Friday, September 30, 2011

My long lost clouds and weather photos

Since about 2008 I've been sending photos I've taken of clouds and weather to a local weather website called Weathercurrents. These photos appear for a week or more before being replaced by new ones. Due to my haphazard organizational skills, I figured most of my photos were lost to the ether. Recently, Weathercurrents added a page of all the photos they've received. It was pleasant to rediscover many photos that I have forgotten.

The photos from me and other contributors are here:

http://weathercurrents.com/wildomar/Features.do

jg

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Energy Inputs

I recently contributed to a post on Skeptical Science, illustrating the following analogy used to describe energy inputs into Earth's climate system. The metaphor was the creation of the post's author, who writes under the name Andy S. I merely portrayed his concept, and I think his metaphor ably compares the relative magnitudes of energy sources that affect the climate system.


For the entire article, see Skeptical Science: Heatflow

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Temecula Valley Astromers host Dr. Marc Rayman of the Dawn Probe Project

The Temecula Valley Astronomers are sponsoring a special presentation by Dr Marc Rayman of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who leads the ongoing Dawn Probe project which currently is orbiting and studying the asteroid Vesta. This will be an excellent opportunity to participate firsthand in a discussion involving one of our country's most ambitious and successful space related efforts.

As with all general meetings of the Temecula Valley Astronomers, this event is free and open to the public.


Monday, 10/3/11

7:30pm to 9pm

Rancho California Water District Boardroom

42175 Winchester Road, Temecula CA 92590
 

Monday, September 26, 2011

Comet Garradd ( C/2009 P1)

Comet Garradd is visible, though I would say barely visible to me. Here is a 3-minute expose at f6.3 onto a digital SLR camera at 800 ISO.


I photographed this at Explore the Stars, a monthly star party sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service and held at Observatory Campground in the Cleveland National Forest. More information about this event, see this link: Explore the Stars.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Meteor over Joshua Tree

I photographed this meteor while camping in Joshua Tree National Park on the weekend of 9/3/11:


I was trying to capture how much light from Palm Springs and neighboring cities pollutes the southern sky of Joshua Tree National Park. Quite a lot, as shown by this 50-second exposure. (Joshua Trees are the tree-sized yuccas, shown here, that give the park it's name.)

jg