ASTRO: The Amazing Randi -- The Movie

My dad and my maternal grandfather were both professional magicians. My
grandfather invented many stage illusions still performed today. The
dancing handkerchiefs that Doug Henning made so famous in his broadway
act was one he invented back at the turn of the century. My grandfather
used one of his illusions to catch a crook for the cops once but that's
a long story. So I have a great appreciation for magic when it is done
well. One of the best for many years was The Amazing Randi. He did a
lot of mentalism much the same as my dad did. Both billed themselves as
illusionists never claiming real psychic abilities. Only one became
famous however.

Anyway, asteroid 3163 was recently named for him and is just now fading
from its brightest level. Here's the citation off the Minor Planet
Center's website:

Named in honor of the American magician James Randi (b.1928; born name
Randall James Hamilton Zwinge) for his continuing efforts in debunking
the claims of the paranormal community and exposing the tricks that
charlatans use. His use of scientific techniques in many disciplines has
contributed to the refutation of suspicious and fraudulent claims of
paranormal results. Name proposed by A. Dill and J. Meeus.

It was shining at 14.5 when I made this 2 hour movie. We are moving
away from it while it moves toward us so the relative motion against the
stars is very slow, only a bit over 2 seconds of arc in 10 minutes.
Hence the need to run for 2 hours to get much motion. Each frame is 10
minutes long as you have to look hard to see it elongated at all by that
exposure time. You won't have to look hard to detect all the clouds
that moved in and shut me down after 12 frames. This is a heavily
cropped image to reduce bandwidth to a reasonable level.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Neat movie Rick. Although I expected something more spectacular by the title
of the post :-)
This one is slow indeed.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
My dad and my maternal grandfather were both professional magicians. My
grandfather invented many stage illusions still performed today. The
dancing handkerchiefs that Doug Henning made so famous in his broadway
act was one he invented back at the turn of the century. My grandfather
used one of his illusions to catch a crook for the cops once but that's
a long story. So I have a great appreciation for magic when it is done
well. One of the best for many years was The Amazing Randi. He did a
lot of mentalism much the same as my dad did. Both billed themselves as
illusionists never claiming real psychic abilities. Only one became
famous however.

Anyway, asteroid 3163 was recently named for him and is just now fading
from its brightest level. Here's the citation off the Minor Planet
Center's website:

Named in honor of the American magician James Randi (b.1928; born name
Randall James Hamilton Zwinge) for his continuing efforts in debunking
the claims of the paranormal community and exposing the tricks that
charlatans use. His use of scientific techniques in many disciplines has
contributed to the refutation of suspicious and fraudulent claims of
paranormal results. Name proposed by A. Dill and J. Meeus.

It was shining at 14.5 when I made this 2 hour movie. We are moving
away from it while it moves toward us so the relative motion against the
stars is very slow, only a bit over 2 seconds of arc in 10 minutes.
Hence the need to run for 2 hours to get much motion. Each frame is 10
minutes long as you have to look hard to see it elongated at all by that
exposure time. You won't have to look hard to detect all the clouds
that moved in and shut me down after 12 frames. This is a heavily
cropped image to reduce bandwidth to a reasonable level.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

That looks like fun... good sequence Rick

--
Regards, Doug W.
www.photonsfate.com
"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
...
My dad and my maternal grandfather were both professional magicians. My
grandfather invented many stage illusions still performed today. The
dancing handkerchiefs that Doug Henning made so famous in his broadway
act was one he invented back at the turn of the century. My grandfather
used one of his illusions to catch a crook for the cops once but that's
a long story. So I have a great appreciation for magic when it is done
well. One of the best for many years was The Amazing Randi. He did a
lot of mentalism much the same as my dad did. Both billed themselves as
illusionists never claiming real psychic abilities. Only one became
famous however.

Anyway, asteroid 3163 was recently named for him and is just now fading
from its brightest level. Here's the citation off the Minor Planet
Center's website:

Named in honor of the American magician James Randi (b.1928; born name
Randall James Hamilton Zwinge) for his continuing efforts in debunking
the claims of the paranormal community and exposing the tricks that
charlatans use. His use of scientific techniques in many disciplines has
contributed to the refutation of suspicious and fraudulent claims of
paranormal results. Name proposed by A. Dill and J. Meeus.

It was shining at 14.5 when I made this 2 hour movie. We are moving
away from it while it moves toward us so the relative motion against the
stars is very slow, only a bit over 2 seconds of arc in 10 minutes.
Hence the need to run for 2 hours to get much motion. Each frame is 10
minutes long as you have to look hard to see it elongated at all by that
exposure time. You won't have to look hard to detect all the clouds
that moved in and shut me down after 12 frames. This is a heavily
cropped image to reduce bandwidth to a reasonable level.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".