Category: free press

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Structural DNA Nanotechnology Graphic Featured In TASCHEN's "Science Illustration"

From the "keep it in the gallery because it might come in handy someday" department:

I'm very pleased to make mention of ye olde Nanorex's "Structural DNA Nanotechnology" poster now appearing in another venue that isn't this site or my office wall. The graphic is featured on pages 414-415 of the new TASCHEN book "Science Illustration. A History of Visual Knowledge from the 15th Century to Today," complete with the entirely reasonable name-drops of Richard Feynman (who I've published with before) and K. Eric Drexler (who I've also published with before).

As an aside, my appreciation of TASCHEN books began with my buying a copy of Andreas Cellarius: Harmonia Macrocosmica (which is priced a lot higher now than it was then) at the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory gift shop back in 2007 – an equally weighty tome that I still dragged around the place for an hour or more just to make sure that last copy was mine. I've seen smaller coffee tables in my day than either of these books (making the use of coasters all the more important should you choose to purchase either).

The author Anna Escardó is happy, my old boss Mark is happy, I'm happy, and now you, too, can stare at the image in a wonderful new book and lament Ned Seeman never having been flown out to Stockholm in acknowledgement of laying the foundation for an entire interdisciplinary branch of science.

"If you don't like it, buy a copy for someone you don't like." – Dafnis Prieto

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A Three-peat For The DGA NMT Article In ATT

From the shameless self-promotion department, posting here to make mention of a three-peat appearance of my article "The 16-Inch F/4.5 Collapsible-Truss Dobsonian From New Moon Telescopes" in Astronomy Technology Today (ATT), a magazine I have been very happily subscribed to for a decade now. The re-reappearance in the next-to-next-to-latest issue (now making it Volume 7 Issue 3, Volume 12 Issue 5, and Volume 16 Issue 3) is the tail end of the issue discussion/theme provided by Keith Venables FRAS about "The Future Of The Dobsonian," for which I would consider New Moon Telescope's continued efforts at optimizing size, weight, and automation to be one of the best examples of builder-driven experimentation (and, given Ryan's track record, success) – the best evidence of that process is that the model of scope in the review is nowhere to be found anymore for sale on the NMT website (a point mentioned by the editor in the issue!), although you certainly see aspects of the lineage in the current offerings.

As for my own "Ruby" – NMT #1 (and on display at the top of this post), I continue to not want for another despite the many, many advancements that have gone into Ryan's current lines, nor do I look at other scopes on the market in magazines such as ATT and go "I wouldn't mind one of those," which, plus the three prints of the original article, is as good free marketing as I can muster.

Also making mention here of a new facebook/meta group dedicated to New Moon Telescope Owners.

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Barefoot Astronomer Shares Passion With Stargazers (Bob Piekiel, That Is)

Above: a fish-eye long-exposure of semi-clear skies at Baltimore Woods during a Bob Piekiel-hosted Perseid Meteor Shower session, 12 August 2013.

Well Bob, at least they found you handy.

From the "it's my website and I'll blog what I want to" department – random appearance of an article about Bob Piekiel appeared in my feed recently from the TheNewsHouse Article Archive (The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University). The original post was from late September, 2015 around the time of the last really impressive lunar eclipse we had in our area (also originally shared on the CNYO website).

Official link: https://www.thenewshouse.com/nharchive/barefoot-astronomer-shares-passion-with-stargazers/

Local PDF for posterity:Download

And the quote still stands:

“He’s the greatest exponent to amateur astronomy Central New York has,” Allis said. “Our community could certainly use a few more Barefoot Bobs running around.”

It also reminds me that the old baltimorewoods.org website name used to be something like takeahike.org, which was an excellent idea.