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Post by corner on Nov 8, 2008 14:45:54 GMT -5
Dave explain the green van?
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Post by dgriffin on Nov 8, 2008 16:03:17 GMT -5
Hey ... That's George! I mean ... That's you! Did you know the discoverer of Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh, was actually being paid to find a different planet by a guy who was an ardent proponent of canals on Mars? (Percival Lowell owned the Lowell Observatory in Arizona.) Clyde Tombaugh at the blink comparator. All night, every night, it seldom rains in Flagstaff.  |
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Post by Clipper on Nov 8, 2008 16:32:12 GMT -5
I have actually been to the observatory in Flagstaff when I was a young boy. I was interested in astronomy at around 10yrs old or so. I had a telescope made by Gilbert, the same folks that brought us chemistry sets and my microscope. I also visited Griffith Park observatory in Los Angeles, Mitchell observatory on the Island of Nantucket, and just recently (2002) Bayes Mountain planetarium and observatory, in Kingsport Tn, although I am no longer a stargazer by hobby.
Never did see any martians though, although I really looked hard for them, haha.
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Post by corner on Nov 8, 2008 18:43:50 GMT -5
had the same scientific toys almost set the house on fire with the chemistry set
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Post by dgriffin on Nov 8, 2008 21:35:58 GMT -5
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Post by dgriffin on Nov 8, 2008 21:54:54 GMT -5
Dave explain the green van? I can't, really. Except there was a TV show in the late 1960's when I was living in Endicott called "The Invaders," starring Roy Thinnes. www.roythinnes.com/The aliens landed in secret and wanted to organize themselves on a worldwide basis before taking over. So they sort of incorporated into a large company to take advantage of governments' encouragement of business. Although they performed no useful service, of course, they had personnel departments to pass out orders and fleets of utility trucks to go around and do their dastardly deeds. These trucks were small white vans and bore a remarkable resemblance to the fleet of real white vans that roamed the Triple Cities (Binghamton, Johnson City, Endicott) area daily from the Eynon Drug Company near Scranton, Pa, about 50 miles down the road. (Eynon was a drug store that grew into a huge box store ... before Walmart, etc. ... with terrific prices, and their fleet of trucks delivered and serviced a full range of home appliances.) So I would see Enynon's trucks as I drove around town and think of The Invaders. And I suppose, if they were truly little green men, they might like green vans. |
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Post by dgriffin on Nov 8, 2008 22:35:27 GMT -5
I have actually been to the observatory in Flagstaff when I was a young boy. I was interested in astronomy at around 10yrs old or so. I had a telescope made by Gilbert, the same folks that brought us chemistry sets and my microscope. I also visited Griffith Park observatory in Los Angeles, Mitchell observatory on the Island of Nantucket, and just recently (2002) Bayes Mountain planetarium and observatory, in Kingsport Tn, although I am no longer a stargazer by hobby. Never did see any martians though, although I really looked hard for them, haha. Clip, a neighbor at one time had a 10 inch Dobsonian scope in a roll-off roof little house in his backyard. You probably know the Dobsonians can be built cheaply in large sizes to capture a lot of light, but don't usually have much control, like equatorial mounts, etc. Well, I went over a few times and became quickly bored by the pinpoints of light coming at me, none of which arrived from any place I planned to visit. Never thought much about astronomy after that and my neighbor moved away. Some years later, I was in our local library and happened across a copy of Clyde Tombaugh's autobiography, "Out of Darkness." I picked it off the shelf because I thought it was a book about mental health, forgetting I was in the 500 section. I brought the book home and didn't put it down until I reached the end. I got absolutely caught up in his story, his love of optics, his determination to work the field of astronomy, even though he had no college coursework under his belt. (He later completed his PhD.) And sitting at the blink comparator every night looking for a planet Percy Lowell thought would be near Uranus (I think) ... he didn't even get to look through the telescope or shoot the films very often, if I remember correctly. So, that captured my interest and I proceeded to read every Astronomy book in the town library (it's not a large library.) I took a course and got to use a spectroscope and had lots of fun. Subscribed to S&T, Pop Astro, etc. Always wanted to go to Stellfane. Maybe someday I will.  |
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Post by Clipper on Nov 8, 2008 22:58:04 GMT -5
I think that is why I lost interest in backyard astronomy. I was only able to take little pinpoints of light, and make them slightly larger, but still unidentifiable pinpoints of light.
While you were blowing up gardens, I was making a stink bomb of sulpur dioxide, that got me banned to the outside or the garage with my chemistry set.
I always wanted some neat stuff, like acid, and pure phosphorus, or magnesium and stuff that I could get a REAL reaction out of, haha. Damn good thing that I didn't know about fertilizer and diesel fuel, or I would have probably left craters all over the fields of Schuyler and N. Utica, LOL.
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Post by dgriffin on Nov 8, 2008 23:21:54 GMT -5
I always wanted some neat stuff, like acid, and pure phosphorus, or magnesium and stuff that I could get a REAL reaction out of, haha. What we wish for ... www.windsweptpress.com/dragon.pdfGeorge and I steal a pinch of pure magnesium from the school lab. Hahaha! |
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Post by dgriffin on Nov 10, 2008 23:45:39 GMT -5
Every time I see a green van, I think, "They're here!"I know that sounds crazy, but we all believed it when I was growing up on Cornhill. I suppose I helped, by constantly mentioning it to the neighbors.
I had Mrs. Gambino convinced of it, as well as believing that the blue mail boxes on the corner were for us and the green ones were for our alien captors. I wrote a story about Martians in Utica, based on this post. Click on "Martians ... oo-Fah" at: www.windsweptpress.com/essays.htm |
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