Dec. 28 2010 UPDATE: see bottom of this yellow text. Sat. Oct. 26 - autumn update: Notice to our faithful readers: The Living Planetarium has been on hiatus for about 2 months, as Warren developed vision problems. He became unable to see even the brightest planets in the sky. Deb had to take over finding the planets which she is really good at. But it would be too much work for Deb alone to run the program. The diagnosis was cataracts in both of his 68-year-old eyes. This is not good for an astronomer. He has been seeing the eye doctor who has set him up for cataract surgery in October/November. Last Thursday Oct. 24, he underwent surgery to remove the cataract in his right eye, and had it replaced with an artificial lens. Vision in his right eye is now UNBELIEVABLE! He can even see the Martians building condos on the Red Planet. All this week he will be treating the eye with special eye drops. And in two weeks he will return to undergo surgery on the left eye, after which he will have the vision of a teenager LOL! Unfortunately, this means we will not be observing for the moment. We will update this site when we are once again ready to "boldly go where no woman has gone before" - to Jupiter and Saturn. You can send Warren 'get-well' wishes by email at woodge1@hotmail.com . Dec. 29 update: Warren's eyes are almost like new again. Both of the cataracts were removed and new synthetic lenses were installed. He is taking eyedrops 3 times a day in both eyes for post-surgical healing. The left eye, which he uses to view through the telescope, is about as perfect as you can get. The right eye is almost as sharp as the left, but still has very minor distortion, in the right eye. It has some minor issues; slight astigmatism and possibly a tiny swelling of the retina near the optic nerve. Doc says this may resolve in time with the eyedrops, Through both eyes, before the surgery, his view of a star was like a large, dim, blurry asterisk or 'starburst' pattern. Now the left eye sees stars as this . and the right eye sees this - and we are about ready to resume observing again! Thank you all for your patience! |