My own menagerie

Here are some of the animal photos I've taken while on local hikes:

Grey Fox: I met his creature chasing a rabbit. (He was chasing the rabbit.) Both lept out of the bushes beside me and the rabbit disappeared. The fox looked at me (posing) and lurched off into the bushes.

This is known as a Jeruselum Cricket. The inset on the left shows my foot (men's size 12) next to the cricket for size. (This is as close I as got to the creature.)

I don't know which species this hummingbird is, but I think the red marking on the throat will be obvious to those who do know. I was impressed that I could unwrap my camera and get shot in time to catch its wings in motion.

When encountering a snake on the trail, I usually scare it away with my almost involuntary foot shuffling (a natural and beneficial panic reaction that I've never cured myself of), but this rosy boa stayed put. Though rosy boas are common in our region, seeing one is rare. Since seeing this boa obstructing the trail, I've contemplated what it would be like to see the boa from 58 million years ago reported in the journal Nature. The authors describe a boa that was a meter wide, that would be like a meter wide log laying across the path.


And... according to an interpreter at the ecological reserve (where all of these photos were taken), this above insect is Manroot Borer (Melittia gloriosa). They are found from Kansas and western Texas to southern California and up through Oregon. The caterpillar bores into the wild cucumber root (Manroot) and overwinters in a silken cocoon beneath the soil. It is highly prized by collectors. Probably for its attractiveness (note the species name) but also because it's rare. They are in flight during the months of May through October and they become more active as the temperature increases.

jg

Getting people into your astrophotography

My grandmother once chided me saying, "You really should include people in your photographs, otherwise, how am I to know who's there?" It has been difficult accommodating her in my astrophotography. This photo is one exception. There are people in the object making the streak across the sky, as it is the International Space Station, possibly at its brightest (as of July 6, 2009).

Double click the photo to enlarge.

Photo: July 6, 8:14pm PDT, 100 ISO, F5, 28mm lens, 109 seconds.

CO2 and diffuse light fertilization

Above is a new illustration summarizing a recent article in Nature about the effect of aerosol-induced diffuse lighting on the terrestrial biosphere (click to enlarge the picture; or click here to see the interactive version). Below is an update to a summary on carbon fertilization that includes references to all sources I portrayed in the illustration.



The two are part of an extended, interactive demo I'm creating on how the biosphere will respond to global warming, rising CO2, and other perturbations.

jg

Engleman Oak with Poisen Oak and Shadow

I took the above photo because I like the back lighting of the poisen oak climbing up the trunk, but as I looked through the camera's viewer, I realized the real photo was the shadow complementing the overall shape of the tree. I made no changes to the photo other than to reduce the size and image quality for the web.

jg

Perfect lighting, plus a little saturation

Using Photoshop, I raised the saturation value of the above photo, hoping to give the online version the same beauty that made me want to photograph this rocky hill near The Living Desert. The sunlit reddish rock made a impressive contrast with the shadowed foreground rock and the peak. The unique lighting effect was caused the shadow of Mt. San Jacinto covering the foreground, with the top in the shadow form a cloud above the peak:


Also in the first picture one can see an excellent light fixture. The Living Desert's sense of environmental awareness extends to protecting the night sky.

jg

Personal Pangea

I've just added this picture of Pangea to the planet viewer on http://www.brightstarstemeculavalley.org/:

The picture is my drawing mostly based on a version of Pangea shown in May 2009 issue of Astronomy (which in turn was based on a map shown here: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/historical.html.) I have no qualms about borrowing from Astronomy, as the same issue has a diagram of JPL's Madrid 70-meter radio telescope that was modelled off of one of my illustrations. So borrowing is not an issue, but accuracy is. In my drawing I'm trying to stretch the map into a 2x1 ratio that my planet viewer turns into a globe and animates its rotation:


You can click and drag the image to view any angle of the globe. For example, here's a view of the southern pole:

But I've never seen a map of Pangea Earth's southern pole, so I have no idea how accurate this is, and I welcome any references and corrections to this or any part of the drawing. I'll share the result too.

Though it would be careless to assume, I feel I probably have the ocean view of Earth at the time of Pangea fairly correct:

:)

JG

Moon and Pleiades

I collect Moon and Pleiades shots. At least once a year, the Moon and Pleiades align for a close-up at a reasonable hour. This one, taken 26 Apr 09, clearly challenged my telescope's field of view.

The photo was taken with a digital camera. Had I felt like loading film, I would have been able to include more space outside the moon and Pleiades. Below is another photo. Same camera but with a telephoto lens:

jg