I love Southern California sunsets. I have picture after picture of sunsets over Catalina, the Northern Channel Islands, San Diego and the Pacific Ocean. However, our trips this year to Hazleton, Pennsylvania; Truckee, California; Golden, Colorado; and Albuquerque, New Mexico; reminded me that I love the feeling of being at altitude and enjoying clear skies and sunrises and sunsets in the mountains. There is something special about cool, thin air (with a very low concentration of particulates) and a panorama of stars.
Speaking of stars. Looking back on it, it was a very close race between geology and astronomy when I was in high school. In retrospect, I gravitated toward geology because I liked the geology instructor more than the astronomy instructor. Since I had been in about half of the states in the US by the time that I was in high school, geology also made a bit more sense to me because I had seen it. Unfortunately, I had only seen the stars and planets from afar and I did not have a lot of hope for field trips to space in 1970.
But when it all comes back around, all of earth science was and is still intensely interesting for me. The roots of that interest are probably family related. Mom and Dad Hagar were travelers and I was the beneficiary (probably not always an enthusiastic beneficiary) of their curiosity to see new things. There are also probably some genetic contributions based on about half of the Yourishin/Kosco clan being coal miners and Granddad Hagar being a construction engineer for tunneling and aqueduct construction.
Dad Hagar was a big photography buff and telescope and telescopic lens guy so we would go out at night in North Dakota or Idaho or Yellowstone Park or Wisconsin and stare up at the sky. In the 1960’s there was a lot less light pollution!! He would point out constellations for me while working on getting pictures. On our vacations, we would drive and drive and drive and drive and he and Mom Hagar would talk about Badlands and granite and rivers and dams. Dad was a voracious reader with a lot of interests through the years and I am both thankful and a little concerned that his wide ranging interests might have contributed to my ADD tendencies. Or… it could be that my ADD tendencies contributed to his wide range of interests. Mom Hagar would add her knowledge about history and archaeology which she seemed have a very keen interest in. Until the day she died, she could tell you what type of bird was in a tree, on a picnic table or in the feeder and at least in South Carolina whether it was a regular visitor or an interloper.
Astronomy and trying to understand planetary motion also provided fodder for my love of navigation and surveying and being able to find out where I was with some simple measurements (okay maybe not simple until you do several hundred) and calculations (always helped to have the cookbook with you). I am a huge fan of GPS and the underlying theory behind its operation. But there is just something magical about being able to measure an angle with a sextant, jot down an accurate time and begin to figure out where you are.
Hmm. this little post really went off the rails. I had planned on writing about hiking and camping…. Maybe next time!