Mike Brotherton our glorious host at Launch Pad is collecting links from the various participants and posting them on his website. So if you want to get a wider sense of the experience than just my raw notes, then click on over there and explore the other participants’ blogs.

For some reason, I’m having a hard time sleeping here. I’ve woken around 4:30 the last two mornings, still feeling dead-tired. But, the bonus is that I’m getting some writing done in the morning and then going for a walk with Jay Lake. Deanna Hoak joined us this morning and we wandered around the campus.
On one side of the quad there’s this fascinating art installation that I’d noticed yesterday. The artist had woven together branches into twisting, organic structures. You could wander into these little rooms of dense branches but beyond the appearance, the smell was astonishing. As Jay said, it was as much a scent installation as anything else. Sage and other herbs wove between the branches and perfumed the air. Deanna wants to go back there tonight to look at the stars through the top of them.
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Article Series - LaunchPad Astronomy Workshop 08
- Arrival at Launchpad ‘08
- Launchpad Day 1: Before lunch
- Jerry Oltion, Solar System Tour
- Launch Pad Links and photos
- Launchpad Day 2: What do astronomers do on a typical day?
- Launchpad Day 2: The Electromagnetic Spectrum, Light, Astronomical Tools (Mike Brotherton)
- Launch Pad Day 2: Back of the envelope calculations – Jerry Oltion
- Infrared Camera
- Launchpad Day 2: “Down and Dirty with Dust in Space” (Danny Dale)
- Launch Pad Day 2: Spectrometry Lab
- Learn: Identify constellations, stars, planets and how to navigate at night
- Launchpad Day 3: Amateur Astronomy (Jerry Oltion)
- Launchpad: Everything you always wanted to know about stars. (Mike Brotherton)
- Launchpad 08 Day 3: At WIRO
- Launchpad Day 3: More WIRO, now with open dome
- Launchpad 08: Photos from WIRO
- Launchpad Day 4: Binaries, Nova, Supernova and Black Holes (Mike Brotherton)
- Launchpad Day 5: Galaxies (Mike Brotherton)
- Frequently Asked Questions in Cosmology
- Launchpad Day 5: Ring Nebula
- Launchpad Day 5: Cosmology (Mike Brotherton)
- Launchpad Day 5: Writing for SETI (Jeffrey Lockwood)
- Launchpad Day 6: Computing in Astronomy (Ruben Gamboa)
- Launchpad Day 6: The Human Element in Space (Jerry Oltion)
- Launchpad Day 6: Extra-solar planets (Mike Brotherton)
- Launchpad final post: Online Astronomy Resources for Writers
They remind me of a cocoon. Like some kind of giant alien bug was there. Very cool. A perfect thing to have on campus when a group of SF writers are hanging around.