Monday recovery

It has been a busy past several days. The retirement parties, remember? Last Thursday we weren't able to make it to Jane's retirement reception from her department (Dean has a cold that was/is kicking his butt these days); but we did attend the 'official' retirement dinner that evening. Dean and Jane were both retirees in the past year, so it was a nice celebration for all of the 2008/2009 retirees. Jane didn't stay for the dinner (continuation of the day party was going on at her house), but was there for pictures, salad, a glass of wine, and received her gift. Dean and I stayed for the dinner, which was quite good, and the presentation of gifts. All of the years of service, represented that evening, added up to over well over 1000! In addition to the gifts, they had a raffle drawing. Dean won two tickets to a dance presentation. We need to call to reserve our seats for that (reminder to self).












Jane was disappointed that we hadn't made it to her party Thursday, but I went over to have coffee with her on Friday morning. Ron, her honey, was in town for all of the festivities so it was good to see him, and even more exciting was being able to see Jane's son, Matt, and his wife Carla! Matt has been in the Army for the past 5 years, and has recently arrived home (safely) from his second tour in Iraq. I get tears in my eyes just thinking about how fortunate we all are to have Matt home safely! His wife, Carla, is a little slip of a thing, and cute as a button. She stayed in Tucson while Matt was in Iraq, but then met him in Texas, on his arrival back to the US. They are here only for a short time, then will have to return to Texas until Matt's discharge in the fall. They will return to Tucson after his discharge.











Saturday's party for Jane was held at her friend, Melissa's, house. She lives in the foothills, near Sabino Canyon. There were lots of friends there, including the fellow who introduced Jane to Ron. It was a great party! Several people shared stories about Jane, from her early days in Tucson, when Matt was a baby, and I was able to share stories from when we were in Junior High together. Matt and Carla brought Carla's mom, Maria, with them to the party also. That was our first time meeting her. She and Jane have become friends as well as in-laws. It was a fun evening for all!



Sunday we relaxed, went to the movies (we saw "Sunshine Cleaning", which we enjoyed). His cold is still really getting him down, and he was up most of the night - coughing. He's home today, and hopefully will benefit from the nap he's taking right now.

A new computer and parties to attend...

No pics today, sorry to say! I'll have to procure some from Dean, or get out and take some to put on here. While my usual HP workhorse of a laptop has loads o' pictures on it....it bit the dust two days ago. Yesterday was spent seeking out diagnostics, and dare I hope, easy repair??? Is there such a thing for a computer? After trips to two places, it was confirmed - my hard drive was damaged by "unknown causes". While it would be possible to put a new hard drive in, reload Windows, and then pay someone $100 for each GB of files rescued - all for a 5 year old laptop; I decided that it might be best if I moved forward and purchase a new machine. That took us on a shopping excursion to Sam's (best deals around on computers, if you didn't know!). A few hours later we were unpacking my slick new HP laptop, complete with lots of GB's, a built in webcam and microphone (!), and .... Microsoft Vista. This is pushing my learning curve to the max. As our live in student, Jason, says "It's just a prettier version of XP - trying to look more like Apple." It's a challenge, I'll say that! I am getting used to it, but it will take a while - not to mention figuring out the ins and outs of the machine itself. It does have a lot of features that I like. Even though Dean's laptop is only slightly newer than my previous one, his has a lot of features that I didn't have on mine. I especially like having a port to put a camera card in, for ease of transfer of pictures. Nice touch!


Parties! Yea!!! We love parties!!! This week will bring two, maybe three! This evening is the U of A retirement dinner in one of the ballrooms at the Student Union. Dean missed out on going last year, so we were delighted to receive an invitation to this years dinner! The invitation states "Business attire". Dean said he would wear shorts and a t-shirt, as that is what he has worn to work (to do his business) for the past 24 years! He was trying on dress shirts tonight though, so I guess the tie dye and shorts will stay at home this time. Also, this afternoon is the reception that the U is giving our friend, Jane, on her retirement after 30+ years. We aren't sure if we will make it to that event or not, though we wouldn't think of missing her retirement party given by her friends on Saturday! Somewhere in all of the fun I will have to fit in a night of work. But I won't let that deter us from enjoying our soirees!

Fisheye Fun!

I love fisheye lenses! With a field of view (FOV) of 180 degrees, you can be assured you can get everything in the picture! Back in my Kitt Peak days, they had a 6mm fisheye that actually had a 220 degree FOV - it was difficult to keep your shoes out of the photo. Not that you would ever hand hold it at nearly 10 inches diameter and close to 15 pounds! I've got slides somewhere, but I've never seen one other than the one I used at the Observatory. Here is what it looked like with a standard film camera - remember what those were?


More modern fisheyes are much more manageable in size. The Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) has an 8mm Nikon on long term loan from Steward Observatory, and since I still work at Steward, I'm it's current keeper, so get to use it a lot. It is the size of a telephoto and weighs about 2.5 pounds, but is about 4 decades old, so optical and coating quality are a little suspect, especially when shooting stars - always a difficult task because of their infinitely small size.


Manufacturers are also currently making fisheyes - Sigma makes one pretty much indistinguishable from a normal lens. At F/4 it is a little slow for astronomy, but just the lat year they started making an F/3.5. Friend Tom Polakis has the F/4 that he has allowed me to borrow several times - and in fact, images have appeared here before. This one on the left appeared in November when Tom, Jenn and a friend stopped by the Mirror Lab for a tour. Set down on the ground at our feet looking straight up, it still caught all of us and is a pretty cool shot. The 8mm fisheye is designed to give a circular image covering horizon to horizon (if pointed straight up) if you used a full 35mm format. With the APS sized sensors I use, it gets the full FOV horizontally, but crops a little vertically. Still, the 8mm is a nice field if it is sharp enough for astronomy.




A couple weeks ago at the Messier Marathon, I knew Tom and Jenn would likely be there, so I again asked to use it under a dark sky. They were more than willing, so I was finally going to be able to use it in a direct comparison with the older Nikon 8mm fisheye. In the early evening, I was busy with the 14", capturing Comet Lulin in the western sky, so put off the fisheye tests, though I did take a self-portrait with the lens a couple feet behind me in the Messier Marathon post.


Finally, with that sequence done, I took a set of 4 frames of the setting Winter Milky Way, and of the gegenshein to the south. The brightest glows visible are of urban origins. In the first one to the left, the brilliant glow to the right is that of Phoenix and Casa Grande to the north. The more celestrial glow is of the Milky Way, and of course, nearly all the Winter constellations are visible in the west, the most obvious being Orion, trailing the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. A fainter nearly vertical glow, brighter at the base, is the Zodiacal Light - the reflection of sunlight off dust particles in the ecliptic plane (where the planets and asteroids orbit). Total exposure is 15 minutes with the lens wide open at F/4.




This next shot is of the gegenshein. This is a very faint, diffuse glow, again, reflected sunlight from dust particles (in fact, the gegenshein is part of the Zodiacal Light), this time from enhanced reflection on the sky exactly opposite the sun. Difficult to see or image unless from a very dark site, a wide angle lens like the fisheye is just about perfect for capture. The urban glow is from Tucson to the southeast this time, and the layering effect of that edge is from the stacking of the 4 frames as the Earth rotated between frames. The constellations in this part of the sky are less spectacular than the bright winter ones, but Saturn is brightest to the upper right of the gegenshein, and Leo above Saturn. Sixteen minutes total exposure with the Canon XSi.


Unfortunately, the clouds over Tucson moved in, and I wasn't able to take photos for a direct comparison with the older Nikon fisheye, so it will have to wait for another time under a dark sky. But the fisheye view will always have a place in my photographic heart!

New Optician In Training

On Friday Cindi (our metrology engineer Mike's wife) brought young son Jack past the Mirror Lab for a visit. He was born on Thanksgiving, so has just passed 4.5 months. Normally, infants take a look at me and start crying - likely because of my beard, so it was nice for a change to have Jack eye me with detached curiosity with nary a tear in sight. Looks like Dad has him desensitized to beards...

Is it me or does he resemble the baby star from the '30s Swee'Pea???

Word of the day - Cladophylls

It was a beautiful day when I got home after lunch (I'm working half days this week). You don't often get April days with perfect blue skies and highs of 78F, though that is the normal for this time of year. Seems to always be warmer than "normal", and though we've been in the 90s already this season, I feel the need to get out and enjoy the 70s while they are still here!


So I grabbed the digital camera and retraced the neighborhood ramble Melinda and I took last weekend, looking for interesting photos. Melinda's comment from our walk is that I needed a sense of scale in the photos, which may be valid, but it almost made me rebel and go even closer to the objects, so mounted a Nikon macro lens on the Canon XSi (with inexpensive adaptor ring). The lens is so old, it isn't even an AI lens, let alone auto focus, but with the XSi's magnified live view, it is easy to check focus, and a monopod helped steady the view, so I really didn't have to throw out many images.


Looking back on the photos, the young pads of the prickly pear cacti seem to be the main subject. Their official name is cladophylls (clad-o-fils) - "flattened photosynthetic branches assuming the form of and closely resembling ordinary foliage leaves". Locally, they are also known as nopales (no-pah-lehs), and you can buy them in Safeway in the canned vegetable aisle. Supposedly all varieties of the cactus are edible, but there must be certain kinds raised for food - all of these looks pretty prickly, even these that are from this Spring's growth. Scrape off the spines, cut into strips, steam for a bit and you're eatin'! No, I've not tried the canned or fresh versions - perhaps someday...


My first shot was about 80 feet from our front door - our neighbor Susan has what I think may be a Santa Rita prickly pear. The flash of bright purple and green caught my eye from a good distance (the green spicules fall off as the pad ages). The only problem was that I had to (carefully) shoot under another branch of the cactus to get the shot. The other thing I discovered is that many of these shots were made from my knees, and Arizona soil is rocky at best, and covered with cactus spines at worst - I need a cushion or pad to carry with me on future trips. To placate Melinda, I should say that this cladophyll is about 7cm wide (2.5 inches).






This next shot is from the same cactus as the flower shot from Sunday. The red tips of the tubercles attracted my attention, as well as that of the honeybee as well, even though there were open flowers nearby on the plant. Since Arizona is now in the "Africanized" bee zone, you can likely assume any bee you see is a "killer bee", though there isn't much to be concerned about unless you threaten or disturb a hive. It is easier than you think, though - they tend to collect in unusual places, like the water utility meter chambers or even mailboxes, so utility workers and the public have to be a little cautious doing even routine tasks... Anyway, the bee serves as size reference! I do not know what the black substance is at the base of the tubercles - parasites, mold or what. The stuff is not visible in older pads.



This next shot is a favorite because of the gentle curves formed by the glochids (spine clusters). Is it a real pattern or a desire for the brain to want to "connect the dots" to make the curves? While they look soft and fuzzy, they definitely stiffen with age, and eventually become dangerous!









And while these cladophylls look similar to the last, the cactus is definitely different - more of a ground cover than an upright shape, and the pads are considerably smaller. A shot of the flower buds made it into Sunday's post, so am including the pads today. They are only a little over a centimeter across (about .75"), so are quite small. The full-size pads are about 10cm (4" diameter). There has been almost no change in the flower buds the last 4 days, so these desert plants are in no hurry to bloom, though I did notice some saguaros that had flower buds (normally bloom in May or June). Will have to figure out how to photograph some of those when they are 20 feet or more off the ground!

Back to the project at hand...

It seems that we had a big rush on getting things done around here in early March (in preparation for Carolyn's visit), but since then we've been 'taking it easy'. I know my pattern, I can live with chaos and unfinished projects, but only for so long. Then I hit a "I've got to get this done - I'm sick of this mess!" stage and get back to work. I hit that stage this week, though it was complicated by having to go to class on Monday afternoon, and then work on Monday night. That means that Tuesday was a total wash....must have sleep!

Today, however, I woke up ready to get back into the bathroom ceiling project! We left off with it being mudded with drywall mud, to repair the gypsum exposed area left with the scrapping and stripping of the termite damaged areas. Those areas extended from the ceiling down into areas of wall above the shower tile, as well as the wall above the toilet. I wasn't looking forward to sanding it smooth, thus the procrastination on my part. When I sanded the ceiling in the guest bath it was like being continually hit in the face with loose flour, as the mud dust cascaded down. Not fun, and it really can't be good for one to be inhaling that dust. That sent me to the local Ace Hardware to pick up a dust filtering mask. While it was hot wearing the mask, it was so nice to not be breathing that stuff in while I was working! The sanding was punctuated with multiple rest breaks - but eventually it was done. I tried to put off painting the primer/sealer coat (Kilz), but Dean convinced me it would be better to get that part done today too, while it was dry in the bathroom (before showers steam it up again). Painting was a breeze after doing all of the sanding! Mind you, I only have the Kilz coat on in the areas that were repaired, no finish coats yet. I like the result so far though! I'm still trying to figure out what color to paint the bathroom (the light green colored accessories are temporary until decisions are made). Our goal is to put in colorful Mexican tile, new sink, etc. The project continues, though this repair work was a major hurdle. I'm glad this part is behind me!

A Walk in the 'Hood

I talked to my sister Kathy this morning - the Midwest is under a winter storm warning today! So just to prove it is springtime somewhere, we took a late afternoon walk with the camera to see what was photogenic. We had a pretty dry winter, so didn't have much of a wildflower season this spring, so we are jumping directly into the cactus flowers, though it is still a little early for them too. Temperatures have been seasonal lately - mid 70s mostly - today's high was a normal 78F.


Our first stop was a mere 60 yards or so from our house - one of our neighbors had a huge cholla cactus laden with flower buds, but no flowers yet. Note that the proper pronunciation follows the Spanish, so cholla is pronounced Choy-ah (double l makes a "Y" sound). There are about 20 species of cholla, nearly a half dozen we spotted on our amble. While all take the generic form of branching cylinders, there is a wide variety of thorn density, branching types and flower colors. We'll have to repeat our walk at regular intervals to catch them in bloom as well, but for now, shape and form will have to do. You can see from the 3 types shown here there are distinct differences. The one at left is sometimes called "Teddy Bear " cholla - from a distance it looks soft and cuddly, but the closeup shows it's sharp teeth! There is another common type called a "jumping" cholla - the segments break off easily (some say they "jumped" onto them), and when they are pried off the passerby later (human or beast), the segment takes root to propagate a new plant. Again, flower pictures in a future post...



Another common type of cactus is the prickly pear, and similar to the cholla, there are numerous species in the area. Notably, some have nasty looking thorns, some look to be thornless, but close examination shows clusters of fine, tiny barbed spines called glochoids. Brushing past the pad of a prickly pear, you might think you escaped harm, only to later discover from the burning pain that you got a few dozen of these spines in you that need a tweezer to remove. The pictures here are from 2 plants - the first had both buds and a few flowers that were still open (and were popular with the bees). The second plant had much smaller pads, but was covered with buds that should be a spectacular sight in a week or so. Again, you can see the wide variety in appearance, though the general form is the same. Interestingly, cholla and prickly pear are related - instead of branching cylindrical forms for the cholla, the latter have interconnecting pads.


The last plant to show off tonight is not a cactus, but is a native desert shrub. The creosote bush has numerous yellow flowers this time of year, which transform to seed balls for dispersal in the wind. Fortunately, both are visible this time of year, and it makes a striking plant. The creosote bush makes a pungent fragrance, especially in the summer rainy season, and is perhaps the most characteristic scent of the Sonoran Desert. There is a very good book about the Sonoran Desert and the local population of Tohono O'Odham called "The Desert Smells Like Rain" - well it is the creosote that makes that smell!