184 Comments
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

What a gift, your piece from Alaska about astronomy, astronomers and looking into the night sky. The photos are another gift and the settings yet a third. Thank you. LA.

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Pictures are worth a thousand words. How lovely to be graced with these splendid photos from our intrepid wordsmith, also a serious photographer!

Expand full comment

So nice to know you follow this too, Lale. Hope you are doing well! Anne Rosen

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Fabulous pictures. Thank you for posting. Wishing you a quiet week so you and Jill may enjoy the peacefulness of Alaska in winter.

Expand full comment

While you were enjoying and sharing Alaska, our 80 year-old president went to Ukraine and totally wowed us all.Flew to Poland and made a 10-hour train ride to Ukraine. What a guy.

Expand full comment

Yes, indeed!

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Thank you for writing. And thank you both for filling my bucket list vicariously! Clear skies!

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

The Words and the Captures are astounding. Thank you for sharing. Man o Man.

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Wow. I love your description of the Alaska night sky. I just got back from a quick visit to Arizona. I am a Vietnam vet and still gather with my Band of Brothers who served together flying Top Secret missions for the Army Security Agency in 1971. One of my buddies just lost his wife of 50 years. I dropped what I was doing, called one of our other buddies, bought a plane ticket from Minneapolis to Las Vegas, and the two of us drove down to Kingman, AZ where we helped shoulder the grief of our longtime friend. Three of us, sitting around a campfire under the Arizona night sky, rekindling friendships under the stars. The sky cooperated for us on those several nights giving perspective and meaning to our presence together. We may be just specs of dust hurtling through space and time, but capturing moments like these create memories that will last a lifetime.

Expand full comment
founding

You are a nice man and a great friend, Pete. I know your buddy treasured your time together.

Peace to you and to your brothers ... and thank you for your service!

Expand full comment

Beautiful, Pete. I'm sure your grieving friend treasured your company.

Expand full comment

Incredible pictures thank you! Always shedding the most beautiful light on subjects most important to us!

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Great Pics, thanks for including them in todays newsletter. And the message of patience in Astronomy, politics and life is appreciated and supported.

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Wow! Not enough wows to do Justice to the beauty of the sky which you have captured! The first photo makes me feel the cold!

Expand full comment

You took the words right out of my mouth, Louis!!

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Fantastic job of capturing the Aurora. There's a fb group in Eastern Washington that alerts the locals to possible sightings and they share their pictures. Someday I might be willing to brave the cold to look.

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing the images, and the skillfully crafted essay that correlates astronomy with the preservation of democracy. As always, it is a joy and an inspiration to read your newsletters.

Expand full comment

A fantastic experience!

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Robert.........Your waxing poetic about your experiences in Alaska...,especially in relation to the sky, and

its wonders. It brought to my mind something like that.

When I was a young teen-ager, I was smitten with astronomy, and visited the Hayden Planetarium

on a number of occasions. Then, they offered a course in Celestial Navigation, which I joined,. and was thoroughly excited about. Not too many years later came World War II, and I became an

officer in the US Navy, serving on a Destroyer for about two years in the Pacific. Then I was rotated

and was assigned to became the Executive Officer (second in Command ). of a new LST ship, and also

as its NAVIGATOR. in operations in the Pacific area also. After a while, I was promoted to be the Commanding Officer (at age 24). Life takes some strange twists and turns, but, it all came out

very well for me. Lee Fadem

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Lee. You are a true American hero.

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Great photos and great analogy. Bravo!

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

It's really great when you find yourself in an area with little/no ambient light at night. There are these dark spots (as seen from satellites) but there are fewer and fewer of them. Fortunately, I am lucky enough to go up to central Vermont from time to time and also south to the Caribbean. No Northern Lights though.

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023·edited Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

I heard that Northern Lights were seen last week from the top of Mt Washington. There must have been low hanging clouds, though, because I don't know anyone who saw them from the valley.

Expand full comment

Too bad! I live in the SF Bay Area, and several years ago the northern lights made an appearance just north of me. I WISH I had known - it's so rare for them to be seen this far south.

Expand full comment

I have seen them In New England a few times in my life. It is a thrill.

Expand full comment

How cool! How far north were you?

Expand full comment

I was living in Massachusetts at the time, the early 80s.

Expand full comment

Once in the western part of the state and once in the east.

Expand full comment
Feb 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell

Wow. Big huge WOW!

Expand full comment