Comments on: The Walk Up Mount Wilson

By: The Sermon | Cosmic Variance

The Sermon | Cosmic Variance — Mon, 01 May 2006 03:52:47 +0000

[...] One thing I talked about (more than I intended to, but that’s where the spur of the moment took me) is something that really bothers me a lot. When I go to the parks and the nearby mountains to hike, where are the black people? When I go to the museums, where are the black people? Etc., etc. Why are they not using the resources of the city as much as other groups? Do they not know that they are “allowed to”? That they have just as much a right to do so? There was much nodding and shaking of heads, I talked about the discoveries that had been made up Mount Wilson, for example. Nobody knew that you could hike up there, which was remarkable. (On the other hand, I must say here from my encounters around the city that most people -of any ethnic or racial group- don’t seem to know anything about the role of the telescopes up there in the history of our understanding of our universe.) [...]

By: The Other Office | Cosmic Variance

The Other Office | Cosmic Variance — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 00:19:38 +0000

[...] I decided that I really really needed to get away from it all and get some clarity, so yesterday morning, I packed the essential gear (right - including this wonderful stick made from a tree that grew in my very own garden!) and headed for the hills. Well, the mountains, in fact. The San Gabriel range…. the huge things you can sometimes see in pictures, lurking behind the towers of downtown LA. The same one that has Mount Wilson…. You’ll recall a hike I did there to see the telescopes. This time I decided to go check out the upper part of the Arroyo Seco area….for the rocket scientists among you, this (well, the lower part of it) is directly behind Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Actually, I think I passed a fair amount of scientist-types while up there…. and found myself wondering if any of them read this blog…. [...]

By: Centauri Dreams » Blog Archive » Hubble, Einstein and a Day to Remember

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 19:24:21 +0000

[...] And don’t miss Johnson’s wonderful Walk Up Mount Wilson, complete with photographs, further background and the story of a wonderful morning hike. For a man who long resisted writing for a weblog (and for eloquent reasons), Johnson’s posts have become simply indispensable. [...]

By: A Significant Meeting | Cosmic Variance

A Significant Meeting | Cosmic Variance — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 21:26:56 +0000

[...] So instead I’ll point you to a long post I did the last time my mind went to Hubble and Mount Wilson. I went up there and showed you some of the sights along the way. I bet you never read it, did you? Well, you can find it at this link, and it says more about the physics I mentioned above…. and there are pictures of telescopes. [...]

By: Clifford

Clifford — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 05:24:06 +0000

MobyDikc: Slightly longer answer on the first. Yes. I would say assumptions are challlenged every day. It might be just little ones - not like “What if everyone this century is just plain wrong!? The fools!! Wait until they see this!!” - but more like “How about I don’t assume that this system has this property, what happens then? Do my basic equations still follow? Or maybe there are new pieces to the equations that I had not thought of….I might have more solutions then…..Hmmm”.

That’s more akin to the day-to-day of assumption-challenging that goes on in the theorist’s office, or on the bus, or in the cafe, or last thing at the bedside table before switching off the light (yes, I’m afraid so - It’s hard to turn off a theoretical physicist*).

Cheers,

-cvj

* Of course I mean “make them stop working on their physics problems”. Come on, stop giggling:…this is a family show folks…

By: Clifford

Clifford — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 05:12:19 +0000

Jim: Hi! It’s just a great mountain. What you describe is just a great thing to do. I used to stargaze a lot when I was younger: with binoculars, then a rather terrible telescope that I made, and sometimes accompaneid by star charts…. But I used to do it in a lot warmer climate than a mountaintop in Southern California in the wintertime. But it must be a great thing to do every year….I had a bad habit of just going and seeing that my favourite things were there, so I never really learned the sky very well when I was young, as I should have. Are you one of those people who can identify very many objects by name, constellation, etc…? This is where I end up being rather embarrased at all the amatuer astronomy parties.

-cvj

By: Clifford

Clifford — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 05:06:29 +0000

MobyDikc: Answers: Several; Yes.

Thanks for asking.

Cheers,

-cvj

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 04:09:24 +0000

I live in Los Angeles and I go up to Mount Wilson once a year in the winter for some intense stargazing with my starcharts and binoculars. It’s beautiful up there, very cold when I go, but beautiful. Thanks for the great post!

By: MobyDikc

MobyDikc — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 18:10:26 +0000

I took a look at your homepage. You say:

“My research interests are mainly concerned with the development of theoretical tools for the description of the basic fabric of Nature.”

I’m inclined to ask, how many basic underlies assumptions have you challenged?

I’m interested in the very same topics: is there something fundamental we’re doing wrong in our theories?

I’ve developed my approach using non-equation-based mathematics which abandons the static universe of special relativity and requires a novel approach to deriving predictions from the model.

I’m wondering if in all your research you’ve heard anyone anywhere ever say something like:

Maybe our models themselves are not only wrong, but so is the method by which we derive predictions from them.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:59:15 +0000

Wow. I did not know that! Thanks. Wll try to cross-link this with the “Greatest Physics Paper!” discussion.

-cvj

By: MobyDikc

MobyDikc — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:57:12 +0000

“if redshift are not primarily due to velocity shift â€¦ the velocity-distance relation is linear, the distribution of the nebula is uniform, there is no evidence of expansion, no trace of curvature, no restriction of the time scale â€¦ and we find ourselves in the presence of one of the principle of nature that is still unknown to us today â€¦ whereas, if redshifts are velocity shifts which measure the rate of expansion, the expanding models are definitely inconsistent with the observations that have been made â€¦ expanding models are a forced interpretation of the observational results” (E. Hubble, Ap. J., 84, 517, 1936.)

“[If the redshifts are a Doppler shift] … the observations as they stand lead to the anomaly of a closed universe, curiously small and dense, and, it may be added, suspiciously young. On the other hand, if redshifts are not Doppler effects, these anomalies disappear and the region observed appears as a small, homogeneous, but insignificant portion of a universe extended indefinitely both in space and time.” (Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices, 17, 506, 1937).

As far as I know, Hubble never believed in exapansion. He thought it was dumb.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:45:33 +0000

Interesting point. I don’t know. I’ve not read his writings about that yet. I imagine that there is a good source out there. I’ve not read it yet. Anyone out there care to recommend a biography or other source?

-cvj

By: MobyDikc

MobyDikc — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:40:14 +0000

Isn’t it true that Hubble never actually believed the universe was expanding?

That the relativists simply zealously latched onto one of the possibilities Hubble raised and his own prefered possibilities were ridiculed and eventually forgotten by the mainstream?

By: Clifford

Clifford — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 05:08:52 +0000

Spyder and Plato,

Thanks for your thoughts on mountains and place.

-cvj

By: spyder

spyder — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 02:35:13 +0000

Thank you Clifford for sharing some of those historical perspectives of science practiced by people who felt unfettered by the creationists and IDers of their day. Few people, outside the astronomy/physics community know much about the key role that the Angeles Crest and surrounding mountain ranges played in the history of science. Fewer people know that the trail you hiked, and the others in that region are some of the most dangerous in CA. Part of this is due to the numbers of ill prepared people hiking them; some to the numbers of people who drive vehicles where they don’t belong and get in trouble; and still others are due to the age of those sacred mountains. It is sad that the several observatories in and around Southern California suffer so much from light pollution, as well as the other forms. In the days of Hubble and Michelson LA County was the leading agricultural producing county in the US; still held that distinction until 1937. Made for much clearer air and dark nighttime skies.

It is nice that Plato’s post features another most significant mountain range. The Big Horn Medicine Wheel is worthy of multi-day visits particularly over the equinox’s and summer solstice. It is really harsh during the winter solstice, unless there is a drought year and the deep polar chill hasn’t yet come down from the North. I thank Plato for sharing that and encouraging all to be out and about with these ancient and modern sites dedicated to the human understanding of our relationship with the universe. My other favorites are the astronomical sacred kivas at Chaco Canyon. Well worth a week of time, while taking in the Grand Canyon.

By: Plato

Plato — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 15:31:40 +0000

The terrain is always interesting when you walk to high places. From such scientific position, it is hard not to look back and assess our forbears in their work to bring us to such vistas.

To know, that this same view includes cosmological origins of such vastness on “the lanscape.”

Such comparisons would have been the very idea that it causes balance to be “ruffled” when you stand on the edge, of the Grand Canyon view. This is one that unsettle me, yet I appreciated the rail to hold onto, while I witness the deep groove of natural expression.

Observatories

By: Clifford

Clifford — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 15:18:25 +0000

Wolfgang. Thanks. About the greatest paper: Of course there’s no such thing. That’s not the point of the discussion. See my original post on the subject. Thanks.

-cvj

By: Wolfgang

Wolfgang — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 15:12:09 +0000

Very nice post indeed!
I agree that the Andromeda discovery is one of the great breakthroughs but I have to say the beauty of physics is that there is no such thing as the greatest paper; It keeps evolving.

By: Mostafa

Mostafa — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 12:56:05 +0000

I wish all of we people in science had the energy and courage to go the same way: Think deeply of something that makes sense, and then go for it.
But also I think the distinction between “Theory” and “Action” (or “Application” perhaps) would disappear in that condition, and I selfishly and lazily prefer this unification not to occur.

By: brennp

brennp — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 11:30:29 +0000

I always learn something, either in the facts or in the telling.
nice post, thanks