Sunspot Extravaganza

Since we are at, or almost at solar maximum I decided to photograph the Sun today. There are more sunspots on the surface of the Sun than I have ever seen. I numbered them as best I could by comparing my photo to a current one taken by NASA. If you want to know how sunspots are numbered, check out Spaceweather.com for a detailed explanation. Note: I really wanted to emphasize the sunspots, so my photo of the Sun may look a bit funky as I maximized "Unsharp Mask"-Radius and Factor in Affinity.

Sunspots are areas that are cooler than the surrounding surface due to changes in the strong magnetic field as it comes to the surface, thus the spots are darker in color. Sunspots are still hot, hot, hot at 6500F. Areas around sunspot groups can release solar flares of tremendous amounts of radiation.

Photo from NASA re Spaceweather.com - Rapid fire plasma jets

Currently, there are multiple jets of plasma being released from Sunspot group 3638-47. The Sun's surface is so dynamic that changes occur constantly as one sunspot group may die back and another may form.

2024 Maine Big Night # 5

 LH1-Bowd

April 12 - Start time: 8pm.     End Time: 9:06pm

Certified Volunteers - 3 (Kathy, Paul, Laurie)

Uncertified Volunteers - 0

Starting Temperature: 50F.      Ending Temperature:  48F

Precipitation: Fog

The road is wet.

Traffic Tally: 14

Species Live: 18 Pickerel Frogs, 37 Spring Peepers, 1 Green Frog, 6 Spotted Salamanders, 2 Red Efts

Species Dead: 2 Spring Peepers

Species Injured: 1 Eastern Newt

NOTES: With all the rain we had overnight into this morning, we figure that there was lots of amphibian movement. The spring peepers were much more in abundance in the pond than there were last night.

Here is a photo of the injured Eastern Newt. Note that its length spans one hand. It got run over by a car.

Here is a closer view of the Eastern Newt showing the red circles surrounded by black halos on its back.

And, an important characteristic in identifying salamanders is to look to see if they have any patterning on their belly. The Eastern Newt has a yellow belly with black spots.

Here is a photo of a spring peeper from tonight. You can sort of see the X marking on its back.

2024 Maine Big Night # 4

 LH1-Bowd

April 11 - Start Time: 8pm.     End Time: 9:56pm

Certified Volunteers - 3 (Kathy, Paul, Laurie)

Uncertified Volunteers - 0

Starting Temperature: 43F.    Ending Temperature: 43F

Precipitation: Fog

The road is wet

Traffic Tally: 11

Species Live - 1  Pickerel Frog, 65 Spring Peepers, 1 American Toad, 10 Spotted Salamanders

Species Dead - 15 Spring Peepers

NOTES: The rain stopped at around 7:15pm, thus the road was wet. We just had fog the entire time of our survey.  This is the first night that we have heard spring peepers, and just a few were calling. The salamanders were very active as were some of the peepers. A few of the spring peepers were a bit sluggish. And, it seemed to me as though the spring peepers were a bit smaller than what we saw last year.

Our neighbor, and two of her children, came out to see our progress. Thank you to her daughter who held the flashlight while I photographed this spotted salamander. I think one of my favorite features of this amphibian is that there are spots on their legs as well as on their head and back.

And, here is the lone Pickerel Frog that we found.

2024 Maine Big Night # 3

 LH1-Bowd

April 10 -  Start time: 7pm.  End time: 8:10pm

Certified Volunteers - 0

Uncertified Volunteer - 1: Paul

Starting Temp.: 42.5F       Ending Temp: 41.5F

Precipitation: Light Rain

The road is wet.

Traffic Tally: 19 cars

No Amphibians as it seems too cold outside. Most of the snow has melted, but there are still patches of it here and there in the fields and forests.

I planted my seeds under grow lights today

 I have planted my garden vegetable seeds in seed trays in the basement exactly 2 months before they will be ready to move outside into the garden.

Here are the tomato varieties that I will be growing.

And, here are the eggplant and bell pepper varieties that I prefer.

I plant the seeds into seed starter mix and put them into trays. Each tray has labels as to the type of seed, the variety, and the name of the person they are going to. I start seeds for two friends who are also garden buffs!

Lastly, the seed trays get covered, placed on heating mats, and when the sprouts break through the soil, I will turn on the LED grow lights that you see here. Now, we wait patiently for the plants to emerge!!!

Partial Solar Eclipse April 8 2024

 

April 8th was a momentous day for areas of Maine in the path of the solar eclipse. The sky was clear and the total eclipse was an amazing experience for many thousands of people. I chose not to travel as I just do not like crowds, and thus saw only a partial eclipse. But the partial eclipse that we did see was spectacular in its own way. We did experience some of the same changes in the atmosphere that the total eclipse watchers experienced, just not the mind blowing parts. Did I miss a once in a lifetime opportunity? Probably... But, I did get to spend a nice afternoon with friends and family, which added to the joy of the experience. If I could live long enough, a total eclipse will occur over Bowdoin, Maine in 2070...but I will be long gone by then!

Here is our motley crew of lovely ladies who joined us, some of whom are among my closest friends. The camera has a solar filter on it which is the only way to photograph the Sun (unless a solar eclipse is in totality.) Note that all participants are sporting eclipse glasses to keep their eyes safe from the solar rays. I photographed the Sun through the camera thus did not look directly at the Sun.

What also made photographing the sun fun, was that we are nearing solar maximum in the 11 year cycle for sunspots, although it could be anywhere between late 2024 and early 2026. The largest sunspot you see here is number 3628. Sunspots are planet-sized temporary areas of the Sun's surface with decreased temperature due to changes in the magnetic fields that come to the surface. Sunspots can release solar flares (intense radiation that can affect our radio communications.)

We started to feel a temperature change at around 3:15pm, about 15 minutes before we reached our maximum coverage of the sun in Bowdoin. In all, we think the temperature dropped between 8F-10F. We actually had to put our jackets on. And, strangely, super annoying mosquitoes came out! 

Just before maximum coverage of 0.973 magnitude, at 3:31pm, we also noticed a change in the light. Even though the sky was still blue, the quality of the light around us took on a weirdly, otherworldly grayish hue and everyone looked almost zombie-like in pallor. The shadows of the trees were also odd, and difficult to describe, as they were almost slicing into the dirt. By the way, when the word "magnitude" is used by astronomers to describe a solar eclipse, it means the fraction of the Sun's diameter that is covered by the moon.

I photographed each phase to the end where the sun, at 4:40pm was full again. Unfortunately, it was partially obscured by trees but that made an interesting effect.

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE-APRIL 8, 2024-Preparation

View this video from timedate.com to see what we will see in Bowdoin, Maine.

Whoo Hooo! Let's hope for a sunny day! Totality will be seen in the arc across Maine. The further east you go on the dark pink arc, the longer totality will be. Here are some places: The Forks, Houlton, Presque Isle, Kingsbury, etc. We think that we will probably just stay home where the eclipse is going to be partial, but with just a fine line of light on part of the sun, as you see in the picture above.

Check out this video from Eclipse 2024.org to see how the eclipse will be different around the State of Maine.

From Bowdoin, here is our schedule. Note to self: I will be using my Nikon P-1000 camera with a 77mm solar filter AND a fully charged battery. Sandbags will be placed on the tripod and a remote shutter button will be used to avoid shake. The center pole of the tripod will be raised and the tripod legs will be extended to their top height.

2024 Maine Big Night # 2

 Since we just had snow and the ground is still covered, we did not expect much movement, and indeed there was none. I was not able to attend but my partners were there for one hour.

Site: LH1-Bowd

March 28 - Start time: 7:20pm.  End time: 8:20pm.

Certified Volunteers - 1: Kathy

Uncertified Volunteer -1: Paul

Starting Temperature: 48F.   Ending Temperature: 43F

Precipitation: Light rain.

The road is wet.

Traffic Tally: 12

Species Live: 0

Species Dead: 0

NOTE: The woods, fields, and marsh were covered with about 4" of snow. The pond outlet was flowing very strongly.

Winter Storm Warning

Just when I thought that we were done with "the winter that barely was", we are finally getting an actual snow storm! We are in desperate need of snow. Yay!

Being Spiritual