I have spent the last week in Likely, California (population 63, elevation 4,449), three hours north of Reno atop the Modoc Plateau, doing narrow-band and photographic imaging of the stars under some of the darkest night skies in the United States.  Additionally, there has been no internet or cell phone reception within 20 miles – a blessed interruption from the ever-expanding catalog of scandals, corruption, and catastrophic domestic and foreign policy failures that typify the administration currently in power. Looking up at the Milky Way, our own galaxy, that each night gracefully arches overhead from horizon to horizon, those eternal questions about life, death, and our place in this vast universe come easily to mind.  And those eternal answers detailing mankind’s folly, our unbending penchant for power, wealth, and religious zealotry, remain as constant as the Milky Way itself. So on this Fourth of July, let us celebrate what we have created, remember...(Read Full Post)