I've revised the bog a bit more-the biggest change is that my observations listed at iNaturalst.org are listed in the sidebar to the right, for anyone and everyone to see. The list shows my 5 most recent entries, and has a link to a page showing all of them.

iNaturalist is a project run by the California Academy of Sciences that allows "citizen scientists" to make scientifically valid observations for use by scientists and students working in many fields.

I've also added a link to the California Phenology Project in the links box, which is what I collect data for as an NPS volunteer. CPP is always in need of more volunteers-talk to me if you are curious!

newty newt newts

Still enough water here for these California Newts. With no one with me this time, they were a lot more active. I saw at least 7 different ones in three different pools.

People have stolen them in the past, so I'll not mention the location this time.

Coming up for a breath...

...and going down with one

Bobcat

 I was reading one of my regular plants in Rancho Sierra Vista, and  came across a bobcat less than 2m from the trail and about 20 feet away-not unheard of,  but very unusual. It wasn't in dense grass, but in some fairly sparse but tall mustard. I took some pictures from this distance, until I heard it growling quietly, so I decided to leave it alone and move on.

 I had to pass closer to it to get through the area, and it did not like that-here, it has just given me its best roar, ears back,  and looked very unhappy.

An hour later I came back, and didn't see the cat...but while I was looking at the spot it had been lying, it turned up 5 feet away and growling again to my side. I shot the last two pictures while backing away and talking to it. I've never seen one spend this sort of time out in the open in one place. It was about 1:00 PM, which is also an unusual time to see one out and about-they prefer dawn and dusk.

It looks a bit thin, but I don't really know what is normal. Notice the radio collar and ear tag. It's old enough that its ears are pretty well ragged. It might have had a kill with it; at the second encounter, it was licking its chops as I left, but I didn't see anything.

It's pretty large as they go, and it's probably the same one that walked by me last week.

Yesterday, on a hike with a larger group, we found this spiffy gopher snake on Snake Trail. Well over three feet; there was some meat on this one.

Humboldt Lilies at last

After watching these guys for weeks (and finding over 100 plants in upper Sycamore Canyon) I finally have some blooms to show. Some have already peaked and are drying out, and many of the plants are browning back before flowering, but a few are spectacular. The first two pictures are from the very first plant Robin found that started this whole obsession.

There was a pair of extremely agitated woodpeckers in this live oak, but only after getting my pictures home did I see the large gopher snake in their tree, likely looking for tasty eggs. I have much better shots of the birds, but not with the snake in view.

These LBBBs have taken over a swallow's nest. Any help identifying them? It looks like the swallows left because of structural problems...I hope the nest lasts long enough for the chicks to fledge. Outside the restroom at the Rancho Sierra Vista parking lot.

California Soaproot

Robin and I spotted a few of these at the end of a hike last night, so I went back after sundown to try and get some pictures. Chlorogalum pomeridianum-soaproot or amole, is a bulb about the size of an onion, with a few long wavy leaves growing in a clump. The leaves on these two plants were withered and gone. It only blooms in the spring following a fire, and then won't bloom again until the next fire. Even though the flowers are easily visible 50 meters away, I've never noticed one before-possibly because it's a night blooming flower that opens at dusk and is closed by morning, although one source I read said that each night's blooms actually fall off by morning. If anyone knows, leave a comment, please...










It's called soaproot because the bulb contains saponin, which gets foamy when mixed with water. It's been used as a dandruff treatment, which makes me happy that I've shaved my head and freed myself from the tyranny of shampoo. Saponin is toxic, but if you cook or roast the bulb it's safe. It is supposed to taste like an onion, but made of wood. Mmmmm.






The other odd bit of info I found about it was that among the food given to the Donner party by the Native Americans they met was roasted soapwood. 

There are very few of these visible in the park-I've only seen these two plants, one near the Visitor's Center, and two on a hill near some of the plants I'm monitoring for CPP. The stalks were about 4 feet tall, and the flowers about 2 inches.

We went on a "herp walk" led by Ranger Anthony Bavilacqua today...not very good weather for it; it took some work to find even a single fence lizard. But, we did go to see the California Newts living locally. There aren't a lot of these guys around, and our lack of water has concentrated them into a few small areas. They only spend the breeding season in the water, preferring to stay dry the rest of the year.

These guys are toxic-the poison is similar to poison dart frogs and pufferfish. You have to eat them to be affected, so don't eat them-simple. Garter snakes DO eat them, and they have evolved a tolerance to the poison, which has made the newts become MORE poisonous, which selects for snakes with greater resistance, and so on. As a result, these newts produce are a lot more poisonous than would be necessary to kill any other possible predator they might meet.

This was pretty hard to shoot, underwater with a bright sky, but there it is.

This one was tougher-underneath a huge boulder.

Not related to reptiles at all, but I can't resist these-Phacelia Grandiflora, or large flowered phacelia.

Snake Trail

This morning I did my usual Snake Trail loop in Rancho Sierra Vista and Point Mugu State Park. I've been watching a hundred or so Humboldt Lilies, which are unusual-Upper Sycamore Canyon is lower than their usual range, and I've never seen them here before.

A week ago I saw the first flowers developing on plants with more sun, but none are open yet. In fact, those plants are already becoming dessicated and wilting-I'm not sure these flowers will open before drying out. Some plants in shadier and moister areas are starting to bud, so I'll cross my fingers.

Here's a Parry's Phacelia (Phacelia Parryi, which makes this Latin stuff look pretty obvious, eh?), which is all over the canyon. Less than an inch accross, but very pretty.

Last week the SMMNRA Facebook page featured a Red Velvet Ant, which is really a wasp. They were all over Danielson Fireroad this morning.

Best sighting of the day, though, was this guy, who darted across the trail in front of me, too quickly for me to really get a good picture. Maybe three and a half feet long. I haven't seen a rattler in ages; it's nice to know they're still finding enough to eat in the burn area.

First post

Saturday, I had a very enjoyable class with NPS botoanist Tarja Sagar learning how to use Jepson to identify plants. Let's just say I'm a level or two below that...but the wonderful site http://smmflowers.org/ is perfect for me at this point. At the class, after finding some rare treasures just along the road on PCH, some people went off to see the Allium praecox, a rarish onion with a beautiful flower. I needed to stay behind since my car was acting up, so I decided to go myself and look for it. It's supposed to exist in the Santa Monica Mountains only in that one spot.

Upon reaching the fabled location (on the switchbacks on the La Jolla Canyon Trail, just above the falls) I was excited to find many of them. I took photos, but only with my cellphone, and none turned out-lesson learned.

I hiked on to the campground in La Jolla Valley, I found another, then another, and even more! And, to add to the excitement, who should be at the campground other than Tarja herself. Well, I had the wrong plant all along, of course-it was a snakelily, Dichelostemma capitatum. At least I was able to find the species once I got home.

On Saturday, they had found a Dudleya caespitosa, which I think I had seen a few days earlier on the Scenic trail in Sycamore Canyon. Today I found two more Dudleyas near the waterfall, but without a flower I can't really tell what sort. They look more like Dudleya lanceolata to my idiot eyes.

Last for today is a picture of some lily buds in Upper Sycamore Canyon. There are over 100 of these that I have found, the Humboldt Lily or Lilium humboldtii ssp. ocellatum, and they seem set to start blooming any day. I may go out tonight to see if these have opened yet-I took this picture three days ago. I am hoping that people don't pick the flowers as soon as they appear. One thing I have noticed with the ones I found is that almost none are in the pattern you'd expect, where new plants are appearing in a ring around the older ones, which can mean that they aren't getting as far as producing seeds.









Seven miles in hundred degree heat-not the most fun, but it sure beats watching TV with the air conditioner on.

Comments requested!

Change of Purpose

For some time, I haven't had the equipment for astrophotography, and while I still enjoy visual observing, that doesn't make for interest photos. But-I've always had many other interests, so I am going to hijack my own blog and turn it into something else until such time comes that I can afford some new astro gear.

Last year I started hiking daily, for health and recreation and sanity. Recently I became a National Park Service Volunteer, and will be working on the California Phenology Project, measuring the exact dates that certain plants go through key changes in their annual cycles-first buds, buds opening, various stages of flowering, etc. This is vital data that, when collected over large areas by large numbers of people, can show exactly what the effects of climate change are. Those of us that have always spent time outdoors are very aware that the world is changed from 20 years ago, and the CPP is one of the ways that change can be quantized.

This means I have a route where twice a week or more I answer a series of questions about specific plants. My area is the Rancho Sierra Vista park in Newbury Park, run by the National Park Service, but I can also collect data anywhere within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which includes Point Mugu State Park and the Boney Mountain Wilderness, two places where I spend a lot of time.

Here's what I'm planning on doing with this blog-I have a butt ton to learn about botany and plant recognition in general, so as I find new plants and learn to identify them, I'll share that here. In the past I planned hikes based on the trails itself, but now I can plan them based on the need to measure certain plants, or even on rumors that a certain plant or flower has been spotted somewhere.

If you subscribed to this to see me learn to take pictures of space, I don't blame you for unsubscribing now :) For now, this blog will just be about hiking, trails, plants and local critters.

Keith

Sir Patrick Moore passes away

Sir Patrick Moore, the British astronomer and TV presenter, has passed away at 89 years of age.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/arts/television/patrick-moore-astronomer-and-tv-host-dies-at-89.html?_r=0
Moore not only hosted the show The Sky at Night for over 50 years, he was an ardent promoter of the idea that even amateur astronomers are a valuable tool in the science of astronomy. In a world where TV is increasingly vapid and irritating, his show always presented science as something that is still fun and entertaining as a hobby.

Why is it dark at night?

Well, why IS it dark at night? Here's a nicely-done video that explains why, using a lot fewer words than I could.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJ4M7tyLRE

Neil Armstrong

NASA sent the following press release out today.
********************************
FAMILY STATEMENT REGARDING THE DEATH OF NEIL ARMSTRONG

 

 

WASHINGTON -- The following is a statement from the Armstrong family regarding the death of former test pilot and NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong. He was 82.

“We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.

Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend.

Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He also found success back home in his native Ohio in business and academia, and became a community leader in Cincinnati.

He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits.

As much as Neil cherished his privacy, he always appreciated the expressions of good will from people around the world and from all walks of life.

While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

Partial Solar Eclipse

Amazing; over 4 months without a post. A combination of health, equipment, weather, and other issues meant that I've done very little photography so far this year. The upside is that I've had plenty of chances for visual stuff, but that doesn't produce anything to post.

This solar eclipse was seen an an "annular" eclipse in much of the country, but not here. An annular eclipse leaves a donut-shaped ring (an annulus) of the sun visible around the edges of the moon, and happens when the moon is far enough away that it's apparent diameter is smaller to us than that of the sun. The series of shots above were all shot at 1/8000th of a second at F45 through a proper filter. Notice how the disc of the sun appears dimmer as the moon covers it. It doesn't get bright again in this series, since toward the end, it was very close to the horizon, and was shining through more air to get to me, acting like an additional filter. The sun set before the moon completely uncovered it. This series covers about 90 minutes, while the entire event took about two hours.

By the way, if you have been looking at MSNBC this past week, you may have noted that they have been calling it an "annual" eclipse on their front page the entire time. It is NOT an annual event; they are relatively rare. It's one thing to be a copy writer and make the mistake, although I have no idea why someone with no astronomy knowledge would be asked to WRITE that article. But it's inexcusable for no editor with understanding of the subject to have ever seen the article. Even worse to leave it up for a week, in the face for the flood of complaints. Nice one, NBC. What else are you telling us that's just as ill-informed?

If you were outside looking at the eclipse, or just outside at all, you may not have noticed much looking around. It certainly would not have looked like the light from the sun had fallen by 80% or more. The picture at left was shot at ISO 100, 1/60th of a second at F10, just about ten minutes into the event. That would be when the first image in the composite was taken.

This was taken about an hour later, at the peak of the event, with the exact same exposure. Our eyes will accommodate the different light level, but people are often surprised to see just how much our eye will adjust. To most people, it looked exactly the same when both shots were taken.
If the effect is familiar, it's because low-budget TV and movie producers use the same trick to simulate "night" shots made in broad daylight, with a neutral density filter.

There were news articles about how solar filters were sold out at at every shop that carried them; that is great news, since it shows some interest. But there are other ways to look at the sun without ruining your eyeballs.

My daughter is showing a very simple solar projector here. It has the advantage over looking through a filter or welding mask in that it will even show sunspots, which makes it interesting anytime at all. Try drawing a sketch of what you see if you do this, then look again a few hours later and the spots will have all moved. Many people make quite a hobby of tracking sunspots, and it can get addictive.

It goes without saying that you don't ever look at the sun. ESPECIALLY if you have a pair of binoculars around. Also, be very wary for onlookers who will see you looking at the sun and who may unwittingly grab the binoculars and try and take a look for themselves. Don't use the binocs for looking at anything ELSE, either-the eyepieces can potentially become very hot, and could even crack as a result. You don't want that near your face.

M32 & M42, up to two hours stacked

So here is the same shot as in the previous post, with another hour added to the stack. Since it needs to be stretched less to achieve similar brightness, there is less "stress" visible in the image; the background is beginning to become an even black, etc. I expect this to take a total of 5 hours in the final stack to really work well, but I want to post the individual steps along the way. It takes 3-4 hours of shooting get 1 hour's worth of usable subs.

While most photographers would try and get a ten minute exposure to bring out the lower half of the nebula (which is FAR fainter than the upper half, I have found that my method of dealing with light pollution (which essentially limits my exposures to 30 seconds) is turning out to be a way to show bright nebula with the dynamic range adjusted. A normal photograph that brought out this much of the lower "jaw" of the fish's mouth would have the area at the top around the Trapezium totally blown out. One I complete this photo after another 3 nights of shooting, I should be able to not only capture the fainter regions, but still show detail in the very bright regions, and probably still resolve the Trapezium in the center of the brightest areas. The downside is that it does take many nights, and many hundreds of individual photographs, aligned of several nights of work. I've started calling the process "speckle stacking", since it really is a weird variation on the "speckle imaging" used by modern giant telescopes, but with exposure in the seconds, not milliseconds. It's a very low-tech way to take advantage of the pro's high-tech method.

I have an idea what may be causing the banding on the left and right images-I'll know after my next photo shoot if I am right.

And finally, full circle

When I decided to get serious about learning to shoot astro, if was February of this year, and Orion was still reachable in the early evening. So here is a good comparison between then and now-this shot is 55 minutes exposure, no multi-night shooting, just using what I have learned over the year. M42 is the perfect nebula to start learning with, but the level of detail in there just keeps going forever; there is no risk of getting bored with it.

I still have all the problems I started with, just in lesser degrees...vignetting is still a serious problem, and even the use of a good light box won't eliminate it. I'm still only able to use roughly half the subs I shoot, and I'm still spending more time tinkering than shooting. This shot from tonight is just going to be a foundation for more exposures; that will take care of the darkened corners and the trademark Canon DSLR banding visible up the left side, while each night's shots will bring out more and more detail inside the "fish's mouth".

It's still been a good year for learning-here's a reminder of what I was getting 10 months ago of the same target.

Running Man Nebula

This nebula lies just above the Great Orion Nebula, which means that I'm actually getting around to regions I was trying to shoot when I started this thing 10 months ago. When you look at Orion's sword, the Great Nebula is the middle clump of stars, while this is the top clump. It's been given three catalog numbers, since there are actually three separate areas of glowing gas that just overlap from our point of view. So say hello to NGc 1973, NGC 1975, and NGC 1977. Most people just refer to it as the Running Man.

Please forgive the satellites...that's the price we pay for cable TV and global telephone service-the geosynchronous orbits of most comm satellites carries them right smack through Orion's belt. Actually, each satellite seen in this area is stationary over our heads; the appearance of motion is caused by the telescope moving to track the stuff in the background. The software used to stack photos usually discards satellite tracks as noise, unless they are very bright, which is what happened here. Only 5 minutes exposure, so I couldn't toss the subs with streaks in them.

M38

M38 is an open cluster in Auriga, a constellation you have probably never heard of. If you find the Pleieades (an easy task) with binoculars, then start looking around a few fields of view north, you will find this and nearby M36 without much effort.

Like most open clusters, photographs don't quite capture the beauty like the view through a small scope or binoculars does. This cluster is famous for its odd shape, which is not that evident in this photo, and is completely impossible to notice with larger scopes. With a low-power eyepiece in my own scope, it is breathtaking, though.

Weather

No posts today-by the time I finished last night, it was 37 degrees and 98% humidity. My gear is still not dry, and I can't feel my fingers a day later. And yet the daytime weather was beautiful...California does this in the gaps between summer and winter. The clouds from the upcoming storms are also starting to appear, so the scope is going back in the newly-completed Telescope Shed; my custom-built 16'x16' centerpiece of the newly christened Observatorio Astronómico de El Rancho Titanico, ready for hosting Star Parties, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, weddings and circumcisions. All with an Astronomy theme, of course.

NGC2024, the Flame Nebula

Orion is coming back...this is the Flame Nebula, next to the left-most star in Orion's belt.

Very early stack here, only 20 minutes, and this is a fairly faint nebula. But the real news is that the stack is made of 10 two-minute exposures; a serious victory in my year-long battle with cheap equipment.

I had expected that when and if I could start shooting longer subs, everything would be a piece of cake, but after shooting just a few items, it's not so clear now. My traditional method of stacking hundreds of short exposures may not be they way you'd want to do it with good equipment and a dark sky, but it does allow me to vastly improve the results with cheap stuff and loads of light pollution. And since the key to making it work is having scores, if not hundreds of individual exposures, the longer subs actually can be a disadvantage when shooting relatively bright objects. In particular, stacking huge numbers of subs allows the removal of more of the pollution. This shot is very grainy and noisy, but that just takes more exposure time to fix. What appears to be a blown-out background or a gradient problem in the upper left is actually caused by more nebulosity. Like I said, this shot is from an early stage in the process.

I keep a nice thermometer and hygrometer with me when I'm shooting. When this was done, it had fallen to 36 degrees, which is normally good for telescoping. But the humidity was 97%, which stinks. that is why the bright star-Alnitak, or Zeta Orionis-is so overblown and large. Still, makes for a pretty star.

In the next few days (while it's raining and cloudy, of course) I will be replacing even more of the mount, so in a week or so I could be back with more pictures. And with the return of Orion, I can start re-shooting things I did when I was just starting out, and will finally have some comparisons.

M30, without the moon right next to it...

A darker night, another 30 minutes of exposure. As is always the case here, as soon as I get one thing working another goes wonky; something is causing my flat frames to be heavily asymmetrical, causing the uneven gradient in the background. It'll get figured out eventually. This shot really seemed to suffer in being converted to jpeg as well.

I still say this little jewel is one of the nicest surprises in the sky this time of year...the three rows of giant red stars seem even more pronounced visually than in photographs.