Greetings from Palmia Observatory,
It's been a while since our last post so let's catch up with a cartoon on Memorial Day, some Apil 8 solar eclipse photos and ChatGPT imaginings of astrophysicist wannabes meetings.
First, we found this cartoon graphic on Facebook and thought it represented the idea of Memorial Day quite well. While the rest of us enjoy our lives and freedoms by the seashore or elsewhere we should remember that we are standing on the earlier bravery, battle and death of many defenders in the armed forces that fought to maintain the freedoms that we enjoy today. Thank you all! |
| Cartoon graphic celebrating Memorial Day and those that make freedom possible (Source: ? Facebook) |
We meant to post some April 8 total solar eclipse photos much earlier but time and events got out of control and we are left for a few comments today. Resident Astronomer Peggy and I flew to southern Illinois to watch the eclipse. Luckily, we had clouds the day before and the day after, but on the eclipse day itself we had great weather.
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| Resident Astronomer besides DSLR on flimsy tripod (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Here is the background sky as the eclipse progression continued. You can see the partial eclipse in the camera live view screen.
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| Live shot of the DSLR screen during the eclipse (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Sadly, during totality, I forgot to take the solar filter off the camera. In two earlier eclipse events we were always surrounded by hundreds of other observers and a cry would go out to the crowd, "take your filters off." Well here in southern Illinois we were the only astroimager around and I just forgot that a solar filter was on the camera and sort of thought that the camera just broke at that time.
But, the iPhone is a handy substitute in instances like this and here we see totality.
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| iPhone image during the April 8 total solar eclipse (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Everyone should always remember to just look around and notice the natural background as the eclipse progresses towards totality. Here is one iPhone image of the darkening surroundings just prior to totality.
_web.jpg "iPhone image of totality in southern Illinois (Source: Palmia Observatory)") |
| iPhone image of totality in southern Illinois (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Finally, totality arrives, and we get to experience our little zone of darkness while off in the distance the sky is still quite bright.
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| iPhone image of totality in southern Illinois (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
After we got back from travelling to Illinois, the Resident Astronomer attended an IEEE T&D Conference at the Anaheim Convention Center. During one of the presentations, one discussion during the event was how the eclipse affected solar power generation. In this case you can see the dip in solar power production (if I recall correctly for the Texas utility system). Utility planners had to plan and prepare for alternative power sources, many gas turbine generators, to very quickly ramp up power production to meet the continued load as solar generation ramped down very quickly.
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| Screenshot of solar power generation during the eclipse (Source: IEEE T&D conference meeting) |
Well, many of us are accustomed to playing around with ChatGPT and other LLMs. For myself, I use it as sort of a "study buddy" what can very quickly summarize some theoretical issue. Yes, the AI sometimes makes things up, but in general it can be as reliable as some of your friends or associates opinions about some arcane topic.
Here, I asked ChatGPT to imagine what our typical Astrophysics SIG meeting would look like. Given only that the group is mostly an older crowd, who enjoys cookies during the break and one time had to contend with a lawn mower stored in our meeting room, this is ChatGPT's version of events.
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| ChatGPT "guided" impression of typical Astrophysics SIG meeting (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Hmm, next I wondered if we were to meet in a "sports bar", but this time one where every TV set was tuned to a different topic in astrophysics. Here is one version from ChatGPT imagining the case.
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| ChatGPT impression of "sports bar" for Astrophysicist Wannabes (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Well, another retired science guy, David, showed this AI generated version of the future inhabitants teaching the young about the "original processor." Pretty neat, thanks David!
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| Future AI generated scenario showing the "original processor" (Source: D. Naiditch) |
Finally, after all of the worry and fun of AI generated images, we can soothe any existential anxieties about the future rule of AI over the rest of us and enjoy the soothing effects of a Cadillac margarita! Find your own before the AI systems take over!
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| Resident Astronomer enjoys a Cadillac Margarita and stops worrying (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Until next time (and happy Father's Day to everyone),
Resident Astronomer George
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