Dispatches from the field!

I had an uneasy feeling about the goings-on at our local park where I take my daily bike rides last Spring. Just before our last arrival in May they had done some controlled burns, evidently taking out large patches of what looked to be native prairie. And then those fears were confirmed when I arrived this trip - what had come up in its place appeared to be foxtail and water grass - what we call weeds back on the farm! Seemed to me that humans were attempting to tame nature and put in street-to-street grass and take out every hint of diversity and nature! Check out the picture of the cranes taken on my first bike ride this trip at left, and what it looked like just over a year ago last August at right - I assume you can detect the difference??? The vantage point of each were literally a few feet apart and instead of milkweed, Queen Anne's Lace, goldenrod and coneflower, there was a monoculture of grass.

And what REALLY pissed me off were the new sets of signs they had posted, shown at left. How could they consider themselves conserving pollinators if they slash/burn and plant weeds in their place?

It got me mad enough that I wrote a letter to the Kane County Parks Department and was surprised to get a response 2 days later that made me feel better. Evidently they had brought in experts that recognized some invasive species, so they "started over". Ms. Rudow, Superintendent of Parks and Planning notes: "The area had a prescribed burn take place in early spring 2016 and a cover crop of grass was put down to choke out annual, biannual and perennial non-natives. Seeding it with turf allows us to apply a broad leaf herbicide to the areas being restored as the different life cycles of the non-desirable plants occur yet leave the grass behind. The grass will also provide some fuel for future burns.  Once we have the non-native plants choked out, the intent is to reseed with  a native mix with all the plants you previously spoke of. In addition to seed, some areas will have plants and plugs installed to provide diversity and interest. I realize that some parts of the park aren’t picture perfect as they were in your blog (loved your pictures and your observations at River Bend!) but we have every intent of bringing back a beautiful native landscape that promotes pollinators and a healthy ecosystem. The park is in a bit of a renovation and recovery stage right now." So evidently I rushed to judgement, but they are on the right path! I feel better!


Speaking of the sandhill cranes above, I've seen them a few times in River Bend Park, and in other locales in the neighborhood. I suspect that they are two adults and two nearly-full grown chicks from this season that nested in the area. One day I spotted them as my ride was ending - getting quite close to them in the parking lot at left (they seem easy to approach while on a bike or in a car). I had time to go the mile home and come back with my real camera (other than the iPhone6 that took those at left and above). At left is a shot with the Canon 6D and 300mm lens. Still amazingly close for on foot - they are much more wary of humans on foot! Click on the image to load it full size - eye pupils easily resolved, as is the little see-thru hole in their beak. Note too that these are reduced in resolution to meet the 1600 pixel-wide maximum blog image...



I think my favorite one of the cranes though show a little of the fall foliage in the background too. About the best I could capture in the minute or two they allowed me to stalk them is shown at left. Shortly after, when they were in front of more colorful trees, they were mostly in full flight from me displaying only their rear ends... Oh well! Will try for more down in AZ where they over-winter if nothing else, though will likely be a LOT further away - no sneaking up on 20,000 cranes at Whitewater Draw!



And speaking of foliage, there are some beautiful trees here in the wooded areas. Some spots are more colorful than others, and yesterday's rain might have knocked many leaves off, but there are some really bright trees. I think the local winner for pure color is a maple about 2 miles from the house that has just the purest red leaves shown at left. Unfortunately it is in an industrial area surrounded by power lines and a wide shot isn't very photogenic! There are a number of trees you pass every day on the route out of the neighborhood. These yellow ones are always eye-catching in the Fall and were at about their peak here, but are pretty bare today after the rains...

And sometimes, just looking down at the leaf-covered ground is photogenic! I've been making the traverse over to the neighbor's to feed her cat while she is away this week and while there are still plenty leaves still in the trees, the ground is well-covered already. It reminds me I should clear the gutters of leaves and acorns someday soon... Anyway, the shot at left shows how you should always keep your eyes open for an image... One of the things that is striking visually, but have not captured satisfactorily is when a brightly-colored tree loses most of its leaves, there appears a "puddle of light" under it. Will continue to look and try to capture that...

Some of you might have heard that the Chicago Cubbies are still playing baseball!? Keeping my eyes open for impromptu displays, I bring you the following artwork made out of 12-packs of soda cans at a local grocery! "Flying the W" is a reference to when the Cubs win a game and they raise a "W" flag. Seems like most vehicles are sporting smaller versions off antenna, and all sorts of licensed paraphernalia are available at most outlets from liquor to convenience stores! I caught a larger but similar display of Olympic rings a few years back - sometimes fun to see what the store staff can do with what they have on hand...

October TAAA Meeting!

A little late with this post - almost 3 weeks! Well, I've been busy... I was able to make the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association monthly meeting on 7 October, and brought my camera along to take some shots of the slides - both for my own memory, and document on the blog for those who might have missed it to see some of it too.

I had an out-of-town visitor, so missed the beginner's lecture, but really wanted to attend the main lecture - Katy Garmany, Emeritus Scientist talking about the history of Kitt Peak National Observatory and the Tohono O'odham Nation, on whose land it resides! Now I'm a sucker for that sort of thing after 5 years on staff back in the early '80s, docent in the early '90s, and until recently a guide on the night time public observing sessions the last 5 years. It is what brought me to AZ in the first place and is my absolute favorite place in Southern Arizona. A talk on the history and the O'odham homeland - naturally I wouldn't miss it! At left is Katy awaiting the start of the lecture, and at right is her title slide showing the view of Kitt Peak from "the wrong side", from near Sells, capital of the reservation.

She started from the very beginning, back to the National Science Foundation's mandate for a national observatory, and the search by Aden Meinel and Helmut Abt to find a location. At left is shown the sites that were eventually identified and investigated through Arizona. She also showed the note from Helmut Abt's notebook indicating that Kitt Peak appeared to be a good site (from his airplane over-flights) and deserved further exploration. For the first time I learned the astronomers asked permission to climb Kitt Peak twice and were refused both times!

Then, as the legend tells us, tribe representatives visited the 36" telescope on the UA campus to examine the sky and learn a little about what astronomers do. It was after that visit that Meinel was granted permission to climb the mountain. And as the illustration at right shows, Katy's husband John Glaspey located the original movie reels in the NOAO basement a few years back!

After a failed attempt by Meinel and Abt to climb the mountain on 6 January, 1956, accompanying Meinel and Harold Thompson on 14 March were O'odham guides Al Martinez and Raymond Lopez, along with newspaper reporter Clifford Abbott. NOAO also supports a page of images from the first ascent. A night-time view from that first ascent is shown at left. I'm not sure any of the film images from the movie appear there, or if they were taken with other cameras or from the newspaper reporter than accompanied them. The movie is a true AZ time capsule from 60 years ago! The introductory scenes show the trip out Ajo Way, little more than a 2-lane road in those days. Road signs for 7-up and Old Tucson mark the last place to fill up for fuel before heading across the desert! John Glaspey has allowed me to upload it to Youtube for you to watch it. Note that there is no sound, just images from the original 16mm film taken on that first ascent up the mountaintop that eventually became the home to Kitt Peak National Observatory...

!

While the short movie was the highlight
for me, Katy went on to explain the interactions of the Observatory and the tribe, including employment, lease agreements, craft sales and continuing education utilizing observatory staff on the reservation. Also presented were some of the cultural beliefs of the O'odham and some of the sky stories she knew about. Over the decades, the relationship of the Observatory and tribe has not always been smooth - she relates the story of the failed attempt to locate the VERITAS gamma ray telescope array on the mountain as example. In recent years though, former Kitt Peak director Buell Jannuzi has worked to strengthen relations. She noted also that Kitt Peak is no longer a true National Observatory as NSF has pulled money away for other projects and many of the telescopes are now operated by consortiums.  It appears though that while no longer available to astronomers on a competitive basis (how the National Observatory was run for 50 years), it will continue to be a front-edge research facility.


She closed by informing us how we can become educated in the ways of the Tohono O'odham, and suggests the visits in the slide at left. It is a shame that a visit to Kitt Peak, on the eastern edge of the reservation, doesn't expose us to more of the culture and facilities located 20 miles beyond Kitt Peak in Sells and beyond...

After questions the meeting was concluded by a planet report from Erich Karchoshka (at right)- always interesting because he indicates alignments, occultations and appearances that we might not be aware of.

 And that was the October, 2016 TAAA meeting!

Meditation Under The Stars

I'm way behind posting "normal" stuff on the blog, but forgivable after the loss of a spouse... Twelve days after Melinda's passing, buddy Roger offered to get me out of the house for an observing session. I jumped at the chance, not only to get under some dark sky before the moon became objectionable (this was over 2 weeks ago) but also because Melinda loved her time under the stars too. With the Summer Milky Way now moved to the western sky, it was about the last time this observing season to spot some favorite Milky Way objects.

Interestingly, I've not taken any images of Messier 16 other than a snapshot or two. Made up of both clouds of dark matter, as well as an ionized glowing hydrogen cloud, it forms the outline of a bird, thus its alternate name of the Eagle Nebula. Just don't ask me to show the eagle, I frankly don't see much of one... Shown at left is virtually the entire frame with the TEC 140 with the full-frame sensor of the Canon 6D - theoretically about 2 degrees across! The wisps of red (ionized hydrogen clouds!) show how extensive and large this object really is.

What is really of interest in this object was brought to attention by an early image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Dubbed, the Pillars of Creation, the image was collected in April of 1995, it has been rated as one of the top ten images from the Hubble. It shows an area where the clouds of dust and gas have collected into new stars, and the radiation pressure is shaping the clouds, likely starting the formation of more. Looking at my full-resolution enlargement of the Pillars (above right), they are easily made out in this shot representing 32 minutes of exposure with the 5.5" diameter telescope.

More interesting to me is that I see lots of "sharpening" artifacts around brighter stars, seen in a further blow-up of the central part of the nebula at left. Those dark circles (and some bright ones) should not be there - they normally appear when an image is over-sharpened and to my knowledge none has been applied outside of the camera. I'm still looking for the cause of these artifacts...


After spending time imaging a dark nebula seen in silhouette against the stars of the Milky Way (that didn't come out as planed), I next went to a planetary nebula, whose unromantic name is NGC 7293, otherwise known as the Helix Nebula. While readily visible in binoculars, it was not spotted by Charles Messier in the 1700s, thus has no "M" number like many other bright objects do. But it is quite amazing in a telescope as a large ghostly donut in the sky. Don't forget, the colors you see in these images are NOT visible to the eye even in a large telescope, so this large object appears only in shades of grey. This object is what is called a planetary nebula. Back when the planets Neptune and Uranus was discovered, they displayed greenish-blue disks, as do some of the smaller planetary nebulae. We now know they are the remnants of old stars that blew off part of their mass into these shells of gas as they run out of fuel to continue thermonuclear fusion in their interiors...

My next target as I continued to work eastward in the sky is another southern-sky object, NGC 253, one of the brighter and spectacular galaxies in the sky. Like the Helix, this one is also visible in binoculars, but is truly striking in a largish telescope. Here at left is a close-up of the galaxy, 14 minutes of total exposure. Its distance of 11.4 million light years puts it about 5 times further away from our nearby big neighbors M31 and M33 in Andromeda and Triangulum, but it is still amazing to observe or photograph.

The other reason that I shot it is that it is near, almost adjacent to NGC 288. The pair is shown at right in a 3-frame mosaic. Of course, as most things astronomical, just because they appear near each other doesn't mean they are together in space! The cluster is about 28,000 light years away, only about one quarter of one percent the distance to NGC 253! Of course, the individual stars you see here are also in our own Milky Way Galaxy, just like the cluster - just like the Helix Nebula and M-16 further up in the post - all inside our own galaxy except NGC 253...

The last shot was almost an afterthought. Usually on the last shot just before putting things away, I shoot a few frames on something I might not normally shoot just to see how it comes out. Here I shot the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus - 6 frames totaling 16 minutes of exposure. The cluster is a young one that happens to be passing through a dust cloud about 440 light years away. The dust cloud structures certainly add a striking appearance to the cluster, which has about 1000 stars in it. The cluster formed out of a cloud of gas and dust about 100 million years ago and formed not only the bright stars seen here, but multitudes of lower-mass (and faint) stars too.

Well, that was it, a long night by our standards - home by about 3:00 in the morning. Surely a long night, but it is always fun to spend time under a dark sky...

Melinda's Jeep Has An Adventure!

The weekend before last, Melinda's Jeep got out for an adventure! She was quite protective of her main vehicle, and other than the occasional snow storm in Illinois, I don't think it was ever put into 4WD. On one of our driving adventures, we approached a jeep road, but she refused to allow me to go down it. Our good friend Donna was interested in perhaps purchasing it, so figured we should put it through its paces, particularly since it has mostly sat in the yard the last few months...

I suggested that we go for a longish drive - perhaps drive around the Catalina Mountains to Oracle and head up the back road to Mount Lemmon. I had been down it a couple times in the old van, and was thinking the Jeep would have no problems going up it. We drove up Oracle Road out of Tucson, stopped for sandwiches and drinks in the town of Catalina and followed the signs through and past the town of Oracle looking for the turnoff to the right road. It was a bit confusing a time or two, but generally it was a good, if narrow dirt road, presenting no issues. We met a lot of vehicles going the other way - the road was barely wide enough to pass if one of them stopped and moved over as far as possible...

We didn't see any wildlife, but saw some pretty good-looking cattle like the steer shown at right here!

After the initial climb up the foothills, it leveled out for a time as we traversed the valley adjoining the north side of the Catalinas. We frequently had some amazing views across to the north-facing slopes, and it was a truly spectacular, if warm day. The cloud buildups added to the scenery. At left is shown a 5-frame panorama (5 vertical shots put together to make this horizontal one).

And hey - just so you know it is me taking these pictures, at right is a 3D anaglyph of an agave growing out of the hillside as we passed! You need your red/blue glasses to see the 3D illusion on this shot. The spiked leaves make an interesting view in stereo!


Once the road turned upwards again, we reached the sketchiest part. The road was steep and very rocky and partially rutted, so you needed to pick your path carefully and keep the speed down. For about a mile or two this section was the only spot where we used 4WD-low range. Interestingly, we still saw normal sedan cars and even minivans coming down the road, though smaller ATVs like those shown here at left seemed very popular.

As we climbed the plants changed dramatically from the manzanita and scrub oak shown at left to Ponderosa Pine in just a couple miles. The road surface also improved greatly as we topped out - more dirt and less rocks perhaps...



Eventually we reached civilization, and stopped to take a portrait of us (and Jeep!) coming out past the signs warning of the poor road ahead. All-in-all it was a fun, easy if safe adventure. The Jeep did it fine with flying colors. Once on pavement, we headed up to cruise past the Octoberfest at Ski Valley before heading back down the road. There were some signs of Fall - some aspen on the upper slopes were turning yellow, but the shirtsleeve temperatures at 9,000 feet still made it feel summery!

As we headed back down the civilized road, we stopped at Windy Point to take in the view. Some thunderstorms had developed underneath the cloud buildups and the remarkable shot at right is an HDR combination of 3 shots with different exposures in an attempt to capture the high dynamic range of the scene. In the clear spot at center, Kitt Peak's familiar shape can be spotted between storms.

Once back home, Donna and I were discussing the Jeep. The day's ride was fun enough that I'm not sure I need to rid myself of it anytime soon. More rides like we had might be kind of fun. I went out a few days later and invested in the "Guide to Arizona Backroads and 4-Wheel Drive Trails", so I see some more adventures in the future!

One Last Goodbye...

This last Saturday was the Geneva, IL memorial for Melinda, and today the interment of her cremains in Resurrection Cemetery. The former was very well attended by family, her wide assortment of friends and former co-workers. Today's event was just a couple close friends and immediate family for the brief ceremony.

The memorial was mostly a repeat of the Tucson event, though I included 2 images in the slide show I didn't have for the earlier version. Maj's remarks, as well as mine were mostly the same. The big difference is that nephew Rick, shown at right played "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes! He is now an active member of the Chicago Highlanders, and did a spectacular job. That is our niece Kathy (Rick's sister) along side of him.

After the memorial and reception in Malone's basement, Melinda once more got to come home and spend the weekend in the cottage we shared and loved. She again was on the mantle among the pictures of her family and loved ones...

Of course, my biggest fear was showing up at the interment across town this morning and realize I'd forgotten the urn on the mantle! But I jotted down the mental checklist and made sure she made the trip with me... Maj arrived a few minutes after me and at right indicates the niche of her mother, only a few feet away. Fortunately, when Melinda expressed her wishes to be hear her mother, one was available near enough to touch each with outstretched arms...


Before the formal ceremony with the priest started, we loaded up her niche with her urn and all the icons we decided should be interred with her. We were initially told it was a 9" cubical opening, but it turned out to be considerably larger, so there was lots of room. Included with her cremains were some turquoise jewelry, her "beads of courage" from her NICU co-workers in Tucson, a crescent moon for her love of the stars, and much more. At right Maj is placing the "three sisters" pin that they all happened to get for each other one Christmas!


A final caress at left and a silent prayer at right and the ceremony started. A few lines of ceremonial text and a sprinkling of holy water, a prayer and the final goodbye was over. Alice's niche is at Maj's shoulder to her left, so you can see they are only a few feet apart...







We stayed a few minutes to chat with our friends while the staff waited for our departure to seal off the niche. Our last view of the urn shows Maj's lip prints as she kissed it twice before the ceremony...

I'll get back to some "normal" blog programming soon now that the formal series of memorials is over. I'm still distracted by all that has happened the last few months, and life has certainly changed. I hope the blog will be a little lighter in tone than it has been the last month or so. I've gotten lots of feedback that folks are glad the blog will continue, and I'll get back to normal posting in a day or two... Thank you too for all your condolences on the Facebook and elsewhere - it has been gratifying to know she touched so many of our lives and will be remembered for a long time. See you on down the road!

Melinda is Back Home!

I flew back to Illinois the other day - the first time without Melinda in a while. After the memorial in AZ, my sister and her husband, who had driven down, offered to drive her cremains back to the Midwest. It saved a carry-on as well as the inevitable passage thru security even though I had the permits, so it was great Linda and Lauren could do that. Yesterday, with Melinda's friend Mary along for company, we drove west to Dixon, the halfway point between our house and Linda/Lauren in Morrison to pick her up. So last night Melinda got to enjoy her "Moss Cottage" (the alternate name for "Ketelsen East")once again. That is her in the golden enclosure at left among photos of her life - her nursing portrait, her sisters at Maj's wedding, with Dick and mother Alice in the rear. Even an angel statue seems to be welcoming her home.


The lonely ride back was made less lonely by an old coot of a rancher as my seat-mate. Shown at left, he at least dressed the part of a rancher with plaid shirt and 10 gallon hat. In our hours of chatting, while he admitted to riding a few horses (he explained at length the idea of the partnership of man and horse), I don't think he was a true rancher. But we did share stories of growing up on a farm - me in Iowa and he in Wisconsin. Amazingly, though we were a generation apart in age, we experienced the same work baling hay, cultivating corn, and chores with the farm animals. He was going back to visit his brothers and sister in Wisconsin - has been years since he'd been back...


The trip was uneventful. I thought I was smart by at least getting a window seat looking down-sun on the left side. Unfortunately, I was right over the wing, which limited the downward shooting. Other than a couple initial pictures of mountains near Tucson, I put the camera away. But as we circled over Lake Michigan for final approach to O'Hare, the Chicago skyline came into view and I grabbed the cell phone camera, taking a few shots. While not the sharpest views, at left the lakeside skyline is seen with the Willis Tower, tallest in the Midwest at top center. A few minutes later I shot again, catching another pair of planes coming in to land too. Nice O'Hare has enough runways that 3 planes can land at once! You can also spot that a few of the trees in the residential neighborhoods are just starting to turn...


With all the running around I've needed to do (funeral home, changing over bank accounts, insurance - STUFF), I've been trying to be good to myself too, so got the recumbent bike out my first morning and hit the local park for some pedal time. Amazingly, there was a quartet of sandhill cranes grazing right next to the bike path. Of course, if I'd been on foot, I'd likely not been able to get within 100 yards of them. But on my bike, I approached and stopped about 50 feet away! I was even able to "go wide" and get part of my bike in too...


I was out for a walk today, and while some trees are just starting to turn yellow and orange, it is peak season for sumac. They turn a stunning deep red or reddish/orange color and are quite striking against a blue sky or even remaining green vegetation. Looking back, I seem to photograph them nearly every year, but they are so pretty I can't stop...

So the plans are finalized for the final memorial at Malone's Funeral Home in Geneva Saturday at 3pm. I'm thinking we'll have a larger crowd than we had in Tucson. She had a LOT of friends and co-workers here she developed over the 50 years she spent in the Fox River Valley, so should be a good time to stop, reminisce and shed some tears. Meanwhile, I'll likely take a few pictures, and post some that might be of interest.

For a while, I'd considered stopping the blog. Melinda had started it right after our wedding in 2008. Even though she had migrated to Facebook and I took over the upkeep of the blog, I felt I needed her editorial support and approval that she gave reading each post. But even though most of you don't leave comments here, I've heard from many of you that it remains an interesting part of your internet reading. Plus sis-in-law Maj sez I've got to continue it. So the "Boss" has spoken and I'll guess I'll keep bloggin' if I can find things worth posting. In the meantime, I've also started a Facebook account, so if you haven't already, send along a friend request and I'll see you there too!