen & nitrogen, respectively.

Structure: pillars, curtains, wavy strands.

Location: New Westminster, BC 🇨🇦 ; 49.2° North, 122.9° West.

Time: from about 12am to 1am PDT (7 to 8h UTC), on 11 October 2024.

*Northwest horizon, 0003h PDT. Visible: Vega (Lyra), Draco, Ursa Minor.*

*East horizon, 0010h PDT. Visible: Jupiter, Aldebaran (Taurus), Pleiades, Cetus, Orion.*

*Northeast horizon, 0027h PDT. Visible:*

*East horizon (towards the Port Mann Bridge), 0030h PDT.*

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 11 Oct 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

Calgary: it’s only 50 years

It’s been a while

The last time I saw my aunt J in person was in Vancouver for Dad’s funeral ten years ago. The last time I set foot inside aunt J’s home in Calgary was in 1976, which by now is a mere hop for a 50-year anniversary.

My mum’s big sister is celebrating her 100th birthday this month, and many members of the extended family from across North America are gathering in Alberta’s most populous city for a momentous celebration.

My photographic traces of a late-summer morning and afternoon wandering the city centre is on display, “outlined” by various pieces of art and architecture.

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