To believe or not to believe?

       I have never tried to hide that I do not believe in God. It comes up very often with different people I meet, some old friends, some total strangers. Most of them, of course, are firm believers in an existence of a higher power. It is really funny, I think, how many different reactions I get when I tell someone I'm a non believer. "So, are you spiritual?", "Where do you get your morals from?", "What do you think is controlling all of 'this'?" and this is the most weirdest one, "Of course you believe, Christ is going to help you, He knows". I really felt like laughing my ass off to that last one. I replied, "You're a fucking idiot!", although just under my breath. Now I wish I had actually said it out loud.
     
       I did not grow up in a obsessively religious family. In India, at least in the region I come from, people in our neighborhood, my relatives had various ceremonies celebrating different Gods (depending on the season/occasion) throughout the year. But I do not remember, my parents holding any of these at our house. I won't go as far as to say my parents do not believe in God, my father certainly did (and maybe does now, I don't know after his paralysis and memory loss) and my mother believes in a higher source driving all the things in the universe. I was never forced to go to temples, or read the religious books. I guess, it was left up to me to figure stuff out. So, when I bought a copy of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, I did not get a lot of flak.
     
        All that was, of course, quite a few years ago and all those years in between then and now, have made my non-belief nothing but a lot stronger. When some one asks me, "Where do you get your moral compass from?", they are assuming that religion and belief in God are the only things that can tell us whether a thing is good or bad. There is a quote from one of Ricky Gervais' new series 'Derek', by the main character Derek Noakes, that I like "I don't think it matters if there is a god or not. I've met people who believe in god that are good and that are bad. And I've met people who don't believe in god that are good and that are bad. So just be good. I'm good. Not because I think I'll go to heaven but because when I do something bad, I feel bad. And when I do something good, I feel good." I just feel there is a lot of meaning conveyed in that simple statement. And if some people think that a belief in God is the only thing that can keep someone in line, then just a little more thought would tell you they are simply wrong. Humans are a social species and our evolution over millions of years have developed a support and care system towards other humans. Moral values can arise out of working together for common good. There is simply no need of an idea of a divine being to explain it. It becomes unnecessary, and what do we do about unnecessary ideas? Yes, that's right, we discard them.
     
        Another thing I've started hearing is the word 'spiritual' in a lot of conversations these days. A lot of my friends throw it around quite a bit. "I don't believe in God as such, but I'm spiritual. I believe in an energy that is driving the universe", was something that my friend said to me. A lot of people ask me about spirituality too. In fact, after "Do you believe in God?" and "Where do you get your morality from?", that is the common third question. Yeah, now-a-days I can totally predict these questions once the conversation starts going down this path. For me, a spiritual moment is that instant when something brings out a sense of awe and wonder about the grand scheme of things. And I experience such moments every single time I look up at the night sky, every time I look at Saturn through a telescope or look at the faint smudge in the sky that is the majestic Andromeda Galaxy. That is an entire galaxy of hundreds of millions of suns, whose light has travelled millions of light years and hit my eye. I get a lump in my throat every single time I look at it. The fact that I am made up of star dust, is spiritual to me. And the best part is, it is all real and true.

        We question stuff, we search for answers, we figure things out. That is what makes us who we are. That is why I love science and the scientific method. It is so much better than saying, "We can't explain it, that means there is God". So, I think we should be excited to be living in this age where we are learning so much about the universe we live in. There is always something new to be discovered around every corner. That is what has got us this far and I'm sure it'll take us further a long way into the future.
     
        

Getting 'Vegucated'

        I have been on a documentary watching marathon during the holidays and it has carried over into the following weekend. And with the bitter cold and snow storms outside, there is nothing better to do either, right! There are quite a few good ones on Netflix and a one of them is particularly very interesting and brilliantly made. So much so that I decided to write a blog post about it! What's more, it is related to something we all love and do everyday - food consumption and manufacturing (well, not so much the manufacturing that we love or do, but definitely consumption). The documentary is called Vegucated, and browsing through Netflix's list of documentaries, this one had a witty poster and the top of it was decorated with all these award wins and accolades (Get Vegucated). So I decided to go ahead and watch it.

The documentary starts with a little story by the writer/director Marisa Miller Wolfson, about how and why she turned a vegan. The focus of the documentary then goes on to following  around three people (Tesla, Brian and Ellen) she selected and followed around for six weeks as they took a stab at the vegan lifestyle. The interesting part about the three people is that all of them are regular meat eaters. And along the way the film gives some interesting facts, figures, footages and comments by researchers and scientists. Some of the clips shown of treatment of animals in the big meat production facilities are almost unwatchable. So after six weeks of going Vegan, talking to people in the food industry and seeing the conditions in the 'food factories' the three people selected for the experiment end up turning completely vegan or at least vegetarian (There is a subtle difference, read more about it here).

What got me most intrigued are some of the topics that the documentary talks about - the treatment of animals at the food production facilities, the relation of meat production to global warming (or to be politically correct, Climate Change) and of course meat consumption and health effects.

We all are, (at least I hope) by now aware that the conditions in which animals in the meat factories are 'stored' are almost bordering with cruelty (There are quite a few clips of animal cruelty in the film. I found a couple of them on YouTube - Farm to Fridge & Dairy Industry in 60 seconds). I know, the images are so disturbing, I could barely watch them. So now, when we go and try buy our eggs or chicken, we look for the terms 'cage-free' or 'free-range' on the packaging. Well it turns out, those are just terms for putting on the labels in nice colors. Here is a short film on PBS showing what they really mean in the commercial food production industry. (Hint: they really don't mean much). Same is true for milk, with the cows being housed in appalling conditions and 'over-milked' for higher milk production to cope with the ever increasing demand. 

Moving on. What would your reaction be if I told you that livestock farming contributes more to greenhouse gases than all the transportation vehicles combined? Completely shocked, right? That's what I call a mind-blowing fact. But there have been several studies and publications about this and this article summarizes them pretty well. A brilliantly made documentary (yes, yet another documentary I ended up watching as I was writing this) Meat the Truth, available free here, goes into more details about the hows and the whys. If you're too bored to read an article with numbers and figures, that film is something you should definitely watch. There are some other interesting facts related to this - switching to a vegan lifestyle for a year reduces more carbon dioxide emissions than switching to a hybrid car for a year! Munch on that for a while. 

And its not only the environment that is adversely affected by the meat and dairy, it takes a toll on our bodies too. Now I am not a total vegetarian, I love me some meat, but after reading about some of the ill-effects of meat consumption, I think I need to cut down on the already little meat that I consume. Heart disease, brain health, cancer, diabetes, strokes have all been intensively studied and found to have a link to meat consumption. There are quite a few other studies showing lesser risk to all the above conditions in people with vegetarian or low meat diets. One of many such examples (link) from the Journal of American Medical Association. And the common belief that vegetarian diet lacks in essential nutrients is not true either. Generally, a carefully selected vegetarian meal can be extremely nutritious and without the added risk of life threatening illnesses (it, of course, also depends quite a bit on individual lifestyle, exercising etc). 

Now after watching Vegucated (and other related films) will I wake up tomorrow and start being a complete vegan or even vegetarian? Probably not. I know myself, hence I also know doing that would probably be extremely difficult. But it has definitely set in motion a thought process about this whole business of meat and dairy. Like I previously mentioned I don't eat large amounts of meat anyway, but I am definitely thinking about cutting down on that too. How long can that be sustained and will I be able to completely give it up, are questions that will be answered in due course. Buying from local farmer's market and co-ops is a good option. But imagine about how much all of us can help with the situation if we decide to not eat meat just for a week! And heck, if you are not concerned with the treatment of animals or environment, next time you order that short stack of ribs or buy that slab of stake, just think about how often, how much and what exactly it is that you are putting into your belly. 

My first 'shot' at Astrophotography

        I've always wanted to click beautiful pictures of the night sky just like those in the astronomy magazines and websites. But, lack of any sort of measurable amount of experience in astronomy and photography haven't taken me very far, in fact,anywhere at all, towards doing that. But all was about to change, when me and a friend decided to take a trip to South Dakota (wait...what??)  to see the Mount Rushmore National Monument (Oh, that's why). I had a fair idea that the monument was sort of away from any big cities, so there was a chance of being under slightly darker skies than what I'm used to seeing in the Detroit Metropolitan area. I took a quick look at Dark Sky Finder (DSF) map (the website I'd bookmarked who knows when!) to find that the monument was a little closer to Rapid City than I had expected. But nearby there was the Badlands National Park (cool name, if you ask me) to the east and the Devil's Tower National Monument (cooler still...) not far off in the north west of the Mount Rushmore. And those were quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and the DSF map had them shaded grey! That is almost as dark as it gets! That got me super excited and the first thing that came to my mind was - this is my chance to have a go at astrophotography.

The idea of capturing stunning photographs of the night sky was cool and exciting, but I needed to get my hands on a key piece of equipment - The Camera! That brought me right down on the ground again. The thought of spending $500 on a decent digital SLR camera just for one trip, without knowing anything about basic photography, wasn't something I was willing to entertain. But, all hope was not lost as I turned to man's best friend - the internet! A quick search pointed me to a local camera shop which rented out digital SLR cameras and lenses for a decent charge. Voila! Within my meager budget I got my hands on a Canon EOS Rebel T3 and a 18-200 mm lens to go with it. And while I was thinking getting a camera was tough, learning how to use it in a day was a totally different ball game. I had never used anything beyond a basic point and shoot before this (I'm not much of a photographer, and on the rare occasions that I've felt like taking pictures, my iPhone has been more than sufficient). But I soon found out that the internet  (again to the rescue) was rife with little tutorials on some of the basics of digital SLR photography which were enough to get me started. About a week before, I was at my Astronomy Club's (University Lowbrow Astronomers) meeting at the end of which, Brian Ottum showed us a couple of stunning pictures of the Milky Way he took  with a digital SLR camera at a National Park in Utah. So, I thought it would be best to ask him for some tips on how to use a camera under dark skies. He was extremely prompt, very helpful and knew exactly what I was trying to do. After a quick phone conversation with him I was feeling quite confident about shooting some stars!

Alright, so, I had my camera, I had learnt how to use it (umm, sort of...) and was ready to drive a 1000 plus miles to put all of it to use under some sublime skies. Easy peasy, right? Ha ha, not so much! "Did you check the weather, Mr. Photographer?", the little voice in my head blurted out. Darn you little voice in my head! So back on the internet with weather.com, Weather Underground, AccuWeather, NOAA... ABC... XYZ and all came back with the same answer - Perfect Weather Conditions. Woo Hoo! With all the elements coming together including perfect weather, even God couldn't have written a better script. So now I was, finally, all set to embark upon my little trip.

        A day and a half and exactly 1200 miles later, I was at my hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota. On my way, while my friend was driving at night, about 50 odd miles from our hotel, I peeked out of the window toward the sky and it was filled with stars. I got a taste of what was to come the following nights under the sky.  So, in the hotel room, at the planning table, the itinerary for the next day was decided - Mount Rushmore in the morning, surrounding scenic areas in the afternoon, the Devil's Tower in the evening and night sky photography there until we could barely stay awake to drive back. The plan went pretty well, we were at the right place at the right times of the day to enjoy the monuments and the natural beauty around. Finally, reached the Devil's tower just in time before the visitor center was about to close. There was some time before the sun would go down and we took the opportunity to walk around the tower and see it from all sides. It is a truly remarkable geological formation towering some 800 feet in the middle of nowhere. The different hues of yellow and orange that the tower donned because of the sunlight was an absolutely spectacular sight to behold.

                                     

Some non-astro-photos: A sincere attempt to capture nature's magic.

As the setting sun somehow made the scene even more beautiful than it already was, we decided to get dinner and find a place to set up the camera. Just after dinner we were treated to the sight of Saturn, shining like a diamond and setting in the western sky. That was my first chance to capture an astro-photo. After several attempts I couldn't get the right settings on the camera to capture any meaningful photographs of the ringed planet. Bummer! That didn't help my confidence. In fact, I became more skeptical of my limited ability to take photos of the night sky.
We went back to the location we picked to set up the camera. The sun had fully set by then and the sky was full of stars. The Milky Way was shining majestically. The amount of detail visible, the gas and the dust lanes was simply phenomenal. Only if I could capture all this beauty on the sensor of the camera! I tried several more times to get a decent picture of our gorgeous galaxy, but not one photograph was worth keeping. Too little exposure time...out of focus...too much aperture...high ISO...low ISO... I was getting frustrated. My friend, who is not at all an astronomy enthusiast, had gone past frustration long before and was begging me to pack up and head back. So, I thought, one last chance and I could take a long exposure shot for star trails with the Devil's Tower in the foreground. I could picture it in my mind and seemed like a brilliant idea. With everything I could remember about capturing star trails, I set it up, plugged the remote shutter in and one..two...three...CLICK! After about 25 more minutes of continuous CLICK, I decided to see the results.

Finally, nice  star trails with the big tower in the center of the frame! There was some 'noise' in the image, but at that time I didn't really care. I had my first picture which I could put in an article and write about it!

        Day two was fully dedicated to visiting the Badlands National Park. Another day in the midst of nature's breathtaking ability to carve out a landscape out of sedimentary deposits and a whole lot of wind. After spending the entire day wandering around the entire park, the time of the sunset brought out some familiar members in the sky. From hundreds of millions of miles away, Saturn was shining brightly again in the western sky. And this time I HAD to capture it in my camera. Once again I fiddled with the settings on the camera and gave it another shot. 

The barely visible little white dot in the sky just to the right from center is Saturn.

Ah Ha! Gotcha Saturn!
The feeling of being able to see and photograph a distant world, even if its just a point of light in the vast black-blue sky, is something truly amazing. 

The sun had barely set and the big dipper was high up in the sky in all its glory. As if the stunning natural beauty on earth wasn't enough, the heavens had put on quite a show after nightfall. The Milky Way seemed even brighter than last night and I had thought last night's was the brightest I had ever seen. So while I was engrossed and breathless just looking at the sky, my friend reminded me, "Hey, you could try taking a picture of the Milky Way again". So I turned my camera to the south pointing it towards the center of our galaxy and started taking 30 second exposure pictures adjusting the aperture and ISO each time and after a few shots I could finally see the magnificence in the sky come onto the camera display. 

It kept getting better and better and I was absolutely ecstatic! Don't they say failures are the stepping stones to success? They're probably right!

I left the Badlands National Park that night feeling extremely happy and satisfied. The images would definitely need some (actually, quite a bit of) processing in photoshop...which I don't know how to...yet. That's the next step in my learning process. But at the moment, I would say not too bad for a first try - not just with astrophotography, but using a digital SLR itself! Sure these aren't the best photographs ever taken, but for me its the process, the learning involved and the joy of all of it that counts. At this point, Saturn might look like a dot in my pictures or Andromeda is just a faint smudge, but its about appreciating that I am able to capture the light which has traveled millions and millions of miles. In this small trip I witnessed some of the darkest skies in the US and could finally comprehend how much the heavens has to offer even for a naked eye observer. Will I be giving astrophotography another 'shot'? Absolutely!