It's for the birds

Today, as forecast, has turned into one of those dreary, dark, and grey Pacific Northwest rainy days. So, any deviation from the dark greens and grays surrounding us falls readily into one's eye.

Our neighbours have tree in their yard which has lost all its leaves (naturally, it's November), but is hanging on to its fruits, as it does every year. My wife says that they are yellow apples - I wouldn't know; my botanical knowledge is very limited. My impression leans more towards Japanese oranges. In any case, they are very distinct (see the left picture, above, taken with a 300mm lens through our living room window). If you take a closer look at the centre of that image, you'll notice one of them with it's innards hollowed out (enlarged image on the right). I'm sure its the work of the local bird population.

We do have a number of resident species which are not deterred by our (usually quite mild) winters - crows, seagulls, pidgeons, sparrows, etc. I'm sure they appreciate the availability of food sources like that during this time of year.

So, because our neighbour usually leaves these fruits on the tree, he's doing something for the environment - it's for the birds.

Side effects

Derek's having a less than stellar day today. He is in the middle of his third chemo treatment. Airdrie says that he's just beat, and has spent the day in bed.

We saw him yesterday, after he came home from the hospital from his bi-weekly infusions there. He was feeling ok at that time. Today and tomorrow he is still connected to the "take-home" drip, I suppose that's what's causing his discomfort right now. I always think of chemotherapy as "controlled poisoning" - it's really a course way to attack cancer cells. It's the only reliable method we know of, though. Much research is under way to be able to "fine tune" these treatments - looking for the magic bullet, if you like.

The B.C. Cancer Agency is in the forefront of this research. It needs all the support it can get.

A number of happenings

Sometimes a lot of things happen in a short period.

On the weekend, my wife and I drove to Seattle to meet a cousin whom I hadn't seen in 52 years. She was visiting one of her daughters, who had recently moved there. Other than exchanging a few emails in the last year, we hadn't really connected in a meaningful way.

The last time we met face-to-face was when we were both in our early teens, before I emigrated to Canada from Berlin. Later, she married an American in the armed services, became an American citizen many years ago, and moved to Texas.

In any case, we reconnected on Sunday, caught up on family history, took some pictures, and promised to visit each other more often.

It was a significant, and happy day for both of us.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Monday, my wife decided that it would be nice to have an intimate dinner with Derek, Airdrie, Marina and Lauren. Since they all live next door, it is easy to get together. We had one of my wife's specialties (rouladen) and various greens, rice, pudding. My wife is a wonderful cook (I married her for her cooking and her money - well, and because I love her, too). This recipe she learned from my mother; my mother always said that my wife made it better than she herself.

So, we had a nice evening.

Yesterday, I finally managed to take a short peek at comet Holmes; a short peek because I saw it through holes in the clouds only. It is very bright, and easily seen with the naked eye as a fuzzy star. It looks magnificent in binoculars, if a little unusual - I did not see a tail; it appears like a big, fuzzy ball. It's a shame that our sky is covered in clouds, and predictions are for more of the same, and lots of rain. Well, this is the Pacific Northwest - what would you expect at this time of year?


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This morning we had some sad news. My wife has three close friends, two of whom she has known since they all were kids, another "joined the club" more than fifty years ago. They all live in the city, and the four of them get together often; they celebrate their birthdays, and find many other reasons to have "a night out" with each other. They've gone through the ups and downs in their lives more-or-less together; two of them are widowed. I have known all four of them since before my wife and I got married (nearly 43 years ago). They all were bridesmaids at our wedding. The four of them are part of our family, and join in and contribute to most of our family get-togethers.

One of them, Sonia, whom my wife has known since they were both children, died this morning. We are all very sad. Her health had not been the best in the last years; none-the-less she travelled often, enjoyed her food, and was always "open" to life. It's a great loss to us all. Derek has written an eloquent note about her.

So, life has its happy and sad moments.

Surprise comet

(click on the picture to see a larger version)







Figure 1 (from "Sky and Telescope" magazine.)









Photographer AnnMarie Jones
Location Aberllefenni, Wales, UK
Date 5th Nov '07 - pm
Equipment Canon 20D 100-400L @ 400mm Celestron CG5 mount






(click on the picture for a larger version)





Figure 3

These sequential pictures taken by Gary Seronik (RASC)








We have an unanticipated visitor in the night sky right now. I'm talking about the periodic comet Holmes. That comet orbits between Mars and Jupiter (right in the asteroid belt) and is normally very faint - too faint for many telescopes and certainly binoculars. Its orbit is tilted with respect to the plane of the orbits of the major planets and the average plane of the asteroid belt. As a consequence, the comet encounters the asteroid belt twice - once on the way "up" from "below", and again on the way "down" from "above" the planetary plane.

In the last couple of weeks, it has become very bright (relatively speaking), so that it can now be seen with the naked eye, and is certainly quite easy in binoculars. Some people have estimated its brightness at 2nd magnitude, whereas it is normally at 17th magnitude.

In astronomy the magnitude of an object refers to its brightness; each magnitude is approximately 2.5 times brighter than the next. A bright star, for instance, can be of magnitude 1, with larger numbers actually denoting lower brightness. So a star of magnitude 1 is 2.5 times brighter than one of magnitude 2, which in turn is 2.5 times brighter than a star of magnitude 3, etc. You can therefore get a pretty good idea of how much the comet's brightness has increased if you consider that its brightness has increased by about 15 magnitudes (that's 2.5 raised to the 15th power) which comes to approximately a million times. For a more precise explanation, see an article by Nick Strobel.

This brightness increase is unexplained at the moment. My hunch is that the comet collided with some asteroid or a large meteoroid. Something very similar was done artificially by deliberately crashing the "Deep Impact" probe into the comet Tempel 1.

You can find comet Holmes on a clear evening if you look to the northeast at around 8 pm (and it'll be visible all night long, as the sky turns through the hours, slowly making its way to the overhead, and later, northwest position). Make reference to figure 1 to find it in the sky. The comet is in a position in it's orbit which will keep it in the area of the Perseus constellation until about March 2008. Perhaps it'll keep up its brightness - comets are notoriously unpredictable in that regard. Use your binoculars to enhance the view. You'll probably see a fuzzy blob, quite distinct from the nearby stars.

Practical uses

As most of you know, I'm sure, there are a number of satellites orbiting the Earth with astronomical purposes as their primary or only function. The most famous of these is the Hubble Space Telescope; who hasn't seen at least some of spectacular images that telescope has produced over the years? Above you see Hubble images of the planet Jupiter and the inside of a gaseous nebula known as M17 (In binoculars, visible as a small "blob" - both it, and Jupiter and its four big moons are easily seen from your back yard with binoculars, especially if they are attached to a photo tripod or similar support.)

There are a number of other artificial satellites making astronomical observations at electromagnetic wavelengths that do not penetrate our atmosphere (infra-red, ultraviolet, certain radio frequencies, etc...). A couple of these, the Spitzer and the Chandra space telescopes, were recently in the news with regards to "missing black holes".

Space telescopes provide data for basic research, and their resulting data sets have less direct application to everyday life, though some the published pictures resulting from their activities are aesthetically pleasing, and grace the walls of planetariums (planetaria?) and museums (musea?), and probably quite a few private residences the world over. They also have scientific value; so one can say that there is perhaps some direct effect.

There is another class of Earth satellites which very directly affect our lives - the "weather satellites". There are several which provide up-to-date weather information and make today's weather forecasts so much more accurate. For instance, here is an image picturing some pertinent current conditions relayed by one of those satellites. The International Space Station and NASA's space shuttle also have a role in this regard, many important weather pictures have been taken by people occupying these vehicles.

Information such as this helps people prepare for these occurrences, and saves many lives. While this is not astronomy activity in the strict sense, the technologies developed for astronomical purposes certainly have important applications in this field of meteorology (this name itself shows the connection, meteors are certainly considered to be astronomical phenomena).

Practical uses of science, for sure.

...

The haunted abode

It's this time of year again: we're haunted. The ghosts and goblins appear in our windows and doors - time to appease them with gifts of candy and other goodies.

These goblins were created by Marina and Lauren and Marina's classmate Chayenne.

Halloween recital

Marina at the piano













The proud parents (Derek and Airdrie)















Lauren at the piano













Marina singing







Derek and Airdrie invited us to come to the annual Halloween recital which Lorraine's music students put on every year. This time, it took place at a well-known local pizza restaurant. Both Marina and Lauren displayed their great talents for all guests. A huge surprise for us was that Marina also sang ("Butterfly" was her selection). She has an amazing voice, and a totally relaxed poise in front of an audience. We were all totally thrilled. Marina must have inherited some of that talent from her dad, as well as her Great-Grandfather (my wife's father and Derek's Grandfather), who was a singer, musician, and composer.