If you have a chance to befriend an astronomer, do not pass up the opportunity! Your view of the Big Picture may change forever. Not being one myself, I tell people that my "world view" changed to a "universe view" in the years I lived at Lick Observatory. I'm currently working on the "multiverse view".
This Gallery is populated with portraits, mostly informal, of astrononers and technicians who typically think in very large numbers and comprehend far beyond what most science fiction writers only begin to imagine. They are usually a lot of fun at a party, unless they've been up two nights in a row observing. Even then they have strange and wonderful stories to tell.
Three in the morning isn't the best time to be photographed (or a 6 am sunrise date after pulling an all-nighter), but these folk are good-humored about it, and I thank them for being so repsonsive to the camera's intrusion.
