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
October 3, 2023 · 22:37

Pictureless

There was a truly spectacular ISS pass tonight, the station rising in the northwest just as it got truly dark and sailing about 80%+ across the sky before fading into darkness in the west. It was amazingly bright, something like Magnitude -3.9. I noticed the time just a minute before it was set to rise, so I didn’t have time to grab my camera and tripod and gear and get it set up in time. So I went out into the front yard and simply watched. It was wonderful.

The red-shouldered hawks were at it again, something like the 7th or 8th day in a row that they’ve been in the pine trees below us on the hill. I wonder if they might be building a nest nearby. For much of the time they were being raucous outside I was on a Zoom meeting and couldn’t go out to take pictures, but I listened to them from inside. They were loud enough so that the rest of the staff could have heard them if I hadn’t been on mute. I enjoyed listening to them, even if I didn’t see them or get any pictures.

I saw several lizards in the back yard, but never when I had my camera with me. I had my phone, but they weren’t that close, so I just let it go. We had a nice conversation about how warm it was getting again, nearly 90ºF today and getting even warmer for the week ahead. They enjoyed that news quite a bit, but I had to remind them to watch out for the birds. I’m not sure the hawks would bother with something as small as them, but the scrub jays and mockingbirds most certainly would.

The hummingbirds were out, starting to complain that the feeders are getting low. I was too busy today to clean and refill them, but I promised to look at it tomorrow. They’re fine for today, but they do get nervous. No pictures were taken.

The rose bush that had given me the one fantastic pink and white bloom a few weeks ago has decided to cough up a handful more. For some reason when I went out to get the mail I didn’t have my phone with me to take pictures. Huh! That almost never happens. But it did today. The blooms will wait for their closeups another day.

I happened to be out just before 17:00 when I caught the UPS 757 banked over right over our house to turn to final approach for Burbank Runway 08. It’s a regular flight, but sometimes they turn inside of us to the east, sometimes swing in more from the Porter Ranch area. It’s a honkin’ big plane (that’s an official aviation term) and when they cross overhead they’re just extending their flaps so it looks even honkin’er bigger. I just watched, enjoyed the way it floated through the air, listened as those two big engines spooled down as the power was pulled back.

All of these things happened without any photos to share or other proof that I experienced them. I simply experienced them and held onto the memories.

Which brings me to one of the two or three best scenes ever filmed:

Today, no rain. There might still be tears.

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Flowers, Space

October 2, 2023 · 23:11

Fearless Lizard

This dude’s new and it’s unusual to see one this small this late in the year. Maybe six inches long, it sure was a pretty one. And utterly fearless!

Normally when they’re smaller-ish they’re skittish and will bail into the bushes at the slightest movement. It was outside the doors from the kitchen and I figured it would bail the second I turned back inside to grab the camera. Nope, it’s still there when I came back out and it never twitched, even when I got within maybe three feet of it and walked all the way around to get a good view of all sides.

I’m no expert, but my observation has been that we get a ton of the teeny tiny hatchlings in the spring, some that survive and get to this size in the summer, and by fall only the bigger survivors are still around. But I’e got some hatchlings in the front yard in the last couple of weeks, so it seems that cycle has been messed up.

The markings on its back are great. This is almost certainly a “blue belly,” but it was keeping that part of its anatomy hidden.

Another sign that it’s younger is the fact that it has all of its pieces. No missing toes or tail that I can see.

I thought it was being fearless in never moving, but it could have just been terrified and hoping that I didn’t see it. Not the best strategy. He’s brownish, on a brownish sidewalk, but he’s not that stealthy.

The other option was that he was toasty warm (it’s been cool and cloudy) and decided if he was going to die, he was going to do it warm. I can really respect that, not that I was going to harm him in any way to begin with.

Go! Reproduce! Stay warm! Eat ants! Get bigger!

You have nothing to fear from me! Now, those crows, ravens, hawks, mockingbirds, and scrub jays – they’re not taking pictures, they want to invite you to lunch!

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Filed under Critters, Photography

October 1, 2023 · 23:04

The Moon & Jupiter

The Moon is a day or three past full, and tonight it’s fairly close to Jupiter, which is quite bright. As bright as Jupiter is, it’s thousands of times dimmer than the 89% illuminated Moon. Which makes it challenging to get a picture of them together. Getting a picture of the Moon along with Jupiter and the Galilean moons is even tougher.

The Moon is easy enough to capture. In fact, with my Canon xTi and a Tamron 75-300 mm zoom lens, the biggest problem is that it’s almost TOO bright. That camera’s fastest exposure speed is 1/4000 second. This photo is at 1/2500 second, just two steps down.

Jupiter and its four Galilean moons are also easy enough to capture. From lower left to upper right, you can see Europa, Io, Ganymed, and Callisto. (If you ever look at Jupiter and want to know which one is which at that moment, go look at the “Jupiter’s Moons” page on the Sky & Telescope website.)

Trying to capture them both together, I took a full set of “bracketed” exposures, from 1/4000 second (where the Moon is fine, Jupiter is barely visible, and none of the Galilean moons can be seen at all) to 1 second (where the Moon is COMPLETELY overexposed but you can see Jupiter and the Galilean moons clearly). The best compromise is at about 1/1250 seconds, with the Moon overexposed and blurry but recognizeable and Jupiter just visible without any of its moons.

You might have to click on it to make it full-screen sized in order to see Jupiter on the far right.

What’s interesting is that as the Moon gets totally overexposed, the internal reflections of that super bright object start to show up like ghosts and they’re close enough to still being in focus to be recognized.

The real Moon is in the upper left, Jupiter and its moons on the right, and the internal reflection (the ghost Moon) is in the lower right. Not necessarily useful, but still cool and appropriate for October!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

September 30, 2023 · 23:22

Skyscapes – September 30th

So long, September. You could have been worse, I guess.

We were hoping for some rain overnight, and while there were some scattered showers all around the Southern California area, they all missed us. We didn’t get a drop.

Remember, for those who haven’t lived here, the “Southern California area” is roughly the size of  New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, along with big chunks of western Pennsylvania and northern Virginia. Think of the New York City to Washington, D.C. corridor, with Philadelphia and Baltimre thrown in and you’re getting in the ballpark.

Tomorrow begins October. Having nuns in my head means that I’m eternally optimistic. Not being an idiot means that I know what the odds are against anything getting better real quickly.

Being raised with that whole Boomer, Midwestern, Puritan work ethic mindset means that I recognize that dichotomy and know that “the best way out is always through.” (Frost,  “A Servant To Servants”) There’s also that whole “the Lord helps those who help themselves” thing, although it’s uncommon (at best) for me to be quoting the Bible.

So today I enjoyed looking at the clouds, feeling the breezes, watching the red-shouldered hawks fighting with the red-tailed hawks, and laughing at the squirrels and mourning doves hiding from both.

Tomorrow I’ll get up, flip off September’s memory, look sternly at October and warn it to not get cute, get groceries, do laundry, change the sheets, watch some football (CHIEEEEFS!), and get back to work.

What was that definition of “insanity” again?

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Filed under Photography, Weather

September 29, 2023 · 23:43

Zillow Listings

Over the past three years or so I’ve looked at a LOT of listings on Zillow. Thousands of them. Possibly ten thousand or more. More of the reasons and story and results some other time, but right now I notice there are a couple of red flags that just really are starting to get on my nerves.

Dear Mr. or Ms. Realtor, let me make sure I have this correct. You want me to put my trust in you and pay someone something between $400,000 and $700,000, with you getting what? 5%? 6%? You want me to let you be my guide through a gazillion details on what will probably be the biggest financial transaction of my life. A complex, detailed transaction that I’ll maybe do once or twice in my life but which you do every day, because you’re the expert, the professional.

And yet…

And yet, when writing and posting the Zillow ad copy, you can’t be bothered to proofread it for spelling errors that should embarrass a third grader? Spelling and grammar aren’t your strong points? Okay, you’re trying to earn a $40,000 payday on this gig, maybe spend $50 on ten minutes of a proofreader’s time. Or at least ask what that red, squiggly line right there means in Microsoft Word.

Perhaps it’s not an outright deal killer, but it does not instill confidence.

These drone shots are gorgeous and that spectacular sunset is a wonder to behold!

Until, of course, you realize that that exact same sunset, or at least its AI cousin, is in every! single! listing! And if you know anything about computers and software these days, you realize that the latest version of Photoshop has a pushbutton feature that will add that sunset skyline to any photo. I’m sure that there are some spectacular sunsets in the upper desert. But this isn’t one of them.

In fact, if you look through the rest of the pictures for this particular house, you’ll find this:

Now look closely at the first picture with the fake sunset, down at the bottom where the bright sun is casting shadows of that iron fence on the ground beneath and between the tumbleweeds. Those look exactly like the shadows in the lower picture, cast by the bright sun overhead some time around mid day. Yet the sun is supposed to be setting on the far horizon…

It’s not AI, it’s not a rendering with some decent software that will adjust the shadows and other effects of perspective. It’s a Photoshop plug-in that darkened everything to make it look like dusk, added the sun and purple-pink sunset clouds, and make all of the windows yellow, a so-so first attempt to make them look like there were lights on in the house. But that’s it.

I get it. It’s advertising. And I know that these days a lot of the interior pictures are “digitally staged” with fake furniture and wall decorations and paintings. Which makes me immediately ask, “What else has been digitally ‘enhanced’?” Are there stains and wear on the carpets or floors that have been removed? Are there stains or holes or damage that have been “removed?” Are the appliances or ceiling fans “digital enhancements?”

The other thing that I know is done is that the interior pictures are taken with an ultra wide angle lens, making the rooms look MUCH bigger than they truly are. That’s been striking when we’ve actually looked at places in person. Having poured over a few dozen pictures of a place I really liked, seeing it in person was disorienting at first. It was the house I had been looking at for months – but it wasn’t.

I don’t think there are a lot of regulations on what’s allowed and what’s not in terms of “truth in advertising” on these ads. At the far extreme, sure, you can’t actually show a different house or rooms that just don’t exist. But I don’t think anyone shows 100% factual, accurate, “normal” photos with no manipulation used.

Which is why when the time comes to be ready to push the button, we’re going to go physically walk through a lot of houses. (Probably not ten thousand plus!)

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Filed under Forever Home, Paul

September 28, 2023 · 23:39

SWA3514 SAN To SFO

Sunset tonight, off the coast of Ventura, approaching Santa Barbara, heading northwest at 38,000 feet.

Southwest Airlines 737-7H4, registration N221WN, at 435 knots from San Diego to San Francisco. (ID from FlightRadar 24 app)

I might not be travelling enough. By an order of magnitude or more.

“A rut is just a grave with the ends knocked out.” I have no idea who said that, but I remember it from when I was about 12 or 13.

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Filed under Flying, Photography, Sunsets

September 27, 2023 · 23:50

Fine Feathered Friends – Red-Shouldered Hawk

Earlier this week there was a pair of red-shouldered hawks flying overhead, screaming, upsetting our local pair of red-tailed hawks, who promptly drove them off.

They’re back! I went out to the kitchen to get a soda and heard them screaming. I assumed that they were flying around again so I grabbed the camera. One was circling, but the other was roosting in the pine tree in the neighbor’s yard.

It camoflauges very well, doesn’t it? But you can see that pattern of black and white stripes on its wings, as well as the legendary red shoulder.

It was obliging enough to hop around so I could see it from the front.

Given that look, I’m glad that I’m not a squirrel or a mourning dove, a.k.a., “lunch.”

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography

September 26, 2023 · 22:13

Sunset Through The Leaves

Always looking for a different point of view!

Sunsets are often a great subject for a picture. Tonight’s was okay, not great. No clouds, so nothing to turn all purple and orange, but a nice gradient.

However, I was out walking in the back yard and glanced up while I was under all of the overgrown branches on the big tree. The dark green, almost black silhouettes of the leaves contrasted nicely with the bright but fading sunset sky beyond.

The results weren’t quite as spectacular as being there, but they don’t suck. That’s a win! I’ll take it!

Meanwhile, 180º behind me, the Moon was well up, also partially hidden, but this time by the large pine trees going down the hill.

Interesting views everywhere you look!

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Filed under Photography, Sunsets

September 25, 2023 · 23:52

No Context For You – September 25th

Somewhere in my addled, pain dulled, too little sleep, getting old sucks brain are some half formed thoughts about this picture. Something about things in transition, in this case trapped halfway between being dusty and dirty and being clean, halfway between being wet and dry, etc. But like the globules of red goo floating around in a lava lamp, those thoughts are just not coming together today.

On a completely different note, November is now five weeks away. November means NaNoWriMo. I had a lot of fun doing it for three years (search for it, some of it didn’t suck for a first draft) and I’m wondering if I’m guanopsychotic enough to try it again with everything else going on.

Of course, we know the answer to that.

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Filed under Paul, Photography

September 24, 2023 · 23:33

You Can’t Take A Bad Picture Here – September 24th

In a mood for reasons unknown and that mental rabbit hole led me to be looking back on some travel adventures.

I’m not sure what Prague has to do with the meloncholy favorite Kenny Chesney song that popped up on my music feed and seems to have triggered the mood. I never saw a lot of sand or surf in Prague, although there was some country & western music – but that’s a story for a different day I think.

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

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Filed under Music, Photography, Travel