Olson and his collaborator, Russel Doescher, have used time as their jigsaw puzzle before, sifting through heavenly forensic evidence to pinpoint such events as when and where Vincent Van Gough painted his “Starry Skies,” and when Adams shot a photograph of the moon rising over Yosemite’s Half Dome ˜ a photo that has become an icon ˜ and figuring when the heavens would align the same way again.
But Thursday was different, because this time the celestial sleuths came to watch their prediction. Before, they always did the forecasting and stayed at school working while others ogled over their predicted sky scenes.
“It’s almost showtime,” Olson said while perched on a granite slope, his gaze moving between an 11-by-17-inch print of the Adams photograph and the vast horizon on which the replay moment was starting. The shadows took the same shapes as in the photograph. The moon rose.
Hundreds of people trained viewfinders toward the moon. It was a night of hiking boots and tripods and few faces, all the visages blocked by cameras. Some people brought star charts and astronomy books. Others brought their dogs and picnics.
—–
