The Ketelsen's!

Home Improvement Wrapup

2012-02-14T22:12:00.001-07:00

We've been back in Tucson for 6 days now, but life and work has conspired against us updating the blog. I know some of you like to see the progress we're making on our little "place in the woods", so here is how we closed out our most recent stay.

First of all, while we often show shots of the Fox River from the house, we've never shown the house and river in the same shot. Time for the new software to assemble a panorama mosaic! You really get a feel here for how close we really are to the Fox. It is only about 40 yards, and having them in the same shot helps. It is a big change from last year to this trip. A year ago they just had a 2 foot snowfall, and the River was frozen over - we walked across it last year, but not this February!

Another reason I took this mosaic is that Riverwoods contacted us this trip about Wheaton College's interest in building a canoe house for their crew equipment, as well as the canoes for the camp. Since it will be located near the canoe racks, and potentially block some of our views of the River, they asked for our reaction. Since we feel fortunate to be a part of the camp, they are welcome to do what they like, but I thought I'd document a "before" view.

I also finally got a daytime shot of our finished guestroom showing the shutters and sheers in place. The room is all but finished - just a little trim and paint work in the closet to call it complete and ready for visitors. Actually, sister-in-law Susan already stayed with us this last trip, so it is officially open for business! Compare to 2 posts ago to see the effect of these details - it looks a lot more finished now!

With most of the effort in the bedroom finished, it was time to move to the kitchen. Our last trip in December we found Maj had just finished installing the beadboard ceiling. Unfortunately, we found some electrical wiring issues. When Melinda installed the kitchen lights, the circuit breakers kept popping - always a bad sign! In addition, Maj found that using a saw in an exterior outlet (same circuit) also popped the breaker, which it hadn't done before.

Unfortunately, that meant that Maj had to remove her ceiling work to re-expose the wiring for this trip. On the Saturday of our stay we had an electrical contractor out to check things out, making some minor changes and additions, then splitting the circuit to have the exterior lights and outlets on a separate circuit. While Melinda enjoys wiring, sometimes this house's wiring, with its numerous changes over the last 8 decades, is tough to figure out and the contractor was well worth it.

So after the obligatory Sunday trip to Iowa, it was full speed ahead Monday to replace the kitchen ceiling. Since the lumber was already measured and cut by Maj back in November, with me helping her sort pieces and her on the pneumatic nail gun, we had it replaced in record time. Melinda and I went light shopping and decided on track lighting, and she installed that the next day. I made myself useful by making a run to the hardware store (my best-suited task with the skills these girls have) and helped out where I could, as well as snapping a few pictures. The track lighting is certainly a change from standard kitchen lighting, but I think it will look great.

So that is our progress this trip. I believe Maj will work on painting the ceiling as her time permits. Since it was installed twice, there are twice as many nail holes to fill. We've already made plans for an April trip - I'm not sure yet what projects await - I only follow orders from the bosses!

I'll Take Potpourri for $200 Alex...

2012-02-05T23:43:00.001-07:00

A variety of topics for today's post... Each not quite deserving of it's own page, so will cover them all at once.

In Illinois we live less than a mile from the Tekakwitha Forest Preserve, so it is a natural destination when getting in a walk to "get back to nature" or just a chance to almost get lost in the woods. It has been a pretty mild Winter here, with lots of cloud cover if not downright fog and mist. Not great conditions to get pictures, but I took some to put my new mosaic software to work. Shown here is a 3-frame panorama showing the bike path down the east border of Tekakwitha that leads down to the Fox River, then across it on a bike/pedestrian bridge. Even when you only have a few minutes to walk, the quarter mile walk down the hill to take in the views of the Fox is always worth it. Over the last few years I've seen deer wading across the river, watched egrets and herons feeding in the shallows and cedar waxwings reducing the local insect population.

The bridge pauses at a mid-channel island before finally finishes its cross-river trip. Normally overgrown with vegetation in warmer months, this week I followed a trail in the mid-stream island down to the water line. There was a cool shot of the bridge from below and a fallen tree amongst a patch of ice and snow. And then I saw it - another downed tree - this time one of my favorites...

Some people might chose a favorite tree for it's shape, abundance of shade, fall colors, that sort of thing. I REALLY like the hackberry tree (Celtis occidentalis), not for any of the above characteristics, but because of its really remarkable bark! A relative of elm trees (very similar leaf shape), the bark is described as "warty" online, but some varieties here locally show the strong ridged structures shown here. This one had ridges nearly an inch high, with micro-layers that for the world looked like growth rings. You gotta agree it is pretty amazing!

Of course, a tree and bark like this calls for some 3D action, so I took a few frames to put together in Photoshop. The frame at left is a stereo shot of the same section of tree as above, at right is a different part of the tree. As with the rest of my 3D posts, cross your eyes slightly so you are looking at the right image with your left eye, and the left image with your right eye. You will then see a center image that displays depth.

And while we are on the topic of 3D pairs, here is a leftover of our December trip. I was returning from a walk about sunset and saw the moon coming through the gnarled branches of an oak tree a few dozen yards from home. Taking one shot, then moving a few inches and taking another, I got a stereo pair that shows some changing depth among the oak branches, then places the moon in the far distance. Over the remainder of our December stay I tried to improve on this shot, but as is often the case, the original shot, almost accidental in nature (I just happened to look up), turned out to be the superior version. I think that must be some law of nature combined with Murphy's Law!

Home Improvement News

2012-02-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

We're currently back in Illinois (yes, we know it is the middle of winter), and as is normal, we're doing more work on our 80-year-old fixer-upper of a cottage. Those of you who follow our improvements, our last trip in Chicago we were working on our guest room. We did a lot of priming and painting, and pretty much finished out the room except for the floor (flooring lumber is what is under the tarp in the room center). the pics show our progress in that week.

Also as normal, soon after we left in December, sister-in-law Maj set up shop in our living room and as her schedule permitted, started staining and polyeurethaning our floor and installed it, and when we arrived Wednesday night, the room was REALLY finished out. The floor was spectacular, as per usual when referring to Maj's efforts. Unfortunately, the next morning I went out for a New York Times and a walk, and didn't get a picture of the empty room. Melinda and Maj had gotten busy and I returned to a fully furnished and decorated guest room! At least I was able to catch a bit of floor here at left.

The women were concerned that it was "too girly", but I told them they could do what they wanted, and besides, I've got no taste in those sorts of things. Today, after the bulk of photos were taken, we worked on getting shutters and curtains installed. Melinda found the shutters on E-bay a few weeks after moving into the house in February of 2006, hoping someday to install them. Well, they fit the windows perfectly, didn't need any staining or work, and look perfect in both our bedrooms. While Maj and I worked on the shutters, Melinda worked her sewing magic and finished the sheers, and finally finished up the room a little before dark this evening. All that is left is a little trim work in the closet and the guestroom is officially finished!

Tomorrow we've got an electrician coming to chase down some wiring gremlins in the kitchen. Unfortunately we had to take down some of our new bead board ceiling to expose the wiring, but hopefully we can get that squared away and the ceiling replaced this trip. Look for an update as we leave in a few days!

An Interesting View...

2012-01-29T23:29:00.002-07:00

Often times you don't think about a viewpoint - it takes someone else to note how unusual it is. Such was the case lately, when a month ago one of the outreach people at the NOAO offices happened upon one of my pictures - it is at the bottom of the post from Christmas day. It is shown at left here, taken with a 200mm lens. I've taken similar shots for at least a year or more - the nearly exact same shot was taken exactly 2 years earlier in 2009, but it needed a new set of eyes to see it.

Anyway, they asked permission to use it in a story about light pollution, and a few days later it appeared in a Yahoo News on-line article. With the lights of Tucson only 40 miles to the east of the National Observatory, most pictures of Tucson are FROM Kitt Peak. I've got lots of those too - like the one shown at right above - boring without the observatory. But the ideal shot would be just like at left, with the lights in the foreground and the observatory shown in the distance!

Even before the Yahoo article appeared, in another sunset trip to "Bad Dog" overlook (a simplified version of Babad Do'ag, the Tohono name for Mount Lemmon and the actual name of the overlook 3 miles up the Mount Lemmon Highway), I took some additional pictures, this time with a small 80mm Meade telescope I use (480mm focal length). I took a series of photos as part of a 4-frame mosaic to retain more details over the relatively wide 200 mm lens used above. Unfortunately, Photoshop had issues assembling it, but with another application in mind, I recently got some new mosaic software that handled it just fine (Kolor Autopano Pro). The results are shown here at left.

There is a LOT to see in the photo, unfortunately, Blogger limits the file dimensions to 1600 pixels wide, so it cannot be shown at full resolution. Of course, Kitt Peak with it's armada of telescope domes is at upper left. Tucson's skyline, such as it is, is shown at right. Interestingly, with the perspective view from the NE side of town, the football stadium looks to be right at downtown's foreground, with the red neon "Home of the Wildcats" visible. In actuality they are separated about 2 miles... Just to the left of the stadium a large flag can be seen flying over the new Centurylink Building (formerly Quest). Above and to the left of the flag are some headlights and tail lights from atop "A" Mountain, which entertains a line of cars through the evenings. Right under the profile of Kitt Peak is a cell tower (red lights visible) that are about halfway to the mountain out at the town of Three Points. The shadow of the nearby mountains are the Tucson Mountains, the one to the right of Kitt Peak I believe is Cat Mountain, which you pass on the way to the Observatory. Much beyond the familiar landmarks and I quickly get lost due to the low viewing angle and the diagonal view that isn't square to the street grid...

So a new perspective is sometimes good! The crops here are from the main mosaic, just a little closer to the native resolution, but still downsampled a factor of 2 or 3. The Kolor mosaic software has samples of mosaics assembled from hundreds of images with telephoto lenses so you can zoom out for a wide view, or zoom in to see people hiking on distant mountain trails. It is quite spectacular! I'll likely be using it for much more mundane applications, but I see fun in the future!

Old Business!

2012-01-25T23:59:00.001-07:00

After catching up the other night with our last trip to Whitewater, I'm still need to catch up with old business. It will be 2 weeks on Saturday that we had the "high fire" of the latest Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) casting. Along with the spinning oven with 20 tons of molten glass inside, the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab had an open house for GMT and their partners. Along with that we had both polishing machines going, using the stressed lap doing near-final polishing on the first GMT mirror, and also working on fine grinding of the M3 surface of the Large Synoptic Telescope (LSST).

The "high fire" part of the casting, where the oven temperature reached 1165C, allowing the molten glass to run into the mold, went nearly flawlessly. There were some minor electrical relay problems that will mostly be an issue during the annealing phase the next few months, if then. And of course, the polishing operations have been making steady progress and was enjoyed by all the visitors.

For grins, I thought I'd set up a camera and tripod to catch GMT polishing with the visitors in the background. I found a spot over our sink near the Large polishing Machine (LPM), and set it up to take a picture every 15 seconds, 240 per hour. Between a write error and a dead battery, which each paused the sequence, I got just about 2100 pictures over 9 hours. It covers the initial lap and mirror cleaning, pressing the lap for a short time before starting the flat removal stroke, while operators ran the machine, press arrived, then the visitors came in several waves of tours on the stairs in the background. The picture above is the last one of the sequence, of me as I shut down the camera.

I then loaded all the frames into "Windows Live Movie Maker" and made an HD .MOV file and uploaded it onto Youtube. Click on the link here to see it... There are a lot of interesting effects to notice - of course the operators are moving something like 150X normal speed - I had lots of comments with the internal Steward distribution along the lines of "I wish they worked that fast all the time"! Another thing of note is that the mirror is so aspheric (far from a spherical surface) is that you can see it's effect in the reflection as the mirror spins.

Anyway, a fun day - free t-shirts (and food!) for the staff, so about time I did a blog post!

Another Whitewater Trip

2012-01-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

Catching up on old business - it was over a week ago now that we did what will likely be our last trip of the season to Whitewater Draw to visit with the sandhill cranes. It is always a treat to bring people that have never been there before to show off what would seemingly be so rare in Arizona - birds that winter over in a wetland area! We had some friends ask how to get there - how could we not offer to lead a trip? After a stop in Tombstone for a late lunch, we hit Whitewater about 3:30.

Not a lot had changed in the 2 weeks since we'd been there, but with a little blustery wind, the cranes seemed mostly grounded. There were a lot of birds on the ground, which tells me that they likely didn't go off during the day to feed in the nearby fields. But while we found many thousands waiting for us, as the afternoon progressed, we did see many waves of those who did go out, come back to the wetlands. In binoculars, it was cool to see lines of them appearing out of the cloudy sky silhouetted against distant hills. When they landed they joined the general din of noise as they called back and forth.

Also like last time, a flurry of activity just before sunset heralded the arrival of the yellow-headed blackbirds. They don't appear here every year, but it is certainly a banner year given the number we've seen our last 2 trips. Their din almost drowns out that of the cranes. Their flashes of color are certainly striking as they dart around jockeying for position in the reeds.

The picture at left shows the public parking area at Whitewater. It shows a LOT more cars than a few weeks ago, when we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It turns out that this weekend had been the "Wings over Willcox" crane festival. Even with larger crowds it was great - even got to see some ginormous camera lenses - one woman had a Canon 600mm that left me with some lens-envy!

We still didn't get to see any vermilion flycatchers, the showy, scarlet highlight of most of my trips to Whitewater. We did catch a pair of Northern Harrier hawks this trip. I happened to be following the female when she dove for a mouse.

Clouds thickened later in the afternoon, so we didn't get much of a sunset, and we left the area earlier than we normally do, arriving back home by 9pm. Our work and travel schedules don't permit us to get back while the cranes are still here, so it was fun to get in another trip before they head back north.

Today's Hike in 3D!

2012-01-23T01:01:00.001-07:00

I haven't had a 3D stereo post in a while, so thought it was about time. No movies struck my interest today, and Melinda was sleeping after working last night, so did a few miles on the Finger Rock Canyon trail. After parking at the north end of Alvernon, and a short walk past the expensive houses, you reach something close to wilderness. The first few miles are pretty flat and has some pretty spectacular scenery, so this trail is just about my favorite walk to "get away from it all". I've posted about Finger Rock before - quite the distinctive landmark from the entire Tucson valley...

Unfortunately today, as we are at or very near the peak of winter visitor season, the parking lot was overflowing. After parking illegally and hitting the trail, there were LOTS of folks that had the same idea. It was ok - I still had a few minutes of solitude at a time, and had suitable inspiration to take some stereo pics. As usual, I present the "cross-eyed" view - cross your eyes slightly to see 3 images, the center one in 3D.

To start off are a couple views of the trail itself, with "the Finger" in the background. Since we're in the middle of winter and my walk was pretty much at high noon with temps in the low 70s, there weren't many shadows to help bring out details in the terrain. I apologize in advance... The trail is easy to follow, though frequently crosses rocky sections where you need to look ahead to see where it picks up. LOTS of saguaro cacti and prickly pear, cholla is less common. A few miles up the trail there is abundant cottonwood in the bottom of the canyon.

Another not-so-good thing I saw a lot of were dead saguaros - more than I remember from years past. We had some brutal cold weather a year ago, temps in the teens, barely recovering above freezing. Saguaros are quite sensitive to temps and rainfall, and have adapted to local conditions and extremes can take a toll. It also takes time for a sick or diseased cactus to show symptoms, so here a year later they finally getting obvious. They can also get struck by lightning, acting as natural lightning rods in the summer storms, but again - there are more of them than normal, so I suspect last year's temps. This one shows the internal skeleton at the bottom, the upper part still shows some of the outer skin.

Looking across the canyon to the eastern wall were a nice array of the plants growing out of the rugged, rocky cliff faces. It is quite amazing how these huge cacti can grow out of what appears to be solid rock. I guess all it takes is a single crack for a root to penetrate. With time, if the plant survives and grows, the root similarly can force the crack open and help fracture the rock. Also frequently visible were many small saguaros a foot or so high. While you might think that a small one might be a few years old, they grow extremely slowly - the 14" specimen shown here adjacent to the trail might likely be 25 years old. Realize too that they don't reach maturity and start flowering till about 75 years of age. The 40 foot dead one above might well have been 150 years old. Interestingly, most of the small surviving saguaros like the youngster shown here grow under a "nurse plant", typically a mesquite tree, which helps protect it in it's early years. After a few decades, the tree dies and then the cactus grows to maturity.

I hadn't meant for this to be a saguaro cactus post, so I'll move on. There were other plants, of course, most are dormant this time of year. I say most because there was some greenery from the unlikeliest of plants - ocotillo! They are mostly dormant during the short days of winter, but as in the summer months, after a rain, leaves can pop out quickly to start photosynthesis for energy reserves. While we've had little rain this winter, evidently we've had enough to trigger the ocotillo to flower. I also shot the prickly pear at right, just because long needles look so cool in 3D! Note that there are a combination of long and short spines. Even the prickly pear species that look spineless likely have tiny clusters of short fine spines that will come off if you brush them. Personally, I'd rather have one or two of the big spines poking me than 20 or 30 of the little hairlike spines that you can barely see and have a hard time getting out!

Well, that was my Sunday hike - a couple miles in and then back. Enough to get a little exercise and sun and scenery to chase the wintertime blues. I apologize in advance for any headaches caused for making you cross your eyes, but it really is the easiest way for viewer-free fusing of images. Comments always welcome for your successes or failures in seeing the 3D. If you want more - go down and check the "3D" subject down on the right to bring up past posts. Good luck!

A "Working" Night on the Mountain

2012-01-13T23:58:00.004-07:00

I've mentioned my work at Kitt Peak National Observatory... The majority of my effort is with the Nightly Observing Program(NOP) where visitors enjoy a 4-5 hour early evening program that includes sunset viewing and Observatory orientation, then classroom and sky instructions of planispheres and binoculars before a session with a star guide at a 16" or 20" telescope. It has been a lot of fun showing visitors the spectacular night sky objects, and entertaining for me as well to see how the sky changes from week to week for nearly a year now.

But besides the NOP, there is also an Advanced Observing Program - a more advanced observing session. Here the visitors book a dorm room for the night, eat their meals in the dining hall, and have a one-on-one observing experience at one of the Visitor Center telescopes. The program starts a few hours after sunset when the NOP finishes for the evening, and goes till twilight starts again in the morning. There are several observing options for the AOP program, including advanced imaging with CCD cameras - still a bit beyond my skill set, but a lot of visitors want a visual program, where we also take short exposures with a digital SLR for images to bring home. This I can do, and I just had one after Christmas a few weeks ago.

My guests for the night were on a cross-country road trip, the AOP program being one of their anticipated high points of their trip. Booked several months in advance, Both of us looked forward to the evening under the stars. The weather turned out great - a few wispy clouds early, the crescent moon setting before the end of the NOP, so no issues with any stray light. While the NOP kept the telescopes busy, I took a few images of the twilight, including a sequence of pictures in the roll-off-roof where we would eventually be observing. In the first picture above at left, the crescent moon and Venus hang over the WIYN Telescope at right and the WIYN 36" telescope at left. The right image shows a fisheye view of the western sky from the Roll-Off-Roof 16" telescope. Besides a view of the telescopes dotting the south side of the Observatory, the Moon and Venus are visible just over the roof, as well as the cone of the Zodiacal Light and part of the Summer Milky Way. The telescope was in use for the NOP at the time of the 50 second exposure.

Finally the NOP finished and those visitors wound their way back down the mountain road and it was our turn for use of the telescopes. First up we took a look at a few objects in the western part of the sky before earth's rotation made them inaccessible. One of the early objects is a spectacular galaxy in Andromeda - NGC 891. Visually it is rather dim and appears as an elongated streak in the sky. With averted vision you can also detect a narrow dark lane down it's center. With a moderate exposure (here 3 exposures of 3 minutes each were stacked) you can see that the galaxy is exactly edge on and the dust lane bisects the disk. At a distance of about 27 million light years, it is dimmed somewhat by the dust in our own galaxy as it's location is near the Milky Way, accounting for the rich foreground of stars along the line of sight. While visible in amateur sized telescopes, it's really spectacular nature becomes evident in images of it.

Another very spectacular object is visible in the early evening sky - the Pleiades star cluster, also known as Messier 45. Visible to the naked eye as a cloudy spot to the casual observer, closer inspection shows 6 or 7 stars. Also known as the Seven Sisters, it is well-known in many cultures. In our binocular sessions in the NOP, many think the bright stars form a small dipper and ask if that is what it is called, but the Little Dipper is an asterism that is part of Ursa Minor. Sometimes visible in a very dark sky through a telescope, an exposure reveals an intricate network of nebulosity. Once thought to be leftovers of the gas clouds that formed the cluster, it is now known that the cluster is merely moving through a dusty part of our galaxy. Only about 400 light years away, it is one of the nearest star clusters to us.

When we took a night lunch break, we set the telescope and camera on the Crab Nebula, Messier 1, and let the camera run while we were away. It was a good way to make use of telescope time while taking a break from the cold. The Crab is a supernova remnant with an unusual past - it was actually observed when it went off in the year 1054. Chinese observers noted that it was visible in the daylight sky (!) for 4 months, and didn't fade from visibility for 2 years! The object is the first object in the Messier catalogue - a list produced by the comet-hunting astronomer of diffuse objects that were not comets. The stacked exposures total about 50 minutes, and reveal the red wisps of nebulosity due to hydrogen gas emission. The diffuse white glow is due to synchrotron radiation interacting with the gas of the nebula.

We also used the camera and fisheye lens to take a self portrait during the night. While taking images of galaxies in the coma cluster, we took a shot with the winter Milky Way and Orion as backdrop. I moved a little, so you can see stars through my head during the 60 second exposure.

After viewing and imaging dozens of objects, we entered the springtime realm of the galaxies. We imaged a few of the more striking of them. As the night wore on some of the spectacular summer globular clusters rose as well.

My visitor was interested in comets. Unfortunately, there weren't a lot visible. We tried to see Comet Gehrels2 earlier in the evening - we didn't see it, but were able to image it with it's little tail. Just before twilight started we easily spotted Comet Garradd (C/2009 P1), even saw some of it's greenish glow, easily the brightest comet of the night, even visible in binoculars. I've been watching it off and on the last few months, even rolling it out on the occasional NOP. We took a few exposures to stack and I was surprised to see 2 tails! Shown here, the dust tail broadly extends to the left, and the blue ion tail heads up in the 1 o'clock position. It never got very close to the earth, and the heavier particles of the dust tail mostly trace out the path of the comet, while the lightweight particles of the ion tail are pushed straight back from the sun by solar wind.

One thing I hadn't pushed, but as we casually observed Venus, Jupiter and Uranus in the early evening, then Mars and Saturn as the night progressed, the chance existed to observe all 8 of the major planets. Unfortunately, we had bypassed Neptune in the early evening, but as twilight broke, Mercury rose not far from the bright star Antares in Scorpius. But seeing 7 of the planets was doing pretty well, and set a record for my guest that night.

So with the twilight, the observing drew to a close, and though we were tired, we were both exhilarated by the great night of observing. After providing a copy of the raw data to my guest, we both headed down the hill - him to a road trip back east, me to my pillow and the rest of my Christmas holiday. I've got another AOP scheduled in a few weeks - already looking forward to it!

Telescopic images courtesy Charles Parker/Dean Ketelsen/NOAO/AURA/NSF

We Love Lucy!

2012-01-06T22:06:00.001-07:00

We got a call a few weeks ago from our Vet with an unusual request. She had given a home to a kitten from the animal shelter they help run, and it hadn't been accepted by her older animals. She hoped we would consider taking her in. It is hard to say no to someone who has helped us so much with all our animals over the years, so we're giving it a try! Our new lil' girl is a long hair orange tabby with beautiful orange and green eyes, who is definitely a curious cat!

Lucy came home with me after work today. She does have some issues, but they are pretty minor in the scheme of things. She had some severe ear infections when younger (she is about 8 months old now), and has at least one burst eardrum. We're not sure she isn't deaf - she doesn't respond to noises, but then, she's been distracted by her new surroundings. She also has a significant head tilt, perhaps related to the ear issues, but it -doesn't appear to affect her jumping ability, which seems consistent with an 8-month-old! Dr. D is also lending us a dog crate to help introduce her to the herd - we've used this method when introducing our two latest FIV+ cats, where fighting and fluid exchange could put the health of the other cats at risk. After a few weeks of getting to know her new brothers and sisters, they are usually ready to mix it up without serious altercations.

She had a great trip to the house - alert, but not complaining at all till we turned into the cul-de-sac when she finally let a few meows out. She seems to tolerate her cage pretty well but made sure to let us know not to forget her when it was feeding time for everyone. She enjoyed the 2 servings of her usual food Dr. D provided that I gave her, then while everyone else was sleeping off their dinner, I let her out to explore a bit and she ate another bowl full of leftovers in the kitchen! She also was the first cat to play with the ball-in-the-track in years! She pays close attention to the other cats passing her cage, and is quick with a hiss - most of the adults in the room are pretty much ignoring her, since we've got 3 other orange cats. I think it will be fun having a youngster in the house - we'll see if the others agree!

New Year's Eve with the Cranes!

2012-01-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

The other day Melinda suggested closing out 2011 with a day trip to Whitewater Draw. We had talked about it for a couple weeks, so we finally pulled the trigger on the drive, just over a 2 hours to the southeast of Tucson. We've been there at least once per year for the last few years, and have never been disappointed - there are always sandhill cranes there over the winter months, sometimes in excess of 20,000! The only variable is the amount of water the management allows to flood the area - when the water level is high, the bird count seems higher and they hang out closer to viewing areas. This year the water level appeared pretty low, and we were guessing just over 10,000 cranes.

Some viewers go before dawn for the mass ascension, when they all take off for their daytime feedings in nearby fields. Generally not being early risers, we typically arrive mid-afternoon and observe their arrival from feeding when huge numbers fill the twilight sky. We arrived about 3:30 and pretty much had the place to ourselves - only a couple other cars there. They came and went into the evening, but there were never more than 3 or 4 cars parked at any one time.

After getting some shots of the closest cranes, we went looking for other targets. We didn't find any of my favorites, the vermilion flycatcher this trip. Just before sunset though we spotted a couple yellow-headed blackbirds. And then the floodgates opened! A huge tornado-shaped cloud of blackbirds reached from the ground till out of sight a few thousand feet up. There was an orgy of activity in the reeds in the growing darkness - we estimated about 5,000 of them, which we watched until it was too dark to see them anymore.

After going to the car to get another layer of clothes on and switching to faster optics for shooting in darker conditions, we went back out in hopes of swarms of cranes against the sky. With the smaller numbers, we didn't really see clouds of them this trip, but inspired by previous trips where I've caught the cats-eye effect in their eyes using the flash, I took a few flash pictures. After guessing at the focus, I tried using the flash with my 200mm at F/2.8 and shot at some moving shapes in the dark. Amazingly, a couple of them came out pretty well and are shown here. I still caught the cats-eye effect from their eyes, but they were close enough to illuminate them, even with the on-camera flash.

As the last traces of twilight faded in the west, we headed for home, pausing in Benson for dinner at the Horseshoe Cafe. It was Melinda's first time there, and we both enjoyed ribeye steaks there, shutting the place down on New Year's Eve (they close at 8pm). We got home about 10pm to some hungry cats, but I'm glad we were back to calm them down when the fireworks started at Midnight. Happy New Year!

New Lens and Testing Venue

2011-12-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

I go on Craigslist about once a year. Come to think about it, that is where we found our Toyota Highlander a couple years ago, now serving us well in Illinois when we go there. But in my annual perusal a couple weeks ago, an ad for a wide-angle lens caught my eye. It was for a 14mm F/2.8 Canon lens made by Rokinon - a Korean-made lens that has pretty good reviews on line. Even new they sell for about a third of a major-name brand, and the seller was taking a discount off the street price, so I couldn't say no!

It isn't like I don't have other wide-angle lenses, but this baby has less distortion and almost the same field of view of my 16mm fisheye, and is a full stop faster than my 10-22 zoom - very important for night-time shots, in particular the time-lapse shots I've been shooting lately. This week, with the University shut down, I picked up some extra shifts on Kitt Peak, and had a little time for some test shots after my duties there.

This time of year Orion rises early, but once clear of the horizon it is difficult to get into the field of view with a dome or other item of interest. But with the wide-angle, it is easy to do so, and with the fast aperture, 30 or 45 seconds at ISO 1600 records enough light to even get some shadow details in the near blackness, and expose short enough to not get too much star trailing.

The image at left here is off the west side of Kitt Peak showing the western sky. Visible in the 60 second exposure is the Summer Milky way to the right, and the glow of the Zodiacal light to the left. Besides the lights of Sells (the capital of the Tohono O'odham reservation), the faint light domes of distant cities can be seen. Just upper right of Sells is the US/Mexico border town of Lukeville/Sonoita. The brighter light domes of Why/Ajo is to the right. I've not identified the light domes into Mexico, but I'm amazed at how well the light domes show up from so far away given how clear the skies were... A couple nights later we had some thin clouds after our observing session and I took a few frames of them moving through the rising Big Dipper and Polaris (to left). This was only 30 second exposure...

Finally a daytime shot of the Visitor Center at the Observatory. Note how the straight edges of the building remain mostly straight, unlike what you would get in most ultrawides or fisheye lenses. I'm mostly happy with the lens - I need to do some tracked shots to test it's ultimate sharpness, but for the money seems to be a good value.

Now It Feels Like Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:56:00.001-07:00

In what has become an annual holiday tradition for a bunch of our friends, this evening we made the trip up the Mount Lemmon Highway to again observe the winter solstice sunset alignment. The trip up was clouded out last weekend (plus, we had a holiday party to attend), so tonight was the last chance this season. It was a last minute decision to attend for me, plus Melinda had to work, so there was a rush to prepare a scope and camera. Five cars met at Tanque Verde and Mount Lemmon Highway at 4pm for the 20 minute drive up near milepost 9. I decided to again use the Celestron 5" telescope, which just about gives the perfect image scale. After careful focusing on the sun, it was about a half hour wait to sunset. Note that we had a good supply of sunspots this year. The image at left was taken at setup with the sun about 8 degrees above the horizon. Up is up in this image, so north would be to the 2 o'clock position.

Shown here are Susan and the Jims waiting for the sun to approach the horizon. Jim O'Connor had both a small scope with a white-light filter, and one with a Lunt H-alpha filter shooting video. Realize we're all parked next to a relatively busy highway, with lots of tourists driving cars and trucks covered with snow they are bringing down from the mountaintop. A few shouts, but on Christmas eve, no one stopped to see what we were doing this year.

Finally the sun dropped into our viewfinders and shutters started snapping. I pushed the start button on my timer, and after a quick check for the proper exposure, mostly I stood back and took a snap or two with an unfiltered telephoto lens on another camera. Before you knew it (always seems to happen faster than you think), the disk dropped below the Observatory and it was over. As soon as I stopped taking frames every 3 seconds and removed the filter for a few post-sunset shots, I could see the scope was a little out of focus, as well as suffering from shutter-shake. Unfortunately, after setting focus during setup, the temperature dropped enough to shrink the telescope tube and throw it out a little... But the experience of a mountain sunset in a perfectly clear sky among friends made the trip worthwhile, even with fuzzy pictures!

After packing up and heading down the hill, my friend Mike and I stopped at the Babad Do'ag overlook (Tohono O'Odham name - Frog Mountain, for the Catalinas) for what has almost become as popular to me as the sunset - watching the twilight fade as the lights of Tucson come up. I set up my camera and tripod again and exposed a few panorama mosaics, then focused on the silhouette of Kitt Peak and it's telescopes against the last of the twilight with foreground city lights. It is fun to locate the hot spots around the valley by their lights at night. Our downtown district doesn't have the skyline that many large cities have, but it was easily identified by it's proximal alignment from our observing spot with Kitt Peak. Hopping to the north from downtown the University and UMC could be located. Even darkened locations like A Mountain and Gates Pass could be spotted in the exposures that were up to 20 seconds. Finally it was time to head back to civilization - I had cats to feed, presents to wrap, and a cheesecake to bake as gifts to friends. It finally felt like a holiday!

An Incredible Week!

2011-12-18T23:45:00.002-07:00

Similar to the philosophical conundrum about falling trees in the woods making a sound, if no one observes something happen, did it? But in the 21st century of advanced technology, instant communications and cameras on every corner, it is difficult for anything to go undetected.

This last week something amazing happened, undetected from the earth. But with an armada of sun-observing spacecraft, Comet C/2011 W3 Lovejoy was observed to dive into the hellish temperatures of the sun, skim the surface and for the first time ever observed, survived to retreat to the frozen outer solar system.

The primary observing platform was SOHO - the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Originally designed for a 2-year service life, it was launched over 16 years ago. It observes the sun with a dozen instruments, including detailed observations of the surface in the extreme ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths, and the near-sun environment with coronographs. The coronographs show the outer atmosphere of the sun, storms of charged particles thrown out by active areas on the sun, and most importantly, the near-sun environment, including comets.

Now comets generally are their brightest near the sun, but it wasn't until SOHO's observing station was deployed just how many comets there were. It has found more than 2100 comets the last 16 years! It puts to shame the 20 or 30 found from the earth's surface. The majority of those found from SOHO are a special type called Kreutz sungrazers - from the deepest reaches of the solar system, they dive to within a few tens of thousands of miles of the sun's surface, most all vaporizing and not coming out. Interestingly, these sungrazers share a very similar orbit - they are all considered pieces of a much larger comet that broke up perhaps 8 or 9 hundred years ago.

On November 27th, Terri Lovejoy, observing in Australia, discover a smudge of a comet that was officially named for him on 2 December, the 16th anniversary of SOHO's launching. It was the first Kreutz sungrazer discovered from the Earth' surface in over 40 years. Predicted to reach the brightness of Venus or brighter (about magnitude -5 to -6), most everyone agreed it would never survive it's close approach to the sun and come out the other side, but sometimes the experts are wrong!

As it swung past the sun (on my birthday!) the tail inexplicably was swept away, but the comet survived and the tail redeveloped. The "experts" are now saying the comet is larger than the 200 yards diameter they estimated, or it would have vaporized. It now lives to return in another few hundred years. Some of the other spacecraft observed other aspects of it's pass, such as the Stereo (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) and SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory). A really good synopsis of observations and early analysis is located at a Sungrazing Comets Site.

As for future ground-based observations - it might be seen from the southern hemisphere as it moves south and fades, but our friend Andrew Cooper, observing from his workplace on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, was one of the rare observers to have recorded it near perihelion. Yes, SOHO sees a new comet every 3 days or less (!) but there are still some surprises out there yet for us to find. And being able to surprise the experts is a thrill too!

Color Accord Signed, Disaster Averted!

2011-12-11T23:33:00.002-07:00

While we have safely returned to Tucson, we need to update progress on our 80-year-old cottage out in the woods of Illinois. This last summer we had a new roof put on, and then we insulated, rewired and reglazed windows of the guest bedroom. In September we finished the drywall and wainscoting. Sister Maj, who takes joy in working on our little nest while we're away (it is like having home-improvement elves working on it while we're gone) finished the beadboard ceiling and had started priming in the intervening period. So our December trip was to finish out the painting of the guest room. The photo at left shows our starting point upon our arrival, on the right is our lil' construction elf Maj!

But the complication, going back to July, was what color to paint the room? I had no strong feelings, though they started out with a pretty strong red color that I thought was too close to the master bedroom. So we left with ideas, but no decisions. We were thinking that as soon as we even leaned towards a color, Maj would just go ahead and start painting. Melinda wanted the ultimate decision and especially with her cataract surgery this Fall and subsequent clearer vision put off the choice.

So the first order of business this trip was to pick out a color and guess what - it was the color of her old "shell pink" painting sweatshirt! Shown at the photo at left, I think that match was a happy accident. They were concerned I would think it was "too girlie", but again, I didn't have strong opinions other than make it at least a little different from the master bedroom.

So after a few days of effort, the final color scheme is in place. Beside the pink drywall, the wainscoting is "soft white" (really a pale butter yellow), the trim between them and the window trim an "eggshell white", and the beadboard ceiling is a bright true white. Whew - lots of color coordinating, but everyone is happy! The room looks great already and the windows (which I stripped and reglazed in July) look spectacular - matching the view of the Fox River outside.

The next task at hand for the "construction elf" is staining and finishing the new wood flooring. Maj is incredible working on the little details, and excels at this. If we're lucky, we'll be able to help install flooring our next trip, rather than just move furniture into the finished room. About all that remains is finishing out the kitchen ceiling - just in time to move to outdoor projects for the spring and summer visits!

Family Faces...

2011-12-05T16:34:00.002-07:00

We had a sister with a hip replacement, and a brother-in-law with major back surgery, so we used our normal Sunday trip to Iowa to visit recovering family! All are doing extremely well, are up and around and apparently following doctor's orders. At my middle-sister's house, we got to spend some time with my great niece Alivia, who turned 5 a few months back. Seemingly like all of my nieces and nephews, turn a camera on them and it is time to perform! Even great-uncle Dean got in on the face-making act...

Near-Term Forecast - Bleak!

2011-12-02T16:33:00.001-07:00

Well, I missed the Fall colors - our September visit was early, and we're definitely way late for them in December... I think Melinda caught some good color with her surprise visit for her sister's birthday last month. But today's walk shows winter is here if not just around the corner. No snow yet, and people on the plane were eager to tell us their garden hadn't had a killing frost yet(!), but from the greys and tans, it is dreary cold for the next 4 months!

Which brings me to the sign I saw on my walk, shown at left. Seems a harsh set of choices, without much middle ground... Reminds me of the advice my money manager gives every review - "well, we expect to get worse, then turn around and get better" - doesn't take a genius to see that in everyday life, but there it is. It just seems the better days are taking their time arriving! I'm rather glad to have the moderate temps of Tucson to spend the Winter months - the cold and short days would drive me to depression. Yet some thrive in the cold, snow and dressing in layers (Melinda included).

But for now, it is still above freezing (low 40s for highs today), the trail along the Fox River is fun to walk with the rustling of leaves underfoot, and minute spots of color still exist for the moment. Enjoy it while you can!

City of Lights!

2011-11-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

It's time once again to not look at the calendar, and head up to "Ketelsen East" in the outskirts of Chicago to visit friends and family! Yes, we know it can be cold and miserable, with a real chance of getting snowed in this time of year, but we get back almost every 2 months for the better part of a week, regardless of time-of-year. Besides the afore-mentioned F&F, we're also working on the house up here, and there is work to be done! And what better time for working on painting and indoor projects than December!?

It was an uneventful flight out (uneventful is good!), and I figured our seats (row 22 - right over the wings) wouldn't lead to any pictures of interest, so the camera bag was safely stowed under the seat in front of me. But as fate would have it, as we descended into Chicago, an interesting shot or two exposed themselves (excuse the pun!). So I grabbed the camera (a difficult task with the lack of legroom these days and my knees wedged against the seat back in front of me) and risked the ire of the cabin crew by turning on my electronic device during approach to grab a few frames. Of course, the first one I caught, while banking over one of the brighter parts of the city, the exposure was set way too long (1.3 seconds), yet yielded a way-interesting shot, even better than the subsequent one (0.1 second) that is much more boring...

Now many of you likely say "what pretty lights!" But the amateur astronomers among you are likely aghast at the light pollution! Since we are flying over the lights, if they were even moderately shielded to reduce glare, we should only see the diffuse light on the ground, not the lights directly. I'll endeavor to take some of Tucson that show that effect sometime. Here in Chicago, I think they are proud of all the "pretty lights" that add to the skyline. Of course, if you try to do astronomy here, the sky glow from the urban area can be seen hundreds of miles away. But that is one of the reasons we spend most of our time in Tucson, for that inky sky relatively easily obtained with a short drive.

Sunset Effects and a Tiny Sliver

2011-11-26T23:19:00.002-07:00

Tonight I was scheduled to direct a Kitt Peak Advanced Observing Program (AOP), but the guest was a no-show. While waiting for him to arrive, I took a few opportunistic photos while hanging around the Visitor Center. The early sunset happens to fall over Tucson and I noticed last week in a visit that many roadside signs that use glass microspheres (to appear brighter under headlight illumination) appear brilliantly lit when exactly opposite the sun. The first image shows the mountain shadow creeping over Ryan Airfield on the way to Tucson. All the reflectors, as well as roadside traffic signs are redirecting sunlight back to me. It is a really cool effect, and visible to the naked eye, even from a distance of 25 miles.

It was quite a clear day and though breezy on the Mountain, transparency was very good. For a few trips I've been wanting to image the shadow of the Mountain ascend into the sky as the sun goes down. The effect is quite well known, but few people have observed it - mostly because most people are watching the sunset on the other side of the sky! The sky has to be very clear, and I've seen better, but it showed up nicely. Mostly the shadow appears pointy, but tonight, being near the VC right in the center of the mountain, the shadow appeared flat-topped or slightly rounded. I'm thinking about chasing down the upcoming partial lunar eclipse setting at the tip of the mountain shadow in a couple weeks...

With the new moon occurring a day or two ago, I saw that the thin sliver of the moon was to be very near brilliant Venus after the sunset. Of course, being up at the Observatory, it was easy to place a telescope or two in the foreground. Shown here in the wide field are the WIYN 0.9 meter, the NOP 0.4 meter and the WIYN 3.5 meter telescope structures. And the closeup shows just the WIYN 3.5 meter next to the celestial alignment. Venus' stellar flares are caused by diffraction from the lens' iris edges. Of course, the skinny moon's "dark" side is lit up by Earthshine, since viewed from the nearly-new moon, the brilliant full Earth lights it up.

Lastly, shortly before giving up the wait for the guest, I had set up an ultra-wide 8mm fisheye lens to image the Milky Way/Zodiacal Band confluence. It seems lately that the band has been brighter than I remember - it seems more easily visible across the entire sky. The Zodiacal Light (the fainter band angled towards upper left in this image) is caused by dust in the plane of the solar system, and in this image reaches from Sagittarius, where the ecliptic crosses the Milky Way, up to the planet Jupiter, just appearing in the upper left corner of the field. In another month or two, as the ecliptic makes a sharper angle with the horizon, the Zodiacal Light should get brighter - even brighter than the remnants of the Summer Milky Way that is visible here.

So even though I had hoped to be up observing all night, I was home by 9:30, but still got to see a few amazing things!

Check Your Local Listings!

2011-11-23T17:55:00.000-07:00

Last Thanksgiving I happened to be channel surfing and fortuitously ran across some of the most compelling TV ever! Punkin Chunkin! Take your average home garage shop engineer, task him with hurling a big gourd and give him liberal amounts of time you come up with some of the most outlandish mechanical devices ever seen, including medieval trebuchets and giant air cannons, like those shown at left.

The last few years the World Championship, held in Delaware the first weekend in November has been broadcast Thanksgiving evening on the Discovery and Science Channels. Last year's show, "hosted" by Adam and Jamie of the Mythbuster series on the Discovery Channel, was a hoot. The overall winner was a female team - Hormone Blaster, their air cannon reaching 3760 feet! The Guinness Record is currently held by "Big 10 Inch" with a distance of 5545 feet in the thin air of Moab, Utah - yes, over a mile! This year the show is hosted by the Mythbuster "kids" - Kari, Grant and Tory (Youtube promo shown here). Tune in Thursday night (9pm in Tucson, rebroadcast at Midnight and again Saturday the 26th) and prepare to be amazed!

Lil' Bundles of Joy!

2011-11-22T16:02:00.001-07:00

This morning as I walked into our integration lab, I was reminded of the warehouse scene of "Raiders of the Lost Arc" - the floor was covered with boxes about as far as I could see! I counted about 70-some pallets of 24 boxes each. And what could consume so much floor space in our lab? GLASS!

It is time once again to cast a mirror, and that calls for sorting through more than 20 tons of Ohara E-6 borosilicate glass (a Pyrex equivalent). The sorting process takes a few days, and commences right after the Thanksgiving break, so they've moved in glass, sorting tables, light boxes and tools to put together their assembly-line process to inspect every chunk of what will become the next mirror substrate - the next Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) mirror. Each box holds about 10-12 kg of glass, and each block will be cleaned and inspected for flaws and impurities (most of these show up as stress concentrations under cross Polaroids), and sorted for where it should be placed in the mold. The best glass is kept for placing in the mold last, so it will remain on the faceplate of the cast mirror.

While I've never been called to assist with the sorting process, it is fun to watch the crew working together in the assembly-line process. After the glass inspection, they will also inspect the mold, which has just been through a pre-fire process the last week. The glass will be loaded into the mold just before the Christmas shutdown, and the casting will start in January. The process of transforming raw chunks to finished optics continue!

Our Decade With Marley...

2011-11-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

Our orange tabby Marley died this morning. While it was not a sudden passing, he declined pretty quickly. We first noticed he had lost considerable weight only a week ago, but for a week or two previously seemed lethargic without much appetite. We got him into the vet quickly last Tuesday, and they kept him for a few days for some X-rays, blood tests and IV fluids. We got him back Friday and saw he had continued his slide - he could hardly stand and we were syringe feeding him to try to get some food in him. Another quick trip to the vet on Saturday before they were unavailable for the weekend brought a slight change in meds, including some for pain. Mostly he sat near us through the day. Melinda had a bit of a cold and sore throat, so stayed home from work and stayed up with him Saturday night, waking me at 5am to tell me he had stopped breathing and had died quietly. The cause remains undiagnosed...

Marley came to us as a kitten in the summer of 2001 - Vicki, who was volunteering for some local animal rescue groups rescued him from his foster home. Evidently there was a flea infestation and this little kitten had gotten ODed on flea powder and could hardly stand. Fortunately he recovered without any problems, and grew into the greatest cat. He was quite trusting in us and waited patiently for his lap time - 3 or 4 of our cats rotate through their turns with mom and dad nearly every night and he always enjoyed his owners' attention. At bedtime he rushed to be in place on my side of the bed as we drifted off to sleep together, always managing to leave wet spots on me or my blankets from his happy drooling. But despite wanting to spend time with us, he also spent a lot of time with Lance, who entered our household about the same time. Lance was very shy and set up residence in our garage and seemed happy alone, but on most nights Marley stayed by his side - his only friend among all the cats. We didn't see any change in Marley's behavior after Lance's passing this Spring, though he continued to eat at the spot he shared with him for years...

The pictures above are taken in 2008 when Marley accompanied me on my cross-country drive to Illinois and our 5 month stay there while Melinda and I married. He was an OK traveler, but a most excellent cat when it came to personality and his desire to spend time with his humans. He will be missed...

Up in the Sky - It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's...

2011-11-16T21:02:00.003-07:00

An Iridium Flare! Tonight we had an excellent appearance that was magnitude -7, which makes it about as bright as the quarter moon! This one appeared in our southern sky - the bright star near the bottom is Fomalhaut, the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus (Southern Fish). It is a 30 second exposure with a 50mm lens at F/4.5. I've mentioned the flares before, but perhaps never fully explained them, so it is about time to remedy that.

The Iridium satellite constellation is a set of 66 satellites that provide world-wide handheld phone communications. Originally there were to be 77, matching the atomic number of the element iridium, thus the name. A peculiarity of the satellite is that there are 3 flat polished antennae, and with it's orientation fixed in space, these antennae can predictably reflect sunlight down onto the night-side of the earth. These flares can be as bright as magnitude -9, possible to see even in daytime, and can be spectacular at night. The flatness accuracy of the panels is such that the projected sunbeam is only a few miles in diameter. In addition, there are websites, such as Heavens-Above, that will predict when these flares will pass over your position on the earth. It can be quite amazing watching even from urban areas a dim satellite appearing and growing brighter by thousands of times to brilliance, then fading slowly again to invisibility, all in a few seconds. The flares are quite popular at the Grand Canyon Star Party, where the public treats us as shamans for our ability to predict their passing.

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada has a nice website explaining the geometry and effects of the flares, including detailed instructions to logging into heavens-Above to be able to predict these far in advance, including appearances of the International Space Station and, in fact, any satellite currently in orbit! They are the source of the illustration at left showing the effect of the antenna reflection.

Observing the flares is a lot of fun, and so easy to do with the assistance of Heavens-Above. In addition to predicting Iridiums and the ISS, they can plot out the path of the satellite as it goes across the constellations. They also plot out the positions of any bright comets or asteroids that are visible, and you can plot out a whole-sky map for any time or date you desire. With those tools and a few satellite observations under your belt, you are on your way to learning your way around the sky.

Last Glance of Mercury...

2011-11-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

The evening observing window to spot Venus and Mercury has been very brief, thanks to the low angle of the ecliptic to the horizon this time of year. A couple weeks ago I posted about the evening conjunction of the 2 planets inward of the Earth. Forgetful me, I often don't remember to look until the pair sink too low to spot the fainter Mercury. The innermost planet also reached greatest eastern elongation (furthest from the sun in the evening sky) yesterday, so in the next days will get fainter (as it becomes a smaller crescent passing between us and the sun - visible in telescopes only) and as it dives towards inferior conjunction (between us and the sun) 2 weeks from Sunday (4 December). But in the meantime, in the next day or so, you can still spot it in the evening sky, as I did tonight, below brilliant Venus - taken with Canon XSi and 17-85 zoom set to 85mm for 1/5 second. Catch it while you can!

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead)

2011-11-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is not something familiar to much of the United States. However, in states bordering Mexico (or states with large Latino populations) it is a practiced holiday - one that is planned for, anticipated, and relished. Being in Tucson (formerly Mexico), Día de Muertos is an event to behold!

Wikipedia says: "Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday, and all banks are closed. The celebration takes place on November 1–2, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts.

Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years (thousands of years) and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world: In Brazil, Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades, and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures."

We had never been to the Day of the Dead parade, on 4th Street, in Tucson. In all of his years here, Dean had never checked it out, and when first moving here I was at first 'put off' and frightened by the Day of the Dead artwork, sculptures, and paraphernalia found in the shops here. My appreciation has changed, however, and now I'm drawn to those articles - we even have a Day of the Dead tin wall sculpture in our kitchen (purchased in Loreto, Baja Sur last March), and I have just been given a Day of the Dead Kitty tile by our friends Jen and Tom (from Phoenix)! It seemed like we would miss the embodiment of this holiday if we didn't go to the parade this year. In Tucson, this has become a largely gringo event that nearly resembles a form of Mardi Gras. That was what it reminded me of anyway. For some it was an excuse to get dressed up, paint their faces, and parade through the streets with like minded individuals. For most, however, it was as it is supposed to be. A day to remember their loved ones, a day to remember all souls who have passed. The parade ended at a park in Tucson, befitted with an altar and a large cauldron of fire where papers with messages to our loved ones (which we were given papers to write messages along the parade route) were burned so that the messages were raised to the spirits of the ones we love, remember, and miss. Remembering those who have passed isn't limited to people, there were people with pictures of their pets as well as a group that our friend Chuck walked with, remembering (and making people aware of) the number of gray wolves hit and killed by vehicles each year! It was heartwarming to see people walking, holding up pictures of their grandparents, their ancestors; and gut wrenching to see pictures of children, teens, young adults - lost to accident, disease, violence. Every soul deserves someone to remember them - we all have loved ones we remember. This was not a sad event, but an event to remember them with the respect and love that they deserve. The tail of the parade was brought up by the University of Arizona marching band (or a portion of it, anyway) - all with their faces painted for the Day of the Dead. If you live in the Tucson area and haven't been a part of this before, then come out and see it next year (the first Sunday of November). Dean was a little unsure of this event before we went, but afterwards he suggested that maybe we'd like to walk in it next year! So whether the participants are gringos, or Latinos, it doesn't matter; we are connected by the love we have for those who have passed, by Día de Muertos.

Kitt Peak Vistas

2011-11-01T23:49:00.001-07:00

Seems we've been having a lot of posts about Kitt Peak National Observatory. In fact this makes 4 of the last 7 posts! With my regular one-night-a-week work with the Nightly Observing Program, recent workshops, training for VIP tours, and volunteering for Tohono Night, there have been ample chances to take a few pictures.

Last night I was up again on my own time, to try to get some images to improve a time lapse sequence I took some 3 years ago - nearly my first one. You can click on the image to the left here to see it. Mistakes were made, and I've learned a lot in doing these over the years. The problem is that if I want to catch the Pleiades rising over the working VLBA radio dish in the foreground, it would have to be this week before the moon gets too bright. By next dark-of-the-moon, the star cluster would already be above the horizon at twilight.

After some car issues, I got up there just before sunset and rushed to get set up. But there are still issues - as twilight faded and I was adjusting exposures, the effect of the 5-day-old moon was greater than I expected. Also, about 30 minutes into the sequence, the radio dish stowed itself and didn't move the rest of the night. It will make for a dull video, I suspect. But having the moon provide some ambient light was a plus, and I continued this one long enough to also catch the Hyades cluster. Other changes included shooting shorter exposures (faster lens) at a quicker clip to reduce star trailing and jumps between frames, but I also used a longer focus lens, so star trails are still there. And I also used another camera with a telephoto to catch some other "events", so edited in, it may add some interest.

This last wide frame at left shows how the Pleiades and Hyades cluster barely fit in the field as they rise into the sky over the 80 foot dish. The view thru the telephoto shows the Pleiades rising over the secondary mirror of the radio telescope - unfortunately, the dish was so close, the stars are slightly out of focus - but the slightly fuzzy stars better show off their subtle colors. Interestingly, even in the 12 second exposures (at F/2.8), the slight glow of the cluster's nebulosity can be spotted to it's lower right!

And finally, taking a sequence of similarly short exposures of the big domes on the peak with the telephoto, I inadvertently captured a trio of star clusters rising past the 4-meter dome. At left here are the domes of the 4-meter Mayall Telescope to the left and Steward Observatory's 90" Bok Telescope to the right. The two fuzzy patches to the left of the big dome are M-36 (below) and M-38 (upper left), and to the upper right of the dome is NGC 1893. The coming Fall and Winter observing seasons features lots of clusters like these.

So I got some interesting still shots - you'll see it here first if anything interesting shows up in the time-lapse sequence...

Western Conjunction

2011-10-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

In the western sky, inferior planets Venus and Mercury are putting on a show the next couple weeks (inferior in the sense they orbit inside the Earth's orbit). With a clear western horizon, brilliant Venus can be spotted about 10 minutes after sunset. With the growing darkness, Mercury can be spotted nearby. They will be very close the next week or so, but by the 14th, Mercury reaches it's greatest elongation from the sun and shortly after dives towards the horizon. Unfortunately the Autumn ecliptic makes a shallow angle with the horizon and they don't stray far from the horizon or into a dark sky, but Mercury should easily be spotted with binoculars near Venus. I've been watching it the last few evenings, but I've yet to see it with the unaided eye, though it is easy in binocs.

The picture above was taken this evening as I was headed towards Tucson from an afternoon of work at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. This picture was taken about 30 minutes after sunset from Ajo Road and Sandario with a 200mm lens. At the bottom center of the frame are the silhouettes of the telescope domes on the Mountain - the 4-meter on the right to the Solar Telescopes on the left. If you get a clear sky the next few days, get out and take a look!

Fall Colors!

2011-10-20T12:33:00.001-07:00

Tucson and the Sonoran Desert are often accused of not having seasons. I beg to differ, but to the careful observer, there are actually 5 or more we go through, not the standard 4 most of the country sees, considering our Summer monsoons that most do not see.

Fall colors, though, are mostly lacking. Deciduous trees and plants in the desert drop their leaves when cold weather comes, or when enough time passes since the last rain it is no longer profitable for the plants to keep them. In the highest mountains in Southern Arizona, as well as the higher terrain in the White Mountains and Flagstaff area, stands of aspen trees do turn a brilliant yellow-gold and draw bus loads of tourists. But the Tucson area is mostly denied any reminders of Fall, save the moderating temperatures.

However, lately I have noticed a subtle coloring in recent trips through the desert to Kitt Peak and even driving through local neighborhoods. Ocotillo plants, which normally only display leaves for a couple weeks after a rain before dropping them, are displaying brilliant to pale yellows in this short transition into cooler weather. I pointed this out to a co-worker on our drive to Kitt Peak last week and he noted that in 30 years in Tucson he had never noticed them. Particularly while surrounded by the still green palo verde and mesquite trees, the ocotillo make a spectacular, if singular impression.

Ocotillos are interesting plants. Mostly they appear as nearly dead-looking sticks with rows of thorns along their length. Immediately after a decent rain leaves sprout and in the Spring, brilliant red flower clusters cap the ends. But while they carry thorns, they are actually hardened leaf stalks - they are not cacti. And for a couple weeks, they remind Midwestern transplants a little of the colors they are missing back home...

Kitt Peak Open House and a Visit to the Third-Born!

2011-10-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the astronomy club was invited to help out with Tohono O'odham Night at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Many hundreds were expected, and all the telescopes were open to residents of the reservation, where the Observatory is located, as well as "Friends" of the Observatory. We were invited to set up our personal telescopes and help out with the crowds up near the 36" telescope on the south ridge near the WIYN Telescope.

It was quite the event! Melinda and I arrived early to set up before the 4pm start time. We stayed up by our telescope, but there were lots of activities going on below by the visitor center - you could hear a "chicken scratch" band, and there were local vendors of fry bread and crafts, traditional dancing, that sort of thing. I figured it was their party, and we stayed and did our duty... And there were LOTS of people! They ran a shuttle up from the picnic area where they directed folks to park, they even ran buses from the reservation high school for those who didn't want to drive the mountain road. Folks loved the view of the moon, even in the late afternoon as sunset and dusk settled. Our location was one of the most scenic on the mountain, with spectacular views of the other domes and surrounding desert. The only problem - it was also COLD! I'm not sure how cold it was, but with the steady breeze, it was quite bone chilling when standing for hours. Joining us with their telescopes was John Kalas, Bill Lofquist, Jim O'Connor and a few others. Spouses mostly hung out in the 36" warm room. Even our brownies didn't ward away the chill!

Another draw for me was the 3.5 meter diameter WIYN telescope (WIYN stands for Wisconsin, Indiana, Yale and NOAO, the major partners), built in the early 90s, was the 3rd large telescope that I had a hand in polishing at the Mirror Lab. And with the telescope open, and sporting a large eyepiece for the occasion, provided a chance to finally look through a telescope that I've polished! I was at the dedication in October of 1994, hoping to take a look at Saturn, but a storm had come through and we could barely venture outside that night, let alone think of observing with a new shiny telescope. Normally there is NEVER an eyepiece on the scope - digital detectors are so much more efficient that there is rarely a chance to look through the scope with your eyes.

We paid a visit before sunset, inspecting the telescope and chatting with Dr. Patricia Knezek, director of the WIYN Observatory. While sporting a large 3.5 meter mirror, it is a very short telescope and squat mount, so the dome is small and comfortable. With the telescope pointed halfway up the sky the primary and tertiary mirror can be inspected quite easily. Having polished it, I was eager to get a look at the reflecting surface. It had seen better days! It was pretty dirty - almost looking like it had gotten sprinkled on, which happens more often that you think with quickly-changing mountain weather. And while cleaned regularly, typically with a carbon dioxide snow technique (think CO2 fire extinguisher!), it is recoated every couple years. We were told that because of heavy demand for the coating chamber in the basement of the 4-meter building across the mountain, it had been 3 years since recoating. It is scheduled for the next shutdown.

The view through the dome slit and open "garage doors" to help with dome seeing, was quite spectacular. To the east, you could see the great alignment of telescope domes - from the WIYN, directly east is a small dome where currently a 16" Meade is located for the Nightly Observing Program. A short walk up the hill is the 36" where we were set up - my van can be spotted in the photo. Past the 36" is the 2.1 meter telescope, built nearly 50 years ago, and past that is the heliostat of the largest solar telescope in the world - the McMath-Pierce Telescope, about the same age.

We did our telescope duty - lots of passers-by, families with kids in tow, ignoring the cold (or perhaps thankful for the change from desert heat). They loved my high-power views of lunar craters, and Jupiter a little later as it rose. By 8:15 our counter showed 135 people had looked through the scope! With telescopes scheduled to close at 8:30, now was our opportunity to go look through the WIYN!

We made the short walk over and surprise - there was a line. We were told there were about 100 in front of us! We heard rumors some had spent an hour in line, but we persevered... We talked to the director some more, and found out that even though I polished the mirror, that plus $1.49 will get me a cup-o-coffee at Circle K. No cutting the line for us! The thing I kicked myself for later was that I hadn't brought camera and tripod - with the bright moon and it's ambient light it would have been fun taking pics of the line of folks leading up to the stepladder and eyepiece. Next time! Finally the time drew near - they were looking at the Ring Nebula, M57 in Lyra. It is a great object for such a large telescope - it has a high surface brightness and is small, both a benefit because even the lowest magnifications with such a large telescope is typically 600X or more. And yes, even with the squat telescope pictured above, you do need an 8 foot stepladder to reach the eyepiece at the Naysmith focus. We had heard rumors that color could be seen in the Ring's oval, but I suspect it was overactive imaginations. The central star was easily visible and it was quite an impressive view - stars were very small for such a high magnification, though it appeared it wasn't quite finely focused. With over 85 people behind me, my few seconds of observing time quickly drew to a close, and we ambled out. It would be great to do it again - a moonless night would be great, and of course, an hour to look at a couple objects would be "heavenly"!

As we returned, everyone was putting scopes away, so we did the same. I had set up cameras that were still churning away taking some sequences in our absence. The camera pointed north showed the spectacular view of other telescope domes illuminated by moonlight, and the interior of the 4-meter lit up with their low-dome lights. The Big Dipper can be seen just above the horizon and the lights of Casa Grande and the glow of Phoenix. Faintly below the dipper the radio towers of South Mountain can be seen, an even 100 miles away. The other image is in the direction of Tucson with a telephoto lens - easily seen are the headlights of Ajo Way, route 86, which is the main route between the Observatory and town. The dark silhouette of the mountain is Cat Mountain, passed as you leave town. Below that are the lights and illuminated runway of Ryan Airfield.

It was a great evening, even with the cold, and with the early conclusion, we were home by 11:30 or so - early for us. We'll be volunteering again in a few years when they have another!

Seeing the Light - Astonishing Mira

2011-10-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

I was perusing the Sky and Telescope website the other week, and ran across an observing report prompting sky watchers to go out and observe the variable star Mira, now at maximum brightness in the eastern sky in early evening.

Mention of the star transported me back a decade or more back in time to a night I was out observing with my buddy Roger at the TAAA's observing site at Empire Ranch. I know it was 12 years ago because Jupiter was very near it's present position, which takes 12 years to circle our sky! I had just finished an 8" diameter objective prism, and had it mounted on my 11" Newtonian for some visual spectroscopy - breaking the light of stars into a rainbow. Because the prism deviates the light a considerable amount, I was sweeping the sky, looking for the bright spectrum of Jupiter when I accidentally swept up a remarkable spectrum! Instead of most stars which showed the rainbow colors with only a few dark narrow absorption lines, this one, also pretty bright, was crossed by much wider absorption bands and also had emission lines in the spectrum! It was very distinctive and astonishing.

With a little study to locate what we had found on the star charts, it was Mira, also then near maximum light. Mira is a long period red variable, and since it was discovered hundreds of years ago and is the first of it's kind, is called a Mira-type variable. Over a period of 330 days it varies from 2nd to 10th magnitude - from easy naked eye visibility to invisibility even with binoculars (a factor of about 1600!). Interestingly, in the past 12 years since swept up in my spectrograph, it has gone through 13 cycles, so reappears now at maximum brightness...

This last January, I posted about objective prism spectroscopy, and showed some spectra of the Hyades star cluster. Using a similar setup last weekend (used a longer focal length lens for more color dispersion), I again imaged the spectrum of the bright blue star Vega to compare it to the Mira spectrum. The result is shown here with a spectrum of the star Fomalhaut for comparison. Fomalhaut is about twice the mass of the sun and as a result burns about 3,000K degrees hotter (about 9,000K vs about 6,000K for the sun). With the hotter temperature, the spectrum of Fomalhaut is dominated by hydrogen absorption lines. Mira, at a much cooler 3,000K, has a much more complicated spectrum, the cooler temperatures allow heavier elements and even molecules in it's atmosphere, dominated by the molecular bands of Titanium Oxide. Also noteworthy are Hydrogen Beta and Gamma lines are in emission rather than absorption. It makes for a very striking spectrum visually.

Mira should be easily visible for a few more weeks in the eastern sky to the south (right) of Jupiter. The picture here was taken on the first of this month with brilliant Jupiter and Mira over the lights of Sierra Vista and Fort Huachuca. If you are interested in checking out a variable star, hunt it down and watch it disappear over the next couple months.

A New Gadget

2011-10-09T03:36:00.001-07:00

We have recently (today) received a comment that we should have a translation tool on our blog site, for our "Worldwide Audience"! It never even occurred to us, but what a great idea (thanks, Ian!)! While Blogspot doesn't seem to have a gadget that does exactly that (without subjecting you to advertising, which we do not support), it might work if we include a link to Google's translation assistant. I've used their page frequently and it's probably not too bad. Give it a try and leave us some feedback! The link is at the top of the list in the right hand column. To use it, copy and paste the text you are wanting to translate, and then choose the languages.

Aden Meinel, "The Great Man" passes at age 88

2011-10-05T17:08:00.001-07:00

The hits started coming in a couple days ago and still continue today at about one per hour - Google directing folks looking for "Aden Meinel" to our little blog. If you do the same search, we're the third Google entry after the National Optical Astronomy Observatories and the Wikipedia entry. Turns out that I posted about Aden Meinel's visit to Tucson about 18 months ago, as part of Kitt Peak National Observatory's 50th anniversary. Lots of hits can only mean one or two things, but in this case, we learned yesterday he died on Sunday at his home in Henderson, Nevada.

His meager entry in Wikipedia reveals little of his giant stature in Tucson. He was director of Yerkes and McDonald Observatory when he was put in charge of the search for, and served as founding director of the national observatory which was chosen to be atop Kitt Peak, about 50 miles SW of Tucson. After the dedication of that institution, he went on to be the third director of Steward Observatory, and from there went on to establish and serve as director of the Optical Sciences Center (now bearing his name) at the University of Arizona. And that is to say nothing of the plethora of research papers he and wife Marjorie published in optics, telescope design, space, spectroscopy and solar power.

Arguably, he is the reason that for many decades, Tucson was considered to be the center of astronomical research, and the reason it is still called "Optics Valley", from the effects still felt by locating of Kitt Peak National Observatory and OSC within a city block of Steward Observatory.. Having worked at all 3 institutions he served, I can honestly say that without his leadership, would I even be located in Tucson? A valid question, for which an answer is not forthcoming.

I met Aden only briefly on 2 occasions, but am overjoyed I was able to hear his presentation last year on why Kitt Peak was chosen. It was magical to be transported back those 50 years and look over his shoulder to the home movies and photos he took on that first horseback ride up the mountain. He told the story of that frigid November night and the return trip fall off his horse, breaking his arm, doing little to blunt his enthusiasm for the place, which still excites me as well. We've lost a true visionary, and the great institutions that line the intersection of Cherry and University on the UA campus are perhaps a lasting tribute.

Kitt Peak Star-B-Que!

2011-09-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

Last night was one of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association's (TAAA) twice-a-year Star-B-Ques, held at the picnic area about 1.5 miles below the mountaintop National Observatory on Kitt Peak. It is a great location for such an event - plumbing for bathrooms, easy access, and great dark skies only about a 75 minute drive from Tucson. Our rainy season weather has been winding down, and we had high hopes for clear skies, but of course, you always take your chances!

Our afternoon drive up revealed some blue sky, but also lots of clouds, with occasional rain sprinkles - not a good sign! Once there, we also found that the Observatory had neglected to a) unlock the access gate, b) unlock the storeroom where the gas grill was located, and c) deliver the gas grill for our event! So we went to plan "B" - since it was a pot-luck picnic, at least we all had side dishes from potato and pasta salad, to baked beans, chips, desserts and brownies, so no one went hungry. With clear skies and a spectacular sunset to the Southwest, we all anticipated clearing and some serious observing.

But obviously, fate was working against us. The clouds, though broken, revealed wonderful clear skies to the far south, showing Scorpius and part of the Milky Way on the southern horizon, but little chance for overhead observing. Mostly folks stood around and visited for a time. I jokingly announced - "why don't some of you leave, so that it will clear up!" While most had a good chuckle, after 20 minutes or so folks started leaving and as predicted, we had some pretty good skies a little bit later! I had a photo project in mind, so even with the clouds and with digital exposures costing little, had 2 cameras going showing clouds and stars intermingling. The view towards the east showed the cloud bottoms lit up not by the rosy glow of twilight, but the yellowish glow of the mostly sodium lighting of Tucson. The shot here shows that effect plus the trails of 3 (!) satellites converging nearly from the same spot!

Eventually we did get some good skies and I hunted down and pointed the C-14 to Comet Garrad C/2009P1, bright enough to spot in Paul Lorenz's 20X binoculars. It is about 8th magnitude and looked great in the 14", sporting a nice stubby tail. I mounted the 200mm zoom lens piggyback on the scope and took 3-90 second exposures at F/3.2 to stack for this result. It is about a fourth of the original frame so is about 2.5 degrees high, with North up. The comet is slowly getting farther from us as it approaches the sun, so slowly grows brighter. About the end of the year, it starts moving away from the sun, but Earth's orbital motion again gets us closer to the comet to keep it about the same brightness. It won't get naked eye, but from a dark sky should be a binocular comet well into Spring!

The sky stayed clear long enough for us to observe some fall galaxies, the Helix Nebula, and some good views of Jupiter and it's 4 Galilean moons as it rose in the NE. When first observed less than 10 degrees off the horizon, the atmospheric turbulence had it shimmering pretty well, but even then, belt details could be seen. Just before clouds came in and convinced us to pack up at 10pm, a dark brown oval could be seen transiting the meridian in the North Equatorial Belt, and the Great Red Spot could be seen approaching the meridian in the south belt. The view was quite similar to the amazing webcam shot by Phoenix amateur Tom Polakis taken 8 days ago shown here at left. It was a nice highlight to carry home with us. We hit the mountain road shortly after 10:30 and were home by 11:45, an early night even by weekday standards!

It was frustrating to deal with clouds and picnic details, but the cool temperatures, the chance to socialize with other members and the little good observing that was carried out made it all worthwhile.

Kreepy Krawlies and Flutterbys!

2011-09-23T22:16:00.003-07:00

The other day while still in Illinois, we finally had a break from home improvement and were able to get in an amble down the bike path into Tekakwitha Forest preserve and through some of the forest trails. As I mentioned the other day, the weather has been beautiful and Fall-like compared to the 100 degree days of Tucson, but still warm enough the trees were just starting to stray from their Summer shades of green. A few of the maples were just starting to turn...

Flowering plants were also starting to get rare and as a result, the few vibrant ones were host to lots of insects. In particular, this Goldenrod was feeding grounds to at least 3 kinds of wasps and these two butterflies. The white one is a male Cabbage White (sexed from it's single spot), and a female Pearl Crescent (from it's larger abdomen and colored antenna tips). It is easy to take many photos while they are distracted feeding, thus you can get a couple good ones while throwing most away. Why keep the ones that are inferior or slightly out of focus?

Every trip back I still marvel at the stands of Milkweed. While I've heard that they are becoming rare, they are anything but in our area of Illinois. They serve as hosts for a variety of insects, most commonly the Monarch Butterflies, which we rarely see, unfortunately. I think it is because of our irregular trips to the Midwest - between their migration between Mexican wintering ground and their Summers in southern Canada, we are missing them coming through. That is my excuse, anyway!

But there are other insects that live exclusively on the Milkweed - the Milkweed Bug (at left) and the Milkweed Beetle(at right). I still get them mixed up, though the Beetle is much more common. In fact, I've only seen the Bug once and was able to get his portrait here this last July. The Beetle goes through several instar stages, and last week, you could see nearly all nymph stages from a little red spot a couple mm across, to the adults shown about 1.5cm. Reading about the Milkweed Bug at the above link, I found that the antenna base splits the eyes, shown in the picture too.

Returning home after our walk, Melinda pointed out a few of our spider buddies with webs near the house. She is deathly phobic of them and would rather empty a Raid can on them than look at them. So of course, I photograph and post about them. Hopefully the blog title will keep her from looking! I'm amazed how well the macro works (Canon 100mm F/2.8) - the photo at left is cropped down slightly, the right is the same frame, enlarged to actual pixels... The on-camera flash helped freeze motion and maximize details.

Unfortunately, the one thing I've learned about spiders is that they are notoriously difficult to identify. Both of these, living a couple feet apart, are Orb Weaving Spiders, but that is about as far as I've gotten. The bottom photo shows the smaller with an unusual feature, even seen with the naked eye - enlarged pedipalps that may be a palpal bulb that carries sperm. So this particular fellow might be the same species as above, since the coloration and leg striping is similar and females are typically larger. Plus they were withing a meter of each other, so the chances may be good.

I think insects are fun to find and photograph - certainly as fun and interesting as astro-imaging. Too bad Melinda is so phobic. Anyone have suggestions or therapy to try?

Another Visit Home!

2011-09-18T12:44:00.003-07:00

We're back in Illinois at the moment, partly to visit family, mostly to get some more work done on the house, continuing the modifications started in July in preparations for the new roof. We'll be blogging more on work on the guestroom the next couple days.

Upon our arrival, they were deep into some Fall temperatures here, but we were disappointed there is hardly a lick of any Fall colors. They look to still be a week or two away. We found another sign of Fall, though - our house was surrounded by the racing sculls of Wheaton College, who train on the Fox River here. We're just lucky that now, in addition to the usual rack of canoes between us and the Fox, we've also got a half dozen 8 and 4 person sculls. I almost tripped over the nearly 40 foot sculls on my first walk down to the river the night we arrived. But that has been the only inconvenience - always interesting to see them go out for their evening training runs.

It has only been 6 weeks since we were here last, but the cool temps almost make it seem like a different place! I've had a couple brief chances to get up to Tekakwitha Forest preserve - fall is definitely coming, but there are some last gasps of color and some of our regular buddies to greet us. My first trip over, a visit near sunset, I spotted a couple white tail deer. While getting out of the car very slowly with the camera, one walked right past me and the car to join them. A fourth fawn joined them from under an apple tree at the edge of the woods to feed on the mown grass and acorns.

The open prairie section of Tekakwitha that a month ago was dominated by Queen Anne's Lace is now overgrown by Goldenrod and patches of Sawtooth Sunflower. Each of these shots were taken on each of my two trips - one right near sunset that shows the silhouette of the inner flower on the petals, and the other a noon wide-angle shot that contrasts the yellows of the Sawtooth Sunflower and Goldenrod.

We've promised ourselves to spend more time outdoors while the weather is nice, but the demands on our limited time in home improvement work makes it hard. We've got a few days left, so hope to make more time to get out!

Rarer Than Rare!

2011-09-13T23:31:00.001-07:00

Yes, we live in the desert. But even in the desert, this has been an extremely dry year. With an annual rainfall of something like 12", about half of it normally comes in our "monsoon" season of July into mid-September. But with the rainy season winding down, we were 5 or 6 inches down from normal year-to-date.

But late this last Saturday evening it rained - biblical rain! And of course, it came down while we were trying to drive the mile to a local restaurant... Sometimes it feels good for the desert rats to get wet! While the "official" rainfall from the National Weather Service was only 1.25", the local radar, when set to show rainfall totals, showed upwards of 3-4". This isn't that unusual, monsoon rains are traditionally spotty from place to place only a block or two apart. With the NWS "official" station at the airport 15 miles south of town, a factor of 2 or 3 isn't rare.

The rain eventually slowed, then stopped, and a few hours later, while watching a rerun of Saturday Night Live, we noticed it had cleared, cooled, and the nearly full moon was shining brightly. Suddenly, nearing midnight, we got the urge to drive the mile and a half down to the Rillito River to see if the wash was running. Now we don't cross the Rillito every day, but it seems like ages since we've seen any flow. I noticed weeks ago someone had built a primitive tepee in the sand, and when down on our bat visit a few days earlier (see post below), it remained, though any flow would have removed it. So it had been ages since the wash contained significant water.

We were shocked on our Midnight run to see it running bank-to-bank, with a deafening roar! It wasn't close to flood stage, but it is rare to see the channel full. We took a few pictures by combination of moonlight and streetlights from the Campbell Avenue bridge, a couple of them shown here. We were also surprised to see a steady of stream of folks like us who drove up to see the unusual event. Turns out those camera phones don't work so well by moon and streetlight!

The next morning, we repeated the trip, thinking that it might still be running, but alas, it was not to be... While sometimes Winter snows in the mountains can melt and the wash run for days or weeks, in this case, the water drained quickly and only a few pools, with people and dogs playing in it. I guess if it ran every day we'd start taking it for granted, but being able to see it only on a midnight run makes it really special!

Batty Moon!

2011-09-10T15:28:00.001-07:00

While our friends were visiting last weekend, I awaited their return from shopping near their hotel, which just happened to be across the street from where we occasionally go watch the bats come out at sunset (Campbell Ave bridge across the Rillito). With them still away, I stood about 50 yards west of the bridge and took a few shots of the stream of bats passing near the quarter moon in the southern sky. This was the best of about a dozen frames I took before it got too dark to see them silhouetted against the twilight. With a shorter exposure to properly shoot the moon, the bats would have been invisible...

Today, looking at the exposures more critically, I noticed a bright spot just above the moon - a star that was scheduled to be occulted, or blocked by the moon, if viewed from the correct location. As described on the Sky and Telescope website, the star is Delta Scorpii (4th brightest star in the constellation Scorpius). The chart in the link there shows were we're just north of the "Northern Limit", so no occultation was visible from this location, but from the southeastern US, the star did disappear behind the disk of the moon. I've seen many such occultations of stars and planets, in fact, with a reasonably sized telescope and a crescent moon, one can watch random faint stars disappear behind the earthlit "dark side" of the moon most any night as it slowly moves around the earth in it's orbit.

Kitt Peak Movies - Final Version!?

2011-09-05T21:01:00.003-07:00

With the long weekend, I had time to go through the time-lapse sequences taken at Kitt Peak last June, and this last week. Let me tell you - there's nothing more fun than going through each frame of the nearly 750 shots and adjust levels and contrast! But the results are worth it - the fine details in the Milky Way and Observatory domes really punch through. I'm sure the photo professionals that occasionally read this missive will tell me the way I should have done it - actually, I'm looking forward to any constructive criticism, so let me have it!

First up is the sequence from last June - a 6-hour sequence from early twilight till after the crescent moon rose just before 2am. I've since replaced the unstretched video first posted (and replaced it with this link), so if you play the video from the old post, you won't see the difference... What really stands out is the abundance of satellites that were so much harder to see in the early version. But the dust clouds and dark lanes of our galaxy make it amazing to me. If your bandwidth allows, be sure to watch it full screen and bump up the quality to HD!

And then we have the 4 hour sequence taken last weekend from the peak of Kitt Peak. The blog post documented the hassle of carrying the needed equipment up the very steep route, but again, the result I think is pretty amazing. While I had the option of saving both of these in wide-screen formats, it cuts out some of the top and bottom, so chose to leave the camera aspect ratio - particularly on this sequence, as lots of mountaintop details would have been cut out. As above, be sure to watch it full screen in HD if your bandwidth allows...

The question to pose to the photo pros is how to stretch each individual frame, and yet, if a bright light appears in the frame, how to keep it from affecting the global stretching of the Milky Way details... Perhaps I'll get to do all the frames again eventually, but enjoy them for now!

Horny Times!

2011-09-04T23:06:00.000-07:00

Barely 8 days after our last encounter, when moving the couch for a little house-cleaning, we discovered another horned lizard! While a virtual twin of the one we found last weekend, there are slight differences, so this makes another that the cats likely carried in. I was kidding Melinda that a few babies might be next! The lil' ones are so cute!

Since I had Melinda around when capturing this one, she took a few pics with the macro lens while I entertained the fellow. It appeared that this one was cornered at some point - it is obvious that he squirted blood out of his eye, as some varieties are capable of doing to avoid predators - see the Wiki link above for details. We were also able to get a closeup of his lil' toes and toenails, and also demonstrate that when held on their backs with their tummies rubbed, they approach something like a hypnotic trance! True, this one, like the one last week, had a long exposure to the cool temperatures in the house and moved more slowly than if he's been outside.

After a few portraits, he was released in the front of the house and when checked a few minutes later, was nowhere to be found. It remains to be seen if he'll reappear in the future!

An Evening on Kitt Peak

2011-08-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

The monsoon season has taken break in Tucson, the first time we've seen cloudless skies since we've been back from the Midwest a month ago! Melinda needed to work, and since it was Sunday, I needed to be at work the next day, but the potential for stars called! I had the idea for another time lapse sequence, so got up about sunset, and headed for the actual peak of Kitt Peak. Arriving about sunset, there was a rush to get set up - the hard part was humping up camera gear, tripod, tracking mount and a car battery to power the whole thing up a primitive steep route through rocks and brush. It was singularly about the hardest thing I've done the last few years. I was able to take my first test exposures just as the stars were coming out.

Setting up for the standard sequence I've followed the last few series, with the Canon XSi at ISO 1600, I used a Nikon 16mm fisheye at F/2.8, taking 45 second exposures every 50 seconds. The Milky Way appeared out of the twilight and over the course of the next 3.5 hours appeared to flow past the Observatory domes and 4-meter telescope. It will take a bit to put the clip together, but shown is a single frame. Even in the total darkness, all domes are visible, even Baboquivari 15 miles to the south.

Not wanting to climb down in the dark, knowing that my flashlight would be visible in the exposures, I hung out watching the sky, looking for meteors and satellites. It reminded me of a very similar night 30-some odd years ago when I was living atop the mountain. On a night off a friend and I hung out atop the peak, again watching the stars go by. The camera nut I was, I recall taking pictures atop the peak way back then. I don't recall the scramble up the slope being as tough as it was last night though!

Critters!

2011-08-27T22:28:00.001-07:00

Unless they've been here, most folks think of Arizona covered by a Sahara-like dust desert with a few saguaros stuck in place, devoid of plants and animals. That preconception is far from the truth - there is a huge diversity of plants and animals that have adapted to harsh desert conditions that can reach 120F in Summer's midday, and below freezing in winter, with rainfall under 10 inches a year. Like most anywhere else, wildlife is there, but you have to be patient and observant to catch it.

But mostly, you don't expect it to go parading across the living room floor! While watching TV this morning, I noticed moving blur out of the corner of my eye. A Desert Horned Lizard! He moved a little slowly, likely to avoid detection by the cats, who most likely carried him in from the back yard, and also, since they are cold blooded, slowed down from the AC which had chilled him to 76F. Outside in the summer heat, lizards seemingly move at the speed of light, hard to spot, let alone try to photograph, but this one moved slowly enough for me to catch him and transport him outside, where I was able to snap a photo or two before he warmed. I've not seen any in years, and this one was undamaged from his likely encounter with the felines. Melinda claims that Annie was psyched about something and was likely this un-Illinois creature she might have had a run-in with. According to the wiki link above, they spend the Winters in hibernation below ground, coming out April through October to mate, lay eggs, and protect the nest until hatching.

The other local creature I documented a couple nights ago was a sizable moth, attracted to our CFL light at the front door. It was a while ago I had been watching a PBS Nova show on fractals, and the antennae on the moth looked very much like that on the show! It is a Hubbard's Silk Moth, and the feathery antennae indicate this one is a male. The screen of the security door also acts as a scale - the holes are about 1mm diameter on about 3mm centers.

Nice to see some local critters come to you - just show a little patience!

Men At Work!

2011-08-25T21:53:00.003-07:00

While back in the Midwest this summer, we had a new roof put on our place in St Charles. We've documented on this blog a lot of the work we are doing to the interior, but last fall we notices the dripping inside from the leaky roof, and decided we couldn't justify continuing interior improvements until we prevented future potential damage from leaks. So we bit the bullet - Maj got estimates a couple roofers and we picked AAA Roofing.

Roofing Day was Saturday, 16 July. We "supervised" from a safe distance, and were amazed at the choreographed efforts of the team. From arrival to departure was exactly 6 hours, including replacing some rotted timbers and cleanup with magnetic rollers to get any nails. Shown here is a Youtube video put together from the 1 frame-per-minute sequence from my tripod-mounted camera with the timer.

They did a fine job, and the gutter guy came by a couple days later to finish that portion. Right on cue, we had a heavy rain a day or two later and like giddy kids on Christmas morning, we ran out to watch the gushers coming out the downspouts. No more leaks! Time to continue on with the interior work!

A short trip to "Sick Bay" (not to be confused with "Moonlight Bay")

2011-08-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

After our busy, but fun, vacation in the midwest we returned home to usual - and not so usual - tasks at hand. Dean was over due for his colonoscopy, so he had "that" to attend to at the beginning of August. All went well, though they did remove a small (7mm) polyp. He had polyps removed before but this time they put an actual "dot" tattoo of blue ink in the location! So, while he may offer - do not agree if he asks you "Wanna see my tattoo?!" Since neither of us have any tattoos we've had a good chuckle from this! As many of you know, Dean has a mechanical heart valve which requires him to take Coumadin (a 'blood thinner') every day. For his procedure he was off of his Coumadin, but still received anti-coagulation by way of Lovenox (a synthetic, injectable, Heparin type of medication). It's not much fun having shots twice a day, but he's handling it pretty well. We'll come back to his story in a moment....

My task at hand was addressing my need for cataract surgery. I have developed cataracts over the past several years (yes, "younger" people do get them too!). My April visit to an Ophthalmologist determined that my visual problems (halos, cloudy vision, rapidly decreasing night vision) was due to the cataracts and it was "time to take care of them". While 100's of people have told me "it's a piece of cake!", I was still more than a little nervous at the thought of having eye surgery.

August 16th was the "big day". I worked the night before and came home in the morning to get ready and go to the surgery center - my steadfast Dean at my side! That piece of cake surgery -- not so much for me. There were some mishaps, and not nearly enough sedative or pain medication. "The patient survived, but with two corneal abrasions and the requirement of one suture placed in the cornea". In other words - my eye got scratched twice during the surgery, and the doctor had to put a stitch in. Afterwards, she put a patch on my eye and sent me on my way with instructions to come to her office first thing the next morning. It wasn't pleasant and I'm not even ready to think about having the other eye done. So...home by lunch time that day - and all of that medication they gave me a bit too late was starting to take effect. I slept for several hours, waking up about 6:30pm or so. It was 'about' that time that Dean informed me (remember that colonoscopy 8 days previously???) that he had started "bleeding....and passing clots....." We called the GI Fellow on-call at the hospital (per his post-procedure instructions sheet) and were advised that "if it should get worse, or you become symptomatic, go to the ER". Dean assured me he was "fine" and I went back to bed to sleep some more. Somewhere around 2am I heard him up and stirring - "What's going on?"...."Nothin'".... "Are you still bleeding?"..... "Yeah...." "That's IT. We're going to the hospital!!!"

August 17th - 2:30am found us in the UAMC Emergency Room. Walking in they were looking at me - since I had a huge eye patch on, though we quickly straightened them out as to "who the patient was". Several hours, several Residents/Med Students/Nurses later, Dean was admitted for "Observation". Before he was admitted it was time for my follow-up eye exam a few miles away. Since he was my driver we had to come up with "plan B". That involved removing my eye patch, putting eye drops in (as ordered), and me driving very slowly through the back streets to my destination. At my follow up exam they checked my eye pressure (normal) and applied a "bandage contact lens" to my eye - covering the abrasions and stitch. That, virtually, eliminated 99% of the pain I was having - making me a little more "user friendly". Knowing that I still shouldn't be driving, and having Dean in the hospital, it was time to "Phone A Friend". My call for help went to our friend in Phoenix - Donna. She had offered (previously) to come down to Tucson and take care of me after the eye surgery. Of course we said, "No, no, no....Dean will be here..." Thankfully she was able to rearrange her schedule and arrived that evening to care for cats, do the things at home that needed to be done, and "Drive Miss Daisy". I'm still not sure how we can repay her! She stayed 5 days, taking care of both of us when Dean was finally released from the hospital!

August 18th - After more than 24 hours of observation, the doctors decided that they needed to verify that the site of Dean's bleeding was the site of the polyp removal. That being verified (this time, without sedation), they placed 'clips' on the polyp site and said "one more night of observation then home". We celebrated by bringing him Zachary's Pizza in the hospital, with an "Edible Bouquet" sent to us by our friend, Erica!

Friday- August 19th - lunch time -- Dean was finally released from the hospital and the three of us (Dean, Donna, and me) were happy to GO HOME!

Finale-- Here we are, a week later, and doing much better! Dean is doing well, though still on shots for his anti-coagulation. He'll start back on his Coumadin in a few days - and will do both (with close monitoring) until his levels are where they need to be. He's back to work full-time and "all seems to be working well". Though my vision has been very slow to clear, I returned to work this past Saturday night (wearing my glasses with one lens removed). I'm noticing that my vision is finally clearing more and more. I will see the Ophthalmologist again on August 29th when she will remove the bandage contact and (hopefully) the suture still in my eye. I'm hopeful that my vision will improve even more at that point. Already I can see a huge difference in my night vision and in the halos around lights!

I hope this post hasn't been 'too graphic', and I'm betting you're glad I didn't include any pictures, right?

RAGBRAI, An Iowa Tradition!

2011-08-23T22:31:00.010-07:00

Blog post #500 is finally here! And it is appropriate that milestone covers RAGBRAI, which has occupied a week of my life every July since 1993! For the uninitiated, RAGBRAI stands for the Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, a leisurely ride generally from the Missouri to Mississippi Rivers. On Bicycles. Over 7 days and about 500 miles. With 15,000 others.

This year's event (always the last full week of July) was the 39th edition, so for those of you that don't do math in your head, it started in 1973. While I grew up in Iowa, my summers were full of employment or summer school, so it wasn't until I moved away to Arizona until I made the time to come back, do the ride, and visit family before or after that last week in July. I've biked it plenty of times, 9 or 10, I'm a little fuzzy there, but lately my physical ailments have limited me to some of the fun on the overnight towns and drive support for the team - Toddville International, formerly Team Toad. This year the route took us from Glenwood to Davenport, meandering 454 miles.

Day 0: Saturday 23 July found us headed west on Interstate 80 for the Nebraska border. After the bikes were loaded the night before, we met at leader Carl's house about 9am. A decade and a half ago, the team had an old school bus, but after it's passing, Carl somehow ended up with a luxurious (by most standards) 12 or 18 passenger diesel bus, but unfortunately without working air conditioning. The heat was a major opponent this year. It was in the 90s most days and quite humid. I can take the heat, but not so much the humidity, but with the windows down, as long as we were moving, the bus was tolerable. This year, we had no mechanical issues (compared to last year's adventure!), though following a trucker's advice, we skirted an overturned truck and associated traffic backup and headed south off the interstate just west of Des Moines.

We got into Glenwood late afternoon and found our camping spot on the grounds of the Glenwood Resource Center (formerly the Glenwood State Hospital-School). Storms threatened (severe storm sirens sounded briefly), but we got our tents set up and hiked the mile into town for food and entertainment before retiring as dark approached.

Day 1 - Glenwood to Atlantic: A hilly 64 mile ride initiates the riders. Easy for the support driver - mostly I hang out some, waiting a bit to head too far down the road in case any riders have issues that need me or the bus. I usually hang out and find breakfast nearby, do some shopping to restock the cooler and collect snacks for the riders. We didn't cook like last year, so no shopping for food ingredients to stock the menu.

I got to Atlantic right about noon and found our overnight spot - a lovely couple acre field, nicely mowed with a huge maple shade tree. It was a beautiful spot - reminding me of the movie like - "Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa!" While the color photo is nice, the IR image (I've got a camera filtered for IR landscapes) gives it in an other-worldly appearance. We were about a half mile from town, and other than going through it to get to this paradise, there was no need to - our hosts fed us with grilled burgers, home-made potato salad, beans, chocolate cake and watermelon. It doesn't get much better! Later, as some wandered to their tents, I sat with our hosts listening to the live bands a mile away. Dark shapes crawled out of the gaps around the window shutters - our hostess was freaked out and moved away from the walls - tree frogs! I thought they were cute!

Day 2 - Atlantic to Perry: An uneventful day. No pictures! The highlight was that our buddies Rusty and Di from Lincoln, Nebraska finally caught up to us and would be spending a couple days riding. Always nice to see them - they arrived by car late in the day and after setting up camp and showering in our host's house, we headed out for some dinner at a local eatery as the rest of the team straggled in. We hung out in the yard as it got dark, I enjoyed the cicadas singing, and we all pretty much turned in as it got dark.

Day 3 - Perry to Boone: A 70 mile day, with one exception! During one day of the ride, they add a loop, which if riders complete, totals 100 miles. These "centuries" are a source of pride for completing. I've done them before, in fact, back about 12 years or so ago, when Iowa was celebrating it's 150 birthday, RAGBRAI had a loop that totalled 150 miles. That makes for a LONG day! Anyway, from our group this year, only Sue Ellen completed the Karras Loop (named for one of the ride's originators), so she gets the Studly Bike Rider Award for the year!

I felt I needed to get to Boone relatively early. We usually avoid public camping sites - the group spots with thousands of campers are crowded, noisy, lack facilities and are generally unpleasant, and today we were to stay at a little league ball park. The map implied several teams were sharing the facilities, so I wanted to stake out some space, if needed.

Interestingly, today's support route (different from the biking route) took me within a mile or two of the observatory where I worked for nearly 2 years after I graduated. At Fick Observatory of Iowa State University, I measured radial velocities (speeds towards or away from our line-of-sight) on a grant-funded project with the 24" telescope there. After leaving there 30-some years ago, the place has changed. Once open prairie, now an overgrown forest, and I had to walk down the lane to see the facility. Last I heard it was still used for teaching, likely less for research these days.

After getting to Boone, it turns out, the teams sharing the facilities were small, and there weren't any issues. And yes, we did camp out adjacent to the ball diamonds - no showers, but there was a hose with a nozzle, and for food we had a concession stand that was open for the couple little league state tourney games that night! The food was a great value and quite good, and the hose - well, in the continuing heat and humidity, it felt great! BTW, the cone flower shown here was in a small flower garden near the entrance to the baseball fields.

Day 4 - Boone to Altoona: A short 56 miles today, but it was hot and miserable. I got in by noon to our hosts, who seemed to have connections with everyone on the team. They refused to think about us sleeping outside, so we all got spots in the air conditioning on sofas or beds. I got a spot next to the dining room table, but with an air mattress, it was heavenly! After all got in and showered, we took the bus down the street to the HyVee, who set up an assembly line buffet for nearly any kind of food you could want. The pics here show the girls of Team Toad, the temp tattoos that Dean, Maggie and Emily got that day, Amy waiting for the start, and for the first time in recent memory, the entire group started together! Most are waiting for Carl, who pulls up the rear as they set off.

Day 5 - Altoona to Grinnell - The bad news, is that Rusty and Di leave us after riding 2 days to head back towards Nebraska. The good news is that my sister-in-law Karen is joining us later in the day in Grinnell, this year bringing niece and nephew Breanna and Brennan. They are too photogenic for words - hard to take a bad picture of them! I hit Grinnell right at about noon, and check in with our hosts, who are the parents of Karen's boss. Of course, we're on our best behavior, and after setting up camp, don't mind lingering in their basement waiting for the shower - enjoying the AC!

I was eager to get to Grinnell - home of Grinnell College, a small liberal arts school. I particularly like college bookstores, and found one downtown. It had quite a variety of books, but only a small science section, but I found and bought 2 books, one on the history of the Moonwatch Program of visually tracking man-made satellites in the early space age, and another on the history of the Hubble Space Telescope, which was ironically recommended to me a few days later as an excellent review by an engineer a few days after my return! The bookstore was just one or two doors down from one of Grinnell's prides - the Merchant's Bank designed by Victorian architect Louis Sullivan. It was open for tours and from the stonework and winged lions guarding the entrance, to the stained glass and mosaics inside, it was very striking!

With a more spacious downtown than most overnight towns offer, nearly all the activities were here, from the "biker's row" where you can get everything from bike repairs and parts to souvenir t-shirts. And with thousands of folks milling about there was food, drink, live bands on a stage, and other entertainment, including a juggling troupe that had our attention for a while. As usual, once it got dark, we gravitated back to our camp and I got to give an impromptu star show under the relatively dark clear skies, just as a laser show started, easily visible from our host's place over a mile from downtown!

Day 6 - Grinnell to Coralville: A long day at 75 miles (plus another 6 or 8 miles to our host's place), the ride and heat was taking it's toll. A few of the riders had me drop them off down the road to shorten the days riding. After shopping for snacks and filling the cooler, I headed to Coralville and lunched at Coral Ridge Mall, enjoying some Chinese while watching kids ice skating on the rink there. Cool in more ways than one! I hung out at the mall for a while, spending more time at the Barnes and Noble there (getting a book on HDR imaging). I was to meet up with Sue Ellen, who was finishing her ride that day, and deliver her to meet up with her sister near North Liberty. I then went out and enjoyed the AC at our host's house, the home of Dean and Maggie who were riding with us this week! Her sister had the house open for us, and it was great watching the trash TV that was on, if only for the air conditioning!

After a great spread of lasagna and garlic toast, Dean again took us out on the Coralville Reservoir on their boat they had us on a couple years back. While the water level was considerably lower than before (shortly after the big floods in '08) it was still great to be out on the water, and it was a great sunset and twilight!

Day 7 - Coralville to Davenport: A beautiful day - moderate temperatures, and less humid. The last day of the ride, everyone seems in a hurry for it to be over - time to get back to their normal lives. This year, Davenport was not only hosting RAGBRAI's conclusion, but also the very popular Bix 7, a road race in downtown that also attracts tens of thousands. Fortunately, with the running race's early start, much of that crowd was clearing out by the time the bulk of the riders came in.

My brother Jim's pool and spa company was just past the ending a mile or so, and I parked there, letting the team know via cell where I was (how did we ever get along without cell phones!?). So after getting a tour of his establishment, mostly I hung out on the Mississippi levee watching the bikes come in. I took a few shots with the IR camera - the black skies showing up dark, even shooting into the sun, with the trees and grass along the river showing up as white. Always an interesting way to shoot, especially if you have clear or mostly clear skies.

About 2pm sister-in-law Karen and the kids showed up, since their car was waiting for them at Jim's business. Always photogenic, the kids looked like they were glad they could climb off their saddles! Eventually the rest of the team came in and we loaded up the bus in record time. With me serving as designated driver, the riders attempted to empty the remnants of the beer in the cooler, though they fell short of that mark. About 90 minutes later we pulled into Carl's yard north of Cedar Rapids, sorted out the mildewy towels, bags of laundry, tents, sleeping bags, loaded up our cars and headed our separate ways for another year.

It is difficult to write about an experience like RAGBRAI right after the event, especially with miserable temps and humidity. With time the pain fades but the good memories of friends and fun remain and remind us to return next year. Perhaps we'll try training harder, get in more miles before the ride, but the important part is to take part, enjoy the journey, and reconnect with the family that has been a part of my life for the better part of 20 years. Only 47 weeks to go!

The Continuing Whirlwind of Home Improvement!

2011-07-22T13:34:00.001-07:00

The wedding (last post) was the item that drove our schedule for this visit, but was not the main task to accomplish. Living in an 80 year old structure, there is always something that needs doing, and we've literally been stripping the place down with some major rebuilds as our time permits. This last winter was the last straw when the leaky roof started dripping on our new wood floors! Time for a new roof!

But before we could do that, other repairs had to be made. As we go through room-by-room making improvements, we've been having a carpenter replace or strengthen roof joists as we pull down ceilings to add insulation. With the roofers scheduled for mid-July, we had 2 rooms left to pull down ceilings and replace lumber - the kitchen and guest room. Fortunately, we have a sister-in-law that is part-time contractor for us, and makes time to work on our home improvement projects when we're out of town. It is like having elves coming in while we're away to do the work! Maj tore down the ceilings, removed what insulation there was, and allowed the carpenter to make the roofing upgrades from below. He also added fascia at the ends of the rafters to attach rain gutters. Maj also got us estimates for the roofers and identified with whom she was most comfortable.

So our first order of business after the wedding was to paint the fascia before roofing and gutters blocked them. Good weather held, and 2 coats in 2 days got the job behind us and allowed us to move inside. Seen here is the ceiling, now removed, with the rafters strengthened. Maj left some of the work to us - first order was removal of the drywall, then the old insulation before running wiring for new outlets, switches and a ceiling fan. Fortunately, Melinda has gotten a lot of experience in wiring this place, and is an old hand with this sort of thing. We also ran a video line for a TV that will eventually be installed in the room too.

And with that work, new insulation was installed. The latest picture this morning shows that installation. The girls are working on the ceiling fan this afternoon and it will be pretty much complete and ready for new wall and ceiling treatments, which will likely continue into next trip. Unless the elves show up again in our absence...

(Melinda's comment!) So that no one thinks that Dean is a slacker in all of this, we have been keeping him fairly busy at work also! A few years ago Dean and I reglazed the windows in the sunroom (of this house). He showed tremendous talent for that task, and of course is a 'natural' when working with glass. Our guest room has three windows - all in need of serious work. Dean has spent the past week (while Maj and I were having fun playing with electricity and such) scraping, replacing glass, and reglazing the windows...let's see.... 3 windows with 4 panes in each... he's been busy!

It Has Been A Whirlwind!

2011-07-21T20:30:00.001-07:00

We've been at "Ketelsen East" for 2 weeks now, yet, only a couple posts. No good excuse other than we've been busy! Between family and friend time, and work on the house, there just aren't enough hours in the day. I'm endeavoring to do better at bringing the blog up to date!
The big reason for coming up in July was for niece Sarah's wedding! I look for almost any excuse to go to Iowa City, and the wedding was literally next door to the apartment where I lived for several years while finishing my upperclass coursework. Melinda and I got to visit a few of the old haunts - tipped a beer over pizza (not literally!) at The Sanctuary, and had breakfast at The Hamburg Inn No. 2. Don't forget we had our cat Scruffy with us, but mostly, he was happy staying at the room at Motel 6.

The wedding was great, but the reception... It was held at a place 10 miles outside town called "The Celebration Barn". A round domed barn, it was built for such celebrations, and while a search shows there are unhappy neighbors, it is a spectacular venue. Besides the structure itself, milled from trees on the property, and various arches and native limestone structures, it is in a beautiful wooded area in rolling hills. The surroundings, and of course, major life-events like this invite group photos, and besides various wedding party groups, my brothers and sisters had a group photo taken too. I also took one of my brother and his wife taking shots of their kids. Don't ask me why, but I liked the composition, even though you can't see the grownup's faces!

Yes, I've got a camera and took lots of photos, but there was also a professional working the event, so I stayed out of the way. Given how our family is with pictures, I'm surprised I was about the only one with a camera! While there were about 300 guests, the caterers were nearly invisible. A buffet line appeared and we helped ourselves. With the huge venue, it was difficult to show it properly - shown here is a panorama put together with 3 photos showing the interior!

Of course, part of the joy of events and get-togethers like this is catching up with relatives, especially the youngsters. Stars of this event for me was my great niece Alivia, and also 3 month old great niece Claire. Shown here is Alivia chasing bubbles in the Barn's amphitheater, and baby Claire being held by niece (and bride) Sarah taken the next morning at the brunch/presents opening.

Have Scruff, Will Travel

2011-07-10T20:41:00.001-07:00

This trip to Illinois presented us with a challenge. Our cat, Scruffy, has been plagued with more severe health problems lately. He already has a 'laundry list' of health issues, which our cat-sitter (Jason) is more than capable of handling. Scruffy is now needing more medications, more frequently, than he has in the past. We decided that leaving Jason to care for him (and the other 9, plus working full time) wasn't exactly 'fair'. We also decided that we didn't want to leave Scruffy locked in a steel cage at the Vet's for three weeks. The most viable option was to take Scruff on the adventure of his life!

We brought Annie on vacation with us last summer, so we've flown with a cat before. We weren't sure how Scruffy would handle the traveling, but we had to give it a shot. Unfortunately, we don't have pictures of Scruffy in his carrier on the plane. Between security and a full plane, it wasn't very realistic to take his picture while he was stowed under the seat in front of us. He tolerated all of that extremely well, however! From the Security people to the Flight Attendants, we received compliments on "how well behaved" Scuffy was...usually with them saying, "He must be used to traveling!" NOT. We were proud of him!

One of our concerns with bringing Scruffy on this trip is his blindness and how he would tolerate being in a totally new environment with unfamiliar smells. He's been pretty timid in his exploration of the house. He seems to be finding favorite hiding spots, and (fortunately) his litter box. Just as we were giving him a chance to settle in here in St. Charles, we changed his routine again. Our niece, Sarah, got married in Iowa City this past weekend and we loaded up Scruffy and headed off to Iowa! After a three hour ride we arrived at Motel 6 (a totally pet friendly chain) and checked in for the weekend. At least there was just the two rooms for Scruffy to explore, and he adapted there pretty quickly. So quickly in fact, he managed to squirm his way up onto the bed while we slept - snuggling between us for the night!

We didn't take Scruffy to the wedding, he was safe and comfortable in the motel room with plenty of food, water, and "This Old House" on the television to keep him company in our absence. Today, however, there was a brunch/lunch for the family and friends while the new Mr. and Mrs. Farnsworth opened their wedding gifts. We did take Scruffy with us today - as we were leaving to come home from the gathering. The site was the same as the reception the evening before - a beautiful venue called "The Celebration Barn". It's in a remote area, surrounded by grassy lawn, stone architecture, and a pond. We couldn't resist the urge to take Scruffy outdoors for pictures, and for his very first walk in grass! Grand-Niece Alivia, was close at hand to pet him and reassure him that all was safe and "okay".

After a nice visit with the family, we (again) loaded Scruffy in the car and traveled home to St. Charles. The only adverse effect I've noticed is that he has not been drinking as much water as he should be. Tonight's "menu" for him included a bowl of tuna water (drained from Bumble Bee tuna). No cat can resist that, and it's a great way to get fluids into him. He's had a nice long hide behind the couch, no doubt he's tired of having mom and dad hovering over him for the past few days.

Scruffy is becoming a very well traveled kitty for a little hobo that showed up at our door a few years ago! Oh if cats could talk!.....

Change of Venue!

2011-07-08T09:29:00.001-07:00

As an amateur nature watcher, Tucson has been in the doldrums this Spring. With nothing but traces of rain since last October (!), it has been a bad season for even spotting any Arizona insects, and cactus blooming season seamed ultra-brief by anyone's standards - blink and they were dried up husks!

But Wednesday we arrived in Illinois for a visit and man, what a difference! There are seemingly infinite shades of green, and even a short walk no more than 40 yards from the house brought a host of photo subjects. First up was a huge Queen Anne's Lace plant growing among some shrubbery where we park. The white flower was about the largest I've seen - over 8 inches diameter. While circling for alternate views, I spotted a Candy Striped Leafhopper, resting under one of the buds. I've come to love these guys combining several featuring a face only a mother could love with an outlandish color scheme. Whenever I spot one (or more), I waste lots of time taking pics!

Our house here has flowers around it. Most every house in the Midwest does. There is a huge business in nearly every major parking lot in selling bedding plants. It seems almost a get-rich scheme with the growers - pay your bucks every season for annuals that only live out the growing season, then repeat next year. There is also an abundance of perennials that come up every year on their own - a much better deal if you ask me! But those blooming seasons for tulips, iris, peony seem much too short, and we missed all of those in the 3 months since we've been here. But the lilys! They were just starting to get active our last trip, but they are still abundant now and will continue to bloom through the summer, not only in yards, but almost as a pest weed along roadside ditches as well. We've always had them growing up in Iowa and now you see some spectacular color combinations. This closeup was taken yards from our house of a standard Tiger Lily...

There are some great stands of milkweed this year. I love to search them out and inspect them closely because of the colonies they support. Besides the Monarch Butterfly, which feeds on them exclusively, there are also Milkweed Beetles and Milkweed Bugs. At first I didn't spot much, then found this old soldier, who had evidently been through a few battles as he was missing a front leg, as well as some weirdnesses on his feet! He might well have survived the last winter as he is too old to have been born recently. According to the Wiki entry on Milkweek Bug, winter survivors come out and mate when the plants are large enough to provide shelter... No signs of eggs or babies yet - will have to explore the prairie sections of our local nature preserve as our stay progresses. Meanwhile, I finally did spot another bug, this one not missing any parts that I could see.

We're on the road for the weekend, but stay tuned for more entries!

More Time-Lapse Movies!

2011-07-05T20:56:00.008-07:00

Of course, one of the points of the Grand Canyon Star Party is to have fun as well as do astronomy outreach to the public, but I also had some background projects to work on. Somehow, I've gotten the urge to get into time lapse imaging, in particular with night time images. I've posted some fixed tripod shots before, and linked them on Youtube to make watching them as easy as possible. But I was after something a little new to add some pizazz!

The answer came in a little telescope mount that was passed on to me by David and Elinor Levine. The scope is a little 5" that is mostly utilized visually on an altazimuth tripod mount, so the little wedge and fork is mostly unused. I made a little mounting plate for the fork so it would hold a camera. This time of year, the Summer Milky Way rises in the SE just after dark and transits about local Midnight. By shooting with a wide angle lens, and tracking slowly along the horizon with the stars, it would stay in view for the entire length of the sequence!

The third night of the star party, I finally got the chance to try it. With Melinda holding down the public with the 14" view of Saturn, I disappeared for a while to set up the tripod, tracking fork, car battery, inverter to run the fork, and a external power supply for the camera to prevent a dying battery from ruining a long sequence. Using the Canon XSi camera and Nikon 16mm at F/2.8 during twilight, I shot a image every 45 seconds, initially only a tenth of a second long, but as it got darker, the exposures got up to 40 seconds. I kept a watch on the histogram display to keep the exposure background right during the twilight times - once it was dark, it just went for the 40 seconds. After moonrise, and as folks started putting up their scopes, I stopped and reviewed the images - looked about right! It wasn't until a couple days later in Tucson that I saw how spectacular they were! The clip posted on Youtube doesn't even have levels adjusted - straight out of the camera!

The first frame just shows the Milky Way starting to show through the twilight as hundreds of people descended on the telescope field behind the Grand Canyon's visitor center. The second shot shows it in full darkness, and an astronomer's green laser points out an object for a visitor. Note that these individual frames have been contrast adjusted, while the Youtube video has not... I was able to get another sequence our last night on Tuesday, but wasn't able to get an early start, so this one with the Milky Way forming out of the twilight is by far my favorite.

A few days later upon our return to Tucson, I wanted to try an alternative version against the domes of Kitt Peak National Observatory. I'd previously scouted out a location, and arrived just as the sun was setting. Shortly after setting up all the gear, I started again and again caught the spectacular Summer Milky Way forming out of the twilight, this time with observatory telescopes in the foreground. This particular frame also shows a few orthographic clouds forming near the peak, but they soon dissipate. This sequence went for 6 hours, again till moonrise about 2:00am. The Youtube link is here. Again, someday, I'll go through the hundreds of images and push the contrast some... Until then you will have to enjoy these versions!

They Say A River Runs Through It!

2011-07-04T22:45:00.005-07:00

While it is general knowledge that the Grand Canyon was formed by the Colorado River, 90% of tourist photos of the Canyon do not show the river itself! In some overlooks the River, at the bottom an an "inner gorge", is invisible, in other places, it may be visible through views afforded by side canyons. The view at left here is from Yaki Point, and while the inner gorge is visible, the river is not.

A few miles to the west, at Yavapai Point, the traditional home of the star party we've spent countless hours showing visitors, not only the stars at night, but the Canyon during the day to get their attention. The Colorado can be seen at 2 spots, this image through a small telescope shows "Phantom Ranch Beach" where river rafters put in to change crews or stop for a meal. It also shows the terminus of the South Kaibab Trail and the suspension bridge where hikers and mules cross the Colorado River. This little spot of the river was a popular telescopic view from the rim where you could usually see hikers or boaters and get a little sense of scale. Note the pair of hikers on the trail just above the river rafts... This is the standard view from the Grand Canyon Village area - no or very spotty views of the Colorado.

Twenty miles to the east is a little different. Out near Desert View, the Colorado comes down from Utah to the north and makes the big turn to the west. The small tributary of the Little Colorado joins in from the east, and the Canyon is much more open, making for easy river viewing. The panorama shot shown here at left is from Lippan Point, a high viewpoint with excellent horizons a couple miles west of Desert View. While viewing the river through my little telescope (480mm F/6 Meade APO lens), I was on the lookout for raft trips to take video sequences as they ran rapids along the river. But alas, no excursions were to be seen that afternoon. I did happen to take a mosaic of a bend in the river that was nice and symmetric in an artsy way, so I show it here. Unfortunately, blogspot limits image sizes to 1600 pixels, so I can't show you the full sized image 10,000 pixels across!

Another thing easily noted about the river, other than it's bashful appearance, is while it is called Colorado, Spanish for "red", the river's color is usually shades of green. That is because since the 60s when Glen Canyon Dam was built, the red silt that gave the mighty river it's color, now settles out above the dam. You occasionally see some red tints when rainfall brings in silt from the side canyons, but green is now it's normal color.

SNAKE!

2011-06-26T13:53:00.002-07:00

One of the more interesting encounters we had was on a little rim hike we took after taking the shuttle bus to Yaki Point, a few miles east of Grand Canyon Village. After taking in the spectacular view with the other 25 people who made the trip with us, we wandered a hundred meters or so eastward along the rim looking for photo opportunities. We certainly found it! There was a little rock squirrel making a ruckus around a clump of vegetation - clearly focused at his task at hand and paying no mind to us. Then we found the object of his attention - a meter-long gopher snake! The squirrel was going to town trying to get the snake to move along - effectively throwing rocks and dirt at it while the snake was hissing and striking back. Whether defending a nearby nest or just aggravating a predator, we don't know. Eventually the squirrel moved along, then the snake finally noticed us as I moved in for a picture. We continued our walk and 10 minutes later when we returned, there was no sign of either. A stalemate this time?

Canyon Visit

2011-06-23T23:10:00.011-07:00

We just got back from 5 nights at the Grand Canyon, attending the 21st Grand Canyon Star Party. After all those versions of the star party, one would think it would start getting boring, but no, we were sort of sad to leave after only half the event. But with our next trip only a couple weeks away, jobs and duties called, so left the paradise of Northern Arizona for the 108F heat of Tucson and Phoenix!

It was a great event! We still do a great job of getting the public excited about observing in some of the darkest skies in the country. This year we had a new venue. For 2 decades, we set up in the Yavapai Point parking lot, but in some Park changes, Yavapai no longer had evening bus service, so we moved to a commercial bus lot behind the new Visitor Center. Instead of having an outdoor slide show, sometimes with 2 strong volunteers holding down the screen against the wind, we had access to an indoor auditorium that still had that "new auditorium" smell! The staff went to a lot of work to block stray lights, put in light ropes for visitors to find us, and it came out great! I was really concerned that moving away from the rim, we would lose a lot of accidental contact from the public as they left the edge of the Canyon after sunset. In fact, the numbers were down a bit, but only about 30%. In the old days, we'd peak at 330 people looking through our scope per night. This year we hit a peak of 230 at our scope.

The skies at the site were great - better horizons, and a very large intimate area with no headlights! The pics enclosed here are for a video time lapse and shows the Milky Way as it was rising and a few hours later as it neared the meridian. The former is a 30 second exposure, the latter 40, with a 16mm fisheye at F/2.8. Visible in the distance is the outline of the VC, lit up by the light ropes, with the "Telescope Field" in the foreground, lit by power indicators and red flashlights.

For the last few years Jim O'Connor has been running the event, with park ranger Marker Marshall on that end. After 18 years I'd had enough of dealing with everything, but I'm still glad to attend - and glad to let Jim take care of the details. He has done a fine job, ably assisted by wife Susan and this year, two of their granddaughters have made the trip and are turning into astronomers in a trial-by-fire as the hordes of public descend as quickly as the twilight.

And of course, there is more than just astronomy, socializing and eating (though that seems to be a big part of the event) going on! We got out nearly every day to do some exploring, check out new exhibits, and a bit of hiking. Here is a pic of Melinda getting out on a cliff near Yaki Point. Realize this was only a few yards away from where we saw a gopher snake (future post), and I had to do a quick inspection to make sure there were no other creatures around... More to come!

It's GCSP time!

2011-06-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

We haven't been very loyal to our blogging responsibilities lately, and we apologize. With work schedules and sick kitties, we've had our plates pretty full. We're putting off blogging for yet one more week while we venture north and enjoy the GRAND CANYON STAR PARTY 2011! We promise to blog about our experiences and fun there as soon as we return!

A Relative Planet, and Her Satellites

2011-06-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend, and RTMC, brought us an additional bonus! Over the past couple of years I have connected with second cousins, from my father's side of the family, through the wonders of Facebook. I had seen that they have a vacation home near Big Bear - the site of RTMC. While planning our trip to RTMC, I contacted one of those cousins - inquiring if they would happen to be up in that area for the holiday weekend. As luck would have it, they would be, and we went about planning to meet up!

So, debuting for the first time in our blog - Planet and Shan, and their two little Satellites - Sedona and Everly! They are a fun, beautiful, and loving family that I'm proud to say are related to us!

We met at a little restaurant that Planet suggested, The North Shore Cafe (on Rim of the World Drive, in Fawnskin, CA). It's a great little place, serving something for everyone, and very amenable to lingering and visiting. While we had never met in person, it was like treasured friends when they walked through the door! Hugs all around, even from the little girls! Stories were shared, and lunch seemed to pass too quickly. Before we left Planet wanted to make sure that we would be making the trip to RTMC next year, and she and Shan both extended the invitation to visit them in LA any time we can. Sometimes meeting distant relatives can be awkward, sometimes you find that you didn't have any more in common than shared ancestors. I am so relieved to say, this is not the case with Planet, Shan, Sedona, and Everly. I look forward to visiting with them in the future, and hope that they will visit us in Tucson - we have too much to talk about to not get together again!

RTMC!

2011-05-30T18:10:00.085-07:00

Editorial: Tucson amateur astronomers are fortunate in that they have easy access to spectacular dark skies, and we are also equidistant from two of the biggest astronomical meetings offered. We're about 450 miles from both the Texas Star Party and the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. And while that puts us well under a days drive from either, few locals take advantage of the proximity. Perhaps we're spoiled by our own local skies, but for me, the joys of attending these events is in catching up with and making new friends, seeing interesting telescopes and equipment, the interesting talks, vendors of all types, and finally, the observing comes in a distant fifth. We just returned from RTMC and have some opinions to pass along.

RTMC normally is held over the Memorial Day weekend at YMCA Camp Oakes at 7,000+ feet elevation a few miles east of Big Bear California. This year was the 43rd so it has a long and established history. I've missed only 2 since 1986 when attending the first time. It was great then and is still great, though for various reasons, is endangered.

The "golden age" of RTMC was back in the mid-90s. Attendance was over 2,000 amateurs. You could hardly walk 30 feet before being stopped by another friend with which to catch up with. There would be over 30 entries in the informal telescope making competition. A walk through the "telescope field" and "Telescope Alley" revealed some of the most innovative ideas in astronomy and was an inspiration to all who would put grit to glass or screwdriver to wood in making a telescope. But at about the same time that inexpensive optics from Asia and high gas prices arrived, attendance started dropping, even as the number of vendors climbed. The telescope field was filled with vendor's tents, pushing the telescope making elsewhere. The event rebranded itself as "RTMC Astronomy Expo", in an attempt to widen it's appeal, but I didn't detect much improvement. Last year, in an attempt to appeal to observers, they moved it up 2 weeks before the traditional Memorial Day Weekend to provide a dark sky, and attendance still dropped. This year, back to it's regular spot on the calendar, attendance was under 800 (my guess), the vendors, now given a dust and wind-free spot in the Fall's PATS(Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show), are also no-shows. The telescope field was once again deserted, as were most of the vendor spots along the borders of the lanes leading through the grounds.

But I still had a great time this year. The core of the old RTMC were still there. I sat for an hour or more swapping tales with Gerry Logan, one of the preeminent telescope makers of the last few decades. Telescope entries were up some this year. I connected with some friends I'd not seen in a while, and the talks were still top notch. But if attendance continues to suffer, I can't imagine the event can continue in anything close to it's historical or current form. In years past, the Tucson attendees used to meet for a group photo - we would get upwards of a dozen or 16 TAAA members. This year we had 6... All I can encourage you to do is to make the trip - it is still a great chance to spend a weekend eating and breathing astronomy, and if anything, it is more family friendly than ever with kids and family activities all day long (and into the night). And with Big Bear and the spectacular scenery of the mountains all around, there is no lack of alternate activities. Please consider a visit next time around!

Finally for some content! We travelled Thursday evening, staying at the base of the mountain in Indio, and made the morning trip Friday. We decided to stay in Motel 6 in Big Bear, though I've traditionally taken and slept in the back of the van in the past. Like I said above, meeting and catching up with friends is the best, and shortly after we got there at noon, we ran into Steve Peterson from TAAA, who is also a co-worker at Kitt Peak with me. We normally rib each other about what we're tempted to get from the vendors, and this was no exception, though there was a lack of vendors for a Friday afternoon! We still roamed, and ran into Claude and Teresa, while we were visiting former Tucsonan Dennis Casper, who had brought a recently completed 18" F/8 telescope. Dennis used to work with me at the Mirror Lab and I'd not seen him in several years, so was great to see that he's continued the optics tradition. I promised to return after dark to look at Saturn through his long-focus reflector. True to form, it was a great view, and the night shot here shows him checking out M13 in a 30 second exposure with a 16mm fisheye with Scorpius at left, Corvus at right, and a passerby with a red light approaching.

A little later we ran into Mike and Elvira from Phoenix, with their friend Tom, who runs a B&B near Flagstaff. Telescope nuts all, we swapped recent travel stories and checked out a Mirror-O-Matic machine that was demonstrating mirror grinding. This one was built by Eric Shrader (red shirt), and was one of several talks and demonstrations about telescope making.

There were several excellent talks, certainly one of the more interesting ones was by Russ Genet who gave a talk on "A Portable 2-Meter Telescope". As someone involved in large telescope fabrication, it was certainly fascinating to see someone approach the problem with a shoestring budget. His criteria were a lot different than most. In order to cut down expenses as much as possible, his telescopes do not need to be optical quality, in fact, designed for photometry, the measurement of brightness of objects, his telescopes do not have eyepieces or even an accessible focus as long as the detector can be mounted there. The mirrors also aren't the aspheric parabolas or hyperbolas that most large telescopes have - an inexpensive spherical surface suffices, corrected with a pair of "Lenscrafter-quality" lenses. The optical quality needs only to be good enough to focus an image which fits on the detector. He built a 40" diameter version which was up on the telescope field, and had models for 60" versions. The 40" was supposed to fit in a Jeep Cherokee. He figures that scaling to 80" wide is the most you can carry on the open road without permits...

With the drop in attendance, the swap meet also suffered, so fortunately I was able to save what meager funds I'd brought along to spend on trinkets. All I ended up getting was a new camera case, which was a good deal, cause my current one has just developed a bum zipper... Still, it was fun to go shopping - I ran across Dennis Young looking for a buyer for his WWII vintage 100mm binoculars. Behind him is another acquaintance, Mike Clements, who on more than one occasion brought his 40" telescope up to the Grand Canyon Star Party. He has the mirror blank for a 70" and is working on a site and telescope for it. Mike currently has no plans to make it portable...

So we still had fun, we're likely to go back. If you've made a telescope or have some interesting ideas, bring and enter them! Or just go to experience it - you will be glad you did!

Return to where it began...

2011-05-17T22:36:00.011-07:00

Some of you may have heard I'm working part-time at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Some of you may also know that is where I started working when I moved down from Iowa way back in '79. Back then, with a shiny new astronomy and physics degree, KPNO recruited me to join the technical group at the Observatory, After a little more than 5 years I moved to the University of Arizona and got into optics, but I really enjoyed working and living on the Mountain. Other than a stint as a docent in the early '90s, this is my first time back on a regular basis.

I've kept my day job at the Mirror Lab, but one night a week, I join the crew at the Visitor Center where they run a nightly observing program (NOP) for the public. We serve a multitude of duties, but serve as a liaison to the Observatory, part time tour guide to the history and operations that go on, as well as sky guide, telescope operator and astronomy instructor. All that stuff is easy for me - the hardest part for me is the administrative stuff - running the cash register and other store operations, things I've never done or worried about before... So far it has been a lot of fun - the people (both staff and the public) are great, the equipment top notch, and the one night per week under the stars has certainly scratched the observing itch I get. Melinda and I haven't been out with our own scopes since November! Those Thursday nights after a work day at the Mirror Lab does make for a long day, though!

Work nights there are generally pretty hectic without much time for anything but the program. But there have been a couple opportunities to get up for some extracurricular imaging - not through the telescope, but of sky and domes, a favorite subject of mine. Most of the shots here are single images from a sequence that will eventually find their way into video clips, likely posted on Youtube. Look for that in the near future. This night time shot of the Visitor Center is a 20 second exposure under the light of a quarter moon. The 20" telescope is open for the NOP, and the 4-meter dome is visible in the distance. Polaris, the North Star, is visible over the 20" dome, with Vega and the constellation Lyra visible rising on the right side of the frame.

First up are a sunset, moonset pair. The sunset was taken with a 200mm at full zoom, the moon through a little 80mm Meade telescope of 480mm focal length. The sunsets are a popular feature of every NOP, and since I started working in January, it has been fascinating how much of the western horizon the disk of the sun has covered in it's northward journey. The moonset was a tougher project - taken on a gusty night, the sky was hazy enough that 1 second exposures were needed as the crescent moon approached the horizon over what I think is the village of Quijotoa, about 35 miles northwest of the Observatory out in the Tohono O'Odham Reservation.

The last exposures are all about 20 second exposures with fast lenses. First up is the 2.1 meter telescope on the south side of the mountain. The great globular cluster Omega Centauri has just cleared the dome, and visible just a little above it is the bright radio galaxy Centaurus A. The only illumination is light pollution from Tucson (to the left), and natural airglow. The other exposures are of the 4-meter and 90 telescopes up on the north side of the mountain under the light of a crescent moon. Repeating from above, these are individual frames from a sequence of a few hundred taken for a video sequence. More coming up on another Kitt Peak topic!

Kitty Update #???

2011-05-05T18:03:00.001-07:00

When you have 10 cats "it's always something", and usually it's unexpected. This month's kitty saga involves Scruffy. To refresh your memory, Scruffy is a feral we brought in (near death) a couple of years ago. He tested positive for FIV, and shortly after being a part of the family he went blind and was diagnosed with high blood pressure and spinal problems. He was skinny as a rail when we brought him in and his lack of eyesight hasn't deterred him from finding the food bowls. His latest weight is 14lbs 8oz (just about double from when we first brought him in), making him quite the handful! Overall, Scruffy does very well. He willingly takes his medications (disguised in his food) twice a day, and generally stays out of trouble. It was a startling discovery, then, when Dean found that his left eye was bulging nearly out of his head a week or so ago! I was at work and Dean texted me to see if Scruff had been okay when I fed him dinner (which he had been). Dean had gone shopping after I went to work, and found Scruffy very uncomfortable with this eye problem when he returned home about 8:30pm. Fortunately, we have an emergency Vet clinic that specializes in ophthalmology very near by - and Dean had Scruffy there in record time! Examinations and tests later -- Scruffy definitely has glaucoma, may have some sort of abscess or cyst behind his eye, definite corneal abrasion from not being about to close his eye, and his blood pressure was dangerously high. After several days of increased blood pressure medication, antibiotics, pain medications, eye drops, artificial tears, and anti-inflammatory meds; Scruffy is improving! He had a follow up appointment earlier this week which was encouraging. There is a chance he may still have to have that eye removed - which may be less traumatic for him than the average cat since he is already blind. We'll see what the decision will be when we go for another check up in two weeks. We're seeing improvement every day and he seems to be much more comfortable. We're not putting close up pictures of his eye on here as it was just too awful at first!

In the mean time, it was time for the big boy to get his summer haircut! Dean had already made his appointment for his annual shaving, and fortunately Scruffy was improving enough to keep his appointment. So here he is, shaved and comfy for the summer! You can see that there is still some swelling in his left eye, and you can see blood that has pooled in that eye. No doubt, he's been in a great deal of pain with this, what a brave little man he is! The eye Vet gave us a great compliment when we were there. He said, "You know, reading his history and what's going on with him I expected him to be a train wreck! He's not! He's doing great due to your great care!" We love our big, old boy!

Pima Air Museum in Depth!

2011-05-03T22:16:00.007-07:00

I got a phone call a week or so ago from my buddy Chuck - the fellow who arranged us to go whale watching in Mexico a few weeks back. He is a pilot and of course an enthusiast of all things flying. He was meeting our friend Joey at the "Pima Air and Space Museum and wanted to know if I was free to come along. It was a Sunday, and Melinda was sleeping after a shift, so sure!

The Museum is the largest non-government funded aviation museum in the country. They have an incredible display of aircraft from throughout the history of flight spread over 80 acres. I've been there a few times, but new displays are always coming along, and there is a huge amount to see. There are even displays of local technology and the Mirror Lab appears in one!

Of course, the best part was that Chuck, as a member and frequent visitor, knew pretty much everything about every display, which plane had mahogany ailerons during the war years, fabric vs metal covered frames, details like that. It was great having him as tour guide. Listening in on his conversations with the museum docents was like hearing a foreign language for the first time...

I was looking for photo opportunities, and what I ended up doing was taking some interesting 3D images. By taking a pair of images with a little distance between them, and viewing one with each eye, image depth can be seen. Cross your eyes slightly, looking with the right image with your left eye, left image with your right, and a center image will show the 3D image with depth. I've got other posts with similar images - hit the "3-D Images" subject line over in the right border for more.

It was a great time - turns out there were ulterior motives - I was also invited to Easter lunch with Joey's family - a traditional Midwestern Easter dinner, which was great! Melinda would have loved it - in fact she did love it because they sent a care package home with me which she loved.

A Note About Melinda's Work

2011-04-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

We don't, very often, put YouTube videos on our blog - especially if they aren't ones that we've recorded ourselves. I'm making an exception this time, however. This one is near and dear to my heart - and a catchy tune you'll be singing in your head all day!

Due to HIPPA regulations, I really don't have much occasion to talk about my work as a NICU Nurse at UMC. Suffice it to say, I love my job! There are difficult days, but the good days outweigh the bad and there's nothing more satisfying than to know you've made an impact in someone's life - especially when they only weigh 1 or 2 pounds. If I reflect over my career as a Nurse, these past couple of years in the NICU are the years that I feel most proud of the work I'm doing, most satisfied with the care I'm giving. I am amazed, daily, by the level of knowledge and skill of my co-workers. Each of them are champions, truly heroes! So while I can't talk about my work very much, or very often - know that I'm doing exactly what I am meant to be doing - and enjoy this little video/song!

music and lyrics by Hugh Blumenfeld

Proud Pappa!

2011-04-22T16:06:00.007-07:00

Our neighbor down the street, Jack, has a landscaping business with his sons, so his place is a showplace of plants and flowers, many of them unusual. After all the comings and goings of our recent travels, I've lost track of his front yard, but this morning I happened to pass his place mid morning and had to slam on the brakes. The cereus cactus in in front yard was in full bloom! On my way home, I ditched the van, grabbed the camera and walked back.

About the time I took my first pic, he got home from work and talked up his "bloomers". I believe he called it a Trico Cereus, though the Google entries of that name look different. Anyway, it has spectacular, huge flowers, and he said he had hoped I would pass and see it. He walked me through his side yard where other cacti varieties recently bloomed were in storage. I missed a lot of other spectacular flowers, but this variety has to be up near the top. In comparison, our yard looks like vacant lot, but we're slowly adding plants, hoping they survive our mistreatment. Meanwhile, it is nice to have neighbors like Jack to spruce up the neighborhood!

Spring is Baby Season!

2011-04-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

This last Sunday we made the regular trip out to Iowa to visit the Ketelsen family. This time there were some new relatives to meet! Nephew Jeff and wife Sandy just had a baby girl 4 weeks ago, so we got to meet Claire! She seemed so tiny after visiting with other kids at a Saturday birthday that were nearly a year old. We fell under her spell and didn't realize till after we had left that we didn't take any pictures of the parents with the baby! Only Great-Uncle Dean and Great-Aunt Melinda. Also of note in that visit was spending time with niece Sarah, who is getting married in July! That is our next planned trip out, and of course, she got to hold baby Claire too!

In our hours of driving across Iowa farmland, there were lots of newborn calves, with a few scattered colts and goats as well. We had enough advanced warning to stop a time or two and take more baby pics. The calf is indeed newborn - mom still has some afterbirth hanging out! The Canadian goslings were taken from home here next to the Fox River. Not quite lil' puffs of fur, but cuties nonetheless!

While in Iowa we also stopped at a Pizza Hut in DeWitt for a meeting-o-the-sibs! Sister Sheri, way down in Texas didn't make it (looking forward to that July wedding for that!), but the 5 others made it. Stars of the show were great niece Alivia showing off her butterfly "tattoo" next to the one on her shirt, and great niece Mya with a loose front tooth, here posing with brother Jim and Alivia. It won't be long before the "tooth fairy" will be visiting Mya!

The Home Improvement Elves at Work

2011-04-16T20:09:00.003-07:00

Our last trip here in Illinois there was over a foot of snow on the ground, so not a lot of outside activities. Yet, with typically only a week here, it is hard to get into a project in our little cottage in the woods. And sometimes, just starting a project reveals some interesting aspects of the 80 year old place.

We had talked for a time about replacing the carpet in the "Sunroom" with a wood floor to match the bedroom. The old carpet was still fine, but a rather unpleasant shade of yellow - we were ready for a change. So our last trip we cleared some furniture so Maj could start some floor work. She had already offered the woodwork floor for a Christmas present, and had stained and pre-finished the lumber even before we got here in February. Cutting back the carpet and padding revealed some lovely linoleum, still in good condition, so the thinking was to go right over it with the new flooring. And that is where we left it - clearing an 8' by 10' section of the room for her to start. After all, part of the satisfaction of completing the job is doing at least part of it ourselves.

So we arrived Wednesday and we found the renovation complete and spectacular! Trim work finished, furniture (even the heavy buffet and mirror) returned to place. I can't imagine all the hours of working alone she went through, but all we are doing this trip is thinking ahead to our near month here this summer when we will get put to work by our contractor-sister Maj!

A side note from Melinda: When I moved into this house in 2006, and thought about the things I'd like to do to it, this is the exact vision of the sunroom that I had!

This Bud's for You!

2011-04-15T13:17:00.002-07:00

We had an uneventful flight to Illinois the other day. We got in 30 minutes early, but then had to wait for our checked bag for about that long, so it evened out... We were excited (as were the local residents) when temps hit the mid-80s a couple days before we arrived. Would a true Spring be waiting for us? Well, it was a bit premature - trees are mostly still bare, though the ornamental flowering trees and shrubs are just waiting for a day or two of warm weather to truly declare the start of the season. The only cultivated flowers in bloom are the daffodils, even tulips are a week or two away.

There are a number of small "belly flowers" (you've got to get low to get a good look). In particular the grape hyacinth and blue scilla have turned sections of the yard a beautiful sky blue. Mixed in with them are budding prarie trillium and others I've yet to identify.

As I said, trees are mostly bare, though the flowing branches of the weeping willow are taking on some green. A closer inspection reveals not only the narrow leaves pushing out, but the flowers that I've never noticed before! While a few more warm days will advance the new growth, they may not get it while we're here - forecasts say cool temps and rain for our remaining days here...

Avoiding Mayhem

2011-04-12T23:56:00.010-07:00

A quiet beautiful evening. Melinda and I left home at the same time, she heading to work, me off to meet friends for dinner. Fate had slightly different plans!

Less than a mile from home, I was stopped at a light when I heard the screech of tires, and a view of what appeared to be movie special effects with flying cars in my rear-view mirror before I got hit from behind. Fortunately I was fine, and formed the front end of a field of auto damage. Behind me was a mess of twisted metal, shards of plastic and shattered glass. A pickup truck, evidently causing a rollover accident a half mile to the west moments after Melinda had turned south to work, fleeing that scene hit another car at a high rate of speed causing damage to a dozen cars in total. The fellow fled on foot but was apprehended a block or two away.

Meanwhile, the flying car I saw in my mirror landed a few feet from the van and was a crumpled mess, requiring an hour to extract everyone, though all seemed stable on their way to the hospital. The fellow behind me who was similarly struck from behind, hitting my van, was also fine, airbags all deployed (with the rear impact!), though his little Nissan will likely be totalled out. The van suffered a dented rear fender, rear door and latch seems fine. I lucked out, as did all of us who walked away.

I was delayed an hour till the police dismissed me with a copy of the report number. I was still able to join Chuck and Joey for curry. 4 hours later (was at work writing reports), they were still sweeping up after the accident! We're scheduled to fly tomorrow - after an incident at work today and the near catastrophe, I'm rethinking those plans!

Who is Marley going to eat with now?

2011-04-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

We've had a sad day, today. Back in late November our cat, Lance, was diagnosed with a tracheal tumor. While it was inoperable, we hoped to be able to give him "some time" before the inevitable - and we did that. In fact, we thought we would be only able to 'buy' him a few weeks but Lance was able to live for four months longer than we (or the doctors) thought! We took him in for periodic check-ups, and maintained him on Piroxicam (an NSAID) to reduce swelling and discomfort. As it turned out, Piroxicam has some anti-neoplastic properties which were beneficial to our Lance. He enjoyed laying in the sun, sometimes chasing across the yard after butterflies, and at one point gained a little weight!

This morning Dean brought Lance into the house, saying he thought he was losing weight. He had been 'wheezing' more lately, and his appetite was dwindling over the past week or so. After a quick call to the Vet we took him in for another check-up. Lance had lost 2 lbs since January, and yes, he was working much harder to breathe. He was letting us know that it was time for us to make the hardest decision pet owner's face.

We've both been in this position before. It's never easy. It's part of being a responsible pet owner and 'parent' however. The Vet, Dean, and I were all in agreement and so Lance passed away peacefully this morning in the loving arms of his 'Dad'.

Our tribe of kitties have a definite social order. Lance and Marley always ate dinner together. So the question remains...

Birds of Baja, and then some...

2011-03-30T23:32:00.002-07:00

While the focus of our Baja California Sur trip was whale watching, we also can't resist taking pictures of birds! Many of our North American regulars winter in Mexico, though we didn't focus on them. We did see an unexpected Oriole (I had no idea they flew that far south!) at Hotel Serenidad during our visit in Mulege, though I didn't take it's picture. It wasn't until we were out in the coastal areas that we really started to take notice of the birds around us.

Much to our surprise we saw a few Great Blue Herons fishing in the surf. They tend to be pretty shy, and loners, so it wasn't surprising that we would see a lone bird. Dean mentioned in a previous post that we didn't know that they flew that far south - considering we enjoy taking their picture at our cottage in Illinois! We also thought it was interesting that they equally enjoy salt water fish as well as fresh water fish. All in all, it was like seeing an old friend in an unfamiliar place!

You always expect to see pelicans around the coast. I developed a real liking for Brown Pelicans when we traveled to San Diego last year. There we could get close enough to touch them (but didn't!), and see their beautiful colors. We didn't get that close this trip, but we did see a sandbar just packed with them in Magdalena Bay. I had never seen so many clustered together! We passed them, in our little "panga" (over-sized Bass boat that we went whale watching in) going out to see the whales, and coming back to the docks. As usual, click on the pictures to see a closer view of the subject!

We had never seen Frigatebirds, in person, before. Again, while going out to the whale viewing area we were easily distracted by a large group of Frigatebirds perched in trees along the shoreline of the opposing dunes. Since we didn't get very close to them (though were able to get some pictures) it's hard to say exactly what kind of Frigatebirds these are. From the maps I've looked at they may be Magnificent Frigatebirds. The males have the red gular pouches that they blow up like balloons during mating season, the females have black heads and white chests, and the immature birds have white heads. Interestingly, they can't swim, can barely walk, and can't take off from flat surfaces! In addition to the Frigatebirds, we also saw some of their relatives, Cormorants. Unfortunately, we didn't get any Cormorant pictures. Cormorants, Frigatebirds, and Pelicans are all somewhat related.

During our trip we were 'evacuees' to the east side of the Baja due to the tsunami warnings. Arriving in Loreto without a hotel lined up we spent some time discussing our options. While waiting for Joey and Gail to make inquiries at Posada de las Flores (where we stayed the night) we were sitting in our cab looking at the surrounding area. I noticed a little hummingbird darting around at a nearby Ficus tree. We see a lot of hummingbirds in Tucson, and they're always a delight! I noticed that this little bird was very busy and returning to the same spot...when I realized she had a nest she was sitting on! I have never seen a hummingbird's nest and immediately grabbed my camera and tumbled out of the cab to see if I could get a picture or two. Hummingbirds tend to be very stalwart birds, big personalities, big egos, packed in little tiny bodies. That was fortunate for me, as this little mama wasn't leaving her nest just because a camera was pointed her way! I believe this is a Black Chinned Hummingbird - sitting on her little nest woven of spider-webs.

The last of the birds that we photographed were at Campo Rene, where we were supposed to stay on Friday night. It's close proximity to the beach on the Pacific coast kept us from staying there during the evacuation. While we were there 'checking out the place' we noticed that there were several Osprey nests on stands and on top of water towers! We had seen Osprey's in Puerto Penasco before, and they are sometimes referred to "Mexican Eagles" - so we weren't surprised to see them. They are quite beautiful and always picture worthy.

The last of the 'wild things' pictures I have was taken at Campo Rene also. We had crossed the dunes and spent time on the beach, searching for sand dollars and shells. Since the coast had already been evacuated we had miles and miles of beach to ourselves....it was an eerie but peaceful feeling. When it came time to head back across the dunes to the airstrip we saw that we were not alone and spotted this Coyote trotting through the dunes. He must have heard that it was time to move inland also.

While the Baja seems to be a desolate place, the desert and coast is teeming with life. I think it would be well worth another trip in the future!

Maps! Got Your Baja Maps Here!

2011-03-26T21:33:00.022-07:00

We had worked to get a couple maps together to show our journey down to and across Baja for the whale trip, but in fighting the editor in getting photos in, the maps got omitted. So here is the trip we made out of some collected Google maps. Click the maps to load full-size views.

In the wide view here, the entire route is shown, day one going down in green, day 2 across Baja and back in pink, day 3 in yellow and the return to the Tucson area on day 4 in light blue. So you can see we got a lot of exploring of Baja California Sur (the Mexican state we spent nearly all our time, Sonora the rest).

Again, this map and others were put together from Google maps, combined and annotated in Photoshop Elements. Most all of Baja we saw is very sparsely populated and extremely desolate. Like much of the Sonoran Desert, there is little rainfall or vegetation. The only major cities tend to be on the coast and on river drainages. There is some agriculture, but requires irrigation. Fishing seems a primary food source, though there were some cattle running in the irrigated area we saw west of Mulege.

The next map shows the primary whale watching areas in south central Baja. Of course, the Pacific is off to the west, Sea of Cortez to the east. Laguna San Ignacio (LSI) is the primary goal of most whale trips, but because of the tsunami warnings, was shut down (along with our lodging plans at Campo Rene) on Friday the 11th . Clinic was Saturday at Lopez Mateos, and fortunately, a very active eco-tour economy was flourishing, and we had a great time for our couple hours out in the boat. As I noted in the blog post, Lopez Mateos has the exact longitude as Tucson, but is nearly exactly 5 degrees south (about 350 air miles)! Quite a difference in scenery!

The whales winter in the protected lagoon areas of LSI and behind the shelter islands of Lopez Mateos. While you wouldn't think much protection is afforded, our whale tour entered the mouth entrance and the change from the calm harbor seas to the 3 foot chop near the pacific made the ride much more exciting. While I did look, the resolution of the Google maps pics is good enough to resolve whales, but they were evidently not taken during the few months that the grays occupy the area. At full resolution, the boats we rode are indeed resolved in the pictures, but no whales (which are considerably larger) are seen.

We've already been asked about how to arrange such a trip. We were extremely fortunate to have friends associated with the medical clinics in Baja, and are intimately familiar with the area. Short of those contacts, we did meet people in Loreto and Mulege that had been on several-day eco-tours to see the whales. Loreto, especially, has a modern airport and is served by small commercial airlines. But it is still many hours of driving from the west coast of Baja. So such a trip is possible, but without friends with private planes, is likely several thousands of dollars per person trip. But as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it is worth it!

Our Excellent Baja Adventure - Day 1! "The adventure begins..."

2011-03-21T19:26:00.001-07:00

Mention a whale-watching trip and the bulk of experiences most people have is a boat excursion from San Diego or other port town (I've been on one of those), where you might see a distant spout or shape of the whale as they migrate up the coast. Don't see anything and they may give you a discount or even a free trip on a subsequent trip. This is NOT the adventure we were expecting on our trip to Baja last weekend! Our ER doctor buddy, Chuck, has organized many small plane groups going south to Baja's Pacific coast to visit the gray whales in the lagoons where they spend the winter. My first wife Vicki and our recently deceased friend Valerie took the trip in 2003, and I was able to join the group in 2005. In these trips, you generally get right next to them, get to "scratch 'em behind the ears", and get covered in whale spit - well, whatever you call the misty spray that soaks you when they "exhale"!

This trip was triggered by our friend Carolyn. After Melinda had been in Tucson a few months, Carolyn started an annual February/March visit to escape the cold of the Chicago area. The first time we went to the Canyon, last year to the beaches of San Diego and Los Angeles. This year, joined by Melinda's sister Maj, we aimed to make it a little more memorable, and enlisted Chuck to try organizing the whale trip. I think he had 5 planes organized at one time, but ended up with 3 planes and 9 people total, combining whales with a medical clinic trip for some of the fliers. There are a number of clinics in the remote villages of Baja where the "Flying Samaritans" provide medical and dental care, and these doctors, nurses and translators are intimately familiar with Baja and the groups that run the whale tours.

We decided on 2 days of whale watching, going against the normally-scheduled single day. "Just in case" was our reason - bad weather, who knows... It turns out it was a great idea! But it required a Thursday-thru-Sunday trip, and 4 days of Maj and Carolyn's week in town.

Thursday,Day One - Tucson-to-Mulege. The schedule had us leaving Ryan Field, a small airport west of Tucson serving small planes, in late morning. We would go through Mexican Customs in Guaymas, 300 miles (475km) to the south. We would then overfly the Sea of Cortez to the Baja Peninsula to Mulege (another 105m, 175km), where we would stay overnight at Hotel Serenidad, adjacent (literally!) to the airstrip.

It was an uneventful trip to Guaymas. It is always interesting to fly in small planes. There is always a search to find the optimum altitude to fly, not only for less drag (a minor effect), but rather, to minimize headwinds (or maximize tailwinds). For the couple-hour flight, a difference of 10 or 20 knots can save significant gas when you are going through 10 gallons of expensive aviation fuel per hour. And with forecasts available on GPS units, there is a geeky joy in wringing out optimum performance.

And while the first leg was uneventful, there was an abundance of sightseeing from small planes. Flying at 6,000 to 8,000 feet provided excellent views of scenery. Minutes out of Ryan we passed the huge copper mines 25 miles south of Tucson. Right at the Mexican border west of Nogales was a restricted flight area due to a range/forest fire being fought from the air. We needed to vary our flightpath slightly to avoid it. And there was an interesting-looking canyon SW of Nogales that might be worth checking out from ground level - it resembled the rocky structures of Chiricahua National Monument some 120 miles to Tucson's SE. Otherwise there were ordinary views of Sonoran Desert intermingled with mountain ranges. It was exciting and, of course, always a little incongruous when the Sea of Cortez is first sighted while over Hermosillo, desolate desert right up to the edge of the water...

We landed at Guaymas to top up fuel tanks (gas is scarce in Baja) and go through customs. Complications arose when the airport was closed shortly after our landing for a fire drill, which included a smoky fire with fire engines at the south end of the strip! Most everyone had other duties to perform during the drill, so a stop that normally would have taken 30 minutes went on for nearly 2 hours. Finally, passports were presented, stamped and visas granted. While luggage was carried into the terminal, "The Button" which when pushed randomly picks out passenger luggage for hand inspection, all showed green for our group. Finally it was time to continue.

The flight to Mulege was completely over water, so the life preservers were worn for this leg. Shortly after departure from Guaymas we flew adjacent to the tourist stop San Carlos, where I visited several times by car a couple decades ago. I was a little dismayed to see "Catch-22 Beach", where the movie was filmed back in 1969, almost completely filled with development. When I last saw it in 1992, there was a Club Med at the NW edge of the beach, but it was still mostly empty sand dunes. Not anymore...

The trip across the Sea included a flyby of Isla Tortuga (Turtle Island). It is a volcanic island, about 20 miles from the Baja shore, complete with a central caldera. It sits on the western edge of the North American Plate. While pretty desolate-looking and undeveloped, there was a fishing boat and a couple small boats perhaps on a day trip from nearby Santa Rosalia. From there, it was a short hop south down the shore to Mulege.

The strip where we land is adjacent to Hotel Serenidad. The thing I never quite got used to was that nearly every landing we made, we were surrounded by army or federal officers with M-16s or machine guns verifying we had legal paperwork. We were also surrounded by kids eager to haul luggage the few yards to the hotel office for tips. I can imagine this was a lucrative job for most of them!

The group scattered - after check-in, some walked the mile or so downtown, we took a short walk over to a beach for shell collection. The plan was for our group and another plane from Phoenix to meet for a taxi ride to Ray's, a restaurant that was to be a highlight of day 1.

Ray is quite the character - a flamboyant Cuban ex patriot that seems out of place in a sleepy cow town like Mulege. The story is that he used to run a restaurant in town, which burned down under mysterious circumstances. He rebuilt the business some distance out in the country, about 1o miles of bad roads that doesn't seem to hinder much of his business. It is THE place to go, certainly for the likes of those who fly into town in their private planes. Mike Collier, one of our pilots, told me beforehand that some consider Ray's the best seafood IN THE WORLD! Well, I'm not a big fan of seafood (Iowa farm boy, you know), so will not criticize... Piling out of the taxi, in seemingly the middle of nowhere, it was a little oasis in the desert, well actually, it is in the middle of a hayfield, but with green lawn and fountains in front of the restaurant - the second floor of a farmhouse. Table for 16? We had to wait a couple minutes... Time to get a $2 Mexican beer (Pacifico was the standard in Baja). After seating, Ray says that with our crowd, he was just going to ply us with his specials for the night rather than 16 orders off the menu. Well, I guess I'm having seafood! There were about 4 big platters each of 3 or 4 appetizers, including stuffed clams, oyster Rockefeller, and others I've forgotten... Our dinner came as a combo platter - coconut shrimp, a fish fillet, steamed veggies in sauce and more. Dessert came, and though everyone claims they were stuffed, the pistachio cream pie all disappeared. The grand total (without drinks) was $18 a head as I recall! Again, I'm no seafood expert, but for a meat eater, it was pretty darn good! Our taxi drivers waited the 90 minutes while we ate - no ill effects from the 10 more miles of bad road to our rooms where we crashed.