Out of This World

The recent strong winds from out of the west help generate some very impressive lenticular clouds. These are the “flying saucer” shaped clouds that form from time to time around Tehachapi. OK, they can form elsewhere, but we do get our share.

Art in Action

Recently (Oct 19th) I dropped over to Ventura for their annual Kinetic Sculpture Race. For those that don't know this is a “race” where people have built human powered vehicles (mostly based on bicycles) and race them through four events.

Sunspot 1476

Right now on the Sun is a huge sunspot. This one is designated 1476. Using an inexpensive Tasco Telescope with a solar projection attachement I've gotten an image of the sunspot. (Don't ever look at the sun through a telescope, or even a camera without the correct filters. And if you don't know they are the correct ones they aren't.)

For more information you can check out the article at Space.com.

Panorama Experiment

On Saturday I was at the Trail of 100 Giants in the Sequoia Monument. And I decided to try an experiment with doing a vertical panorama to give a better image of one of these big red trees. The experiment shows some success, but clearly needs more work before a good picture is created. But here's what I was able to get this time.