Photos with Friends

The installation of the CDK20, first robotic telescope at the University of Southern Queensland's Mt. Kent Observatory, near Toowoomba, Australia, in April 2006. Brad Carter (left), directs Center for Astrophysics at USQ. Rhodes Hart (behind him on the left) developed and installed instrumentation, maintained the observatories, and operated the telescopes for U of L and USQ. Carolyn Brown was a doctoral candidate at the time and is now on the astronomy faculty. Drew Foster (kneeling) was the technical coordinator for our outreach program at the U of L Rauch Planetarium. Ron Moore (right), then Vice President for U of L Information Technology, established the collaboration between institutions. Joe Haberman (front right), then of Celestron and now of Planewave Instruments front right, designed and made the C20 optical system.



Meeting the locals at Lone Pine Koala sanctuary near Brisbane, Australia, on the first visit to Australia, June 2005. Mt. Kent observatory is west of Toowoomba, about 150 km from Brisbane.



Fluffy Tycho, Paschen, and Sophie keep up with the most recent issue of Nature describing the search for exoplanets, or perhaps exomice.



Lyman (2004-2018), the supervisor at Hidden Hollow Orchard, where grafts are being grown of Isaac Newton's Flower of Kent apple tree. The Flower of Kent ripens in August, just as Isaac Newton was visiting home, and has the curious habit of dropping apples when they are ripe. Sometimes every few minutes there is a plunk ... plunk ... plunk. If it had been any other variety of apple tree, Newton may never have come up with his theory of gravitation.



Zane (1981 - 2015), waiting for a visit at Hidden Hollow Orchard. Zane was my mentor about Newton Laws of Motion and Conservation of Momentum. In his youth, when galloping through the orchard he would sometimes decide to turn, leaving his rider going straight ahead to learn about motion and gravity.



Unbaroquen (1996 - 2015), better known as Brokie. Brokie's specialty was balance and center of gravity. If his rider moved one way or another, Brokie knew to go with him to keep his rider's center of gravity over him ... and not somewhere else.