Comet ISON Approach

Comet ISON has the potential to be one of the most amazing comets of a lifetime. It's orbital trajectory has it passing so close to the Sun that it may evaporate into a gigantic cloud of dust and debris that would be visible with a naked eye in daylight. Today the comet is 1/3 the distance from the Sun as the Earth and it is still descending toward perihelion.

There are multiple images being posted on the Internet and they frequently generate the question, "which way is up?" This posting might help to show which way things are moving, and which way is "up" from the perspective of a person standing on the ground, on the planet Earth.

This first excellent photo was taken from the ground, likely with telephoto magnification. Except for the magnification this is the way the comet would have appeared if you were to see it with the naked eye or with binoculars. The Sun is below the horizon to the left, and the comet's tail is extended up and to the right, away from the Sun.

Here is an image from my SkyMap software, showing the positioning of these objects before dawn this morning, looking southeast from my house. The horizon is the border between the blue and grey backgrounds. The white line is the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun caused by the orbit of the planet Earth around the Sun. The Sun is shown as a hollow yellow circle on the ecliptic below the horizon. Notice the angle of the ecliptic, up and to the right, generally in the same direction as the photo above.

There are two comets showing on the map, comet Encke and comet ISON. Planet Mercury (and Saturn very much farther away) is also lined up near the comets. Encke and Saturn are not very bright so I will not make much note of them.

Here is the really interesting photo, taken from a spacecraft designed to watch the Sun. The objects are labeled but their relative positions are confusing. Where is the spacecraft positioned so it could capture this image? How can the planet Earth be in the image along with the comets and Mercury all at the same time? Which way are things moving?

Professional astronomers have looked at so many images where orientation is rearranged that they don't even notice when it looks odd like this. So they didn't bother to explain this one.

The answer is easily demonstrated by flipping the image horizontally. Extend a line from the Sun (on the left) through the planet Earth to represent the ecliptic. Note that Mercury is above the line and the two comets are below the line. This matches the SkyMap image very well. Rotate the photograph by 47 degrees and it will look even more like the SkyMap image.

Now you can see that the north pole is up, Earth is in the foreground, moving toward Mercury and the comets, and rotating in that same direction. So when you are facing toward the comets, Mercury, and the rising Sun, the spacecraft that took this photo is behind you.

Here's a link to a NASA JPL YouTube video that was created on October 14, 2013. It makes several excellent points regarding the direction things are moving and it shows the alignment of the planets Earth and Mercury that match my "flipped" version of the spacecraft image.

King Henry VIII

Cutting chess pieces out of a Hazel wood blank has become a bit more of a challenge than I thought it might be. As you can see in this photo, the King turned out fine, but the Queen didn't quite make it. The blank began to shudder as I was putting the final touches on her head, then it snapped in two, leaving the Queen's head stuck to the bottom of the King. As soon as I told this story to Great Grumpy he said, "ah, that would be Henry VIII." Today I will try again, only this time I will cut only one piece at a time from the blank.

Quest Crank Boom Installed

For those of you who can't relate to the photo of the crank boom when it has been removed from the Quest, here is a photo of it after it was re-installed. You can see the new weld to the left of the crank and motor assembly. This photo was taken on October 26.

Quest Crank Boom Repair

The guys at the welding shop did a great job of repairing the aluminum crank boom. They reinforced it so it is not likely to break again, at least not in that location. Check out the close up photo of their work.

It looks like the bottom bracket clamp can still be extended to the length needed by a 6'7" pilot.

Broken Aluminum Beam on Quest Velomobile

Last Friday morning the main beam on my Quest velomobile finally came apart. Now I understand why the cranks were causing so much wobbling down there. That crack has been growing for weeks, and maybe months. In this photo the left end is where it fastens to the Quest's floor, and the right end is where it attaches to the front, just above the headlight. The cranks were mounted with clamps near the center of the long straight section, where it looks like a grease smudge. Another smudge near the front of the long section is where the previous owner had the clamps. It's actually not grease, but more likely metal powder off the steel clamps that has been rubbed into the soft aluminum.

The most difficult part of dis-assembly was disconnecting the steering tiller. The Quest user manual did not have instructions for this. In my photo, the Quest is laying on its right side with the front to the left. Both front wheels have been removed and we're looking into the left front wheel well.

Getting a little closer you can see the disconnected steering control arms protruding from what I'm calling the "steering access tube" or the fiberglass tunnel providing movement for the steering control rods.

Looking straight down this left side of the "steering access tube" you can see the disconnected steering control rods. Between the front rods and the rear rods you can see the clamp which attaches to the steering tiller shaft. The clamp is compressed using a bolt that requires a 5mm allen wrench. I had to purchase the 5mm size on a 3/8" socket drive so I could attach an 18" extension to reach down there and loosen the clamp.

In this last photo you can see both sets of steering control rods, and the steering tiller clamp, in the same relative positions, laying on the ground. The two bolts on the front control rods fasten through the base of the aluminum beam. The third bolt, located at the rear of the beam, stayed where it was in the hole in the fiberglass, aft of the tiller hole. I was able to get this apart by myself but I will need a helper to put it back together.

Fall Colors

Last Saturday(October 12) we went over to Coulon Park to check out the color of the Maple trees as they begin turning yellow, orange, and red. I had to turn down the brightness on the camera so the red colors show properly.

Narrow Escape

Yesterday on the way home from work I got pulled over by a Kirkland police officer. I was going uphill at 18 mph and that made him think that my Quest was motorized and possibly an illegal, unlicensed motor vehicle. After explaining to him about the electric assist motor, and how it cuts out at 20 mph he was satisfied that it was legal. Then he asked if he could take my picture. I said "yes" and if he didn't mind I'd like a shot of me with the police car in the background, with the blue and red lights flashing. He took my email address and emailed the photos to me last night. He was a friendly guy and I enjoyed chatting with him. Now I can say I've been officially pulled over by the police while riding in my Quest velomobile.

Comice Pear Harvest 2013

Today we decided it was time to take the Comice pears off the tree. They're not ripe but we've been losing so many of them to the raccoons and the birds that we decided it was time to cut our losses.

About half of the pears have either fallen off or been picked off by raccoons. They were all from the lower branches, leaving only the highest pears still on the tree where they were ravaged by birds.

This second photo shows what we managed to salvage from the upper branches. We've had so many fruit flies around here lately that the pears will not last sitting on the counter, so we'll have to eat them or make something with them while they're still not quite ripe.

As green as they are, they're still very sweet. They taste sort of like a Red Delicious apple.

New Bat Photo

Last week Bugsy the bat was hanging from the window screen rather than the bamboo shade. So this time he was facing the camera. It's still not a very good photo but you can see his ears, and it is definitely a bat in this photo.

Why doesn't he like the nice new bat house I built for him? It's much more private, and it's located right over the flower beds so his little bat droppings won't fall on our window sill. Best of all, the bat house doesn't roll up at night. When that happens, he still hangs out between the roll of bamboo and the outer flap covering the pulley and pull string locking hardware.

Sometimes he doesn't return in the morning. We suspect he may have a girlfriend.

STP 2013

Last Saturday, July 13, Lief rode his bike with his friend Tim from Seattle to Portland, participating in the annual "STP" bicycle ride.

They left the University of Washington campus in Seattle at 4:45 AM and I waved them by at 5:41 AM in Renton. Then I packed up my car and headed south on the freeway, to catch up with them in Centralia. They picked up three friends along the way, so there were five of them when I found them in Centralia. Notice Tim, in the blue and black kit on the left, still wearing his leg warmers in 75 degree weather.

The next photo shows them across the Columbia River from Longview. Tim is still wearing his leg warmers, but when they stopped here to take advantage of the spare water I was carrying, he finally took them off. The temperature was 85 degrees.

The bike in the foreground is not part of their group, but unfortunately by this time they had left two of their new friends behind. The one remaining new friend is Adam.

In this photo you can see Tim is still leading the group, with his leg warmers off. Another thing you can see here is Tim's strategy to keep the group going as fast as possible. He would push the pace a bit faster, then when they began falling behind, as in this photo, he would back off and let them catch up again. In this photo they were cruising at about 27 MPH with a tailwind.

Except for the shuffling of traffic lights, all three would have arrived at the finish line at the same time. Here is Lief just prior to entering the finish line gate. If I had a faster camera I could have also captured a photo of Tim and Adam.

Finally, after crossing the finish line the three intrepid cyclists posed for a photo together. Notice the lighting of a late afternoon (6:00 PM) rather than an evening twilight (8:00 PM) photo like it was when I rode that route. Their average speed, while moving, was more than 20 MPH.

Not included in this collection, are photos of salt encrusted shirts and wind blown hair both on heads and on legs.

The Bat is Back

After all my work building a nice house for bats, that crazy little creature decided to come back to the bamboo shade outside our living room window this summer. The bat house is empty.

Those bamboo slats measure about 3/8" and if you don't count the one leg stretched out that he's hanging from, he measures about four slats from the tip of his rear end to the tip of his ears. I measured four slats on another shade and found four of them measure 1-5/8" so he's just a tiny little guy.

Maybe as the days progress, and he moves from one place to another for maximum sleeping comfort, he may still find the bat house I made for him. Then maybe he will bring some friends to stay with him, or maybe move the rest of his family in with him.

Monya seems to be taking it well this year. Last summer she nearly freaked out about having rabies or something, until we did some research and found out that they don't really cause any problems at all, and they eat their weight in bugs each night.

What I find most interesting is that I can hold the camera right up to the glass and take a flash photo of him. That doesn't bother him in the least. He must be blind as a bat. Probably if the glass wasn't there he could hear me approaching and then he would fly away. This photo was taken through dual pane glass and an insect screen. Without the window glare captured by the camera you can see his claws and watch him wriggle and stretch his wings.

Hot Weather and Mermaids

Last weekend we had a rash of hot weather. It was 92 degrees here in Renton. I set up the inflatable swimming pool in case the mermaids happened to stop by. Here's a photo of them just moments before their legs turned into mermaid tails.

Eventually the water looked so good that two adult bicycle riders climbed in. The mermaids tried to defend their turf by splashing them but the bicycle riders were able to hold up a wall of water with their legs going at 90 RPM.

When the splashing stopped the water was milky white with dissolved air.

Graduation Party

Last week my nephew Ian graduated from high school so we hosted a celebration picnic at our house.

We had a graduation cake provided by The Frosting Angel featuring the Hazen High School colors of blue, green and yellow.

The weather was perfect for an outdoor barbecue. Here's a photo of the sky.

We took turns riding around the block in the velomobile. Some people didn't have long enough legs to reach the pedals, so they just used the electric motor. Here is a photo of cousin Denise after she had taken the little mermaid for a ride.

Paint Job Improvement

The house next door is picture perfect, and now three tiny children live there. This afternoon when we came home we noticed this signature on the perfect white paint job. It reminds me of the story of the Velveteen Rabbit. It means the house is truly loved.

Sun Dog

Yesterday we saw a pair of sun dogs in a blue sky. The full picture has been altered by reducing the brightness to enhance the colors. The two smaller photos were taken with an optical zoom and a faster shutter speed to reduce the light.

Spring Flowers

It's cold and rainy here but the flowers are coming out in spite of it. Here's what I call these flowers: Purple Heart, Asian Pear, White Bluebells, Bluebells, Comice Pear, Lillie of the Valley, Blueberry, Japanese Maple, miniature Rhododendron, [unknown pink flowers], [unknown purple flower], Yellow Rose

More Spoons

Here's an interesting comparison. These two spoons were carved from Hazel wood. One has a coating of linseed oil and the other is bare wood. The linseed oil gave the spoon an amber tone. The bare spoon was eventually coated with non-drying mineral oil, and that didn't change the color of the wood at all.

This spoon was carved from Japanese Maple. It is coated with mineral oil and doesn't look much different than the Hazel wood spoon coated with mineral oil.

Here are two blanks cut from Hazel wood. They will be my next two spoons. Unfortunately I cut these out and then let them dry for a week before carving them. The big spoon developed cracks because there was so much mass in one piece. I need to begin carving them right away before they dry out, or put them in plastic, or under water, or in the freezer in plastic if I can't begin carving right away.