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After seeing a Facebook posting by fellow astronomer George Huftalen from Rhode Island a few weeks ago I just shook my head.

This is exactly what I was looking for for my Solar public outreach get togethers.

I had the best intensions to build “The Sun Gun” after seeing it on the internet, but it’s size was a bit big for me. Then I noticed George’s Sun Funnel. That’s what I needed, and the rest is history.

Here’s how it turned out. It’s the Sun Funnel fitted on my Vixen 4″ refractor and rear projected thru a 30mm eyepiece. Several sunspots are easily visable to the naked eye. With more shading around the funnel to get rid of the ambiant light, it is certainly a winner to show groups of people sunspots.

Here’s a link to make your own Sun Funnel before the transit of Venus. You will be glad you did!

One thing that I did that was different from the instructions that you will see. Instead of using Da-Lite High Contrast rear projection screen, I looked up and found that a you could use a PAVA translucent shower curtain instead. The cost of a 12″ x 12″ Da-Lite about $12-$15 dollars. A PAVA translucent white shower curtain (I found at Walmart) $5.76 for a 5′ x 6′ piece, to make 25 Sun Funnels.

Oh, the total cost of my Sun Funnel including the whole large piece of shower curtain…….About $8.00…. Time to make it 20 minutes.

One of the places I have always wanted to go, but never had a chance for one reason or another.  I finally got a chance, and after I got there I was saying “boy I should have done this sooner.”

This is Battleship Cove.

Located on the waterfront in historic Fall River, Massachusetts, Battleship Cove is a nonprofit maritime museum and war memorial that is home to the largest and most diverse collection of preserved US Navy ships in the world.
Battleship Cove harbors five National Historic Landmarks: Battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-59), Destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (DD-850), the World War II Attack Submarine USS Lionfish (SS-298), and PT Boats 617 and 796. Its collection also includes a Drone Anti-Sub Helicopter, Cobra Attack and UH-1 “Huey” helicopters, a T-28 Trojan and the USA‘s only exhibited example of a Soviet-built missile corvette, the Hiddensee. Also on site are the National PT Boat Museum, the National Destroyermen’s Museum.

The centerpiece of the world-class museum is the Battleship USS Massachusetts, which arrived in Fall River in June of 1965 after decommissioning by the Navy and a successful campaign by the wartime crew of “Big Mamie” to save the ship from the scrap yard.

Just a couple of hours drive from Connecticut this is a place that anyone could enjoy and walk among the history of WWII.

A low flying Pratt & Whitney jumbo jet did a couple of fly overs of East Hartford and Middletown late this afternoon.

The jet had the Pratt and Whitney Eagle displayed on the tail, and looked a little unusual, with an additional stub wing test engine on the right side of the plane.

The flyovers are intended to give Pratt employees an opportunity to see the engine they have been working on.

The jet could be flying as low as a thousand feet as it gave many people a good look at the new engine.

Here’s a shot as it passed over Portland on it’s way to the Middletown Pratt & Whitney factory.

Here’s a close up showing the small wing with the test engine attached to it in the front of the plane.

I was able to recently capture a rare occurance in the skies over Manchester, Connecticut.

Connecticut Light and Power was using a helicopter to string high voltage lines across I-84 and I-291.

The 2.7 mile upgrade in transmission lines is between Burnham and West Center Streets, was at a cost of 28.8 million dollars.

It was trilling to watch the ballet like moves that the helicopter was doing stringing the lines to workers over 150 feet above ground.

Imagine the nerves of steel of that helicopter pilot!

April 23, 2012 will be the 25th anniversary of the L’Ambiance Plaza collapse in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The L’Ambiance Plaza collapse was one of the worst disasters in Connecticut’s history. On Thursday  April 23, 1987 at 1:36pm, a residential building project under construction at the corner of Washington Avenue and Coleman Street failed, killing 28 construction workers, and injuring 22.

Hundreds of emergency service and construction workers raced to the scene as over 20 ambulances from Bridgeport and surrounding towns set up triage areas around the incident area.

This is where my story starts.

Shortly after 2:00pm I had heard on the radio that there was a major building collapse in Bridgeport. I was in Middletown at the time. I made my way to Rt.15 in Meriden and on to Bridgeport in record time. I did not know where the collapse was, but there was still a thick cloud of dust hanging over the city. I just followed many of the emergency vehicles that were racing to the scene which happened to be right near Route 8.

I quickly made my way onto the site to document the first several hours of the rescue operation.

Here on the 25th anniversary of the collpase of the L’Ambiance Plaza, I am going to post some of the never seen before images….the first few hours inside the collapse zone.

During a recent trip down to the Connecticut River next to the Chester – Hadlyme Ferry I found a new addtion to the parking lot next to the ferry ramp.

This is a great new attraction to help visitors appreciate how the Connecticut River can rise!

A nice addition to the ferry ramp!

I have gotten many requests from CtCameraEye followers to show some of my images that I took when I was in Iceland.

You all have loved my Auroras images, so here you go.

Follow this link http://www.ctcameraeye.com/?page_id=4503 and it will take you to “My Travel Eye”, Pure Iceland.

Hope you enjoy the many sights that I saw over my short trip to this great country!

It’s been a lifelong dream to go and chase the aurora, and this year looked like the best chance to do it.

It is the peak of 11 year solar cycle, which should yeild many nice northern lights. Ok, now where should one go to get the best chance on seeing them?

Most people would say northern Canada, Alaska, or even Norway and Sweden. All near the arctic circle. There is one more place though which many people do not even think about. That place is Iceland!

After doing a lot of research and planning, and a great airfare price, Iceland it is! Traveling during the week of the new moon I felt it was my best chance to see some aurora action.

Without turning this blog into a travelog of my trip, here is what I managed to image during the less than 4 hours of partly clear skies in Iceland. Yes, the weather was not cooperating at all having to fight white out conditions with gale force winds, to calm clear skies within a half an hour. Iceland is not the observers dream island, but if you perservere, you will be rewarded many times over. So here is what I managed to get.

All in all, a great trip to Iceland. Saw many sights around the southern part of the island, met many nice people, and some other aurora chasers like myself.

The year is still young, maybe enough time for one for aurora chase……

A great night for imaging the close 3 degree conjuction of Jupiter and Venus.

Here a wide angle 14mm lens shot taken from a hill top in East Hampton, Connecticut shining brightly in the western sky at 8:00pm.

Here’s another shot with a 300mm lens with both planets, and the wind vane on top of the Congergational Church of East Hampton.

While working this week I happen to notice a couple of funny signs along the roadside.

Check these out.

Most schools have fund raisers. Selling candy, magazine subscriptions, popcorn, roses, and even grinders. Now this one was a new one on me. I had to actually stop on this entrance ramp to I-95 in Stamford to get a picture of it!

A High School Mattress Sale? Really? I wonder if they deliver?

The next one I saw was in East Berlin, while I was at a breaking news story. One of my fellow cameramen spotted it and we all started to laugh.

Maybe East Berlin needs some more mouse traps!