October 21, 2025 · 22:18

Photographing Comet Lemmon – Strike Two

I hauled my binoculars, two tripods, three cameras, and four lenses over a block or two to the dark area where the empty lots in our subdivision are. Few lights, which is good. Scattered clouds, which is bad.

If you click on the image to blow it up, on the right you’ll see the three stars that make up the handle of the Big Dipper. Follow that arch to about just over the right-hand street light in the distance. Right about where that cloud is. That’s where Comet Lemmon C/2025 should be. I’m not seeing it.

Off to the south, there were clouds over Cajon Pass, lit up by the traffic coming up I-15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The predicted peak brightness for Comet Lemmon is about now and in the next day or two. From here out it should be fading slowly. I’ll look for another of those “clear and a bazillion” days and see if we get lucky.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

October 20, 2025 · 23:59

No Joy Photographing Comet Lemmon

Well, extremely limited joy at best. Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) is in the evening sky right now, 60-90 minutes after sunset, in between the “handle” of the Big Dipper (easy to find in the northwest) and Arcturus (the brightest, orange-tinted star just above the horizon in the west). I could spot the coma (head) with binoculars, just a grey, fuzzy puffball, but no tail. I tried to photograph it both with my iPhone and with the good Canon DSLRs using both the wide-angle “light bucket” lens and the “regular” 50 mm lens. In all of the longer exposure photos there’s a fair amount of light from the porch lights at the neighbors’ houses. I can sorta see a fuzzy dot where the comet should be, but not enough to be 100% sure that it’s it. Tomorrow I’ll take the cameras out to some empty land near our house, away from all of the house lights, and see if that helps.

Meanwhile, the atmposphere today was PERFECT for contrails.

The sunset lighting helped!

I do wonder what causes the sawtooth pattern that’s seen so often. Is that an atmospheric effect, or something caused by some sort of pulsing in the engines?

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October 19, 2025 · 23:17

Inland Empire 2025 Work Event

As noted, I work for the ALS Network, a non-profit organization that supports those living with ALS and their families, as well as raising awareness and funds for research. As part of those efforts, we have events all over California and Hawaii. In the past I’ve posted pictures and talked about events in Los Angeles & Ventura Counties – now that I live in the “Inland Empire” (i.e., Riverside & San Bernardino Counties), I’m attending the annual IE event.

The weather today was ideal, which always helps, and our turnout was fantastic.

The Long-Suffering Wife also came along to volunteer and we ended up working the registration station most of the day.

We ended up missing the Chiefs’ game, but it was for an excellent cause. (Given that the Chiefs gave a good old fashioned ass whooping to the hated Raiders, 31-0, it was fine.)

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Filed under ALS Network, Panorama, Photography

October 18, 2025 · 23:38

Fall Is Falling

Having spent my high school years in Vermont, I know what fall foliage is supposed to look like.

It looks like this a lot, just TONS more.

To my high school friends who are probably snickering with embarrassment for me because I’m gushing over a handful of leaves on one tree when they’ve been looking at tens of thousands of acres of riotous color for months – yeah, I get it. You’re right. Let’s see you come out here for fifty years and see how much you miss it when all you have are palm trees and tumbleweeds.

The Forever House has the one maple tree in the front yard, which had a couple of leaves turning shortly after we moved in. Now it’s starting to turn in earnest.

If you think I looked stupid out there snapping pictures of the occasional bright red leaf, wait until they see me in the spring trying to hang a bucket on a tap to make my own syrup!

The Black River from Springfield down to the Connecticut River this isn’t (the three large palm trees give it away) but it’s better than nothing!

Stand by! I’m sure as the High Desert Fall Foliage Season (HDFFS) proceeds I’ll be sharing more pictures!

 

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography

October 17, 2025 · 23:52

What A Long Day

I had more dental surgery scheduled to move to Stage Two on this tooth that cracked in half in June and had to be removed just before we moved in July. I wanted to stick with the dental team that started the surgery program, so we were hitting the road early for 2+ hours on the road.

I got dropped off for surgery, the Long-Suffering-Wife went off to visit her favorite salong team. I got done, she was still being beautified, so I got an Uber to meet her there.

When I got there I went to sit in the car, tried to turn it on to open the windows, and:

A two-hour wait for AAA, expecting to get Hissy towed to our old Honda dealership, which happened to be only two blocks away. Instead the AAA driver jump started the car and we drove it over to the Honda dealer, not trusting it for a 4-hour (rush hour traffic) drive home.

Another hour at the dealer, then just under four hours in traffic to get back home.

Today was Friday? I’m so confused, exhausted, and I had my jaw numbed, stabbed, sliced, and sewn, then had to deal with the car shit.

I might sleep in late tomorrow. I think it’s Saturday and that will be okay.

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Filed under Health, Video

October 16, 2025 · 22:28

Mt San Antonio

Today the clouds cleared out, and as I expected yesterday, Mt San Antonio to our southwest was covered in snow from Tuesday’s storm.

Up here we see the northeast face – the millions in the LA Basin see the southwest face.

When you see a picture postcard photo of downtown LA’s skyscrapers with the snowcapped mountains in the background (think “Hi, MOM! From SoCal & The Rose Parade!”), it’s this mountain that’s the big one.

Known better as “Old Baldy” it peaks out at 10,064 feet, so even in SoCal there’s plenty of snow for a couple of ski resorts.

Yes, you can go surfing in the morning and snow skiing in the afternoon. It’s SoCal! We’re just a bit more toward the fringe edge of SoCal now.

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography

October 15, 2025 · 23:51

First Snow Line

From the pictures I’ve seen, later in the winter when we get snow down to 3,000′ or lower (and they start closing the I-15 from LA to Las Vegas), not only will we (at least briefly) have snow in our yard, but the low hills all around will be covered in snow for weeks and months at a time.

For today, following yesterday’s cold storm, the snow level got down to somewhere below 6,000 feet. Off to our southwest, Mt San Antonio (10,000+ feet) should be a gorgeous, snow-capped wonder, but it was still covered in clouds. However, off to the east, there was some snow on Rattlesnake Mountain (6,093 feet).

Again, not nearly as bright and magnificent as I expect it to be later in the winter, but it’s a first. Through binoculars, the snow line was quite distinct, which I’ve always found to be fascinating.

As I said yesterday, I’m a clueless doof. And easily amused. Hopefully in the same manner as a golden retriever.

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography

October 14, 2025 · 22:49

As The Prophecy Foretold

Okay, so it was more like the National Weather Service than some old crone with a crystal ball or a wizard with a Palantir, but still.

The rain was steady, hard at times, but nothing in the Forever Home leaks, which is good! It was the cold outside that was noticeable – it never even made it to 50ºF.

And yes, the heat in the house DOES work. Still not sure WHERE the furnace or heating equipment is, but fans turn on, warm(er) air comes out of the vents, and the temperature inside slowly creeps up a degree or two.

The other thing that I realize now is that there are three separate gas fireplaces, including one in the master bedroom and one in the living room. It’s not that I didn’t know they were there, and both of our two previous houses had them, but we never USED them. They’re there to hang Christmas decorations and Chiefs flags on! But we’ve tested all of the ones here and know they work – I guess in a pinch they’ll heat up a couple of rooms, right?

Yeah, I know. I’m a clueless doof. This is not news.

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Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Weather

October 13, 2025 · 23:26

Full Feeders

It’s one thing to “know” that the temperature & weather swings are more extreme in the desert – it’s quite another to live here for a while and feel it. While the summer was fairly mild (I think we only had a handful of days that got into triple digits instead of dozens and dozens), now it’s autumn and we’re getting that large and unusually cold storm moving in. The high temperature today was only 58ºF today, and as we speak it’s only 48ºF outside. Tomorrow’s high is only supposed to be about 51ºF, with an inch or more of rain.

In anticipation of there being a lot of cold, wet, miserable, and hungry birds tomorrow, I made sure that all of the feeders were topped off tonight, just as the front of the storm and the first rain started.

The Forever Home does as good of a job staying warm in the chill as it does staying chill in the heat. It’s nippy, but we haven’t had to turn on the heat yet. Which got me to thinking – where’s the furnace? I know that the two thermostats have “heat” settings as well as “cool” settings, and I know that there are two A/C units outside. Are those heat pumps? Are there furnace units built into the A/C units? Are there furnace units on the roof or in the attic? I know what the furnace looks like and where it was located in a closet-like enclosure in our last two houses, but I haven’t seen anything at all like that here.

New home ownership! It’s an adventure! I guess when the time comes I’ll switch the thermostat on and see if hot air comes out of the vents. Assuming it will, I can listen for new sounds to see if I can identify the source.

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Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography, Weather

October 12, 2025 · 23:24

Nocturnal Visitor

The Forever Home came already equipped with a half dozen solar powered, motion activated security lights around the roofline. Last night I just happened to be wandering around a little after 4:00 (I’m an old dude with a history of kidney stones so I stay very well hydrated – you do the math!) when one of the lights outside in the back turned on.

I didn’t see anything out there and I wasn’t going to go get dressed to go out and investigate. Given the temps in the low 50’s, I wasn’t wandering out naked, either. So I was going to ignore it until a second light came on. I still didn’t see anything out there, so I made a note of the time to remind me to check the security cameras.

This is just after that first security light turned on – along the wall on the left you can see a pair of ***eyes*** strolling this way. Not that spooky, just what I expected. Possum? Raccoon? Something more domestic?

Three minutes later, just before the second security light activated on the right, the cat started investigating something around the treadmill that’s stored out on the porch. Big surprise!

It only took a couple minutes to see that the critter in question (I’m assuming it’s just the one, hard to tell with the low light, infrared images) is out there a couple of times a week. There’s nothing for it to eat other than bird seed, but if it should catch a rodent of some sort, so much the better.

Oh, and while I had seen a large owl perched out on the pergola at sunset, I was surprised that I hadn’t heard one. The ones in West Hills were quite noisy. Well, there were at least a couple hooting it up on Friday night, so that might be another hazard for the stray cat. One of those full sized Great Horned Owls will make a stray cat a meal in a heartbeat!

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Filed under Critters