June 16, 2021 · 23:34

Calm

I’ve heard of the “Calm” app, used for meditation, relaxation, white noise, stress relief, and so on. A couple of folks at work (back in the days when we congregated in this odd place called an “office“) swore by it.

These days I was thinking about something like that, and checked it out. Okay, I can give that a shot, skeptic though I am.

$59.95 a year.

I’m also an incredibly cheap skeptic about certain things, for the record.

But then I remembered that we were told a year or so ago, once the pandemic was really picking up steam and ye olde shite was really hitting ye olde fan, that Kaiser Permanente Medical clients could get it for free. Was that deal still on the table?

Yes, it is! Score!

No meditation yet, no time. (Yes, I know the old joke. Guru – “You must mediate twenty minutes a day.” Student – “BUT I DON’T HAVE TWENTY MINUTES TO SPARE!” Guru – “Ahhh. Then you must meditate forty minutes a day!”) But I am enjoying the white noise background sounds, particularly the variety of rain noises.

Am I calmer today? Maybe, maybe not. But I sure have to pee a lot more often!

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June 15, 2021 · 23:22

More Freakin’ Lizards

California may be officially “open” again, but some of us are still about 99.99% up to our eyeballs in work between this and that and the other thing, so while I’ll be looking for new and different things to start sharing after 15 months of birds, flowers, lizards, and various celestial objects, that may take a few days to get to.

Again I’ve changed my nickname for the semi-tailless, completely left feet-less, dude on the left. I think “Warrior!” was the last thought I had, but it doesn’t just roll off the tongue when I’m chatting with him, so currently I’m going with “Monsieur Badass.”

Normally he’s more hiding near the tires rather than out in the open.

I don’t think this is Doctor Lizardo. My gut feeling is that this dude’s smaller, younger, different markings, and he looks to be still on his first tail. But it could be him and I might be clueless and making this up as I go along.

Then Monsieur Badass made this face right after sucking up a half-dozen ants that were foolishly trying to scoot along that groove between the bricks and concrete in front of him. Okay, that explains why he’s here instead of next to the tires. It’s dinner time!

Mmmm… Ants. There are lots of them around and they’re not real bright about changing course when the ants in front of them are running full tilt into the gaping maw of a tiny dinosaur relative.

That also explains the faceoff in the driveway between the two of them – those are Monsieur Badass’ ants, go find your own! And, in fact, about two seconds after I took this last picture, M. Badass did chase this dude away.

It’s a lizard eat ants sort of world out there.

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Filed under Critters, Photography

June 14, 2021 · 23:23

No Context For You – June 14th

Is that my finger in the way?

In the way of what? My chin? Someone else’s chin? A different body part? A flesh-toned non-body part?

What’s that ribbed pattern? Was something large and corduroy-like following me?

So many questions.

Indiana? Ohio? Missouri? Maryland? Pennsylvania? New York? Vermont? New Hampshire? Florida?

Oh, dear god, not Florida. At least there’s one answer.

Panic? Don’t panic? (There’s a good one…)

Maybe that’s an arm and an elbow-y thing.

Don’t panic. Yet.

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Filed under Photography

June 13, 2021 · 22:39

Crescent Moon & Venus & Mars – June 13th

A tale of three pictures in one sky, and the different camera equipment needed to tell those three stories.

I thought that the Moon would still be close enough to Venus to be captured in one frame using the 75-300 mm zoom lens – NOPE! Too far apart tonight. So I had to go back into the house and get the camera with the 18-55 mm “normal” lens. Zoomed in to 55 mm, you can just get the Moon at top left, Mars directly below it, and Venus just quite not setting in the lower right. Good thing that gap in the trees is there and my front yard is a bit elevated. What a glorious thing a flat western horizon would be!

The Moon is about three days past new, so along the terminator line you can start to see some nice shadows in the craters. This is using the big lens at 300 mm.

But if you wait for it to get a bit darker and then you overexpose the Moon, you can spot Mars directly below it. Also using the 300 mm zoom lens, just using a 1 second exposure instead of a 1/100 second exposure.

The Moon is on it’s merry way up toward the zenith and full moon in ten days. Venus is climbing away from the Sun while Mars is sinking toward the Sun. Keep an eye on July 10th and 11th! Venus, Mars, and the just-past new crescent (AGAIN!) Moon will all be piled up in a wonderful conjunction. This June arrangement is just a rehearsal!

 

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space

June 12, 2021 · 21:36

Crescent Moon & Venus – June 12th

Looking at how often I post variations of this exact shot, with the two or three or four-day old crescent moon and Venus or Saturn or Jupiter or some combination of them all, you would almost think that there’s some pattern here…

As the prophecy (i.e, the astronomical ephemeris) foretold, the Moon has passed Venus to the west of the Sun.

Tonight I remembered to go out about 45 minutes earlier than last night. It worked (of course).

In the not-quite-dark-yet dusk, the Moon was a crescent, two and a half days (ish) from full moon (which caused that partial and annular solar eclipse on Thursday morning, remember?) with lots of Earthshine.

It was wonderful, clear, cool, a tiny breeze and the stars starting to come out. I could hear two parties going off in the neighborhood – probably graduation celebrations.

As Venus was headed toward the horizon somewhere far beyond Santa Barbara, the Moon was perched atop this tree, with some large hawk or raptor of some sort having just glided in to roost in the tree just at the lower right.

As it got darker, even though the Moon was sinking down into the coastal haze, the Earthshine got easier to see.

I’m grateful that it was clear two days in a row – given the week’s forecast for hot, Hot, HOT weather every day, we might be able to luck out for the rest of the week. Of course, it’s also predicted to be 117° to 120°+ all week, so that’s a mixed blessing.

If you can get a chance to see these two planetary objects over the next couple of nights after sunset, take it! Just go out and sit and watch for a bit. (Put on bug spray…)

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space

June 11, 2021 · 23:43

Harassing Moon

Yesterday morning the Moon was out there harassing the sun, causing a partial solar eclipse for many on the US East Coast and into Great Britain, with a few lucky folk way, way up north getting to see a short annular eclipse. Google it, there are some great photos.

Having finished with messing around with the Sun, tonight the very thin crescent moon was threatening Venus.

I caught it a couple of minutes later than I should have. It was pretty low, but there was a little bit of gap between those trees that I could just peek through from the driveway.

Any earlier and it would have been too bright to see the moon – I know, because I went and looked!

It was beautiful and clear. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a couple of nights like that to take pictures over the weekend?

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space

June 10, 2021 · 23:29

Nice Depth Of Field

The color saturation’s pretty good too. Some days it’s better to be lucky than good.

FYI, things seem to be heating up a bit so far as the schedule is concerned, so you might be seeing more of these “one picture, one caption” posts for a while.

We’ll see.

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Filed under Flowers, Photography

June 9, 2021 · 23:04

Fine Feathered Friends – June 09th

On Sunday I told the story of a pair of red-tail hawks that I saw just after I got home with groceries. The first was the literal embodiment of “death from above,” while the second perched on the telephone pole across the street and gave me time to take some pictures.

Thank you for staying there while I grabbed the camera from inside the house!

What are you looking at? Okay, I know that I outweigh this dude (dudette? I don’t know) by about a factor of 100 or so, but I would still give him at least even odds if he really, REALLY decided to take his chances with me.

Now looking for lunch, having apparently decided that I’m not it. Probably too tough and stringy to eat.

Anything downhill? That’s where his mate went with her mourning dove entrée.

What’s that, a lizard? Or maybe one of the bunnies in the bushes?

After taking pictures for over five minutes and praying that he wouldn’t take off, I was now wanting to catch some photos of him flying off (and I needed to rescue those groceries from the car…). Finally he starts to stretch.

And he’s off! Look at those claws! Okay, so forget my 50/50 comment, the betting’s now 60/40 on the hawk.

You can see why their called “red-tailed” hawks! Out over the canyon and gone…

Time to go grab the groceries out of the car.

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Filed under Birds

June 8, 2021 · 23:06

Big Clouds, Mid-Sized Jets, Tiny Hummingbirds

Big clouds. Broken. Puffy. Probably VFR conditions breaking through that deck, but I don’t know if I would push my luck and go through on a check ride.

More clouds to the north but a different pattern. Can you see the tiny hummingbird?

Now can you find the tiny hummingbird? How about the mid-sized jet? A Southwest 747 to be exact, going straight in to Burbank Runway 8. Small compared to the clouds, huge compared to the hummingbird, mid-sized compared to a 747.

It’s all perspective.

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Filed under Birds, Flying, Photography, Weather

June 7, 2021 · 23:56

Watch The Iceland Volcano Continue To Erupt

I’m only semi-functional tonight – it’s been a lot of days of work in a row, and there’s another big thing kicking off this week, so there are few neurons to spare.

But one thing that’s a great diversion for a few minutes here or there when I need a break is watching all of the videos from the volcanic eruption in southwest Iceland.

It started on March 19th, with a mid-sized eruption. Lots of lava, but no huge ash clouds like the eruption a few years back in northern Iceland that shut down air traffic to and from Europe for weeks. No toxic gas emissions that could kill whole towns or groups of nearby spectators and scientists, so the scientists and spectators came in droves.

Then, after a few weeks, a series of smaller fissures started opening up along a line to the northeast. Most of these petered out, but one cinder cone started growing and growing and has now become the main vent. For a while there were spectacular fountains of lava, but these have died down a little bit and been replaced with little surges of lava ever ten minutes or so. Every ten minutes or so 24/7 for weeks, and the valley that all of these vents are in has finally filled.

A couple weeks ago the valley overflowed down into a canyon and started filling up a small valley below, and some time in the last couple of days a second spot overflowed in a HUGE push and now that lower valley is threatening to overflow. Once that happens it’s only a half-mile or so down the hill to the ocean, cutting the Southern Ring Road in the process.

There are six or seven or so cameras set up, all streaming online 24/7. My favorite site is a combination of four screens, one with a map that’s updated every day, the other three cycling through five or six different cameras:

(Image: Tokolosh YouTube Channel)

There are lots of videos on YouTube showing time lapses and other great events through the whole twelve week event so far, with no end in sight.

Like the drones that keep flying over and suffering the consequences of density altitude:

THE FLOOR IS LAVA!

No, really… Be careful out there.

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