Tuesday, November 20, 2012 Posted in Flowers
We had a really warm fall this year and I saw a frost forecast last week so I set about cleaning out the flowers and at the last minute grabbed the pots off of the front porch and brought them inside of the house. Now granted, we have a lot of light in our atrium, in fact there is a 4ft x 4ft skylight overhead that does well by the plants inside. In fact, it does so well that we have actually kept a poinsettia blooming for an entire year. Ok, so by the time the next Christmas came around it looked weary, but it still had red leaves none the less.
Today as I was sitting at the computer I kept seeing this one hibiscus blossom out of the corner of my eye. So yes, now it’s the photo of the day.
Such is the wonderful color that is now inside when the rest of the outside has gone dim.
Hiked the trails again this weekend and at the upper reaches of the LaLuz trail there were one or two clumps of flowers clinging to life on the side of the mountain.
Got a call from a friend just a few minutes ago and he started out with a “weird science” question. He told me to go out and look at the moon and then look just a bit to the north west of it and tell him what was I seeing.
I saw it, and was pretty dumbfounded. It was about as bright as the moon, but about a quarter of the size and not possibly a star. I told him I’d call him back after I ran into the house to grab my big lens to try and see what it was.
There it is, our own bright light in the sky, long after sunset, but still as bright as the moon.
At first I thought I could see a gondola below it. I called it a gas balloon, but it turns out on magnification, it is an ordinary weather balloon. Its not as bright as the moon in this image because I wanted to see the detail.
Closer
And closer yet, you can faintly see a red tether below the balloon.
Thanks Rodger, that was cool. It’s a great item to add to my sky collection here in Albuquerque.
Edit – KOB posted a story about this that states the balloon is part of a NASA project called WASP and that it started out in Fort Sumner and slowly drifted west at high altitude. They published a nice image of the balloon, which alas, is now long gone. Since I caught it just before the sun set at that high altitude I couldn’t see the translucent nature of the balloon.
Monday, August 20, 2012 Posted in Flowers
Teddybear Sunflower – I’d never seen or heard of these before
Napa
by David Alan
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