Soon...very soon

I've been very remiss in posting here... Will get back to it in a systematic way tomorrow...

Robert Sabuda: Paper Engineer

I've been taking advantage of the - relatively - low prices on Ebay to pick up some Robert Sabuda popup books.

I won't be buying all of his books, but I'll get the fairy tale ones - Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, etc.

I don't even buy them for the stories but rather for the intricate pop-ups he created. They are just so fun to look at.

Robert James Sabuda (born March 08, 1965) is a leading children's pop-up book artist and paper engineer. His books, such as those describing the stories of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, have been well-received and critically acclaimed.

Biography
Sabuda was born in Pinckney, Michigan. He was skilled as an artist from a very young age, and attended the Pratt Institute in New York City. His specific interest in 3-D paper engineering (i.e., pop-up books) was sparked by a book he received that was illustrated by Vojtech Kubasta.[citation needed] His interest in children's book illustration began with an internship at Dial Books for Young Readers while attending the Pratt Institute. Initially working as a package designer, he illustrated his first children's book series, of "Bulky Board Books", in 1987. Wide recognition only came his way after he started designing pop-up books for children in 1994.

Sabuda has experimented with modes of illustration in a conventionally conservative genre, using techniques including:

* faux stained glass (Arthur and the Sword)
* batik (Blizzard's Robe)
* papyrus-textured illustrations (Tutankhamen's Gift)
* murals (Saint Valentine)

Sabuda presently works from his studio in New York City and is involved in a wide variety of projects that involve movable paper. He has also released a video of his working style, which can be seen on YouTube.

Sabuda has also been awarded the Meggendorfer Prize three times, an award instituted by the Movable Book Society of America in honor of German illustrator Lothar Meggendorfer.

# Sabuda, Robert (1994). The Mummy's Tomb: A Pop-Up Book. Golden Books.
# Sabuda, Robert (1994). The Knight's Castle: A Pop-Up Book. Golden Books.
# Beach, Thomas (pseudonym) (1994). Creepy, Crawly Halloween Fright. Troll Associates.
# Sabuda, Robert (1995). Help the Animals of North America (A Pop-Up Book). Readers Digest.
# Sabuda, Robert (1995). Help the Animals of Asia (A Pop-Up Book). Readers Digest.
# Sabuda, Robert (1995). Help the Animals of Africa (A Pop-Up Book). Readers Digest.
# Williams, Nancy; Sabuda, Robert (1995). A Kwanzaa Celebration: A Pop-up Book. Little Simon.
# Sabuda, Robert (1996). The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Pop-Up Celebration. Little Simon.
# Sabuda, Robert (1997). Cookie Count: A Tasty Pop-Up. Little Simon.
# Sabuda, Robert (1998). ABC Disney Pop-Up. Disney Press. ISBN
# Sabuda, Robert (1999). The Movable Mother Goose. Little Simon.
# Sabuda, Robert (2000). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Pop-Up. Little Simon.
# Thomas, Pamela; Sabuda, Robert (2000). Brooklyn Pops Up. Little Simon.
# Moore, Clement Clarke; Sabuda, Robert (2002). The Night Before Christmas Pop-up. Little Simon.
# Sabuda, Robert (2003). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Popup Adaptation. Little Simon.
. # Sabuda, Robert (2004). America the Beautiful. Little Simon.
# Sabuda, Robert (2005). Winter's Tale: An Original Pop-Up Journey. Little Simon.
# Sabuda, Robert (2007). The Chronicles of Narnia. Little Simon.
# Sabuda, Robert (2010). Beauty & the Beast: A Pop-up Book of the Classic Fairy Tale. Little Simon.
# Sabuda, Robert; Rosen, Michael J. (September 2011). Chanukah Lights. Candlewick Press.

Easter Pause

So sorry to have missed so many days of posting - unexpected family matters cropped up.

And now it's Easter, so more family matters.

Will get back on track Monday.

Thanks for your patience.

Observatories: Mount Palomar (San Diego, CA)

Palomar Observatory is a privately owned astronomical observatory located in San Diego County, California (USA), 145 kilometers (90 mi) southeast of Los Angeles, California, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) located in Pasadena, California. Research time is granted to Caltech and its research partners, which includes the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Cornell University.

The observatory operates several telescopes, including the famous 200-inch Hale Telescope (5.1 m) and the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope (1.2 m). In addition, other instruments and projects have been hosted at the observatory, such as the Palomar Testbed Interferometer and the historic 18-inch Schmidt telescope (0.46 m), Palomar Observatory's first telescope, dating from 1936.

History
stronomer George Ellery Hale, whose vision created the Palomar Observatory, built the world's largest telescope four times. He published an article in the April 1928 issue of Harper's Magazine called "The Possibilities of Large Telescopes". This article contained Hale's vision for building what was to become the 200-inch Palomar reflector; it was an invitation to the American public to learn about how large telescopes could help answer questions relating to the fundamental nature of the universe. Hale hoped that the American people would understand and support his project. In fact the 200-inch telescope was the most important telescope in the world from 1949 until 1992 when the Keck I telescope (at approximately 10 metres (390 in)) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii became the world's largest.

Hale followed this article with a letter to the International Education Board (later absorbed into the General Education Board) of the Rockefeller Foundation dated April 28, 1928, in which he requested funding for this project. In his letter, Hale stated:

"No method of advancing science is so productive as the development of new and more powerful instruments and methods of research. A larger telescope would not only furnish the necessary gain in light space-penetration and photographic resolving power, but permit the application of ideas and devices derived chiefly from the recent fundamental advances in physics and chemistry."

Etymology
The word palomar is a Spanish term dating from the time of Spanish California that means pigeon house (in the same sense as henhouse). The name may be in reference to the large shoals of pigeons that can be seen during the spring and autumn months atop Palomar Mountain, or reminiscent of an old pigeon-raising facility built there by the Spaniards.

The Hale Telescope
The 200-inch telescope is named after astronomer George Hale. It was built by Caltech with a $6 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, using a Pyrex blank manufactured by Corning Glass Works. The telescope (the largest in the world at that time) saw first light January 26, 1949 targeting NGC 2261. The American astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble, perhaps the most important observer of the 20th century, was given the honor of being the first astronomer to use the telescope.

Astronomers using the Hale Telescope have discovered distant objects at the edges of the known universe called quasars and have given us the first direct evidence of stars in distant galaxies. They have studied the structure and chemistry of intergalactic clouds leading to an understanding of the synthesis of elements in the universe and have discovered thousands of asteroids. A one-tenth-scale engineering model of the telescope at Corning Community College in Corning, New York, home of the Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated) was used to discover at least one minor planet, (34419) Corning †.

Architecture and design
According to the Observatory's Public Affairs Office, Russell W. Porter was primarily responsible for the striking Art Deco architecture of the Observatory's buildings, most notably the dome of the 200–inch Hale Telescope. Porter was also responsible for much of the technical design of the Hale Telescope and Schmidt Cameras, producing a series of remarkable cross-section engineering drawings that are considered among the finest examples of such work. Porter worked on the designs in collaboration with many engineers and Caltech committee members. The iconic, gleaming white building on Palomar Mountain that houses the 200–inch Hale Telescope is considered by many to be "The Cathedral of Astronomy".

Directors
* Ira Sprague Bowen, 1948–1964
* Horace Welcome Babcock, 1964–1978
* Maarten Schmidt, 1978–1980
* Gerry Neugebauer, 1980–1994
* James Westphal, 1994–1997
* Wallace Leslie William Sargent, 1997–2000
* Richard Ellis, 2000–2006
* Shrinivas Kulkarni, 2006–

Palomar Observatory and light pollution
Much of the surrounding region of Southern California has adopted shielded lighting to reduce the light pollution that would potentially affect the observatory.

Telescopes and instruments
* The 200-inch Hale Telescope was first proposed in 1928 and has been operational since 1948. It was the largest telescope in the world for 45 years. * A 60-inch reflecting telescope is located in the Oscar Mayer Building. It was dedicated in 1970 to take some of the load off of the Hale Telescope. This telescope was used to discovered the first brown dwarf star. * The 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope (Schmidt Camera) was started in 1938 and installed in 1948. It was initially called the 48–inch Schmidt, and was dedicated to Samuel Oschin in 1986. The dwarf planet Eris was discovered using this instrument. The existence of Eris triggered the discussions in the international astronomy community that led to Pluto being re-classified as a dwarf planet. * A 24-inch robotic telescope completed in January 2006 is used to monitor the weather on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. It is also used for follow-up observations of solar system discovered with the Oschin telescope.

Former instruments
* An 18-inch Schmidt camera became became the first operational telescope at the Palomar in 1936. In the 1930s a Caltech astronomer named Fritz Zwicky discovered over 100 supernovae (exploding stars) in other galaxies with this telescope and gathered the first evidence for dark matter. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was discovered with this instrument in 1993. It has since been retired.

* The Palomar Testbed Interferometer was a multi-telescope instrument that permitted astronomers to make very high resolution measurements of the sizes and positions of objects in space. The shapes of some bright stars have been measured with the PTI. It operated from 1995 to 2008.

* The Palomar Planet Search Telescope (PPST), aka Sleuth, was a 0.1 m (3.9 in) robotic telescope that operated from 2003 until 2008. It was dedicated to the search for planets around other stars using the transit method. It operated in conjunction with telescopes at Lowell Observatory and in the Canary Islands as part of the Trans-atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES). Research
The observatory has completed several astronomical surveys: the first in the 1950s, the second in the 1980s and 1990s, and a third in 2003. POSS-I
The initial Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS or POSS-I), sponsored by the National Geographic institute, was completed in 1958. The first plates were shot in November 1948 and the last in April 1958. This survey was performed using 14 inch2 or (6 degree2) blue-sensitive (Kodak 103a-O) and red-sensitive (Kodak 103a-E) photographic plates on the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Schmidt reflecting telescope. The survey covered the sky from a declination of +90 degrees (celestial north pole) to -27 degrees and all right ascensions and had a sensitivity to +22 magnitudes (about 1 million times fainter than the limit of human vision). A southern extension extending the sky coverage of the POSS to -33 degrees declination was shot in 1957 - 1958. The final POSS I consisted of 937 plate pairs. Fritz Zwicky was the first astronomer to observe on Mt. Palomar and was the father of the Sky Survey Technique. Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) produced images which were based on the photographic data developed in the course of POSS-I. J.B. Whiteoak, an Australian radio astronomer, used the same instrument to broaden this POSS-I data further. Whiteoaks observations extended south to about -45 degrees declination, using the same field centers as the corresponding northern declination zones. Unlike POSS-I, the Whiteoak extension consisted only of red-sensitive (Kodak 103a-E) photographic plates. POSS-II The Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-II) was performed in the 1980s and 1990s that made use of better, faster films and an upgraded telescope. The Oschin Schmidt was given an achromatic corrector and provisions for autoguiding. Images were recorded in three wavelengths: blue (IIIaJ), red (IIIaF) and near infrared (IVN) plates, respectively. Observers on POSS II included C. Brewer, D. Griffiths, W. McKinley, D. Mendenhall, K. Rykoski, J. Phinney and Jean Mueller (who discovered over 100 supernovae by comparing the POSS I and POSS II plates). Ms Mueller also discovered several comets during the course of POSS II and the bright Comet Wilson 1986 was discovered by then graduate student C. Wilson early in the survey. Until the completion of the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), POSS-II was the most extensive wide-field sky survey ever. When completed, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey will surpass POSS-I and POSS-II in depth, although the POSS covers almost 2.5 times more area on the sky. POSS-II also exists in digitized form (i.e., the photographic plates were scanned), both in photographic form as the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS). QUEST
The multi-year POSS projects were followed by the Palomar Quasar Equatorial Survey Team (QUEST) Variability survey. This survey yielded results that were used by several projects, including the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking project. Another program that used the QUEST results discovered 90377 Sedna on 14 November 2003, and around 40 Kuiper belt objects. Other programs that share the camera are Shri Kulkarni's search for gamma-ray bursts (this takes advantage of the automated telescope's ability to react as soon as a burst is seen and take a series of snapshots of the fading burst), Richard Ellis' search for supernovae to test whether the universe's expansion is accelerating or not, and S. George Djorgovski's quasar search.

The camera for the Palomar QUEST Survey was a mosaic of 112 Charge-coupled devices (CCDs) covering the whole (4 degree by 4 degree) field of view of the Schmidt telescope, the largest CCD mosaic used in an astronomical camera when built. This instrument was used to produce The Big Picture, the largest astronomical photograph ever produced.

The Big Picture is on display at Griffith Observatory.

Current research
Current research programs on the 200-inch Hale Telescope cover the range of the observable universe including studies on near-Earth asteroids, outer solar system planets, Kuiper Belt Objects, star formation, exoplanets, gamma-ray bursts, black holes, quasars and much more.

The 48-inch Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope is actively working on a new sky survey, the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). The 60-inch telescope is used for a variety of projects including follow-up observations for the Palomar Transient Factory and is a rapid response telescope for gamma-ray bursts.

Clearest images
In September 2007, a team of astronomers from the United States and Britain released some of the clearest pictures ever taken of outer space. The pictures were obtained through the use of a new hybrid "Lucky imaging" and "adaptive optics" system that sharpens pictures taken from the Palomar Observatory. The resolution attained exceeds that of the Hubble Space Telescope by a factor of two.

Visiting
The Palomar Observatory is an active research facility. However, parts of it are open to the public during the day. Visitors can take self-guided tours of the 200-inch telescope daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Guided tours of the 200-inch Hale Telescope dome and observing area are available Saturdays and Sundays from April through October. Details are available at the Observatory's web site. There is a visitor's center and a gift shop on the grounds. Behind-the-scenes tours for the public are offered through the community support group, Friends of Palomar support group. Periodic tours are also organized by the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego. The observatory is located off State Route 76 in northern San Diego County, California, is two hours' drive from downtown San Diego, and three hours' drive from central Los Angeles ( UCLA, LAX airport ).

In pop culture
The band Wellwater Conspiracy's 1997 debut album, Declaration of Conformity, contains a track entitled "Palomar Observatory." It is the last track on the album and completely instrumental. It is likely the track title was chosen by singer/drummer Matt Cameron, who grew up in San Diego near the observatory. Also, Canadian band The Rheostatics 11th track from their effort Whale Music is entitled Palomar. The song depicts a man named Palomar on the top of a mount, cleaning his lenses with saline waters. Palomar assembles his kaleidoscope in his lonely observatory. The song presents a visual characterization of a man on a mountain and his relationship with his best friend, a dog.

Palomar is mentioned in the first episode of season 2 of The X-Files, "Little Green Men". Fox Mulder refers to Hale's suggestion that an elf crawled through his window and told him to build the observatory.

Observatories: Mount Wilson Observatory, Los Angeles, CA

The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a 5,715 foot (1,742 m) peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles. The observatory contains two historically important telescopes: the 60 inch (1.5 m) Hale telescope built in 1908, and the 100 inch (2.5 m) Hooker telescope, which was the largest telescope in the world from its completion in 1917 until 1948.

Thanks to the inversion layer that traps smog over Los Angeles, Mount Wilson has naturally steadier air than any other location in North America, making it ideal for astronomy and in particular for interferometry. The increasing light pollution due to the growth of greater Los Angeles has limited the ability of the observatory to engage in deep space astronomy, but it remains a productive center, with many new and old instruments in use for astronomical research.

The observatory was conceived and founded by George Ellery Hale, who had built the 40 inch (1 m) telescope at the Yerkes Observatory. The Mount Wilson Solar Observatory was first funded by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1904, leasing the land from the owners of the Mount Wilson Hotel in 1904. Among the conditions of the lease was that it allow public access.

George Ellery Hale received the 60 inch (1.5 m) mirror blank, cast by Saint-Gobain in France, in 1896 as a gift from his father, William Hale. It was a glass disk 7½ inches (191 mm) thick and weighing 1900 pounds (860 kg). However it was not until 1904 that Hale received funding from the Carnegie Institution to build an observatory. Grinding began in 1905 and took two years. The mounting and structure for the telescope was built in San Francisco and barely survived the 1906 earthquake. Transporting the pieces to the top of Mount Wilson was an enormous task. "First light" was December 8, 1908. It was at the time the largest operational telescope in the world.

The 60 inch reflector became one of the most productive and successful telescopes in astronomical history. Its design and light-gathering power allowed the pioneering of spectroscopic analysis, parallax measurements, nebula photography, and photometric photography. Though surpassed in size by the Hooker telescope nine years later, the Hale telescope remained one of the largest in use for decades.

In 1992, the 60 inch telescope was fitted with an early adaptive optics system, the Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (ACE). The 69-channel system improved the potential resolving power of the telescope from 0.5-1.0 arc sec to 0.07 arc sec. ACE was developed by DARPA for the Strategic Defense Initiative system, and the National Science Foundation funded the civilian conversion.

Today, the 60 inch telescope is used for public outreach. Eyepieces are fitted to its focus instead of instruments. It is the largest telescope in the world devoted to the general public. As of June 2009, the cost for a half-night of observation is $900, $1700 for a full night.

100 inch (2.5 m) Hooker Telescope
Hale immediately set about creating a larger telescope. John D. Hooker provided crucial funding for it, along with Carnegie.[3] The Saint-Gobain factory was again chosen to cast a blank in 1906, which it completed in 1908, After considerable trouble over the blank (and potential replacements), the 100 inch (2.5 m) telescope was completed and saw "first light" on November 2, 1917. The blank started with over two tons of fused glass which was melted in a furnace into one piece. The blank once melted into one piece took over a year to cool without cracking.

Just like the 60" telescope, the mechanism incorporates a mercury float to provide smooth operation. The Hooker telescope was equipped in 1919 with a special attachment, an optical astronomical interferometer developed by Albert Michelson, much larger than the one he had used to measure Jupiter's satellites. Michelson was able to use the equipment to determine the precise diameter of stars, such as Betelgeuse, the first time the size of a star had ever been measured. Henry Norris Russell developed his star classification system based on observations using the Hooker.

In 1935 the silver coating used since 1917 on the Hooker 100 inch mirror was replaced with a more modern and longer lasting aluminum metallic coating that reflected 50% more light than the older silver method of coating. The newer method of coating for the telescope mirrors was first tested on the older 60 inch mirror telescope.

Edwin Hubble performed his critical calculations from work on the 100 inch (2.5 m) telescope. He determined that some nebulae were actually galaxies outside our own Milky Way. Hubble, assisted by Milton L. Humason, discovered the presence of the redshift that indicated the universe is expanding.

The Hooker's reign of three decades as the largest telescope came to an end when the Caltech-Carnegie consortium completed its 200-inch (5.1 m) telescope in 1948 at Palomar Observatory, 90 miles (150 km) south, in San Diego County, California.

By the 1980s, the focus of astronomy research had turned to deep space observation, which required darker skies than what could be found in the Los Angeles area, due to ever-increasing problem of light pollution. In 1986, the Carnegie Institution, which ran the observatory, handed it over to the non-profit Mount Wilson Institute. At that time, the 100 inch (2.5 m) telescope was deactivated, but it was restarted in 1992 and outfitted with adaptive optics. The Hooker telescope remains one of the pre-eminent scientific instruments of the 20th century.

The telescope has a resolving power of 0.05 arcsecond.

Solar telescopes There are three solar telescopes, two of which are now used for astronomical research, also known as solar towers due to their construction. The 60 foot (18 m) tower telescope was completed in 1908, and the 150 foot (46 m) tower telescope was completed in 1912. The Snow solar telescope, built in 1904 is used for educational demonstrations. The telescopes are used to study helioseismology and other changes in the sun's nature.

Interferometry
The extremely steady air over Mount Wilson is well suited to interferometry, the use of multiple viewing points to increase resolution enough to allow for the direct measurement of the size of details such as star diameters. Michelson performed the first measurements of other stars in the history of astronomical interferometry on the Hooker telescope in 1919.

The Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) is an array of three 65 inch (1.65 m) telescopes operating in the mid-infrared. The telescopes are fully mobile and their current site on Mount Wilson allows for placements as far as 70 m apart, giving the resolution of a telescope of that diameter. The signals are converted to radio frequencies through heterodyne circuits and then combined electronically using techniques copied from radio astronomy. ISI is run by an arm of the University of California, Berkeley. The longest (70m) baseline provides a resolution of 0.003 arcsec at 11 micrometers. On July 9, 2003, ISI recorded the first closure phase aperture synthesis measurements in the mid infrared.

The Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) array is an interferometer formed from six 1 m (40-inch) telescopes arranged along three axes with a maximum separation length of 330 m. The light beams travel through vacuum tubes and are combined optically, requiring a building 100 meters long with movable mirrors to keep the light in phase as the earth rotates. CHARA is operated by the Georgia State University and began scientific use in 2002 and began "routine operations" in early 2004. In infrared the integrated image can resolve down to 0.0005 arcseconds. As of 2005, four of the six telescopes have been commissioned for interferometric observations.

These and other astronomical interferometers are included in the List of astronomical interferometers at visible and infrared wavelengths. The history of the development of these instruments is given in History of astronomical interferometry.

Other telescopes
A 24-inch (610 mm) telescope fitted with an infrared detector purchased from a military contractor was used by Eric Becklin in 1966 to determine the center of the Milky Way for the first time. In 1968, the first large-area near-IR (2.2 µm) survey of the sky was conducted by Gerry Neugebauer and Robert B. Leighton using a 62-inch (1.6 m) reflecting dish they had built. The instrument is now in the Smithsonian.

History
* Letters to the Mount Wilson Observatory are the subject of a permanent exhibition at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California. A small room is dedicated to a collection of unusual letters and theories received by the observatory circa 1915–1935. These letters were also collected in the book No One May Ever Have the Same Knowledge Again: Letters to Mt. Wilson Observatory 1915–1935 (ISBN 0-9647215-0-3).

* The historic monument came under threat during the August 2009 California wildfires.

* The poet Alfred Noyes was present for the "first light" of the Hooker telescope on November 2, 1917. Noyes used this night as the setting in the opening of Watchers of the Sky, the first volume in his trilogy The Torchbearers, an epic poem about the history of science. According to his account of the night, the first object viewed in the telescope was Jupiter and Noyes himself was the first to see one of the planet's moons through the telescope.