Re: [APML] Re: AP for a Living?

["Joseph O'Neil" <joneil@multiboard.com>]

>But, by golly Wally, we are trying to keep this a PG rated list!

-snip-


Hi Robert,
         Actually, quite the opposite.  HP Lovecraft was quite possibly 
America's foremost writter of horror fiction, died penneles, and made a 
meager living during the depression era writitng for the pulps such as 
"Weird Tales'.  His work does not receive much wide reconition outisde fo 
certian circles, because by today's standards, he is considered most 
pollitically incorrect (along with RE Howard, authour of "Conan" and CA 
Smith).

         However, to bring things back on topic for this list, HP Lovecraft 
was an avid amateur astronomer, ahead of his time.  In 1906, according to 
hs biography, he spent $50 on a 2.25" refractor, and later had a custom 
mount made for it.  I dare say back in 1906, $50 was a LOT of money, 
especailly since he ws ill and spent much of his lifein near 
poverty.    Apaprently he kept that scope all his life, and used it 
extensivelty, and when he travelled, he often took a smaller scope with him 
too.  There's a story about how on a visit to Canada his smaller scope was 
stolen form him.

         It is also well documented that he visited several profession 
observatories in the New England area, more than just once, some he used to 
"hang around" and actually use some of the larger (at that time) 10" and 
12" refractors at some of the local universities.

         While there is no mention of it in his biography or other sources, 
from readng his stores, I really get the impression that not only was he an 
avid observer, but he was quite familiar with astro-photography of the 
period.  Nothing specific, but the way he tlaks about space, stars, how 
they look, etc, in his various short stories really leads me to belive he 
would of known exaclty what a glass plate was and even how to use it.  The 
thing is, I got this impression long before i knew his biography.    The 
way he descibes how space looks really reminds me of astro-photos taken on 
glass plates during the era before and right after WW1.
         He is also known to have owned a microscope - and a spectrometer, 
so he was familiar at some point with the spectrums of stars (possibly 
later in his life).   His short story - perhpas his most famous, called 
"The Colour Out of Space" is a prime example of his working knowledge not 
only of astronomy, but a pretty good guess at the effects of nuclear 
radiation.

         Another short story of his, for example, he talks about travellers 
stranded on Venus, but because of hte constant cloud cover how they cannot 
observe the stars.  He makes very specific mention in this one story about 
how if the clouds would break for even a moment, how magnificent the Earth 
would look in a  4 inch refracting telescope, how much more beautiful the 
detial in the eyepeice  would be than looking at Mars or Jupiter or even 
Saturn with it's rings.   Kinda ahead of his time I'd say.

         Sorry for ht elong, rambling message, but i have top say 
technically while not a true astro-photographer by today's standards, (were 
there any amatuer astro-photographers before WW1?), he was probally a 
pretty close second.   Biographies of him are several places on the web, 
take a look some cloudy night.

         You'll see that Cthulu would eat up Mr. Potter in a second.
:)
joe









http://www.oneilphoto.on.ca
http://www.multiboard.com/~joneil
"Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem"


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