Mr October!

When I was back at "Ketelsen East" during the Fall, while out enjoying breakfast with Melinda's buddy Sallie, I happened to notice a copy of the St Charles Daily Herald open for restaurant patrons to enjoy. I noticed there was a "calendar contest" for local residents, with a deadline towards the end of October. Never having even seeing a copy of the paper or previous calendars, I wasn't sure what sort of images they were looking for, but the blurb said they wanted "photos illustrating life in the Northwest and West suburbs".


Well, I had a couple favorite macro subjects and submitted them the night of the deadline. They said winners would be contacted by December 6th. Not expecting much from the special-interest macro images, I waited...


But miracles of miracles, I got an email from "Kat" from the paper stating I'd won! No details, but my "prize" was a copy of the calendar and while their subscribers got theirs in the Sunday, 17 December edition, they wanted to send me a copy. Since I was in Tucson, they mailed it here. I suspect it passed me as I was driving back to the Midwest this recent trip. But it was waiting for me upon my return yesterday! I'm Mr October, and my alternate submission was in the last page of "honorable mentions"!




The "dewdrop on Dandelion" is likely my favorite image of all time, so was hoping that was the one chosen, and indeed it was, though I had an early indication the alternate - "Aphid on Dandelion" was the one they were using. Interesting that both are of dandelions, yet, I've not seen any around the house(the camp might be spraying, or perhaps because of the Fox flooding the last couple years) the last few years... The "dewdrops" were taken in November of 2016, and the aphid in May of 2015... No, I do NOT know how you can get a copy of the calendar, since they were distributed free to subscribers. But for your viewing convenience, I include copies of the winning images here. 


So I had a nice holiday surprise, but didn't get rich from it! Although they did spell my name right! Got to be thankful for that!

Look to the Skies!

It seems to have been a while since we've had a good planet grouping in the evening sky, but the current show is starting now! While Jupiter and Saturn have been in the evening sky for a few months, they are slowly retreating towards the Sun as the Earth's more rapid motion appears to move them to the far side of the solar system. Meanwhile, Venus has leapt from behind the sun (again, its motion is more rapid than the Earth), and is about to join the other pair in the early evening. Tonight Venus was still well below Jupiter, but tomorrow (Saturday, 23 November) will approach within 1.5 degrees (3 moon-diameters), making a striking sight! Next week, on Thanksgiving night, the crescent moon joins the grouping, and finally on 10 December, Venus passes Saturn and the conjunction show will end for now. Here is how they looked tonight (Friday, 22 November) from near Cornville, AZ. The planets are about to set behind the Mingus Mountains, with the lights of Cottonwood, AZ in the foreground. In the labeled image at right, you can also see the "teapot" asterism of Sagittarius as it also moves behind the sun for the season.

Catch the show while you can!

Following the Path!

This trip to "Ketelsen East" is winding down. Last night Melinda's niece and her boyfriend stopped by for a barbeque dinner. They evidently "collect" labyrinths, which I did not know was a thing! They search out, visit and walk these patterned paths. They had found one near me in St Charles, so went there to visit before our dinner.

They labyrinth at the St Charles Episcopal Church is of the Chartres Cathedral design, shown at right. It has a single path that meanders to the center and the same path is followed to exit. Those who walk it use it for spiritual centering, meditation or prayer. It is in a nice quiet location adjacent to the parking lot of the church, surrounded on 3 sides by nature. The 22-year old labyrinth has a nice dedication stone as shown at left.



Given the complexity of the design, the paths are narrow and don't allow side-by-side walking or even passing each other without stepping off the path, but it was an interesting amble around the path. I've never meditated, nor am particularly spiritual, but can see the parallel to life as a spiritual journey, and also the parallels to the Tohono O'odham "Man in the Maze" journey through life (shown at left) in the American Southwest.



It was a pleasant enough excursion - nice temps in an early-evening outing, investigating something new. The entire labyrinth is shown in the panorama at left, with Kathy and Jonathan at far right.  In the right hand image, you can see the brickwork in its construction as well as the near exact copy of the Chartres Labyrinth above.





On our way out, we noticed the pine tree adjacent to the labyrinth - I've never seen pine cones oozing sap as prolifically as this one was. Seemed each cone had "icicles" of sap oozing out of it! Interesting...

We returned to the country estate of "Ketelsen East" and finished prepping for dinner and started the grill and cooking. The menu has become a staple of mine - a protein of choice, more and more pork chops, or more likely, pork loin on the grill. Accompanying that dish, are bacon-wrapped, cream-cheese filled jalapenos, and a mix of assorted vegetables, here green beans, finger potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower, with shredded cheese atop.  And to wrap it up, while not really lo-carb, are barbequed beans... My guests enjoyed BBQ sauce and a beer, though wasn't on my allowed list!

We finished late into the sunset and decided to risk biting insects in going out to the Fox River to enjoy the "big picture"! From the nearby boat dock (about 100 yards from my door) we took in the late sunset colors and a nice panorama of the water, last light of the day and the far shore.

Always nice to enjoy the evening with family, cooking outdoors and taking in an exploration of some sort while the weather is nice. I'm glad we could all get together in this little part of our lifetime journey...

After The Meeting...

Tonight was the monthly meeting of the Fox Valley Astronomical Society. An interesting meeting about Apollo 11's Moon landing 50 years ago. Part of the discussion was about the "where were you" stories. Some were deployed in Vietnam. I was a 15 year old working on my Grandparent's farm. It was a Sunday as I recall, so didn't have to do much work - I remember shooting hoops with my younger cousin. I think there is a photo somewhere. I also took photos off the TV of Armstrong and Aldrin with my Instamatic - was a space nerd even then!

After the meeting, my friend Mark was setting up the club's 12" Meade in the parking lot at Peck Farm Park where we met (shown at left). He asked if I'd seen Celestron's new cell adaptor, which quickly allows mounting of a cell camera to shoot through the telescope. I'd not seen it, but was quite impressed as it allowed 3-axis of motion - X, Y, and focusing motion too! Shown at right in their advertising, it would come in handy at the Grand Canyon as EVERYONE wants to take photos of what they see in the telescope...


Well, with the quarter-moon high in the west, it was a perfect opportunity to try it out. The only difficulty we had was in setting up and aligning the camera lens to the eyepiece in the dark. A little red light might have been handy, but we eventually found the light coming out of the eyepiece. A wide shot of the moon is shown at left. Note the bottom edge is clipped by the edge of the eyepiece, NOT the lower limb of the moon...

At left, with the addition of some digital zoom in the camera, more detailed close-up is shown. It was an impressive demonstration with the brightest thing we observe in the night sky!





A bit later we looked at Jupiter, and were easy to see and record the 4 Galilean moons. Shown at left, the overexposed disk of Jupiter is at center, and left-to-right are the moons Ganymede, Europa, with Io and Callisto on the right. I tried but was unable to reduce the exposure to more properly expose for bright Jupiter. A higher power might have helped, but I suspect there was too much black sky - not enough "bright" to trigger the auto-exposure... I would have stayed for Saturn, low in the SE, but the mosquitos had drunk enough of my blood, so moved on towards home to post these. All in all, I'm tempted to get one of these devices - looks like an easy way to at least document the moon and bright planets with a cellphone.

Jury Duty!

I got called for jury duty way back in March or so, but with a deferment or two and travel plans, I finally got the assignment to go in on Tuesday. It has been well over a decade since I've been called, let alone served, so was looking forward to it.

I rarely get downtown much where the courts are, and now we have a new way to get downtown - the "modern" streetcar! I can park for free on campus, then take the streetcar downtown and ultimately save on parking downtown. So for the second streetcar ride of my life, I paid $4.50 for a round ticket and headed out early Tuesday (assigned a 7:30am start)! The streetcar is shown at left...

After an uneventful ride in, I had plenty of time to spare to check-in at the jury assembly room. Shown at right, turns out I was not supposed to take photos, but no one can likely be recognized, so don't tell anyone! After watching the orientation video, I immediately got called to go to "city court" a few blocks away, escorted by court officials...

Of course, I got called into the dozen members of the pool who got to be interviewed about employment, jury experience (I had by far the most experience at 4 juries!), bumper stickers. magazine and favorite TV shows... We were told it was a DUI case, and several were excused because of law-enforcement connections, having taken law classes, schedule conflicts, and a few other excuses. After a brief break where the attorneys chose the jurors they wanted, Me and 6 women got picked for the trial! After a 90 minute lunch break, we were to reconvene and the trial would start.

With my successful maneuvering of the streetcar system, I had heard seniors (that's me!) could get an ID card that allows them to ride for $0.75 per ride. The office was only 2 blocks away, so dropped in at my lunch break. There was a huge crowd - over 20 ahead of me, so with number in hand went to a Mexican place around the corner for a snack. By the time I got back there were still 10 ahead of me, but most had given up, so my number was soon called. I'm now official with a real card, refillable from logging in online!

So the trial got under way. It was only supposed to last 2 days, so would make my dentist appointment on Thursday... The jist of the case was that the defendant had been caught speeding by a motorcycle policeman at 12:30am way back in August of '17, over 18 months ago. He had been caught going 46 mph in a 25 zone, and once stopped, showed symptoms of consuming alcohol. Once out of the car, the officer applied the "Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus" (HGN) test, where involuntary eye twitching while following a moving target MAY indicate impairment. The defendant failed the HGN test. In the process of administering the walk/turn test, the defendant could not stand without moving his feet during the instruction phase of that test. After refusing to continue the walk/turn test, and also to blow into the meter, he was placed under arrest, where he eventually agreed to a blood test. A police phlebotomist was called and a blood sample taken within 45 minutes. 4 days later the samples were run in the lab and returned a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.093, well over the .08 limit. Besides testimony from the arresting officer, we also heard from the Phlebotomist as well as the fellow who ran the test on the "Headspace Gas Chromatography" device. We heard all about the details of its operation, as well as its statistical accuracy. HGC is the universally accepted state-of-the-art, being only superseded by the much-more-expensive mass spectrometer analysis. So by the end of Day1, we had heard from all three of the prosecution's witnesses, and were sent home with the defense starting on Day2.

I again, used the streetcar on Day2, this time with my brand-new card! After waiting for the defense witness, we didn't get started till nearly 11.  The defense emphasized the HGN test can occur with BAC as low as .05, still legally able to operate a motor vehicle. They also pointed out some miniscule wiggles in the HGC readout that MIGHT have been due to methanol, which should NOT have been seen in the blood samples as it is poisonous. The prosecution pointed out a number of alcohols, foods, drugs and smoking that can leave slight levels of methanol in the blood.

In the end, the jurors all decided the accuracy of the HGC device was undiminished and the .093 BAC had an accepted confidence level of 99.7%. We had little choice but to find him guilty after about 30 minutes of deliberation. The judge thanked us, handed out some very nice thank you notes, and we were dismissed by about 4:30.

After posting on FB, I was amazed that people really HATED jury duty. I think it is pretty cool and very instructive to see our system of courts at work. How can your favorite shows be lawyer shows (at least, from what I heard in the juror interviews) and then avoid jury duty like the plague? I had a nice time, had some nice conversations with my fellow jurors, and learned all about Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, and Headspace Gas Chromatography! Plus supposedly I made $12/day!

Desert Snow!

People have many misconceptions about the Southwestern Desert.  It is NOT like the Sahara with seemingly endless dunes of drifting sands like the Sahara!  It is actually  quite a diverse ecosystem with plants and animals found nowhere else!  And while drier than where you can grow corn in the Midwest, Tucson gets about 10" of rain per year, and actually, local Indians used to grow corn crops since half our rain comes in the summer rainy season!

We also have a secondary rainy season thru the Winter, and occasionally, storms that pass through come down from the Gulf of Alaska, resulting in below-freezing temperatures and often snow up in the higher elevations (over 9,000 feet) ringing Tucson! Tucson itself, relatively low at 2500 feet elevation rarely gets snow, perhaps once every two years or so. But a couple weeks ago, it happened! I had a doctor's appointment and witnessed that it snowed in Tucson for over 3 hours, but because the ground was well above freezing, we didn't get any accumulation... The flakes came down in huge conglomerations or clumps - I witnessed a few over 2" diameter! When they are that large they land with a splat! The view of my "Old-Man Cactus" at left is affectionately called "Bernie"!



The next day, up for a drive, a friend joined me for a road trip up to Globe about 100 miles north of Tucson. While a drive to 9,000 foot Mount Lemmon would have been more impressive, the road was likely still closed to keep people out while it was being cleared. The road north moves around the Catalina Mountains, climbing to 5,000 feet going through Oracle, then dipping into the San Pedro Valley before climbing another snowy range before descending into Globe, an old Mining town... The day dawned perfectly clear, transforming the view of the Catalinas to the north of town quite spectacular. At left is the view from the south, with saguaro cacti dominating the foreground. By the time I circled the Catalinas to pick up my friend, the view of the north side (at right) down a residential street was even more spectacular!


Since Rancho Vistoso (my friend's neighborhood) was much higher in elevation than Tucson, we saw snow all the way to the 25 miles to Oracle. From there the elevation fell down into the San Pedro River Valley, so the striking photo at left, taken from just past Oracle, shows snow where we were, the snow-free valley, then the snow covered range on the other side.


It had been years since I'd been on highway 77, so much of it was new to me, including a new Indian Casino - Apache Sky, which I've just been hearing about... Of course, climbing the next range brought a new appearance of snow and there was a good 12" or 14" where the elevation peaked! Unfortunately the snow plows hadn't come back to clean off the pulloffs, so we parked dangerously close to the highway and waded through nearly knee-deep very wet snow!


It was fun, and all the tourists we saw were having a good time playing in the snow. Interestingly, we helped an elderly woman lay down on the snow and make her personal snow angel, shown at left. She needed help getting up too, and we took a group photo of their trio with her creation...

The trip down to Globe for a side trip to a rock shop and a quick brunch at a burger place was anti-climactic by comparison. We made a beeline for home to make an appointment, but was a fun day to play!

Look West!

Finally, some clear skies in Tucson! And for the first time, I could go out after sunset and look for Mercury in the evening sky. Almost due west about 45 minutes after sunset, it is the brightest star-looking object just above the horizon! At left is how it looked from the cul de sac in front of my house... It will continue to be visible for about another week before it starts diving between us and the sun towards inferior conjunction on March 14th.

To the casual observer, it would seem there haven't been any planets in the evening sky, but you would have been wrong! Mars, the next planet out from us, is still in the western sky, but is fading and far from striking, other than the orange glow it still maintains. Passing opposition and at its best over 7 months ago (!), it is a shadow of its former self. At right is a wide shot showing both Mars and Mercury, both well below the Pleiades star cluster a good 45 degrees or more up as it gets dark.


But as they say - But wait, there's more! The planet Uranus is also in the right photo above! It is MUCH fainter than Mars or Mercury, and less obvious too when shooting from town in a 10 second exposure! The cropped portion of the above shot shows the center part of the image, and shows Mars and Aries, and what I THINK is Uranus, just above the limits of detection... It is so faint that the normal green glow it sometimes displays isn't visible. But then, it is almost 2 BILLION miles distant from us at the moment...

And just one more... As I turned to go back into the house, There riding high was mighty Orion, and how could I leave without a quick shot of it too? So at right is my front yard with Canis Major and the brightest star (visible from Earth besides the sun) Sirius is Orion with its prominent 3 belt stars. We've had so many clouds lately that I've needed to catch up with what the sky looks like again!

My Travels with Lillian!

Who the heck is Lillian, you ask?! Well, there is a story involved, of course! I met Lillian back last July at my nephew Mitchell's wedding in July. That is him with his beautiful bride Anna there on the left. Though you can't see it in the photo, evidently she has a green thumb and as gifts to each guest, she sprouted succulents and had a variety at each table to choose from, all growing in white milk-glass containers... Succulents are easy to grow, I hear, and here we are 7 months later and mine is still alive - I've named her Lillian!

After the wedding, wanting to keep her in Illinois, I left her care and feeding with a girlfriend in Chicago, not sure if Lillian would survive if she was abandoned for a month or two at a time until I returned to "Ketelsen East". Girlfriend and I have since parted company, so I regained custody this last trip to Illinois, and 3 weeks ago as I transitioned back to AZ, Lillian came along! That is a close-up her at right.

For the first time in a decade, I had driven up to the Midwest in the big van. There were a number of things to haul, and some to haul back. Since we'd parked the Toyota Highlander there, it is so much more simple to fly and catch a ride to a waiting car - it has been great! Driving it makes you realize why we do it that way! 1,700 miles in 26 hours of driving translates to a good 2.5 days on the road, and certainly with the van, you still can't beat the price of half a round-trip ticket. But I justified it with the hauling I needed to do. So as my visit ended, and a winter storm approaching, I left with relatively short notice for the return. Did the laundry, secured the house... Lillian's vase didn't fit in the cup holders, so she rode shotgun, with seat belt fastened, packed with my gloves and a newspaper to make sure she was secure...

Travel conditions were perfect - cool temps, about 40 degrees, and perfect blue skies. Quickly transited Iowa - little scenery with the crops all in... There was a brief scenic event as I passed Brooklyn (yes, there is a Brooklyn, Iowa), where there were a previously unnoticed windmill farm next to Interstate 80!

We made it to Wichita that first evening, and it was supposed to be below freezing, so brought Lillian into the motel and tucked her into bed as I unwound with a little TV...

Overnight the rain moved in, but it was supposed to be snow and ice the next day, so headed west. Drove through rain all day. Very nearly ran out of gas hoping to find cheaper gasoline in Liberal Kansas - engine died 50 yards from pumps. Fortunately, waiting a minute it started again to get enough momentum to coast up to refill... Rain lessened across Oklahoma and Texas, and mostly stopped by the time I got to Tucumcari. We stayed on highway 54 that bisects south across New Mexico, and as sunset approached, the clouds turned intermittent and made for some scenic driving! At right are some small mountains or hills from what must be the previous storm that had gone through...

As we continued to drive south towards Alamagordo, the second night's stop, the skies almost cleared, and had a beautiful sunset! With the destination in sight though, I only stopped once for the post-sunset lone cloud shown at left with some virga (rain that evaporates before hitting the ground) and beautiful colors against a clear sky.

Even before checking in to the Motel 6, I found a Chinese restaurant for dinner, then relaxed before the final push into Tucson the next day.

I was hoping to pause at White Sands National Monument the next morning - thought Lillian would look good with her milk-glass vase against the white sands, but alas, the government shutdown had resulted in locked gates blocking access! A bit later we did get an impressive view of the Organ Mountains (so named because of their resemblance to a pipe organ, I believe), as we approached the pass to cross them to Las Cruces, NM...

As we crossed southern New Mexico, still 50 miles east of the AZ border, I noticed something white far to the west! This was still 25 miles east of Lordsburg, and I was confused for a bit what it might be - then it dawned on me! It was the snow-covered, nearly 11,000 foot tall mountain Mount Graham! I did manage to grab a snapshot of it at full zoom. I calculate it was still just over 90 miles away! Note the slight orange cast due to the long path-length absorbing or scattering more blue light...

Less than an hour later and we approached Arizona! Lillian offered to drive for a bit and after 2 full days, I was glad to let her take the wheel! I did manage to capture the moment we passed the border!

Just over 2 hours later and we pulled into Tucson, arriving about 2pm. It was nice to get out from behind the wheel and to be where it was a good 20 degrees warmer than "Ketelsen East"! Oh, and the day we arrived in Tucson, central Kansas and Missouri DID get nearly a foot of snow, so I got through it with a day to spare! I think it will be a while till I drive again... It was nice to set your own schedule though - not be dependent on reservations made perhaps 2 months in advance! Lillian seems happy and cats seem to ignore her, so all is well!

Ho Hum, Another Sunset...

As you know, we get our share of spectacular sunsets in Arizona. It has something to do with the clarity of the air, and for the western horizon to be clear to enable the setting sun to shine through and illuminate clouds at the observer's location. This one was from last Wednesday, the very evening I went out and photographed the second set of images of Mars and Neptune. Once the clear strip at sunset came over, I headed west of town to shoot the night time targets.

But that sunset! It was a sunset for the ages! If you aren't ready they can pass in an instant, so not much time to prepare if you aren't ready. This time I had collected my camera in preparation of going out to observe, but didn't have the right lens on when I grabbed it and went out to the cul-de-sac in front of the house. I had my 100mm macro, a reasonable telephoto - difficult to shoot a needed wide-angle view.

Well it was spectacular, so as a compromise, rather than run inside to change lenses, I did a mosaic - Took about 5 photos, then moved up a field and took 5 more, then later assembled them in Photoshop to appear as a single image. It worked well, as you can see here. Sometimes the software gets lost and can't combine them, or distort them wildly, but it really did look pretty much just like shown here. Enjoy!


At left is one of the individual frames from a slightly earlier sequence than went closer to the horizon...

POTUS Profile Peered at Pedestrian Paths

The other week I was on my way home and got stuck in a construction backup. As I was passing a portable sign marking a pedestrian crossing, I caught a glimpse of something that made me do a double-take - a clear profile of our current president! I almost didn't believe what I was seeing, but saw it the next day at normal speeds, but finally a couple days later I parked safely and took a photo with my phone. Sure enough, the normally round head of the "walking pedestrian" had an official-looking POTUS profile!

Of course, once seen, it cannot be unseen, and as my excursions for chores around Tucson had me wandering, I've now spotted well over a dozen of them within a few miles of my house! There are some of the old round-headed versions, but the majority of those in Midtown show Trump's visage!

Some of them, like the one shown at left, are mounted a good 10 feet off the ground, so it isn't like someone is throwing a sticker over the sign - tools and at minimum a tall ladder is needed. Examined closely, you can see the vinyl sticker is placed over the bolt holding on the sign - a clue that it likely isn't officially sponsored...

I returned to the original sign shown above, and with my "real' camera, adjusted the exposure so you can, in fact, see that the original round head of the sign is still under the vinyl sticker placed over it, shown at right...



And carefully, I worked my fingernail under the vinyl sticker and with some difficulty, could actually pull the edge of the sticker up off the sign - but notice at left that it sticks so well it pulls off the round-head sticker below it!

I've yet to find anything on Google to explain the appearance of POTUS profile on these signs... But then, I've not called the city's sign department also - may have to do that to see if anyone besides me has even noticed!

And finally, space artist Joe Bergeron, a long-time friend from the Grand Canyon Star Party, said the resemblance wasn't quite striking enough, so enhanced one of my photos.  Shown at right, it more closely resemble POTUS - rounded abdomen, small hands, and of course, the overly-long tie! What do you think?!