August 6, 2019 · 21:32

ISS Pass – August 06th

It’s been a few weeks, and while there have been some nice passes earlier this week, seems that this “adulting” thing has gotten out of control and I’ve had no time to “waste” on things like looking at the night sky.

I fixed that tonight.

The only question was whether I could remember all the lessons I taught myself again last month.

(Image from Heavens-Above.com – why aren’t you using them?)

  • Prep and know where I’ll be looking (NE as the ISS is rising, almost due west as it sets, going past the bowl of the Big Dipper, past Lyra near the zenith)
  • Know in advance how big the frame is so I know when to switch to the next setup
  • Set the lens wide open (f 3.5)
  • Set the exposure length (5 seconds)
  • Set the focus
  • Lock the focus so the camera doesn’t try to auto-focus and ruin everything on the first shot
  • Start shooting early and finish late
  • TRUST IN YOUR SETUP AND PREPARATION, FOLLOW THE PLAN!

Action…

(Images combined using StarStaX software.)

Like a boss! There’s the Big Dipper and while the view to the west is just a quarter shade too bright in five-second exposures, it’s not bad. The ISS came up out of that tree exactly where I thought it would. The Southwest Airlines 737 into Burbank on the other hand was not listed on Heavens-Above.com.

Timing was perfect. I “wasted” six pictures (30 seconds) before the first frame that showed the ISS and I shot only two pictures after the ISS departed the upper right corner of the frame.

Flip to the next position, take your time, set it up. Think for a second – is the ISS headed exactly where you thought it was going to go? Maybe make the tiniest of adjustments to the left. And….action!

Just about perfect! I shot two pictures prior to the ISS entering the upper left and two more after it had set in the lower right.

There were a few clouds down over Hollywood and downtown LA, but not enough to make a huge difference. Click on the picture to blow it up to full size (I’m giving you the full-sized, no-compression image, so use it!) and you can see that the ISS was fading into shadow on the last few frames.

And…

AND!!!

Do you see the surprise bonus? That other track, going from the middle right (due south) to the upper left (due north) would be a polar satellite that I caught by accident!

I’ll take it. I might actually have this thing down.

Now to figure out how to do it with the camera mounted on my telescope mount tracking the stars – that would keep the stars from trailing. (The trees and ground will blur, but not the stars.)

Next goal!!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space

August 5, 2019 · 23:54

Ring Around The Sun (With BBQ)

It seems that the weekends are distinguished from the weekdays only in that they slightly less hectic and crazed and busy. Not relaxing, not calm, not restful, merely the thinnest of shades less exhausting.

This weekend we managed to squeeze in a quick BBQ in 102° heat.

With the kids all grown up and moved out, the grill often seems a little empty and lonely. There’s some joy to be found in having a crowd over and milling about with beverages in hand, conversation bouncing all over the yard, and a jam-packed grill sizzling along with a second shift of assorted fare ready to go on as soon as the first round is off to the table.

While it was hot, there was a thin layer of high clouds. It made it a pain to see the ISS pass later that evening, but there was a nice 22 degree halo around the sun when I turned around from the grill.

It’s the little things. You’ve got to take them when you can find them.

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Filed under Castle Willett, Photography, Weather

August 4, 2019 · 17:19

Lesson Learned – August 04th

A two-day beard on a guy in a Hallmark movie means he’s hunky and sexy and probably the studmuffin de jour. It doesn’t matter if he’s the stick-up-his-ass city guy who’s going to get dumped, the old high school flame, or the small town single dad with a heart of gold who he’s going to be replaced with. Hunky. Sexy. Studmuffin.

A two-day beard on a sixties-something, slightly pudgy guy who just wants to relax a bit for the weekend does not equal “hunky.” Or “sexy.” Or “studmuffin.”

No – think “homeless.” Or “alcoholic.”

Or both.

No, there will not be pictures. A man’s got to know his limitations.

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Filed under Paul

August 3, 2019 · 23:36

Birthday Knight Out

Not my birthday, but our daughter’s, one of those that end in a zero. So we’re the old pharts that got to go along with her and all of her wild and crazy friends to eat with our hands and watch dudes in very extravagant costumes ride horses and pretend to fight with various swords, flails, lances, and maces. (Macii? Maceses? Mace?)

It’s bright and colorful and loud…

…but I couldn’t help but wonder what their worker’s comp rates must be like.

I need to update my usual profile picture, but I’m not sure this is the one to use. I think at the moment I was not only contemplating how I looked in the crown, but the fact that our youngest child is now starting her fourth decade.

I can’t possibly be that old!

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Filed under Family, Photography

August 2, 2019 · 20:44

Naked Plenum & T-Bar

Any number of sins can be hidden above those ceiling tiles, up where the plenum air is rare.

Duct work. Insulation. Pipes. Conduit.

So you thought Bruce Willis might be crawling around up there with a machine gun. (Yes, it IS a Christmas movie, even if you’ll never see it on the Hallmark Channel!)

Highly unlikely, unless Bruce has lost a truly significant amount of weight.

Not sure what that T-bar grid is rated for in terms of weight capacity, but I’ll guarantee that it’s in the tens of pounds, not in the hundreds. It doesn’t take much to bring it all down, if that’s what you’re in the mood for.

Lots of interesting things can be hidden up there, some for aesthetic reasons, some for more mischievous reasons. (Poor Mr. Barstow – never did find that radio we hid up there in high school algebra class one day.)

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Filed under Art, Photography

August 1, 2019 · 23:36

No Context For You – August 01st

I leave myself reminders – then the weight of the world drags my head down to where I can’t even look up to see them.

The chains holding me down are no less strong or real for being non-physical. I have to remember that I can fly, both physically and emotionally, but it’s difficult when there seem to be so many things holding me down, pressing me into the earth and rooting me there like an maple tree.

But the maple releases its seeds as little whirligigs, spinning away on the breezes. Tomorrow I’ll try to remember that.

More whirli needed, perhaps less gig.

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Paul, Photography

July 31, 2019 · 23:51

There Are Two Knobs

Speaking of adventures in driving, I’ve recently been routinely driving the Volvo for various reasons. It’s a nice car, but the dashboard layout is a bit unfamiliar to me still.

In particular, there are two big knobs in the center console, one above the other. One controls the fan for the heat and air conditioning, the other the volume for the sound system. There have been several instances (including again this evening) when I reach over without double checking. It’s been really hot, the car’s been sitting in the sun, and it’s important that I get the A/C kicked up to MAX AIRFLOW instantly if not sooner.

Guess what happens if I’m not careful?

Fortunately it was a good song. (“Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo.)

The ringing in my ears should go away in a day or two!

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Filed under Music, Paul

July 30, 2019 · 23:59

There Was A Bug

A ***BIG*** freaking bug!

Okay, so it wasn’t a huntsman spider from Australia or a camel spider. But it was far, Far, FAR bigger than I was expecting. Especially since I wasn’t expecting it at all.

I was driving at the time. I felt something on my left hand, on the steering wheel, and looked down to find SpiderZilla crawling across the back of my hand.

I used words my mother would not approve of at truly astonishing volume.

I did not lose control of the car. But not for lack of trying. My attention was definitely elsewhere, despite my speed and the number of cars and trucks surrounding me.

While screaming like a little girl expressing my dismay, since I couldn’t really use my right hand to swat at it, I shook my hand and it fell off.

Which is not necessarily better.

You see it, right?

SpiderZilla is now down on the floor. Or on the seat. Or on my leg. Or crawling up my pant leg. Or…

Should I pull over? Stop in the middle of traffic? While that would no doubt be my first move if it had been a rattlesnake, it wasn’t clear that blocking a lane in rush hour was called for. Not for a…

…a what? What kind of spider had it been, besides **BIG**? Was it actually a spider? It had looked…

I had only seen it for half a second as I was freaking out. Yeah, it was a bug, it might have been a spider – but it might have been a cricket or something else, I guess. Maybe.

It was brown. If it was a spider, was it a brown recluse, a “brown widow”? Did they get that big, and if so, why am I still living in this part of the world?

And then…

There it was, crawling up from below. Fortunately, not on me. It was coming up the side of the center console.

Yes, it was that big, probably at least four inches long. No, it probably wasn’t a spider. But no, I had no freaking idea what it was.

My best guess is some sort of mantis or “walking stick” bug. Not like anything I had ever seen before around these parts.

But now I wanted it dealt with. Permanently. Before I did lose control of the car and be without a decent excuse about why I caused the accident that was going to happen  if I didn’t deal with it.

So with a clear shot, while holding my lane and watching out for traffic ahead, I squished that little bugger into next week’s protoplasm.

Not what a good entomologist would do, but I was a physics major, so screw that!

 

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Filed under Critters, Distracted Driving

July 29, 2019 · 23:10

Yet Another Damn Near Perfect Movie

“Parenthood”

Ron Howard’s a genius. That ensemble cast is stellar. From scene to scene I can’t even decide who’s more perfect.

Jason Robards? The only movie I like more of his is “Something Wicked This Way Comes.”

Mary Steenburgen? Perfection.

Dianne Wiest? There’s a reason she got an Oscar nomination for this film.

Keanu Reeves? The scene where he explains to Dianne Wiest why her son is upset and depressed is freaking brilliant.

Tom Hulse? Just wanna slap his stupid punk ass up one side and down the other. Only his role in “Amadeus” is better.

Not a single bad scene in the entire film.

Agree with me or resign yourself to being wrong.

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Filed under Entertainment, Movies

July 28, 2019 · 23:18

The Nest

We’ve got a couple of bird nests on the back porch. We’ve seen the adult birds flying in and out, but I haven’t been bothering the nests or trying to peek in there to see if there were eggs.

Then it got noisy this weekend. REAL noisy.

By my account, there are at least four babies in there. Sometimes I think that I can see a fifth, but I never got pictures with all five, so we’ll call that fifth one Schroedinger.

There’s the troublemaker, who was already out and down on the vines. I’m not sure that’s a good career move at this stage of life, but you do you, dude! Then there’s the one above them, not in the nest by out on the 4×8 beam. They must have gotten tired of being in that crowded nest, where the two “good kids” have stayed where they were told to.

That was yesterday.

Today they were quieter, but I only saw three of them early in the day.

Later today, when I caught them being fed, there were just two.

Then this guy was seen hopping around on the ground

He wasn’t flying, he was hopping. I opened the door and he took off like a flapping little bat out of hell into the bushes. I let him go, despite my doubts about his life expectancy out of the nest.

He didn’t look close to being ready to fly, and out of the nest he wasn’t going to get fed. It was well over 100° out there, so that wasn’t going to help.

We put out some water and bread crumbs. We never saw this little guy partaking, but the mockingbirds and a squirrel were grateful.

Does anyone know what the mortality rate is on house wrens? I’m guessing about 50/50, but it’s a small data set. Either way, there seem to be plenty of them around. They’re hardly endangered.

We’ll see how many are there tomorrow.

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Filed under Castle Willett, Critters