Contrary to appearances, I actually try to read blogs of people who are perhaps a bit different than me. I do this to help fight against the perception (mostly my own) that I’m a monochromatic personality, interested only in a few geeky topics. Lisa Williams is such a blogger, who writes about a number of subjects which are near to my heart even if I lack the skill to write meaningfully or interestingly about them myself. Nonetheless, tonight I read that she managed to sneak a peek at M13 through a beautiful telescope at Wellesley. I was lucky enough to participate in the restoration of a large historic telescope here in Oakland, a 20″ Brashear refractor. It is now housed at the Chabot Science Center and is available for public viewing on weekends. Drop in and have a peek if you are ever in the area.

Addendum: the image on the right is a recent picture of this telescope in operation at Chabot. I’ll try to upload some more of my pictures to this gallery over the next few days.