McHenry County Blog

Tyler Natoli

University of Chicago doctoral student Tyler Natoli spoke to the United Methodist Men of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake Saturday morning about his stay in Antarctica.

He has just returned.

He is part of the team that built and is operating the microwave telescope at the South Pole.

Helping interpret the captured data as well, I would assume.

10,000 feet above see level set on about two miles of ice, the telescope measures waves from within 300,000 years of the 13,7 billion year-old universe.

Tyler Natoli points to our location in the universe.

Take a look at the telescope specifications:

The telescope is built on packed snow, bed rock being almost two miles below.

The telescope was custom-built by University of Chicago personnel in cooperation with Argon Laboratory in suburban Chicago.

Natoli explained the path of the microwaves into the telescope. There are two mirrors, two bounces to the receptors.

The telescope focuses the microwaves and then captures them.  Note that the building rests upon stilts, which will fill in with drifted snow over time.

The receptors are gold plated and work like a digital camera.

The receptors are custom-made of copper and aluminum coated with gold.

The targeted microwave part of the spectrum is highlighted in this illustration.

The astrophysics lecture was about the Big Bang Theory.

Tyler Natoli posed the question, “Where did the Big Bang happen?”

Part travel log and part science lecture, physicist Natoli introduced a new concept to this science-impaired listener:

There were multiple, simultaneous Big Bangs.

Using his arms Tyler Natoli explained how the universe is expanding.

“In every direction, we see the Big Bang happened.  We can see that it happened in every point in space,”Natoli explained.

The first slide in this series was a series of blue dots representing the simultaneous Big Bangs. Tyler Natoli explains they moved away from each other and continue to do so.

He said that the space between the points are moving away from each other as the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate.

The Big Bang is seen in every direction from earth.

Why’s the telescope at the South Pole?

First, because the atmosphere is thinnest there and, second, because it is a desert without water in the air.

He explained how a microwave oven heats up and agitates the molecules of water in the food being cooked.  The relative lack of water in the atmosphere above the South Pole allows the least interference with the microwaves coming from space.

Why not put the telescope in space?

It takes ten years to test what is sent up in space so a telescope sent there is ten years behind cutting edge technology.

And it can’t be repaired.

The South Pole

Those two problems do not exist at the South Pole.

If you feel that tug to be with people on Christmas Eve for a church service, may I suggest the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake.

I’d show you a view of a Christmas Eve service, buy my wife frowns on my taking pictures in church.

There are three services, as you can see below:

Christmas Eve services at the Crystal Lake Methodist Church.

As you can see, se4rvices will be held at 6, 9 and 11.

First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake.

The church is at the corner of West Crystal Lake Avenue and Dole Avenue.

Great place to find reasonably priced gifts, so I’ll just re-run last year’s article below. This is where I buy my $15 gifts for our Crystal Lake Kiwanis Christmas grab bag. I’ve even found items for $10.

The items are on sale after the 5 PM Saturday service and the ones at 8, 9:30 and 11 on Sunday morning.

This weekend the Scrappy Quilters of the United Methodist Women of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake will offer the results of their efforts after all four services.

For those of you who just want a chance to buy quilts priced from $15 to about $65, come to the church at the corner of West Crystal Lake and Dole Avenues 5:30 to 6ish Saturday night or from 9 to 12:30 on Sunday.

The quilts will be displayed on the second floor above the narthex outside the main sanctuary toward the back of the church.

Here are some from last year’s sale.

First take a look at some of the table runners:

Below are some square ones that could become wall hangings:

Finally, there’s the one that Mitten liked the best. It has jungle animals. It could be given to a baby.

The one below could be put on a natural wooden table:

Yesterday teens from the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake drove off to Minnesota on this year’s mission trip.

I saw a man wearing this t-shirt and discovered it was the one for this year. I share it below:

Something appropriate to the First United Methodist Church’s high school mission trip uses each of the letters in the destination state’s name, Minnesota.

The Bible verse is from 1 Peter 4:10:

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

By now, the caravan has passed this Minnesota rest stop sign:

This Minnesota rest stop sign is in Wisconsin right before the Mississippi River.

Great place to find reasonably priced gifts, so I’ll just re-run last year’s article below.  This is where I buy my $15 gifts for our Crystal Lake Kiwanis Christmas grab bag.

This weekend the Scrappy Quilters of the United Methodist Women of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake will offer the results of their efforts after all four services.

For those of you who just want a chance to buy quilts priced from $15 to about $65, come to the church at the corner of West Crystal Lake and Dole Avenues 5:30 to 6ish Saturday night or from 9 to 12:30 on Sunday.

The quilts will be displayed on the second floor above the narthex outside the main sanctuary toward the back of the church.

Here are some from last year’s sale.

First take a look at some of the table runners:

Below are some square ones that could become wall hangings:

Finally, there’s the one that Mitten liked the best. It has jungle animals. It could be given to a baby.

The one below could be put on a natural wooden table:

What follows is the first part of a long note from my sister, who lives in Joplin. Mercifully, her family lives in Leawood, about a quarter of a mile south of the Interstate on which I saw a photo of overturned trucks. I have written previously about my niece’s brother-in-law’s experience in the AT&T Store across the main shopping street (Rangeline). The store was demolished and one of his co-workers was killed by the tornado.

If you are interested in what the eyes of a child saw during the tornado, my sister tells of a four-year old who saw “butterfly people.” You’ll have to hang in until the final installment, though, because that’s where she put it.

Hi All,

I have been thinking a lot about what we have been going through lately and I know you have been concerned about us. You don’t know how much that means to us.

During the 1965 tornado in Crystal Lake, I was in the Methodist Church being confirmed.

A friend of mine did not show up, so we went to her house afterwards. Their garage had blown into the house across the street. Their house had shifted slightly, but enough that they had to totally rebuild. I think 12 people died that day.

On May 22, Denny & I had taken our 10 year old granddaughter, Keaton, golfing in preparation for junior golf at the country club.

Tornado damage to the strip mall where Orange Leaf Yogurt is located in Joplin.

On our way home, she wanted to try out the new yogurt place, so of course, we stopped there.

We knew a storm was on the way, but we were not overly concerned. We went across town on 20th street.

Little did we know that 45 minutes later that street would never look the same.

Also several stores in the same strip mall as the yogurt shop were demolished. The yogurt shop has reopened.

The tornado alarm sounded right after we got back into the car.

Daughter Lissa was meeting us at our house to help with our youngest daughter Kelly’s wedding invites.

Then son-in-law Brandon joined us with grandsons, Fielding & Hobbs and their cousins, Maggie and Carson. They had been at a ball field practicing.

We were all in our basement watching TV about the storm.

Maggie gets very nervous during storms and ended up throwing up on our carpet. (It’s old and not a big deal.)

Then our electricity went out, and we think that’s probably when the tornado hit Joplin.

At that point, I was running up and down the stairs, looking for radios and batteries. (I’m good to go now.)

When we started to hear about damage, I began occupying the kids with stories about how I sunk my dad’s motorboat when I was a kid.

Then Denny would walk by and whisper, “Home Depot is gone.”

On the Joplin High School sign, the "J" has been replaced by an a duct taped "H" and"IN" with an "E." Nearby tree trunks have been carved into eagles, the team mascot.

A few minutes later, he would whisper, “The high school is gone.”

After the rain stopped, Denny took the kids to a neighbor’s yard, where the water rushes through a ditch. The kids like to play there after storms and they came home all wet.

Lissa was able to post on Facebook that we had not been in the tornado’s path and we were safe.

[And I was snapping photos off the TV and emailing them to Lissa.]

The AT&T Store in Joplin.

Brandon became very concerned about his brother, David, who was working at an AT&T cell phone store across from Walmart, which was also destroyed.

He was about ready to go look for him, when he heard that David was OK. It had taken him an hour and a half to get out from the rubble. One co-worker died that day.

More installments for the next five days.

It was before the Maundy Thursday night service at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake.

I was taking pictures of the choir, which was scheduled to sing five songs during the service.

Why my Andy’s Family Restaurant Emmaus Reunion Group buddy Rick Dunn saw what I was doing, he couldn’t resist reacting.

So, we have the irregular photo of the Celebration Singer, which Katrina Jackson conducts.

It looks as if Dunn is trying to start a wave among choir members, but they didn’t follow his example. I guess it helps to be in the front row if that’s what you want to do.

Below is the choir with all of its members being regular, singing

Click to enlarge any photo.

Christian singer Cheri Keaggy will appear in concert at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake this afternoon at 4 PM.

Fans can begin fighting for the seats down front at 3.

Tickets are $17.50 at the door. I see a student price of $12 on my son’s ticket, but we bought it ahead of time.

Keaggy has sung at our church five or six times.

Her songs include

• Child of the Father
• Little Boy on His Knees
• There Is Joy in the Lord
• In Remembrance of Me (the only Communion song, I know of)
• My Faith Will Stay

The church is located at the corner of Dole and Crystal Lake Avenues. Crystal Lake Avenue has a light at Routes 31 and 14. Dole has a light at Route 14.

I took this photo at this morning’s CrossRoads service at 11 o’clock.

Christian singer Cheri Keaggy will appear in concert at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake this afternoon at 4 PM.

Fans can begin fighting for the seats down front at 3.

Tickets are $17.50 at the door. I see a student price of $12 on my son’s ticket, but we bought it ahead of time.

Keaggy has sung at our church five or six times.

Her songs include

• Child of the Father
• Little Boy on His Knees
• There Is Joy in the Lord
• In Remembrance of Me (the only Communion song, I know of)
• My Faith Will Stay

The church is located at the corner of Dole and Crystal Lake Avenues. Crystal Lake Avenue has a light at Routes 31 and 14. Dole has a light at Route 14.

I took this photo at this morning’s CrossRoads service at 11 o’clock.

Besides the cows and pigs and rabbits, turkeys and rabbits, there were a fair number of religious groups at the McHenry County Fair.

I saw two familiar faces.

They had handed out a number of Spanish Bibles at the immigration seminar held at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake.

I also saw the two offering Bibles to McHenry County College students. I saw some accept the gift.

At the county fair they were right next to the Republican Party booth.

Their names?

Mike Shields, whom you see here handing out a Bible, and Dan Guttschon. The two men live in the Harvard area.