January 21, 2026 · 22:01

iOS Phone Night Mode Upgrade

Apparently in Apple’s iOS 26 upgrade there’s some new capabilities for a “Night Mode,” even on an older iPhone 13 like mine. I stumbled on it when I was out looking for non-existant aurora the other night.

There were a few clouds, but this isn’t bad at all for an older iPhone being held by hand. Jupiter’s the bright spot in the mid-upper left, with Orion in the upper right, and Sirius being the bright star in the mid-lower right.

The big change when you find and use “Night Mode” is apparently the 10 second exposure. In normal mode, the maximum exposure is 3 seconds.

This even works with the telephoto lens in use, as seen here by a closeup of Orion. You can even see a fair bit of the luminosity around the Orion Nebula, the “middle star” in the “sword.”

It’s not a razor-sharp image, but it’s not bad! As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you, so even with a telescope and some high-powered DSLRs in the house, being able to take these with the iPhone in your pocket is pretty cool.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

January 20, 2026 · 23:58

Why Was I In A Gym & Pissed Off

And not just any old gym, but the one at the local LDS church/school. That’s where our local blood drive is every three months, it appears. No more of this having a Red Cross donation center open seven days a week just two miles away!

And I was pissed because I got deferred again, not able to donate. That’s the last four times in a row. Getting old sucks.

Once ws because of low iron, which made no sense until I realized that a certain food that I had had the night before can drastically lower your iron levels.

Once was because of a high hear rate, which made no sense until I remembered that I had pigged out earlier in the day on some good chocolate, with a ton of caffeine in it.

Today was the old nemesis – blood pressure. Two lousy points high.

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Filed under Health, Photography

January 19, 2026 · 23:23

No Aurora For SoCal, Again

And again, that’s probably for the best.

I did go out to check (temps in the mid 40’s, a few thin clouds) but the view to the north was lacking in color.

Check out social media for a ton of incredible images from Europe, Scandanavia, Canada, and the northern tier of US states. I saw some images from Northern California, Oregon, northern Nevada, the Virginia/North Carolina border, and northern Arizona, but nothing any further south. We’re probably at least 400 to 500 miles too far south.

That’s okay. As noted in the past, as uber cool as it would be to see to see aurora from SoCal, doing so probably involves an event at least as powerful as the 1859 Carrington Event, which would have massive side effects that would be catastrophic to our society and infrastructure. Being without an electric grid, the Internet, airline travel, and all of the related distruptions to our economic structure, food supplies, and trade would not be my idea of a good time. It was highly disruptive in 1859 – it would be a nightmare today.

So, no aurora for SoCal, again.

As it should be!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space

January 18, 2026 · 22:31

There Are Three Squirrels

Our feral rodent colony keeps growing – the past three days I’ve seen a third squirrel out in the back yard cavorting with Two-Tone and #2.

No pictures yet – they’re skittish and as soon as I unlatch the plantation shutters to get a clear view with a camera, they’re gone! Which confirms that they’re the ones living under the pergola, with entrances dug on both ends.

It gets cool at night, down into the low 40’s and upper 30’s, so where we see them first in the morning is on top of the cinder block wall, soaking up the early morning sun as much as possible. Given the hawks I’ve seen around here, that sounds like a dangerous, indefensible position, but who am I to give life advice to a squirrel?

The third one doesn’t seem notably smaller than the first two, so I don’t get the sense that it’s a baby or newborn. But again, what do I know? It could be that #2 is a mate to Two-Tone and they’ve been cohabitating and giving birth for months under the pergola floor, and only now that it’s older and larger is the new squirrel coming out into the open.

All three of them seem to have the white neck ring that I first saw when I named “Two-Tone.” That could mean that they’re all related, or it could mean that they’re all the same subspecies of critter. My money’s on the second one.

I wonder if I can rig a remote trigger on one of my Canon DSLRs or an old iphone and put it outside of their tunnel or on top of the wall to get closeup pictures without freaking them out…

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Filed under Critters, Forever Home

January 17, 2026 · 22:21

Random Old Photos – January 17th

It was 42 years ago last night that the Northridge earthquake woke us up in the middle of the night. We were only about five miles from the epicenter, but we escaped with minimal damage (two of the cinder block walls separating our back yard from the neighbors’ back yards went down and had to be demolished and replaced) and a lot of books and dishes and games and clothes to pick up and put back on shelves.

I thought that I might find some pictures from then, but I didn’t have a digital camera then and I’ve only digitized a small handful of my film archives. One of those projects for “someday,” i.e., when I retire and have the time, i.e., six months after I’m dead.

So from 32 years ago, not 42, here are a couple of Vermont summer pictures. I’ve got lots of them in that class, with high school reunions every five years and family who lived there for decades.

The Connecticut River valley from a rest stop near the top of Mount Ascutney, New Hampshire on the other side, stretching off to the east.

An extremely bright roadside flower (coen flower, maybe?) from the rest stop.

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Filed under Flowers, Photography, Travel

January 16, 2026 · 23:39

Two Planes

I was out trying to stretch my legs (this afternoon? yesterday? Wednesday? They all blur together) and I saw two jet contrails heading more or less west or west northwest.

The top contrail is from the first plane:

(Image: FlightAware)

I wasn’t thrilled about being where I was, but at least I wasn’t going to Fresno. (The raisin capital of the world!)

The second, lower contrail was more interesting.

(Image: Flightaware)

Okay, a 15-hour flight to Taipei would be quite the haul, but it would be cool to be in a country that I’ve never visited before, seeing things that I’ve never seen before. But, who knew that there were non-stop flights from Phoenix to Taipei? I would have never put that on my bingo card. A flight to Honolulu and then a different flight to Taipei? Sure! But a non-stop? Is there really a big enough market for that level of service?

Standing in my front yard, trying to get some blood circulating again in my legs, you learn some of the damndest things!

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Filed under Flying, Photography

January 15, 2026 · 23:29

No Re-Entry Joy For Me

Here’s  the flight path for last night’s SpaceX Crew 11 re-entry to splash down into the ocean off of San Diego.

I went out to watch, but they were a bit too far offshore and I live a bit too far inland, so while they were definitely out there off the coast, they were too low for me to see. Maybe if I had gone out to the edge of the Mesa where it drops off into Cajon Pass to the west…

Others in the LA and Ventura area had much better results. A few selections from social media:

https://www.threads.com/@cgoure/post/DTifPuBkSXH?xmt=AQF0k-nL6oqFR-TlSRlLcRwLt1ekfrqgDO-eAUmVMCm9Yx04GxWeB6zPD7zS1nHO1BZ1Szmu&slof=1

https://www.threads.com/@astro_g_dogg/post/DTjh6rWkQsI?xmt=AQF0iXwO5UyPSl6l5PFpAnCJ3O2kwy7GVuYiFjGzbJSwGULn_e-HNp4dAckLH7FA64K6F4Bg&slof=1

https://www.threads.com/@johnwillsund/post/DThn-UelUw9?xmt=AQF0JY82oRgfLKjGW0Jx8FZ88-c3lhmxMQ1Gh7TaAjUqlIvKDpWLEISNqynWfBRGIIYGGPJs&slof=1

There will be other missions and other similar descending node orbital tracks toward San Diego. Time for me to check out some back roads and find where I can get a good, open view to the west!

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Filed under Forever Home, Space

January 14, 2026 · 23:57

Proof Of Life – January 14th

Somehow, today was busier than yesterday.

More, NEWER cloud pictures from today!

In about 50 minutes the SpaceX Crew 11 spacecraft will be re-entering to splash down off of San Diego, and we might be able to see it. Let’s hope we get lucky.

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Filed under Photography, Weather

January 13, 2026 · 23:49

Proof Of Life – January 13th

Oh, crap, look at the clock. I’m still here – that has so many potential interpretations, both good and bad…

Have some more pretty cloud pictures, it’s all I have time for at the moment.

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Filed under Photography, Weather

January 12, 2026 · 23:55

A New Apple Variety

Well, new for me, at least.

I like apples. I like variety. I like having a variety of apples!

I’m no Chuck Wendig – his social media and his website have had hundreds of posts about heirloom apples and apple snacks and everything related to apples for years and years. (He also writes some pretty awesome books! And was the guy behind all of the “Flash Fiction” prompts and posts about ten years ago.) But he has an advantage, living out in the Pennsultucky region where there are hundreds of family orchards growing heirloom apple varieties.

Here in California they’re 100% paranoid about importing fruit flies and other pests, so none of those fruits are allowed. You can’t go get them and bring them in, you can’t get them by mail order, you can’t have someone send them to you. You just get the five or six varieties in the chain grocery stores.

This one was new this week. I tried it today. Nice, I liked it! Mostly sweet, but a little bit of tang to it. Hard, not mushy. Huge, nice color.

Let me know if you see any Wild Twists and try them. I would like to hear what you think.

Is this the biggest news or the most important thing that happened today? No, not even close. But a lot of the big stuff is bad and worse. This was a good thing. Some days you need to pick your victories wherever you can find them, regardless of size.

A win is a win.

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Filed under Paul, Photography