Sebastian posted a bleg yesterday asking about observing the 2012 transit of Venus across the solar disk.Since I have been preparing for the annular eclipse, I posted a comment there pointing to my recent experiences with solar photography. His post got me to look up some information about the transit since we wanted to observe it here, too.

I found the NASA map of global visibility (Image courtesy of NASA) Going to the link helps you to decode the map elements (I,II,III,IV). Click on the map to enlarge.

There is a listing of transit contact events for US cities (and another for international). The closest city listed to our location is Phoenix, AZ. The first event is when the disc of Venus first touches the solar disc occurs at 15:05:55 (Arizona Time); the sun will be 54° above the horizon. The second event is when the other edge of Venus crosses the edge of the sun and occurs at 15:23:32; the sun will be at 50° of elevation. The last transit contact listed is greatest transit which, I assume, is when Venus is halfway across its path over the sun; that occurs at 19:25:24 when the sun is at 13° of elevation.

Nobody in the 48 contiguous states can witness the entire transit because it will not be over until after sundown. It will be entirely visible in Alaska and Hawaii, however.

So, I guess we will keep the eclipse shades and solar filters handy for another three weeks or so. We wouldn’t want to miss this transit since the next one will not be until December of 2117.

This is a pink flower on a cholla cactus here in town. Now, we have dozens of cholla on and around our lot and none of them produce pink flowers - always orange or yellow. I’d like to get a cutting of this and plant it in a pot until it’s big enough to transplant to a place in the yard. But, this one (the only one in town?) is on a private lot. Click on the image to enlarge.

. . . get out of the kitchen. Now that the outside temperatures are regularly above 90° and frequently above 100° (see inset in photo), I moved the baking chores to the patio. Meet my new best friend, the TOAST-R-OVEN.

We prepared our meal this afternoon mostly outside; I baked three potatoes in this oven and Bob grilled steaks on the outdoor portable grill. No heat in the kitchen!

I’m still rehearsing for the eclipse next week. Yesterday, very large sunspot 1476 was strutting its stuff across the solar plasma (still is today, I believe). I stepped out to the courtyard and captured this solar disk image using the techniques for previous solar imaging. If you look closely, you can see sunspot group 1477 above and to the left - look for a pair of slightly dark spots at about latitude 45. Click on the image for full resolution.

Springtime means more than just flowers, especially for the cholla in our front yard. It has had several flowers like the one I posted a couple of days ago. Today, I discovered that a pair of curve-billed thrashers built a nest in the cactus and there are three eggs in it (see inset in photo above). After the discovery, we went out to the courtyard to photograph one of the parents incubating the nest (since the mom & dad take turns). Click on the image to enlarge.

Readers here have long-known of our distaste for wind turbines. On our commute from Arizona to California and back, we traverse over forty miles along I-10 where the scenic desert landscape and snow-capped mountain peaks are obscured by the flailing fans.

Other than the asthetic downside, wind energy costs orders of magnitude more than coal or hydroelectric per kilowatt hour to produce. That means more cost to the consumer.

We have also known that these installations also endanger wildlife; now, it appears that The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a division of the Interior Department is going to make it OK for turbines to kill the previously endangered bald eagles:

From Planet Gore

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a division of the Interior Department, is considering loosening regulations on the killing of bald eagles, the national bird of the United States, to accommodate the development of wind energy sources.

A draft regulation first filed in April would allow businesses to apply for 30-year permits allowing them to kill bald eagles in the course of other legal activities. The length of those permits would be a six-fold increase over the five-year window allowed under current law.

[more]

Two years ago, when Bob and I were just buying the lot to build our retirement dream home, the wild desert cacti on the hill and in the wash behind the graded part of the lot were teeming with spring flowers. That’s still true today. I walked up the hill a bit to get this image of a beautiful cholla flower. If I recall correctly, reader and commenter Crotalus says this is a buckhorn cholla, a.k.a jumping cholla or a dozen other names. Whatever it’s called, the flowers are gorgeous. Click on the image to enlarge.

We went shopping in the Northwest Valley today. Bob stopped to get gas and I noticed that the “Pride of Barbados” (Red Bird of Paradise) flowers were blooming on the shrubs next to the gas station. I snapped this photo of a red bird blossom.

The elevation at our place in Wickenburg is about a thousand feet higher than the valley and our red birds come about a month later than theirs. Still, I got to see my favorite shrub in bloom today. It is a nice preview of what will be in our courtyard next month. Click on the image to enlarge.

Ron, one of our friends on the River, made this cute little yellow birdhouse for us. Today, I took it out to my “musical mesquite” tree, where I hang wind chimes and other colorful decorative things, and hung it on one of the branches. We want to hang it higher in the tree to encourage birds to occupy it, but we left it where it was when a wind gust came up and knocked over my mini-greenhouse up in the courtyard. We ran up there and cleaned up the mess in the courtyard. Amazingly, we did not lose any of the plants in the courtyard or in the greenhouse. Click on the image to enlarge.

There are still a few flower buds on my ocotillo out front. I had hoped for more, but the monsoons have not come yet. I have been watering around the base lately with limited amounts of water. Maybe the ocotillo will kick in to high flower gear and (hopefully) get a few green leaves too. Click on the image to enlarge.