That’s what I think about when I’m active in doing astrophotography with one of my two telescopes. Because the light of the moon can swamp the dimmer light of the nebula that I’m trying to catch digitally. There are filters, of course that you can use and I do use them. But they cut down the amount of light reaching the sensor in the camera that I use so that means I have to take more exposures to get a decent picture.

The moon itself, of course, is fascinating, especially when viewed through a telescope. With enough imagination, you can see yourself walking on its surface. Exploring its many craters. Kicking up dust. Jumping. But be careful! Jump too high and you’ll go into orbit.

Here you can see some of my astrophotographs

These were taken before the moon got too high…

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What do those four things have in common? Not much. Except three of the four things required the user to think about and know what they were doing. Can you guess which of the four those three are? Hint: those three no longer exist in common use, having been replaced by technologies based on the 14th element of the Periodic Table. Silicon.

So isn’t that a good thing today that if I want to write a research paper on aardvarks, I can quickly search the Internet with Firefox or Google Chrome on my laptop instead of trekking to the library to find a book or an encyclopedia article on that subject. A handheld calculator is much easier to use than a slide rule and generally much more accurate. Digital cameras, these days produce photographs arguably just as good or better than film cameras, and you don’t have to send the roll of film off to a laboratory and wait a week to get your pictures back. In fact, if you are reading this post on your smart phone you can do all three in just a matter of a few minutes.

How does AI relate to all of this? Consider this. If I want a picture of a beautiful sunset or waves crashing on a beach, I can just have an AI application create one for me. Nice. And I don’t even have to go out of the house and risk enjoying the brisk weather on the seashore or the solitude of an evening walk. Maybe an AI math app can give me the orbital speed of a planet and I don’t have to bother with understanding Kepler’s laws. After all, the answer looks logical. As far as a research paper on aardvarks all I have to do is ask ChatGPT to write it for me and I will have more time with my leisure activities.

Of course, AI can be very useful, but like improperly using the technologies that replaced encyclopedias, slide rules and film cameras you can still easily get something that looks right, but isn’t. On all of these examples, you get the idea — I hope.

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The 24th century is the setting for the Telpher series of four novels when humanity has penetrated a small portion of a very large galaxy. Albeit, just a few hundred star systems within a hundred parsec of each other. They are home to established societies representing all cultures and races. Two pan-galactic governments and economies vie for per-eminence. However they exclude from association a few worlds on the fringes of known space. As well, there are rogue planets who harbor pirates and refuse to join the multi-system leagues. There is unrealized promise in this imaginary but all-to-possible world that is challenged by wrong motives and flawed heroes. The outlook for humanity’s future is not always optimistic. With humans being humans, love and fidelity is sometimes mixed with greed and corruption.

Into this world a succession of courageous female protagonists struggle with their own humanity while attempting to produce a promising future for their children and friends. Resourceful and accomplished men support these women. They learn to embrace a larger vision for their lives and for all people. The result is uplifting science fiction that promises a meaningful destiny for humanity.

Read Brief Synopses Below:

Book 1

Two women…
Two accidents…
Two aftermaths…
Can time bring them together?

Errant technology and unchecked ambition in the quest for interstellar travel combine to entangle the fates of two women centuries apart who have one thing in common: time travel. For one it’s a blessing in disguise; for the other a painful disaster.

Jana Anders, a 24th century starship navigator tries to get her passengers home after the ship’s warp drive fails and sends them into the distant past. Moreover they arrive in an unknown region of the galaxy. Another time traveler who Jana has never met might be able to help her. But time is running out for the two to meet.

21st century astrobiologist Sonja Bellesario uses her telepathic power to listen for messages from outer space that might help her pursue her destiny in the stars. When a message comes she’s not prepared for its consequences. The path forward has unexpected twists. Time isn’t always transparent.

On the planet Verde two scientists develop the Telpher, a FTL starship comm device. But the machine turns out to have capabilities far beyond what they intend. One of them uses the Telpher to promote his ambitions for power and learns an unfortunate truth with no apparent remedy. There might be a link between the Telpher and the warp drive accident that sends Jana Anders into the past. Will the two woman discover the link in time?

Book 2

Jana just wants to return home, to the life she had, to the world she left, to her own time.
But the difficulty lay in getting there, because it is 350 years in the future…

A wormhole sends the ISS Exeter four centuries into the past, to an unexplored star system and a virgin planet. The ship’s navigator, Jana Anders, devises a risky move to return to the 24th century. Most of the ship’s passengers choose to stay behind and colonize the planet. They name the planet Mycenae. Jana returns home successfully and encounters complications. Because in Jana’s 24th century spacetime the colony she left on Mycenae still exists but it is now 350 years old. Worse from her perspective, powerful forces are scheming to plunder Mycenae’s rare element resource without the knowledge or consent of its people. Events force Jana to act because those Mycenaean are descendants of people she knew and loved.

Shawna Tang is a descendant of the Exeter passengers who colonized Mycenae. Her people have forgotten their history due to a devastating plague. But when Shawna looks up into the heavens at night she can’t help thinking there is more. She dreams to be able to learn the secrets of the stars. Ironically, one of those secrets might lead to satisfying her aspiration.

Ethan Styrnak, a geophysicist, comes to Mycenae to catalog its resources, though he is ignorant of his company’s true plans. He meets Shawna and confirms her belief in a human-populated galaxy. During their brief love affair Ethan discovers his company’s illegal scheme to steal Mycenae’s resources. He is forced to leave the planet but promises Shawna to help. It is a promise that he has no idea how to fulfill.

When destiny entwines the lives of Jana, Shawna and Ethan, the battle for Mycenae is joined. The conflict brings together corporate magnates, galactic government officials, and brilliant scientists into a complicated drama with abruptly changing allegiances and undreamed of new technology. Whether the heroes can take advantage of these twists and turns to win through to victory is far from certain.

Book 3

Shawna thought she could escape her enemies by turning to the Archoi.
But the benign though powerful aliens don’t understand who she is. Consequently their help just might make things worse.

In the 24th century a brilliant scientist invents a machine that can open a conduit through the fifth-dimension. The novel device allows instant teleportation to any galactic destination. The Telpher, as the machine is called, requires a uniquely gifted telepath to guide the traveler’s journey. Shawna Tang is one of three known telepaths who can successfully interface with a Telpher.

The Telpher opens up enticing possibilities. Idealists within the Federation of Star Systems see the Telpher as a means to bring humans closer together in a galactic global community with universal justice and peace. It is a noble goal with a doubtful likelihood of success.

But when the Federation commissions Shawna to find and train more telepaths for its Telpher Project it’s an opportunity for her to realize her dreams to learn the secret behind the stars. As well, she wants to bring justice to worlds that, like hers, are denied access to the benefits enjoyed by the better connected core worlds in the galaxy. She has a starship, an able crew, and a man who loves her. And the license to travel to the stars.

But there are others out there who want to use Shawna’s gift to further their vision for social equality by violent means. When things go south for Shawna she meets the Archoi, a benign species that inhabits the fifth dimension who are eager to help her.  Will the Archoi’s meddling in the affairs of humanity spell the end of all of Shawna’s dreams? Or can events bring fulfillment on a scale she can’t conceive?

Book 4

Rosy Tang just wants to have a normal life: happiness, love, children maybe…
But though she appears human she is much more. How she handles that difference will determine the future of humanity.

As a child Rosy discovers she has dangerous powers that can make her prey for people with evil intent. As she comes of age, traveling with a family of galactic traders, Rosy learns the reason for her powers. She must gather others with gifts like hers to ensure a future for dying humanity. Yet she is young and also wants to find a man who will love her for who she is—different yet still human. It isn’t long before she finds that the two goals may be mutually exclusive.

The reality is that beyond the world of her all-too-legitimate desires and conflicts there are unseen powers. Supernatural entities want an different future for humanity than the one she is commissioned to bring about. Few are aware that the higher dimensions of the galaxy are home to vastly superior beings and that these entities aren’t necessarily friendly with one another. Generally, they pay little attention to the insignificant bundles of matter and energy who inhabit lesser realms. But with Rosy’s birth they begin to take notice. In fact, as she takes up her quest, they are driven to take notice because Rosy is not behaving as she was expected to. Ancient enmities have been awakened. Rosy may have her hands full negotiating the fallout from the celestial conflagration her life has ignited.

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I used my homemade Pinhole Camera telescope again to capture photos of the solar eclipse today (4/8/24). Here in LA area it was less than 50% at maximum (about 1115 am). The problem with this Camera is the translucent window I used. It has a wavy surface that distorts the image. Someday I’ll put in a better view screen. See other photos and stories of times I have used this camera in other of my posts here, and on my Facebook page.

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Here are two photos of the great Andromeda Galaxy that I took with my telescope. The top photo was taken under a completely dark sky in northern Maine in 2021 and the second photo was taken from my backyard in Southern California, near LA, in 2023. The Maine photo was a single 30-sec exposure. The backyard photo took about 21 hours of exposures – about 1260 individually stacked 60-second exposures! I had to take that many photos to overcome the light-pollution in Southern California.

The bottom photo shows the telescope I used: A William Optics Zenithstar 61mm f/6 refractor (see photo below).

The Andromeda Galaxy means a lot to me, for a couple of reasons: One, it is the closest galaxy to us yet 2-1/2 million lightyears away; also it is a spiral galaxy, like our own. More recently this galaxy has taken on a new meaning for me: Without the work of a largely unrecognized woman astronomer in the early 20th Century well-known scientists such as Einstein and Hubble would not have changed their opinion that the Andromeda was simply part of our galaxy. Henrietta Leavitt’s work made possible our current knowledge of the expanding universe. She should have gotten a Nobel prize for her work but they didn’t award women the prize in her day.

You can see a photo of Ms. Leavitt and a more complete story here.

Check out my latest sci-fi novel, Remnant: Beyond Galactic Empire on my Books Page.

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As has been true in other branches of scientific endeavor, it has taken a long time for women astronomers to be given their place alongside men. Notwithstanding this injustice, women have been making tremendous contributions to the field of astronomy for more than 100 years. Yet, their contributions have not been adequately acknowledged. Oh! We do have a Women Astronomer Day — August 1. (!)

One of these important woman astronomy pioneers, perhaps the most important, is Henrietta Swan Leavitt. She was a “computer” at the turn of the 20th century working for “important” men astronomers at the Harvard observatory. [A “computer” was a woman who examined photographic plates taken by cameras on telescopes and cataloging the stars on them.] Her analysis of photographic plates led her to make observations that would later lead famed astronomer Edwin Hubble to the conclusion that the stars at night are not just from our own galaxy — they are billions of other, very distant galaxies. Then later, and perhaps more stunning, Leavitt’s work helped Hubble to understand that the universe was not static (as Einstein and others in the early 20th century believed). Rather it was expanding!

“Leavitt’s discovery would forever change humanity’s picture of the universe, as it prompted Harlow Shapley to move the Sun from the center of the galaxy in the “Great Debate” and Edwin Hubble to move the Milky Way galaxy from the center of the universe.” [see: Henrietta Swan Leavitt]

Because of her discoveries and her work to establish a scientific basis for determining the stellar distances Henrietta should have received the Nobel Prize. But the Nobel Committee at the turn of the century did not recognize women as scientists. Finally, in 1924 someone recognized the oversight (aka “insult”). Gösta Mittag-Leker of the Swedish Academy of Sciences tried to nominate her for the Nobel but by then Henrietta had died of cancer and the prize is not awarded posthumously. However (hold your applause) she has received some posthumous honors. There is an asteroid and a crater on the Moon named after her. Nice to know.

When Leavitt died in 1921 she was a generally unknown astronomer. Fortunately, but far to late IMO, there are a number of biographies underway.

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A pinhole camera is an inexpensive means to capture images of the Sun, including the transit of the inner planets, Venus and Mercury.

When a planet passes in front of a star (e.g., our Sun) between the viewer and the star, one can see the dark spot passing across the bright disk of the star. That is, by the way, how some exoplanets are discovered: the light from the star momentarily lessens and repeats this with a periodic interval (corresponding to the planet’s orbit). For us on Earth there are two transits of our sun: the planets Venus and Mercury. Only those planets get between us and the sun.

Transits of Venus are among the rarest of all predictable astronomical phenomena. There were two in the 21st century: 8 June 2004 and 6 June 2012. I captured the one in 2012 when we lived in Charlotte NC. The previous transits were in 1874 and 1882 and the next transits are not until 2117 and 2125. It is likely that my children and possibly my grandchildren will not live to see those. So, very rare event and I got a photo (see below). A good article on transits of Venus can be found here.

I didn’t have (and still do not have) a solar filter for my camera so I needed another way to see the transit. A pinhole camera is an inexpensive way to get an image of the sun without burning out the optics on a camera (see this article that explains all about pinhole cameras, aka camera obscura). The pinhole camera can show the planet crossing the disk of the sun. I built a pinhole camera using FedEx cartons, a piece of metal with a hole drilled in it (at one end of the tube) and an image pad at the other end to focus the image. My 35mm DSLR on a tripod captured the image formed by the pinhole camera. This was a bit crude but it worked, MOL.

In the photo Venus appears as a black dot moving across the face of the Sun. See it at lower left of Sun’s image (about 5 o’clock at edge of disk). The black and white inset at lower right gives a slightly better view. The time of the transit was on the order of an hour.

The experience with my “solar pinhole camera” back in 2012 led me to improve the camera and I got to use it today for the annular solar eclipse. See my post on that here.

TOP: Steve with homemade pinhole camera (in Charlotte NC, June 2012)
MIDDLE: Image of Venus passing in front of Sun (small black dot at 5 o’clock edge of solar disk); black and white inset at lower right shows the planet image better.
BOTTOM: Close up of the image end of the pinhole camera and the DSLR camera I used to get a permanent photo.

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I was able to capture some decent photos of the annular solar eclipse today. (Annular eclipse = a “full” eclipse that does not fully cover the sun because, due to the position of the Moon and Earth relative to the Sun the shadow the moon casts on the surface of the earth is not quite as big as the diameter of the sun as seen from Earth. Therefore, at full annularity what you see is a ring of sun around the shadow of the moon.)

In Camarillo, where I live (50 miles northwest of Los Angeles), we got only about 75% of the show since the “path” of “full annularity” went over the US at higher latitudes. What we saw here is a large “bite” out of the cookie. See my photos below.

The way I took the photos was with a pinhole camera. A small hole in the wall of a darkened box will cast an image on the opposite surface that is an inverted image of what you “point” the box at. In my case, the box had to be about 2 meters long in order for the image to be reasonably large. That’s because of the thing being “photographed” is very small. There’s a relationship between the diameter of the hole, this size of the image and the length of the optical path inside the box. Since astronomy is one of my hobbies, this was a fun activity.

I first built a a pinhole camera like this to photograph the transit of Venus across the Sun (as seen from Earth, Venus appears as a black dot moving across the face of the Sun). Transits of Venus are among the rarest of all predictable astronomical phenomena. There were two in the 21st century: 8 June 2004 and 6 June 2012. I captured the one in 2012. The previous transits were in 1874 and 1882 and the next transits are not until 2117 and 2125. It is likely that my children and possibly my grandchildren will not live to see those. So, very rare event and I got some photos. See separate post here.

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“…Epic space opera with depth, heart, and non-stop adventure!”

A psi-gifted mercenary warrior faces off both natural and supernatural forces but discovers that the toughest battle may be within her own heart.

Purchase on Amazon
$4.99

“Masterfully blends hard science fiction with metaphysical wonder…”

A far distant, Eden-like world that few humans know about and still fewer know its secrets…

Purchase on Amazon
$4.99

Telpher Series (Click to see Synopses and read Samples)

Click Here for Book Reviews, Opinion and Research

Uplifting Science Fiction

Uplifting stories with characters who pursue a positive future for humanity. Galactic-scale settings with space-opera or adventure plots. Science fiction novels which feature time travel, telepathy, teleportation, and quantum power. Spacecraft that travel the immense distances between stars in only weeks without exceeding the speed of light (read about that here and here). Realistic heroes and villains who battle for control of human destiny. Victory, defeat or things that don’t quite work out the way you want them to. On balance the good in people and the benignity of the universe (or at least its neutrality) are the main takeaways. This is the definition of uplifting science fiction.

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