From: "cosmicrock2001" <ursamajor_1@mac.com>

Date: November 7, 2010 10:59:40 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Alan Friedman was on NBC's Today Show!!!!!!!!

Thanks for long reply and sharing your thoughts, especially about DIY and kids in astronomy.  I look forward to reading the article.  As Pres. of Denver Astronomical Society I'm always looking for ways to better engage students and public with outreach events and such.  There is widespread commentary of the 'graying' of amateur astronomy and getting kids interested in science, but few solutions.  sorry if this is a bit OT Milton, but more kids means more potential users of AstroIIDC, and teens and college students are already half-way there as heavy users of Apple products.  ; )  

Ron

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Alan Friedman <alan@...> wrote:

Hi Ron,

Thanks for sharing the link. I've always wanted to be blessed with modesty genes, but I'm really not. I am pretty pooped, though, from this experience. The story is now being buried (rightly so of course) by new news, but it had a good seven day worldwide run. If you google it, you come up with a few of the prominent sites that gave proper credit and resulted in more than 200,000 page views back to my website over the past week:

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/02/5396090-stare-at-the-sun

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/29/pictures-of-the-sun_n_775402.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1325582/Incredible-new-image-suns-atmosphere-caught-camera-amateur-astronomer.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/making-a-sun-photo/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/10/29/130924273/the-sun-ready-for-its-closeup-who-you-callin-a-dwarf

http://www.repubblica.it/scienze/2010/11/01/foto/sole-8637540/1/

http://habrahabr.ru/blogs/DIY/107251/

But also intriguing are the links you find in pages 10 and beyond. These show the discussion forums and art sites that picked up the story to share it, and also the wild range of comments - from raves to "he's not an amateur if he's got a 14" scope (that was 14" long, not wide, of course!)" to "the filter costs how much??" to "I think I see Jesus' face in there". The image was posted and discussed on Harley motorcycle forums and paranormal forums and martial arts forums. I guess this happens all the time, but I've never experienced such a thing. An APOD publication generally brings 1000-2000 clicks back to my site over 36 hours. This brought 100x the traffic. 

Sorry for the long rambling reply, but I'm fascinated by the penetration. I intend to write an article about the experience while it's still fresh in my mind. I think Wired has a handle on it when they used DIY in their title. Do It Yourself is a big thing for young people right now. With a little bit of cross marketing, we could probably be talking with a whole pile of kids and sharing our mind-blowing DIY passion. 

best wishes,

Alan

On Nov 6, 2010, at 2:08 PM, cosmicrock2001 wrote:

Alan is too modest. A friend sent me this link to wired.com which also has an article about Alan and his solar images! 

Ron

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/making-a-sun-photo/

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Alan Friedman <alan@> wrote:

Dear Ray and all,

Thanks for the two thumbs up - I appreciate the kind comments very much.

all the best,

Alan

On Nov 3, 2010, at 9:44 PM, Ray Byrne wrote:

Hi Alan,

It's great that you have had a bit of the recognition you deserve. It also puts things into perspective for me. I beat myself up on not achieving what you do, but I think I should just chill and enjoy, I'll get there someday if I put the effort in. 

Well deserved and well done mate.

ATB

Ray

On 3 Nov 2010, at 18:41, Alan Friedman wrote:

Thanks for noticing and for the notice Jim... this picture has had a long and viral ride thanks to the first coverage in Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog on Discover. I've had 150,000 web hits from 126 countries during the 48 hours it's been traveling around. It's been fun and little embarrassing too... but good for the hobby I hope.

cheers,

Alan

On Nov 3, 2010, at 2:12 PM, jimchung2338 wrote:

Yes, its true. Our Alan was on continent wide TV talking about solar imaging.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/39971022#39971022 

Congrats Alan for well deserved work!

Jim