<![CDATA[ADAM BLOCK - FINE ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

<![CDATA[ADAM BLOCK - FINE ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY - Blog]]>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:10:02 -0600Weebly<![CDATA[Got it Covered]]>Mon, 30 Nov 2020 21:02:49 GMThttps://www.adamblockphotos.com/blog/got-it-covered

Going to the mail box to check for bills and stuff is not typically an exciting thing... but opening up my mailbox on Saturday November 28th 2020 was quite a memorable event. I was greeted by the view to the right- the cover of Sky and Telescope Magazine highlighting one of my images and the article within. WOW!

This is a really a rare thing and holds particularly special meaning. I have worked at or visited many historic observatories and without fail there is always a library of dusty tomes somewhere astronomers reside. And on these bookshelves inevitably journals such as the "ApJ" (Astrophysical Journal) and other proceedings. Alongside them is always a collection of Sky and Telescope magazines dating back to perhaps the first issues in the 1940s and 1950s. Typically they are bound in folders- and equally typical the collection dwindles or stops with the advent of the digital age during this century.

To date, there have been a little less than 1,000 issues/covers (assuming it has always been monthly) and I am so honored to grace one of them. Although my name has appeared within the folds of the magazine by image credits frequently- this is really on another level because now the images and their creator have a "voice" in the article I wrote.

The article was a suggestion by the editor, Sean Walker, to describe image processing tips and techniques especially with respect to galaxies. I was intrigued by the idea and I guess I wrote the article I wanted to read- rather than the one that is conventionally written. When I submitted my first draft to Sean his initial response was "Well that's different." I couldn't read if that was a good thing or not, but with his expert editorial eye we iterated on the result seen in the January 2021 issue- and I think we both feel we landed in a good place.

If you do see a copy of the article I hope you enjoy the "voice" I gave to some of the images and if I do not write again before the holiday season I wish you all the best and a Happy New Year.

-Adam

]]><![CDATA[Galactic Cellular Automaton]]>Sat, 20 Jun 2020 06:48:57 GMThttps://www.adamblockphotos.com/blog/galactic-cellular-automaton

So yeah, "Cellular Automaton" is a thing. The basic idea is analogous to John Conway's "Game of Life." The idea is to model a system you want to investigate using an regular grid or tessellation of "cells" and apply relatively simple rules iteratively. The macro evolution of the system as produced by the interaction of cells through time can be a useful numerical tool to investigate many areas of physics, biology and other sciences.

Take for example this picture of NGC 3344 to the left. It is a beautiful many-armed spiral galaxy. However, the processes by which you get the various shapes of spiral galaxies is not entirely well-understood (they do not all look the same!). In particular the gravitational interactions of billions of stars with the addition of gas dynamics, magnetic fields and much more is so complex that it boggles the mind how it might be possible to simulate observed features from this starting point.

Enter the Cellular Automaton! Create a galaxy by having each cell represent a cloud of gas from which stars form. Then arrange the cells in concentric rings to create a disk for the galaxy. Each ring of gas will rotate at some angular velocity with differential rotation between them. Finally apply rules that make the clouds of gas in each cell active (or not). One basic rule for clouds of gas is that a SuperNova can EXPLODE in a region of the galaxy. This triggers adjacent regions of gas to collapse and form stars. And this new star formation might also trigger other neighbors to form stars as well. It isn't 100%. These clouds of gas also age and eventually become inactive until perhaps once again triggered to form more stars. In fact the details of the rate of formation, the likelihood of affecting neighbors, the numbers of clouds (cells), their ages and the rotation rate of the rings together all play a part in the final macro pattern that evolves.

Recently I completed a program that does exactly what I describe above. It is meaningful to me on many levels (see below), but first here is one run of the program showing how by applying these simple rules you can end up with something like a spiral galaxy. I suggest actually seeing it on YouTube at full screen in HD.

Isn't that cool? Just by working on a micro-scale with a bare minimum of states and rules- patterns emerge that echo what is seen in nature. This kind of model certainly does not completely characterize the way galactic structures form- but there is a convincing argument that some of what is observed may come from these processes.

Below is another version using very different parameters which more clearly shows the pixel interactions.

This program is meaningful to me because I wrote this in college- specifically in the fall of 1995. I know this well because this is when I met Miwa... who remarkably would agree to marry me (later). It was in a computational physics course (romantic right?) lead by Dr. Phil Pinto of the University of Arizona. Many students in the class did not have experience programing, but I had a solid foundation in C. So I asked Dr. Pinto if there was something interesting to model and he suggested the perfect thing! He gave me a paper written in 1976 by Mark Mueller and David Arnett titled: "Propagating star formation and irregular structure in spiral galaxies." In it they describe the model I simulated above... only they used printouts on paper! They could not use nearly as many rings (cells) or iterations compared to what I can easily do on my computer today. However back in 1995, with my inefficient C code, I honestly was not doing much better than the paper printouts. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of cells are necessary to make this simulation even start to look reasonable.

Still I did later use my code-monstrosity as an example when delivering public programs at Kitt Peak National Observatory. I had to log into a Sun machine remotely- because it was the only machine that would not give up trying to run my program. Once those machines became unavailable, this program lay dormant.

Fast forward 20+ years. I eventually joined a small team of astronomers at the UofA and I committed myself to learning this new-fangled programming language called Python. It opened the door for me to once again look at this program on my personal computer. And just yesterday... it happened, I once again saw something similar to what I had seen years ago on my screen. I improved the code in many ways that go far beyond my original version such that I think this result is closer to what the original paper envisioned and it has much greater flexibility in the levers and parameters I can adjust (play with!).

Special thanks to Dr. Robert Vanderbei for his patience as a sounding board for this project. I approached Dr. Vanderbei in the hopes of learning how to transmute this program into a Javascript that will run in a browser window. Check out his website and you will see why. He has hundreds of toy models doing exactly this kind of thing. Indeed, once I presented him with the idea he made his own version of this galaxy model. It will take time, but with his example I hope to create a similar interactive version in the future as well.

]]><![CDATA[The Pitch]]>Fri, 05 Jun 2020 22:53:14 GMThttps://www.adamblockphotos.com/blog/the-pitchIn college I helped lead the Astronomy Club and wanted to take on the project of installing a telescope (that was not being used) at a facility (also not being used). It would become the club telescope if it was possible. So I drafted a letter to go before the head of the Astronomy department (Dr. Strittmatter) as well as a well-liked Optics professor (Dr. Bickel) asking them to fund the project and match each other's monies. The pitch I wrote is below and both agreed to assist! Dr. Bickel in particular did something very nice. He wrote to me and explained that this proposal was far better than most of what crossed his desk in the professional world. This is was both a very kind and a *very powerful* thing to do. I subsequently used this confidence to put forth more "pitches" that helped create the Kitt Peak National Observatory Visitor Center evening programs as well as the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter for the University of Arizona. I was probably 22-24 years old at the time. Everyone has those things in life that determine the direction of the narrative... this was one of mine.

Tumamoc Hill Telescope Project

Located on a mountain just outside of the Tucson complex there is a small abandoned structure once used to house a medium sized telescope. However, the building has remained unused longer than the lifetime of the author of this proposal. The lack of desire to maintain this site or ambition to rectify the status of this structure certainly attributed to its current state of useless disrepair; however, the members of the University of Arizona Astronomy Club have had a long standing desire and motivation to rebuild this site and use it as a club privilege and educational tool.
The owners of the site, namely Steward Observatory, have graciously allowed the club to repair the site and install a sixteen-inch reflecting telescope which sadly, suffered a similar past as the building into which it will be installed. This is what makes this project so inviting- it allows for existing resources to be repaired and recycled creating tools that may once again prove themselves useful and educational. Another advantage of this kind of project is, when it comes right down to it, it is cheap. The money required to repair the site and install the telescope is negligible compared to other projects which insist on new technologies and expensive materials and provide the same educational value.
Moreover, the members of the club strongly believe they are rebuilding something more than just a structure to put a out-of-commission telescope in- they also feel they are rebuilding an interest and motivation to engage in hands-on science, which is of mutual interest to both student and teacher.
The ideas which are stated above are not result of years of wishful thinking. They are instead the product of determined action and patience. Major clean-up and rebuilding activities have already been executed with great success. New roofing material has been put on the structure and it has been sealed to prevent further water damage. A new deadbolt-lock was also installed over the winter break. The next couple of weeks will also be work intensive as the club paints the structure and redesigns a custom mount for the telescope.
In that respect, my personal contribution to this team effort will be to help in the restoration of the telescope and its installation on Tumamoc Hill. The first duty that needs to be performed is to clean the primary mirror of the telescope. Stellar Vision, a local store dedicated to astronomical equipment, quoted the club a price of forty dollars to collimate and clean the telescope. This is an excellent deal.
I am also involved in the designing of a new mount for the telescope. The mount that is currently on the two-pier foundation is made to hold a telescope smaller than the one we wish to install. Using the computer program AutoCad a new design based on the old one was drawn up and is ready to be submitted to the appropriate machine shop once funding is available.
I look forward to seeing this project reach its natural conclusion- that is, a telescope placed in an abandoned building by the end of the semester. The scope of this project will certainly encompass not only undergraduate club members, but also any activities that support the mission of the astronomy club such as giving children from various schools an opportunity to participate in astronomy related activities (as the club has done in the past). There is no doubt that the night of "first light" will be far brighter than any other atop Tumamoc Hill.

(Some day I might come back here and post the pictures of the work in progress and final installation of the telescope... Unfortunately in the decades that followed, not all future students were quite as motivated to maintain it... and once again things fell into disrepair. Ah...entropy.)

]]><![CDATA[An Old Poem]]>Fri, 27 Sep 2019 06:27:57 GMThttps://www.adamblockphotos.com/blog/an-old-poemFor a creative writing class in high school...I apparently wrote a poem about an astronomical subject (surprise!). I do not know if it was my idea to keep the subject implicit or not- but it kinda works. I did this in May of 1989 (according to my paper), I was 16.

Incandescent Sun shines on desolate terrain
From millions of miles casting shadows on the plain
Jagged mountains and rolling hills
Bottomless pits which nothing fills
Marked and marred with fissures and faults
Stressed and strained unlocking monstrous vaults
Ring-shaped mountain, magnificent sight
Serrated walls with broken pieces of light
Seas and oceans scattered all around
But not a drop of water to be found
Dust and debris on a flattish floor
Meteorite impacts from which lava did pour
Rising Sun makes temperature jump with leaps and bounds
From absolute freezing to almost enkindling ground
No breeze nor sound to be felt or heard
No hint of air to be stirred
The force of gravity in this intriguing place
Nearly nonexistent far out there in outer space
Even when the Sun is high
Stars shine 'gainst the ebony night sky
Skyward now look and see
SIlent clouds of stars floating through infinity
A galactic vantage from which to view
All the Universe in its infinitude
The stars never twinkle and very slowly move
This place is empty, static, never to improve
The vigorous landscape but in all aspects dead
Unchanged for billions of years, that was until visited
The footprints remain, the flag still stands
But until another development, doubtfully graced by Americans
The Sun now sets as in days past
And ash-colored glare begins to fade fast
But behold! Do not despair
There is still beauty even without air
For to the West a glow doth appear
To cast away all timidity and fear
A great sapphire slowly rises and brightens
It throws a bluish tint upon the ground it enlightens
It is Earth! which rises in the lunar sky
Moon barren, secluded, and mysterious place
But on Earth it does beautify
Earth's eternal and perpetual champion for all time and space.

So... this was just one of the things I came across in my recent cleaning of stuff. It seems like I needed to make couplets... quite a few of them apparently! I did receive an A+ . :)

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