Sky and Telescope - June 2015 - 8

Letters

It was great to see Robert Gendler's
timely article, "Composing the Universe"
(S&T: Jan. 2015, p. 70). This discussion
seems long overdue in the astrophotography community.
Whenever I look at an image, whether
it's an astrophoto or a street photo, the
ﬁrst things I ask myself are, "What is the
photographer saying to me? What is he
or she saying about himself or herself?"
Unfortunately, with most astrophotos the
only thing being said is, "I am someone
who has mastered complex technology."
Then I turn the page on yet another
image of M31.
There is so much more that can be
communicated, and by adopting some of
Gendler's suggestions about composition,
visual ﬂow, and balance, it's possible to
create an inspirational, individual expression of the wonders of our universe.
Steve Irvine
Georgian Bluﬀ s, Ontario

Remarkable Thin-Moon Sightings
If you are still interested in reporting the
observations of "opposing crescents," I
used an 8-inch telescope to observe the
new Moon crescent on February 19th at
1:29 p.m. Mountain Standard Time from
Tucson, Arizona. The previous morning,
February 18th, I saw the old lunar crescent at 6:47 a.m. from Mount Lemmon,
not far from Tucson, also telescopically.
That time interval works out to be 30
hours 42 minutes.
My previous record, an interval of 33
hours 49 minutes, was in January 1996,
when we observed the youngest new
Moon at that time. But I hadn't seen anything shorter than that until this year.
Jim Stamm
Tucson, Arizona

Write to Letters to the Editor, Sky & Telescope,
90 Sherman St., Cambridge, MA 02140-3264,
or send e-mail to letters@SkyandTelescope.com.
Please limit your comments to 250 words.

June 2015 sky & telescope

A barely-there lunar crescent, just 16.7 hours past new
Moon, as captured from Tehran, Iran, on January 31, 2014.

In 2013 and 2014, I tried to observe all
waxing and waning crescents. I could see
most of the visible ones except those with
clouds or hazy dust at my horizon. One
was on the evening of January 31, 2014,
which I saw without optical aid when it
was 16 hours 40 minutes past new. The
previous morning, January 30th, using
just my eyes I could see a waning crescent that was 18 hours 23 minutes from
new. The time interval between these two
sightings was just 35 hours 3 minutes!
Mohsen Mirsaeed
Tehran, Iran
Editor's note: The previous record for welldocumented naked-eye sightings of opposing
lunar crescents was 35.7 hours, made in
Hawaii on December 31, 1994, and January
1, 1995, by Stephen James O'Meara (S&T:
May 1995, p. 105).

Planet Earth's Predicament
I was gratiﬁed to see David Grinspoon's
"The Big Payback" (S&T: Jan. 2015, p. 18).
If anyone is capable of seeing Earth in
planetary terms, it's astronomers, both
professional and amateur. Although
S&T's circulation is relatively small, and
astronomers make up a tiny fraction of
the general population, the truth needs to
be told whenever possible. And the truth
is: The situation (both for ourselves and
the biosphere) is very dire. Unfortunately,
the current worldview has a stranglehold
on the political process that could theoretically allow us to meet our numerous

challenges in an intelligent manner. The
prognosis is poor, in my estimation. Yet
the truth (that is, accurate information)
needs to be told, simply because we can.
I'm glad that S&T is doing so.
Gordon Solberg
Radium Springs, New Mexico
David Grinspoon writes, "We're causing
a mass extinction now," as he blames
humankind. Yet the Smithsonian Institution estimates that 99.9% of all the species that have ever lived are extinct. Nothing is more natural than going extinct.
The idea of humans being in such tight
control of Planet Earth is quaint. Where
I am now sitting was under a thick sheet
of ice 20,000 years ago, and sea level
was about 100 meters lower. Even the
most ardent climate-change enthusiasts
haven't argued that inconsiderate humans
brought on the last Ice Age.
Grinspoon alludes to "developing
a new global energy system that does
not wreck the natural systems. . . ." (He
doesn't tell us how this will work - but
presumably he and other astrobiologists
like to use electricity when the Sun isn't
shining and the wind isn't blowing.)
Then he calls for stabilizing the world's
population, building a planetary defense
system against impacts, and preparing
for the eventual burnout of the Sun. As
Grinspoon suggests, we are going to be
quite busy.
John Wood
Concord, Massachusetts

MOHSEN MIRSAEED

In Praise of Astrophotography

Sky and Telescope - June 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - June 2015