- 2005.01.12
Just visiting the American
Astronomical Society meeting here in San Diego, and I wanted to
pass along to all of you the observation that there are plenty of Macs
here. Apple has sent up a (very popular) cyber cafe which has had
people waiting at the door to use computers since I arrived.
I ran into an Apple representative, John Martellaro, who has written
extensively for the Mac Web on sites like MacOpinion before joining
Apple. He exhibited a Power
Mac G5 with two giant Cinema Displays and was explaining the
technical capabilities of the dual processor machine when I walked up
and snapped his picture.
I could not imagine having that
much screen real estate to use. Well, I could imagine having it, but
not affording it. ;-)
More and more professional astronomers seem to be leaning toward the
Mac, and although it is a small community, I really hope it will drive
some of the hardware manufacturers to provide better support for their
digital camera products for the Mac.
On a related matter, I will be reviewing Starry Night's latest
offering, which provides photorealistic horizons and an improved, Mac
OS X-style interface in a future column.
I have to get back to work working on our proposal to use the
Spitzer Infrared Space
Telescope, so I'll be writing more later. Have a great week!
is a longtime Mac user. He was using digital sensors on Apple II computers in the 1980's and has networked computers in his classroom since before the internet existed. In 2006 he was selected at the California Computer Using Educator's teacher of the year. His students have used NASA space probes and regularly participate in piloting new materials for NASA. He is the author of two books and numerous articles and scientific papers. He currently teaches astronomy and physics in California, where he lives with his twin sons, Jony and Ben.< And there's still a Mac G3 in his classroom which finds occasional use.