Talking astronomy in the shadow of the Space Needle

By Hamish Johnston

Greetings from Seattle, where I will be for the next few days reporting from the 217th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Today was mostly one of leisure as my colleagues and I recovered from our 9.5 hour flight and prepared ourselves for the coming feast of astronomy and astrophysics.

Highlights of the day included a ferry ride across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island. I took the above photo from the ferry and you can see that the skies were particularly leaden – but what you can’t see is the biting wind and chilly temperatures. That’s the futuristic Space Needle at the far left.

But now it’s down to business…or at least a bit of schmoozing at the pre-meeting reception.