Author: admin

Four-Points

WOW! I am still excited, even two weeks after my wonder-filled find.

I was out in the open fields and forest edges on a warm Saturday, hiking and enjoying being outside. As I crossed a field, I saw something sticking up out of the grass ahead of me. It was about 50 yards away. The sunlight highlighted it so it stood out from the surrounding grasses even though it was not much higher that the brown stalks.

The area where I do most of my local hiking has a rather large white-tailed deer population. There are several herds that populate the area with numerous males of all ages.

One of the aspects of the white-tail deer, which every school child knows, is the male’s antlers are shed each year in the late Spring. Each year, each male deer will grow a new set of antlers. The antlers grow through the Spring and Summer, reaching their full size at beginning of the deer’s mating season known as “the rut”. As the male deer grows older his antlers grow larger with each passing year. A young male may only grow antlers that come to a single point. These are also known as spikes.

An older male will grow more massive antlers with numerous points. The antlers remain on the male until after the mating season is over. At that time the male deer’s body chemistry begins to change which signals his body that the antlers are no longer needed. His antlers become less firmly attached to his skull, and they prepare to fall off. This physiological change takes place in the late Winter and early Spring.

The antlers may fall off as the buck is walking through the woods where the antlers may be brushed off by low branches. They may fall off due to a jolt, if the deer is involved in a late season battle with another male deer. They may fall off as the buck runs and jumps across a field.

In the part of Virginia where I hike this change and the shedding of antlers generally happens after mid-February. If you are out in the woods and fields where deer roam and browse, you may find a single antler, or in some cases a pair of antlers. Finding a pair is rather rare, as the antlers fall off at different times. The pair may be far apart across a field or patch of woods. Sometimes though they fall off on a used trail, so that even if they are shed on different days they may be found at locations on the same trail. It’s a random pattern depending on where the deer goes, his body chemistry, and whether there is an event that causes the antlers to be knocked or brushed off his head.

Then the forest or field takes over. These “sheds” are not just useless bone. Small forest creatures will gnaw on the antlers as they are a source of phosphorous and calcium and other minerals for these creatures. These may be mice emerging from their winter tunnels, or foxes and coyotes. 

And of course, there are people who may pick them up. These people, like me, enjoy walking across the fields and up through the woods looking for whatever they might see and enjoying the peace of the natural surroundings.

I have found small sheds before, but this find was certainly different with its polished four points. When I picked it up, I was surprised by how heavy it was. It weighed about four pounds. I have been out to the area where I found it twice more to see if its mate will turn up. It has not. It might not have fallen off yet. Or it has fallen off and some forest creature, or another walker, has carried it off.

BRIDGE

During this “Winter-Without-Snow” I have taken advantage of the record-setting weather to wander fields and forest lanes which I would not usually go onto. Many of these places are not available to me Spring through Fall when the hay is growing and the ticks are more active. Right now, the hay has been cut and most insects are dormant due to their season .

Last week I went to what was for me an unexplored field surrounded by woods. I intended to walk the perimeter which was two miles around its full circuit. When I added in my excursions into the woods surrounding the field, my walk was a very pleasant three miles – and maybe a bit more. As I walked the edges of the field, I would walk down into the surrounding woods to look at some item that had caught my eye. Perhaps it was an old bottle reflecting the sun, or a particularly interesting shape of a tree, or a stand of bushes full of bright red winter-berries.

I was drawn further into the woods by a stream that flowed near the edge of the woods. The rains of the week before had mostly drained out of the hilly woods surrounding the field.  The stream was flowing quietly. It carried a sparkling brightness in the filtered sunlight and was worth exploration. The woods were not dark like northern coniferous forests full of evergreens. This was a bright, southern mixed hardwood forest of bare branches and filtered sunlight. The branches, bare of leaves, allowed the sunlight to penetrate through what in summer is a darkening canopy and brighten the area below. It was bright and inviting so I directed my trek along the course of the stream.

It was easy to tell that the stream would sometimes run high and fast as the banks of the stream were steep and without much growth. Further up the hill into the forest I could see something that stretched across the stream. When I got to it, I found it was an abandoned foot-bridge. But it was not a bridge that could be used. It was missing boards. A few were in place, but other dangled above the narrow stream. Only one of the natural-timber cross-pieces was still in place, spanning the stream to the opposite bank. No animal other than a raccoon or a mouse would be able to cross it easily.

Once in times past, the bridge had spanned the stream. It went from one place to another. It had lain at some point further up the stream. Then a day of heavy rain and high water, perhaps in a hurricane, had lifted the bridge and pushed it to this current spot. On my side of the stream the bridge was open. On the opposite bank the timber span ended at the base of a large tree.

Even though the bridge could not now be crossed, it still caused me to wonder. What is on the other side? I could easily see the other side just across the small gully; the distance was less than 30 feet. But if I could have walked across the bridge, what would I actually see? I would see the same trees on that far bank that I could see from my current spot. But on that far side I would be able to reach out and touch those trees. I would experience that distant shore.

I have never seen a bridge that I did not want to cross in order to touch the other side.

And that has made all the difference. (1)

  1. Borrowing the closing from Robert Frost’s, The Road Not Taken.

Stone Artifact – The Road Back

Continued from earlier article, “The Road Out”

When we last left our heroes they had made the trek out to the edge of the marsh and they were sitting on the shell bed next to the river.

The shells in the shell bed were mainly oyster shells that had been bleached white by the sun. The river was a tidal river so the banks were completely over-washed at high tide and the shells would be tumbled and top shells replaced by others. If I dug down seven inches there were only other bleached shells. There was no mud base perhaps until much deeper. The shells were often exposed to the sun so all the shells in these top several inches were bleached white. The oysters shells were large most of them over six inches in length and some might have even reached a foot in length. Mixed in with the oyster shells were other shells of snails and small bivalves that lived in the marsh grasses and in the mud. And there were other stranger items as well.

I stood up and walked to the end of the 30 feet or so of bleached shells to where the bank sloped down into the marsh. I walked back, shuffling my feet to move the shells around so I could see what might be buried in the shells. I knew if I went along the edge of the island causeway from the mainland I would find items dumped to make the road bed, old broken plates, odd items of military accoutrements, and other scrap metal and rubble.

As I shuffled through the bank I overturned something that was brick red, but not brick shaped. I picked it up and examined it. It was a handle from a clay pot made of red mud from some upstream clay bed. It was obviously a handle and still attached to it was a small piece of the jug that it once supported. The shape and thickness of the handle had strengthened and protected the handle from whatever fate broke the pot. On the handle there remained some of the old glaze that had overlaid the pot after its firing. It was a bright yet translucent yellow, like the sunrise over the marsh on a hot summer day.

 I put the handle in my pocket and continued my search. I picked up a few of the snail shells and looked at their design and the coloration of the seams of the shell as they spiraled up from the opening to its peak. I dropped these small shells back onto the shell bed. They clattered as they hit and bounced to a standstill, caught in the cups of the larger shells. I picked up a large canine tooth from some creature. I looked it over and slipped it into my pocket.

Then as I pushed shells away with my foot I uncovered what I initially thought was a spear point. I was amazed at my good fortune, and I picked it up. It was about eight inches long. One end tapered to a point and other was broken off exposing the stone from which it had been made. I looked around to see if there might be other pieces lying among the shells. I did not see any. I looked back at my find and considered what it might be. The shape was certainly like a spear point but the item was nearly ¾ of an inch thick, and made of a soft stone. The soft stone had been likely been worked into a tool shape long ago. But what tool and for what purpose?

Liking my new treasure, I slipped it into my pocket along with the brick-red handle. My dog was still lying on the shell bed patiently waiting for me to be ready to move on to our next adventure. But first we had to re-cross the marsh. We stepped onto the boards. I turned and I took a final look back at the shell bed and the dark river flowing swiftly past. Then I turned back to our task of getting back to shore.

I kept those treasures for years. But all except the tooth are now gone. I can recall their shape and their feel in my hand. But I am no longer sure of what happened to them. I think I gave the handle to a friend who collected old bits of pottery. The fashioned stone artifact stay with me for long time. I would find it in a drawer periodically and take it out and wonder at it. I finally came to the conclusion that it was some sort of tool for planting and cultivating crops in ancient times. It might have been used for digging or a seed drill for planting seed. Its pointed end was rounded from years of digging in the soil, or being twisted in the earth to make a seed hole, or dragged through the loose top soil to make a small trench. But I have lost that old treasure.

It came back to my mind when I read an article about a man in North Carolina who had found a similar item. He had talked with people at a museum and they concluded it was a hand adz. It was also probably used in agriculture. A sketch of my memory of my stone artifact is sketched below.

I never recrossed the marsh to search for more treasures. But I have continued to pick up odds and ends when I walk along a river shore, or in the woods, and I pick items up and wonder what they might have been and who was the person that used them when they walked this same way.

The article mentioned may be found at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article238425048.html



Betelgeuse – Fading

So just what is going on with Betelgeuse?

That’s a good question, and no one seems to have the answer. It may not be possible to have an answer right now.

First of all Betelgeuse is one of my favorite stars in one of my favorite constellations. Betelgeuse is a red super giant star in the constellation Orion. For basic comparison Betelgeuse is 600 times the diameter of the sun and emits 7,500 times the amount of radiation as the Sun. If Betelgeuse were in the Sun’s position the red giant would engulf the planets of the solar system out beyond the orbit of Jupiter.

In the Winter, Orion is clearly visible at night in the northern hemisphere. Betelgeuse is the bright reddish start at the upper end of Orion on the observers left. That is considered the right shoulder of Orion. Just as when you are facing a person, your left side is opposite their right side.

We have all likely been able to see Orion at some time in our lives and are familiar with its shape. A visual aspect of the major stars is shown in the diagram above. There are many more stars in the constellation, but it is these stars that are easiest to pick out when looking up at the constellation at night. Betelgeuse is the star on the upper left. The brightest star in the constellation is Rigel which is opposite Betelgeuse in the lower right side. The other two stars that make up the “frame” of the body of Orion are Bellatrix and Saiph, in the, respectively, upper right position and the lower left position of these four stars.

But discussing the constellation cannot be done without expressing the beauty of the true jewel of Orion, the Orion nebula, the middle star in Orion’s sword that hangs from the three stars of his belt.

Recently there have been numerous articles about the dimming of Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse is a variable star known to dim and brighten over a period of time. However the current dimming is greater than those seen previously. In an article in EarthSky, there is a pair of photographs of Betelgeuse take by Brian Ottum in February 2016 and in December 2019. By comparing the two photographs, the dimming of the star can easily be seen. I found that scaling the picture down in size actually made the difference more apparent.

But can I see this in the sky?

Yes, relatively speaking. Relatively from having seen the star in previous winters as it crossed the sky. Whether out star-gazing on darkened fields, or going out well before sunrise to listen for owls or other birds, I will sit quietly in my folding chair and stare up at the sky. That’s a grand way to spend some time. From this I have a picture in my mind’s eye of the stars in Orion. To me the four stars could be separated as the diagonal pair of Betelgeuse and Rigel, and a second diagonal pair of Bellatrix and Saiph. The stars in these parings have always seemed similar in brightness to me. If you look the stars up you will of course find that the apparent brightness or the absolute magnitude of the two stars in the pairing are not close, but the pairing is the two brighter stars and a second paring of the two less bright stars. To me the diagonal pair of Betelgeuse and Rigel have always been somewhat matched in brightness in the night sky.

After I had seen several articles related to the dimming of Betelgeuse I went out and looked up to see Orion on several nights. But I did not have a picture of what I remembered seeing. I had to recall in my mind how the stars shone. And I could see a difference in Betelgeuse. It was still reddish but it was considerably less bright.  

So why the dimming of this inconstant star. Again a good questions and the answer to which will only truly be revealed by the passage of time. Several articles speculated on the shrinking of the giant star as it prepares to blow off its outer shell and explode in a super nova. But I will not need to sit out each night and watch for this as an event like that might not happen for 100,000 years or more. But maybe I will sit out next week and keep my eye on it. That would be a spectacular sight.

However, the light from Betelgeuse takes a over 650 years to reach earth. So, it might have happened already and the light of the event has not yet reached earth.

And recently gravity waves were observed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) that came from the area of the sky in the general area of Betelgeuse. What is that about? In reading information from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) again we do not know the source, but it does not appear to emanate from Betelgeuse.

So we wait to learn. But in the meantime, we can go out on any Winter night and enjoy looking up at the stars of Orion. His frame shines out as does his belt and his sword. The constellation dominates the Winter sky. A bonus are his dogs represented by Sirius and Procyon. And if the night is dark and the sky is clear, below them hiding in the grass you may see Lepus, the rabbit.

The EarthSky article may be found at: https://earthsky.org/space/ligo-gravitational-wave-burst-near-betelgeus

A “tweet” from Dr. Stella Kafka, Director and CEO of AAVSO, on January 14, 2020, may be found by searching at: https://twitter.com

Stone Artifact – The Road Out

When I was younger my family lived at Parris Island, South Carolina. Its in the area of the Palmetto State that’s known as the “low country”. Its low in the sense that it is covered with the marshes of the coastal tidal rivers. Islands large and small dot the landscape and at high tides are surrounded by the brackish water. The area is rich in teeming aquatic life. The banks of the rivers are marsh and sulfur rich mud. Marshes grasses and snails and tiny “fiddler” crabs fill the marsh area along with many other creatures. On my river, the area between the flowing water and these marshes were lined with empty oyster shells. These shell banks were wide and deep. If you dug down there were just more shells. All were bleached white by the South Carolina sun. Today, when I look at those rivers on Google Earth I see the same brackish water and the banks still have some white borders but it’s hard to tell if they are the shell banks that I recall.

At this time in my youth these shell banks were my goal. I wondered what treasures might lie there among the bleached oyster shells. But between me and those banks lay a hundred yards of marsh mud. The mud would support a fiddler crab, but if I set my foot on it I would sink up to my knees in the soft “pluff mud.” At the same time I was rewarded for my effort with the stench of rotten eggs/sulfur from small air pockets formed beneath the surface of the mud from the processes involved in the decay of organic matter. It was a truly distinctive odor.

Neither my dog or I liked the smell, but we were drawn to the marsh and the distant river bank. We had tried to slog our way out but it was exhausting for both of us. With each step I would have to full my foot free of the sticky, smelly mud only to sink back up to my knee with the next step. My dog would be up to his chest with all four legs stuck in the mud, but together we gamily slogged on. But we were not to make it. I had to lift my dog out of the mud and together get back to the solid land beyond the marsh grasses. I clearly remember the reception we got at home when we arrived dirty and smelling of the mud. We had to clean up in the back yard with the hose.

There had to be a better way. After much thought I came up with a plan using boards that I could find washed up in the marsh. Using several boards, I could build a walk-way that I could move with me out over the mud to the white shoreline beside the river. It required that I move the boards with me. I would place the first board and walking along it place the second board at the end. Then I would stand on the second board and pick up the board I have just left. I would carry that board to the end of the second board I was walking on and place it into position. I repeated this process over and over. It took me half an hour to cross 100 yards of sucking mud and reach the shell banks next to the river.

My dog would walk on the planks as well -sometimes. A couple of time he jumped into the mud to investigate something, and I had to pull him out. This was no mean feat as he was a full-grown pointer, and I was just in my twelfth year.

I was difficult work, including a few slips of my own. But we made it. 1

We stepped out onto the shell bed. The shells shifted and crunched with each step. We had made it to the river. The brown swiftly flowing water was only a few feet away. As I walked towards it, the shells would shift and slid into the muddy water.

I stood and gazed out across the river and savored my success. Then I sat on the shell bed and looked out across the broad river. My dog sat down next to me.

To Be Continued in a follow-on article, “The Road Back.”

1-Years later I would read Larry Niven’s science fiction stories and his Tales of Known Space, which included a planet of this name. I would recall my walk across the Mud.

Faithful

It is Christmas Eve. As I do on all Christmas Eves I am spending time outside, looking up at the stars and recounting them in my life.

There was a star that is no longer visible to our eyes, but I look for it just the same.

When I went out tonight, I saw that the Hunter, Orion, had risen. He is followed by his two companions, his dogs, Procyon in Canis Minor, and Sirius in Canis Major. Through each cycle of night in the cooler months they can be seen making their trek across the heavens. I prefer to think of them as returning home after a hunt. The Hunter is tired, and his dogs are exhausted. They follow behind the Hunter. Procyon the smaller of the two stars – and smaller of the dogs – trails at the rear. Sirius, the larger star – and the brightest star tin the night sky – holds his rank as companion to the Hunter just below the Hunter’s right side (our left as we look up).

Perhaps the Hunter had been walking slowly home after a failed hunt. He is tired, his head hangs, his club rests on his shoulder or hangs in his hand like a weight upon his soul. Then suddenly, a loud snort, a blow of hot air, startles him into a defensive posture as the bull attacks. Doubtlessly the hunter is scared, but he stands his ground and prepares to defend himself. And his companions, the dog stars Procyon and Sirius, are now alert and snarling. They stand at his side to face the charge of the enraged bull.

The stars of these several constellations are immobile in their ballet. They stand frozen for all of us to see and consider how we will react on a sudden charge. Will we stand like the Hunter and defend ourselves? Will our companions stand by our side?

Each of us is both a follower and a leader. Each of us faces fear and must be prepared to respond.

If we chose our companions well, they will stand with us. If we chose our stance well, we will be able to protect ourselves and our companions. And if we choose well who we will follow, we will overcome.

If you walk a forest path you may come upon a bear. If you walk in the fields and meadows of the mountains you may come upon a bull elk or a bison.

In each instance, we and our companions are called upon the face the danger and follow the guidance of the One we have chosen to follow.

And will we overcome.

And in all of this, Merry Christmas to all.

The picture above is borrowed from NASA.

(*Just_A_Note) – Cold Moon / True Moon

It was the last full moon of the year – and the decade.

Our calendars and our clocks do not make any variance in the movement of the stars, or the planets, or their moons. Our clocks and calendars allow us to track the procession of the heavenly bodies, but they do not guide them. Never the less, when a celestial event happens on a meaning-filled date it is remarkable; that is in the sense that the juxtaposition may be remarked upon.

For me the 12th day of December is a meaning-filled date. When an event is forecast for that date for me it is remarkable.

So it was with the Full Cold Moon on an early morning of mid-December. I went outside and took my picture in the light of the last full moon of the decade just at the peak of its brightness.

Or so I thought.

Having herein proclaimed that the celestial bodies do not care about our watches or calendars, I must say I was 24 hours off.

I stood outside, bundled against the cold, watching the moon creep towards its zenith, and I thought its brightest. My watch told me that the time was approaching 12:15 AM on December 13th. At that moment, I turned so that I was not in the Moon’s shadow and took my picture, with the full moon in the background masked by light clouds.

The peak of the full moon, I later discovered, had been a full day before on 12 December. I was standing outside on the morning of 13 December.

But this was not like the transit of Mercury which happens and then is over. If I missed the fullness of the moon on the 12th of December, I could still take my picture of me and the moon 24 hours later. And I could still declare that the event and the picture were meaningful to me.

A picture of me with the moon at the actual time of the event would be more preferable, but I was ok. It was a grand night. It was cold and partly clear. I could see the moon and a star or two shining through the thin clouds. I could hear the dogs in the neighborhood barking, perhaps at a fox, or a stray cat, or maybe at the moon.

And I was outside enjoying it all.

Fall Burning

It was a nice week-day in the late Fall, a perfect day for a hike at one of my favorite spots. The fields beyond the Brawner Farm at the Manassas National Battlefield Park (NBP) were calling to me.

I wanted to get out and hike around. I also wanted to see how the Prescribed Fire that the Park had set in the previous week had done its job. Prescribed Fire is a technique used by the National Park Service (NPS) and other federal, state, and private land managers to aid in managing the types of plants on the land.

A Prescribed Fire is used to burn off invasive plants that have choked out native plants. This aids in the recovery of native plants once the invasive species have been burned off. Burning the landscape in a Prescribed Fire can also be used to enhance the visual aspects of a site. This is often called a “viewshed” as it improved the view of the historic site for visitors. It will enable the visitors to have a better sense of how the land looked at the time of a historical event. In the case of this area, the burn can restore the lay of the battlefield as it was at the time of the Second Battle of Manassas fought August 28-30, 1862. At that time the area was pastoral. It was a series of connecting farm lands. The portion being restored by Prescribed Fire is known as the Brawner Farm. The Brawner family owned and farmed the land before and after the battle. The battle began from the front yard of the Brawner’s house and raged around the house and across their farm for three days.

The National Park Service (NPS) uses Prescribed Fires to satisfy both natural and cultural goals for the Parks of the United States. However, as stated by the management of the Manassas NBP, “safety is the main concern”. According the NPS web-page on Prescribed Fire the Park must develop its strategic management plan which provides the background and need for Prescribed Fires. In addition, each burn must have a specific “burn plan” which establishes the conditions that must be met before a burn is executed. For example, a burn would not be started on a windy day that might cause the fire to spread to other areas not intended to be burned. During the burn the fire is monitored by on -site staff who are trained in managing and suppressing fires in grass lands.

The burn has been completed, and I can walk the trails again. I and other visitors to the battlefield can now see in the distance the railroad cut along which the battle on the second day was fought. We can gain a sense of the openness of the fields across which that the Union troops charged while exposed to Confederate rifle and cannon fire.

The native grasses will return along with other native plants including blackberry vines and ground roses. These roses are sometimes called a rose for Wisconsin, in honor of the stand made by the Iron Brigade in the twilight on Brawner’s Farm. These wild roses (Rosa virginiana) grow close to the ground in fields where hay is cut. They may be found across Brawner Farm, growing beneath the scythe.

As the native grasses return, it is hoped that the population of Bob White quail (Colinus virginianus) will increase. The call of the coveys can sometimes be heard across the battlefield in the early mornings.

During the three-day battle 2,800 men were killed and over 14,00 were wounded. Today the land is peaceful again. But a walker who pauses to read the NPS signs can be aware of the pace and horror of the battle.

Information on the Park and on the Prescribed Burns may be found at:  http://www.wildlandfirefighter.com/2019/11/21/park-service-starts-prescribed-burns-at-manassas-battlefield/ ; https://www.nps.gov/mana/learn/news/prescribed-fire-april-2019.htm ; https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1965/wildfires-prescribed-fires-fuels.htm ; https://www.nps.gov/articles/600182.htm#4/35.46/-98.57

Beetles in the Fog

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers.

I can only imagine that it is a curious sight. The first curious image is fog rolling onto and across a desert. A second, desert beetles facing into whatever breeze might be pushing the fog, with their beetle heads down and their beetle rears lifted upward so the fog, water laden, is pushed along its back.

These curious beetles are the Namib Desert Beetle (Stenocara gracilip) which face the breeze from the ocean and expose the wing-cases along their backs to the incoming fog and collect water from the fog that is condensed on its wing cases. Then due to the beetle’s curious posture the water droplets flow downward to the beetle’s mouth.

In the arid Namib desert on the south west coast of Africa, plants and animals must find a means to get water to survive. This is also true of many people around the world. Using methods similar to those of the beetle, devices have been constructed so some people in arid regions can harvest water from the moisture in fog. A project in Morocco has been under development since 2005. The project won a United Nations Climate Change award for the supplying villages with water from new water taps and supply line, and also for alleviating the burden on women who had to spend hours a day in drawing and hauling water from wells to supply their homes. Similar projects have been used in other arid locales that are close to an ocean.

More recently two papers were given at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in Seattle Washington which took place earlier this month (November 2019). One was on the capability of gathering water characteristics of a single wire in a study related to the collection capabilities of designed projects. The other paper was based on a study conducted by Hunter King, of the University of Akron in Ohio, and colleagues which investigated how the Namib Desert Beetle collects water along its back. The abstracts of these two papers may be found at http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD19/Session/Q25.7 and http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD19/Session/Q30.1, respectively.

For the beetle the study shows how microscopic ridges, bumps and pits along the beetle’s hard wing case allow it to achieve an improved rate of water collection from the fog. The study included the development of 3D printed spheres with manufactured ridges, bumps, and pits of different configuration for testing in a wind tunnel. These test showed that the microscopic texture of the surface influences the behavior of the collected water droplets. In the case of the beetle these differences in the roughness and smoothness of the surface of the hard shell wing-case on the beetle’s back influenced the movement of the water droplets to the beetle’s mouth. The beetle is able to gather and consume water to enhance its survival in the arid desert. And it must be a wondrous sight to see.

It is through the investigation of different technologies that we, the people, will be able to find solutions to alleviate thirst, hunger, and illness around the world.

We, the fortunate few who have the most, should express or thanks always for what we have. We should also seek out ways to help our brothers and sisters who do not have the resources that we so often take for granted.

Art work above is a modification of picture borrowed from http://morawatersystems.com/biomimicry-the-namib-desert-beetle-a-source-of-inspiration/

Other articles include: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3949572/The-fog-catchers-Sahara-make-water-AIR-hundreds-people.html ; https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2016/09/197525/moroccan-fog-water-harvesting-project-wins-united-nations-award/ ; https://www.wired.com/2012/11/namib-beetle-bottle/ ; https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20465982

UPDate – The Event – Transit of Mercury 2019

Yesterday, 11 November, 2019, Veterans Day, Mercury made its fourth (2003, 2006, 2016, 2019) transit of the Solar disk in the 21st century. I was glad to be able to view the event on my solar projection device. It’s homemade and has brought me many hours of enjoyment being out in the fields of Virginia trying to catch a glimpse of the solar events of both Mercury and Venus. In the pictures below you will see short pieces of tape with dates written on them. These dates represent my attempts over the last fifteen years to view transits of the two inner planets. In 2004 and then again in 2012 I tried to view the transits of Venus. In 2004 the initial stages of the event were obscured by a heavy fog. However, I was able to capture a glimpse of the event just before its conclusion. Yesterday, I was able to watch a great deal of the transit of Mercury.

My viewing platform is built around a Newtonian telescope that I bought from Sears in 1986 to view the last passing of Halley’s Comet. The platform is two hinged boards. The bottom board is a base for mounting the viewing platform on a hand truck, the upper board holds the telescope and the viewing screen. The viewing screen is mounted over the eye piece of the telescope. The screen is a piece of plastic sheet mounted on a wooden frame. I use a third piece of wood hinged to the upper board that enables me to maintain the proper elevation for the telescope. I also use wood blacks to help in holding the correct elevation, as the projection of the sun and the planet moves quickly across the screen.

The biggest surprise for me was how tiny the planet appeared on my screen. My screen was able to accommodate the disk of the sun. But in that projection Mercury appeared only slightly bigger than the period at the end of this sentence. Due to this as well as the texture of the viewing screen and my questionable skill as a photographer, I was not able to take a picture of the “dot” of Mercury that I can provide in this article. However, I present my pictures of the event and my viewing platform.

I am happy to share the experience and my excitement at seeing that small dot proceed across the disk of the Sun.

My original post leading up to the transit of Mercury was posted on October 30, 2019.