Author Archives: momdude

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About momdude

Space cadet | Family dude | Photographer | Music lover | Traveler | Science fiction fan | Hugo Award nominee | Writer | 5x NASA Social participant | KC Chiefs fan | LA Kings fan | Senior Director of Finance & Administration for ALS Network | Member & former staff Finance Officer at the Commemorative Air Force SoCal Wing | Hard core left-wing liberal | Looking for whatever other shenanigans I can get into
March 30, 2023 · 23:40

Skyscapes – March 30th

After waking up to some more overnight rain, by mid-morning when I went out to take the garbage bins to the curb, the clouds were bright white, the sky was a deep blue, and the sun was out.

Maybe that’s the last of the rain for a while! Maybe! It’s Opening Day for baseball, great weather for it!

Right? I said, “RIGHT?!”

About four hours later as I was finishing a Zoom call, a peal of thunder rattled the house.

For the next hour and a half or so we had lightning, thunder, torrential downpours, high winds, and even about ten minutes of light hail.

It was GREAT!

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Filed under Photography, Weather

March 29, 2023 · 23:19

Confused Plant

Most plants turn from green to red and yellow in the fall.

This big bushy thing by our front door has it backwards.

The rains left. Well, for a couple of days at least. They’re back now. But while the sun was out, all of a sudden these leaves all started turning red and yellow.

Maybe it’s an “Angels bush.” It could have turned red for the Chiefs’ great season, but it’s a baseball plant of some sort and it knows that tomorrow is opening day.

Of course, around here, surrounded by Dodgers fans, it would be an Angels bush to fit into our household.

That nonsense makes as much sense as anything else. I mean, have you seen the NEWS lately?

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Filed under Critters, Flowers, Photography

March 28, 2023 · 23:42

One Cloudy Planet

Hope springs eternal in the (not so) young amateur astronomer’s heart as he searches for five planets in the sky at once. Even if I can’t get a good photo, maybe I can at least see them?

Maybe Jupiter and Mercury can be seen through that hole in the oncoming storm front? Nope, they’re actually over to the far right, just to the right of the top of Castle Peak that you can just see in the bottom right corner. But at this point it was too bright, too close to sunset to see. Plus, you know, CLOUDS!

The clouds did have a little bit of iridescence, and it was clear overhead so I could see the quarter Moon, but the clouds were not only hiding dim Jupiter and Mercury but also obscuring my view of  bright Venus and super dim Uranus up somewhere where that jet was passing by in the upper left.

I hope you had better hunting and clearer skies than I did!

All I saw was one cloudy planet, the one that I’m stuck to.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets

March 27, 2023 · 23:30

Not Five Planets

You’ll see things online and in the press about another astronomical thing that’s happening in the next couple of days. If you’re lucky, and you have a flat horizon and very clear conditions, you might see it. Binoculars will help.

At the top you can see the Moon. Real bright directly below it is Venus. Easy peasy.

As it gets a bit darker than this, up overhead, near Taurus and Orion, you can see Mars. Again, easy. It’s red and fairly bright.

Now for the harder parts.

Very near Venus, visible only when it gets fully dark you might spot Uranus. It will be much dimmer than Venus and slightly bluish in color. A small telescope will be a big help, but binoculars will do if you have a good finder map. (See here.) If you have good eyesight and a good dark sky location far away from city lights, you might see it with the naked eye.

Remember how a month or so ago Jupiter was RIGHT next to Venus? And then Jupiter kept moving down toward the Sun and Venus kept moving up away from the Sun? (From our viewpoint, obviously.) Well, now Jupiter is almost there, just a couple of days away from disappearing into the evening twilight. You’ll need to have a flat horizon, without any mountains right in front of you. It’s faint, but visible, near the horizon, directly under Venus, immediately after sunset.

And right next to Jupiter is Mercury. Jupiter is brighter, but if you can find it in the twilight, look for Mercury very close nearby.

From the horizon up, there’s Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, and Mars. Plus, of course, that whole Earth thing in the foreground.

Tonight we had a pretty sunset (with clouds and rain expected for the next three days) but we have light pollution (hiding dim Uranus) and Castle Peak hiding Jupiter and Mercury. (See where the peak is and then that dip on the right hand side? That’s where they are while it’s too bright to see them. By the time it gets dark enough, they’re down behind the mountain.) So we have three planets visible, two in this picture. Venus and Earth. Mars is back behind us.

Good hunting the next night or two if you have clear skies and flat horizons!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

March 26, 2023 · 23:50

The Lizards Return

Finally. The sun, and temperatures kinda sorta warm, in the mid 60’s at least.

It’s nice in the sun, so I’ve started to see some lizards coming out of hibernation. So far most of them have been the “popcorn” type, small (just an inch or two long), newly hatched, existing mainly to be eaten by other lizards or birds or cats.

This guy (can you see it?) was about four inches long and “basking” doesn’t even start to describe the attitude it had.

Right on top of this piece of edging was ideal for soaking up sun, and the width was perfect for it to straddle. Nice and stable, warm, relaxing – there was no way it was going to run away unless I was going to step on him or try to eat him.

I’m not as fast as the hawks or cats, so eating him wasn’t an option, and I’m not clumsy enough to step on him. At least, not today.

Later in the afternoon as I went out the front door I almost stepped on a slightly bigger one. It was more like six inches plus, so it might be a yearling. It had found a spot right by the front door and next to the planter it could hide under, while simultaneously being the perfect spot to catch the last of the sunset rays. I opened the door, saw it, didn’t step on it. It saw me, took off under the planter, and we called it even.

Let the 2023 lizards thrive!

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Filed under Critters, Photography

March 25, 2023 · 21:12

Life Goes On

At the Music Center, just after sunset, cool but crystal clear. The brightest object at the top right is the crescent moon, with Venus just above the tip of the tall, black building. All of the other shiny things in the sky are aircraft of one sort or the other.

Tonight we’re back at the Ahmanson for “The Secret Garden.” I know nothing about it except that friends have said good things.

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Filed under Entertainment, Los Angeles, Photography

March 24, 2023 · 22:48

Dealing With Tragedy

The phone call.

Why is my sister calling in the middle of a Friday afternoon?

The unreality. Who? How? That makes no sense! HOW?

What can we do to help? Of course, I’ll call my other brothers and sisters…

And always back to the unreality. This can’t be happening. (You’ll tell yourself that a lot in the near future, I’m sure.)

So few details. So many questions.

Tomorrow will be another day. But they’ll never be the same for my sister. Or the rest of us, but especially, of course, for her.

What can we do to help?

I wish we could make it go away. To make it not be real. But that’s not the way it works.

Forward. Tomorrow. Then the next day. Then the next week. One step at a time. One day at a time.

What can we do to help?

Hug your loved ones tonight. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Be good to one another. Tell each other you love them. Be there for each other. Don’t put it off until tomorrow.

That’s how you can help.

It won’t be enough. But it’s all we’ve got. Each other.

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Filed under Family

March 23, 2023 · 23:24

Venus & Crescent Moon In The Palm Trees

Pretty much what it says. It was the first time I could see the sky in the west at Sunset in many, many days, so I took the opportunity.

Tonight there’s one of the biggest solar storms in many years hitting the Earth and there are amazing auroras being seen all across Canada, the upper tier of US states, and as far south as Iowa, Kansas, and Northern California. Many other places that could see these unusual aurora (Chicago, Michigan, many others) are clouded out. Timing is everything and Murphy’s Law rules.

This far south, 34.2º, we won’t be seeing them. (But, yes, I went out and checked anyway.)

If you happen to see this post in the next couple of hours (early morning hours of Friday, May 24th) and you’re anywhere near the mid-US or parts northward and your sky is even a bit clear … go take a peak.  Let me know if you see anything, especially if it’s spectacular.

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March 22, 2023 · 23:39

Timely Rainbows

There were some unpleasant and troubling bits of news delivered today. It was tough. Still is, going to need some time to process, time I might not have.

Nothing life threatening. No one’s dying, no one’s got cancer. We’ll figure it out. (We always do.) But it might not be as much fun as we had hoped for.

On my secondary desktop I had one of the Virtual Railfan sites up and running as eye candy. Hesperia, CA, to be exact. (Which may become more important soon, but that’s a whole different story and crisis.)

The weather there’s been just as rainy as ours, but just as I was looking, the sun same through.

Image: Virtual Railfan

Nice! I took a picture of the screen and passed it around. Maybe it was a sign. (I don’t believe in “signs,” but any port in a storm and there are no atheists in foxholes, so I’m apparently big on cliches.)

Then I went to take a few breaths outside for a minute.

Do you see it? Way, way, way off in the distance? Over by Griffith Park?

It’s not a whole rainbow, but I’ll take what I can get.

It may not have been big, but it was BRIGHT! This little arc of color really stood out.

It doesn’t show up super bright in this image, but to the naked eye even the violet on the left was vibrant.

As the sun behind me was peeking in and out of the clouds, at times it got even brighter, even if it didn’t get bigger.

Someone today gave me the “Hope is not a plan” quote.

Maybe.

But plans can be developed, and in fact are already in the works.

We don’t get overconfident, but when we say, “We’ll figure it out, we always do,” that’s not bragging, it’s confidence in our abilities and our team.

Plans aren’t made in a vacuum, and they’re not carried out blindly or automatically.

THAT’s where the hope comes in. Rainbows help.

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Filed under Photography, Weather

March 21, 2023 · 23:38

Not Little Bastard

You’ll remember that yesterday a hummingbird, presumably Little Bastard, was found semi-dead on the porch. After making him comfortable, he later revived.

Later, while I was refilling the hummingbird feeders, a hummingbird was perched right outside the kitchen window, near where the now-missing feeder was.

This is not Little Bastard. He’s an Allen’s Hummingbird. This one is (probably) a Rufous Hummingbird.

The whole time I was cleaning and refilling the feeders it sat there, looking at me.

I was thinking maybe it was thanking me for saving Little Bastard, or glaring at me for saving Little Bastard (he is pretty territorial, this one could have moved in on LB’s territory if I hadn’t revived him), but in the end I figure he had just enough brain cells to realize that I was going to bring food back out any moment and he wanted first dibs.

Still a stunningly gorgeous little critter. The way the colors change as his head moves around and the light hits it at different angles is just amazing.

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography