Holiday Inflatables

If it's December, it's time to fill our front yard with inflatables.

GRB 2007 Conference

The GRB 2007 Conference was held at the Santa Fe Hilton (Marker A on this interactive Google map) in New Mexico from November 5^th through November 9^th. This page chronicles some of my after-hours activities.

Note -- click on the thumbnails below to see larger images.
Note -- markers below can be found on this interactive Google map.

Monday, November 5^th, 2007

I flew on United Airlines from BWI to Albuquerque with a change of planes in Denver. The leg from Denver to Albuquerque provided an opportunity to enjoy the wild landscape of Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico looking east from the airplane. Much of the flight path followed the Rio Grande River. Cripple Creek (above left photo; Marker G on Google map) was the site of a huge gold rush starting in 1891 that produced 700 tons of gold. The original mines are long since exhausted, but the open pit mine near the center of the photo has been operating since 1994. The Great Sand Dunes National Park (above, middle left photo; Marker B) includes the tallest (750') sand dunes in North America. They were formed from the sand left behind after Lake Alamosa either dried up or breached the southern end of the San Luis Valley and drained down the Rio Grande River. Prevailing winds push the sand to this corner of the valley. Ute Mountain (above, middle right photo; Marker C) (topo map) is an extinct volcano just south of the Colorado-New Mexico border that recently became protected public land. With an altitude of 10,093 feet, it towers over the surrounding area including the gorge cut in its western flank by the Rio Grande River. The final picture shows part of the enormous Black Mesa (above, right photo; Marker D) just north of Española, NM. The mesa extends off the picture for a total length of ~25 km. The top of the mesa has an altitude of ~6900' with a drop at the edge of ~1000' (topo map). The Rio Grande River is just beyond (east of) the mesa, and US Highway 285 follows the west side.

Food

Lunches at the hotel were included in the registration fee, but evenings provided opportunities to sample the interesting bars/restaurants in Santa Fe. After the welcoming reception on Monday, AF (an ex-local) lead about a dozen of us a few blocks south to (Marker E) the Cowgirl Hall of Fame BBQ and Western Grill. The friendly waitresses dressed as cowgirls, and the walls were covered with cowgirl photos. We did not sample the food, but there was a large selection of good, inexpensive beers. Tuesday I enjoyed Gabriel's, a good Mexican restaurant about 10 miles north of town (Marker F). On the way back, we make like astronomers, and drove a bit off the main highway to get a glimpse of Comet Holmes. The sky was very dark, but the comet was just a small fuzz ball. The conference banquet was Wednesday at the local Scottish Rite Masonic Center (left photo; Marker G), which is only a short walk from the hotel. Strangely, the currently very pink building seems to have been brown (Flickr photo) a couple of years ago. The center includes an ornate theater (center photo), and we were invited backstage to examine the fancy costumes (right photos). They must have very elaborate ceremonies in the theater. Finally on Thursday, a large group of us tried to have dinner at the Shed, but the wait was way too long. Instead we returned to Cowgirl, which managed to squeeze us in.

Halloween 2007

Halloween remains a popular event in our neighborhood. Thomas the Tank Engine, a holdover from Twin Day at Atholton High School, was the popular costume.

People of the GSFC Village

With their customary élan, the people of the ASD enthusiastically support the Director's new initiative to make GSFC a village.

Atholton Homecoming 2007

Atholton High School lost its homecoming football game to Marriotts Ridge 12 to 7 even though our star running back K. Odocha ran for 204 yards on 27 carries and was featured in a nice article in the Washington Post two days later. My daughter was more interested in the parties associated with her first homecoming. They started with a pizza dinner at a friend's house, which began with a photo opportunity in which the party goers played the parts of celebrities and the parents played the paparazzi. The homecoming dance followed, and then there was a post-dance party in our basement for a few dozen teenagers. Since the girls had an early soccer game in Virginia the next day, the party was over around 1 am.

Daytime Iridium Flare

Eleven denizens of GSFC's Building 2 gathered after work on September 27, 2007, to watch a flare from an Iridium satellite. The flares are caused by reflected sunlight, are predictable (using, for example, the web site Heavens Above), and for a few seconds are the brightest thing in the night sky except the Moon. Conditions were nearly ideal for a daytime flare -- a clear sky, a bright flare (-8 magnitude), and an elevation of 64°. Unfortunately, we discovered the flares are not as nearly impressive in daylight, even when the Sun is only 1° above the horizon. Only about half of the observers saw anything, and it was not very exciting for those of us who did.

Engagement Party

I spent the weekend of September 8th, 2007, in Asheville to meet my brother's fiancee. He popped the question at a delightful dinner party at his home (above photo). Unfortunately his fiancee was not familiar with certain customs involving cakes and weddings, but she should get another chance. It was also an opportunity to look through his collection of family momentos including a black-and-white picture of me from 1954. There was also an extensive Marshall family tree going back to the 1700s that I had never seen. It included an uncle, who is still alive, that neither my brother or I had ever heard of. Ironically, he had been excluded from our part of the family because he married a foreigner.

Tulip Tree in Dorsey Search

This tulip tree (more details about liriodendron tulipifera) in the Village of Dorsey Search must be one of the largest trees in Columbia, Maryland. Its circumference is 20 feet, and its height is about 175 feet. It is located just off the bicycle path about 150 feet NW of the intersection of Columbia Rd. and Ram's Horn Row. The insert in the lower right corner shows a typical leaf. Does anyone know of a bigger tree in Columbia?

AHS Girls Soccer Team Selection

The final selection for the Atholton High School 2007 girls soccer team was posted at the entrance to the school at 8:30 pm, Friday, August 17th. A total of 40 girls were chosen out of about 70 who tried out. My daughter, who trained all summer to make the goal of 7:15 for the mile run, was extremely happy to make the cut. There was a lot of screaming, hugging, and cell phoning for the girls who made the team (above photo).

Backyard Visitor

Yesterday morning this bird of prey was scanning my back yard from atop my daughter's practice net for lacrosse. The bird is about 10" long not including its tail. The photo was taken from inside my house at a distance of about 30 feet. Does anyone know what kind of bird this is?

Thanks to everyone who suggested identifications. I now think that it is probably an immature (because of the yellow eye) Cooper's Hawk. A detailed description of its breeding behavior is available here. It preys on small birds and rodents, which are plentiful in the neighborhood. Hopefully there will be another sighting to check for the expected bands on its tail.

No Mercy 2007

No Mercy, the co-ed team in the GSFC Slow-Pitch Softball Association that I play on, managed to live up to its ironic name for another season.

The end-of-year "tournament" on August 24th included both Monday night and Tuesday night co-ed teams. The games started early, and there were special rules to try to speed them up. No Mercy played as well as we had played all season, won our first two games (including a shutout win over the team that beat us 16-0 earlier in the year), and lost the third game in extra innings. We took another team photo (bottom left) to include several players not in the first team photo, and had three more celebrations of not being subjected to the "mercy" rule (bottom right).

Summer Intern at GSFC

My son spent six weeks this summer as an intern in GSFC's High School Internship Program (HIP). He was one of 19 students selected (press release) to carry out research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics with guidance from a NASA mentor. He worked in a small team to design and implement software to control a robot. The eventual goal is to develop self-healing robots to explore the Moon or planets as part of the Autonomous NanoTechnology Swarm (ANTS) program. It was a great opportunity to apply some of what he had learned in school to a real project in a work environment. The photo shows some of the hardware used in the program. The specific task was to locate a magnet (the dark, oblong object on the white, circular platform) and rotate the struts in the photo so that the magnetometer (the object dangling from the joint of the struts) was directly above the magnet.

GSFC Science Building Ground Breaking

The ground breaking ceremony for Goddard Space Flight Center's new Exploration Sciences Building was held Monday, July 16, 2007. When occupied in 2010, it will replace GSFC's decrepit Building 2, which includes my office. The ceremony (top photo) featured several NASA officials, including the Director of GSFC and the Deputy Administrator of NASA, and local dignitaries, such as the Majority Whip of the US House of Representatives, whose district includes GSFC, and the mayor of Greenbelt. After a few short speeches, it was shovels in the ground (photo). A reception (bottom photo) at GSFC's Visitors' Center followed, and the Director of GFSC's Sciences and Exploration Directorate entertained us (photo) with "Science on a Sphere", a new exhibit that uses four synchronized projectors to display animated data on a 6-foot white sphere suspended from the ceiling.

Slaughterhouse Five Book Cover

Part of my son's final English assignment as a junior in high school, was to produce a cover for a novel of their choice. His design is considerably more interesting than the original cover of the novel by Kurt Vonnegut.

NASA Award for Swift Ground System

The Ground System team for the Swift Observatory was recognized with a NASA Group Achievement Award (left photo) at the 2007 Agency Honor Awards Ceremony on May 14, 2007. I had the honor of accepting (right photo) the award from the Director and Deputy Director of Goddard Space Flight Center on behalf of the team.

WLMS Graduation

My daughter just graduated from Wilde Lake Middle School, and the school had a "Farewell Ceremony" in the Atholton High School Auditorium on the evening of June 14^th. (Since Howard County public schools deem graduation to apply only to high school, this was not officially a graduation.) There were 200 "graduates", and they made it a loud, boisterous, happy affair. Most, especially the girls, dressed as if they were going to a prom. Outstanding performances were recognized including the ~8 students (all girls?) who made straight A's throughout middle school and a comparable number who had never missed a day of school. Each of the graduates walked across the stage and were handed their certificate. The students were instructed not to applaud, and they didn't. But they made every other kind of happy noise. It was really loud for the more popular students, but everyone got some noisy recognition.

After the ceremony about 8 of the students and their parents celebrated at the Rocky Run Tape & Grill in Columbia.

8th Annual Millet Seed Hill Wine Around

"Blended flavors" was the theme of the 2007 Wine Around. Almost the entire cul-de-sac participated with a special visit from two former residents. The evening began (left photo) with sparkling wine from Spain, stops at two other homes before finishing at our home. At each home four families presented a blended wine with a complimenting food choice. We served (right photo) a 2004 Primus blend of Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot from Veramonte, Chile, with beef stew following an Argentinean recipe.

An impromptu tequila tasting on a neighbor's deck brought the evening to a close. We searched for answers to several difficult questions. Is tequilla añejo really better than tequilla reposado? Is that a worm? Do you have any pants on? It was time to say good night.

Green Card Celebration

After six years of a bizarre, time-consuming, and expensive application process, a member of the RXTE team finally received his "green card" (officially a Permanent Resident Card, which is no longer green) from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the INS). A surprise party was held in the Building 2 "dungeon" to celebrate this happy event. In addition to congratulations and best wishes, the guest of honor was presented with a "GO GREEN" cap. Fittingly two days earlier the Washington Post ran a front page story entitled "Immigration Agency Mired in Inefficiency."

Memorial Day Picnic

As usual the neighborhood celebrated Memorial Day with a picnic on the traffic island of the cul-de-sac. Nearly everyone on the street participated with some additional guests for spice. A serious thunderstorm drove everyone inside, but hardly dampened spirits. Fortunately the rain stopped in time to enjoy the HSMs.

Her Majesty Visits GSFC

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip graced GSFC with a visit today May 8th. The visit began at a control center in Building 13 (Marker B on this map) with a video conference with three astronauts on the Space Station (American Suni Williams and two Russians) with British-born astronaut Michael Foale standing next to the Queen acting as a go between. For some reason the Queen never directly addressed the astronauts on the Station. The Queen then left Building 13 and walked along Road No. 5 past thousands of star-struck GSFC employees to the official welcoming ceremony in the Building 8 Auditorium (Marker A). About 250 GSFC employees, including yours truly, were selected by lottery to attend. The ceremony began with dozens of children from the GSFC Child Development Center singing "It's A Small World". They looked very cute in their GCDC T-shirts. The youngsters were remarkably well behaved considering they had to sit quietly for more than an hour. The actual ceremony was rather brief. The high point was Sen. Mikulski and Rep. Hoyer giving the Queen a framed image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The Queen did not address the audience. On the way out NASA Administrator Mike Griffin described to the Queen the important features of the freshly mounted posters on the walls. Next stop was a tree planting ceremony at the GSFC Visitor Center (Marker C).

A highlight of the morning was watching the astronauts chat with each other on NASA TV before the Queen arrived. After a minute or so Michael Foale announced that he was going to say "over" when he was finished talking (because there was a delay of several seconds on the video link). The astronauts then proceeded to demonstrate their unfamiliarity with this standard protocol for the next 15 minutes. (Perhaps this is why the Queen never directly addressed the astronauts in the Space Station.) After a couple of minutes Foale said that it looked like the three astronauts could be in a 1-g environment here on Earth (ignoring Suni's hair) and asked them to do something to show that they were in space. Without any hesitation each of the three did a graceful somersault as if this were the most natural thing in the world. Suni is an interesting character -- she ran the Boston Marathon while on the Station. She was mostly on message, but also hinted that 5 months is a long time to be on the Station.

Journey to the Swift Science Team Meeting 2007

The Swift Science Team meeting took place at Penn State U. on May 1st and 2nd; it was followed by a meeting of the UVOT instrument team the next day. I took advantage of the trip from GSFC on April 30 to bike on the Heritage Rail Trail County Park in York County, Pennsylvania. I started near Mile Post 18 (Marker A on this Google interactive map), and turned around at Hanover Junction (Marker C). The trail goes through the historic Howard Tunnel (Marker B; left photo), one of the oldest railroad tunnels in the country. There were some large bikes along the route (right photo). The warm and sunny day was just about perfect for biking.




I was going to stop at Maple Donuts in York, but decided that it was too far out of the way. Fortuitously there was a branch directly across the street (Marker D) from where I stopped for gas at Exit 34 on I-83. I was the only customer, but the staff was very friendly.


Harrisburg's Capital Area Greenbelt offers almost 20 miles of bike paths that circle the city. I rode along the Susquehanna River in River Front Park from near the Italian Lake Park (Marker F) to the I-83 bridge with a tour of City Island via the pedestrian only Walnut St. Bridge (Marker G; right photo). About two thirds of the width of the bridge is a metal grate, which is shunned by the pedestrians but not cyclists. If you look down while cycling, the grate mostly disappears and you seem to be floating over the river.


I returned to Harrisburg on the trip home, parked in the old Shipoke neighborhood (Marker H), and had a short evening bike ride. At night the Walnut St. Bridge is lit by hundreds of small lights.

Spring 2007

Finally! After one of the coldest Aprils in memory, today is a sunny day with the temperature in the 70s. Time to dust off the bicycle and hit the road for the first time since a very warm weekend in early January. I did the standard trip around Wilde Lake (a shortened version of the route on this map). I only saw one other cyclist, but the signs of spring were everywhere. Jesse Wong's was closed for a private wedding party including pictures by Lake Kittamaqundi, and the outdoor seating at the Tomato Palace and Clyde's were nearly full.

RXTE Dinner at Mandalay

On September 6, 2006, some of the staff of the RXTE Science Operations Center met for dinner at the Mandalay Restaurant and Cafe, a favorite local eatery in downtown Silver Spring. It had originally been located in College Park, but we are not easily deterred. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that our waitress was a graduate student in astronomy at the U. of Maryland.