Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Environment

A Helicopter-Shaped Cloud

Helicopter-Shaped Cloud

After dinner yesterday, Damsel looked out of the front window and saw a cloud that appeared to look like the silhouette of an aircraft. She grabbed her camera and got this image of the phenomenon before it morphed into a randomly shaped cloud.

I remembered that there is a term to describe seeing objects in nature that one perceives as resembling something else. However, I could not remember the exact term so I did an internet search on “clouds that resemble things” and found a definition on Askville which led me to this definition on Wikipedia:

Pareidolia

Pareidolia (parr-i-DOH-lee-uh) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant, a form of apophenia. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records when played in reverse.

Interesting. Click on the image to enlarge.

ALSO: Seeing extraterrestrial alien faces in Ice Cream: Alien Frosty Paws.

02 Feb 2014 by Environment Photography

Early Spring Cholla Buds

Cholla Buds

For most of January, we have enjoyed warmer daytime temperatures, like in the high 60’s and low 70’s. It is still quite possible for winter to hit here again, but in the meantime, we’re enjoying “faux spring.” Some of the cacti on the lot also seem to be responding to the warm trend.

I was up on the hill behind the RV drive hanging the bird feeders that Damsel refilled yesterday afternoon. I walked over to inspect some of the buckhorn cholla cacti because I saw some cactus wrens and a couple of curve billed thrashers hanging around them. I thought I might see evidence of a nest or two being built, but all I saw was some new buds starting to appear on the cholla. Damsel reminded me later that the cholla on the hill always seem to get flowers sooner than the ones down on the front of the lot. Click on the image to enlarge.

28 Jan 2014 by Arizona Environment Home & Garden

Chicken Little and the World of Opposite

Chicken Little

From the NWS:

A very frigid, arctic air mass will continue to bring dangerous, and in some cases life-threatening, low temperatures and wind chills to parts of the central and eastern U.S. on Tuesday. Wind Chill Advisories and Warnings are in effect for much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation with wind chill values as low as -20F to -50F possible. Temperatures are expected to begin moderating on Wednesday.

But, as The Patriot Post points out:

‘Polar Vortex’ Scaremongering

Remember back in the good ‘ole days when everyone expected winters to be, well, cold? Well, forget that. The Leftmedia is having a field day with this week’s furious Arctic outbreak across a large portion of the U.S., thanks to what is alarmingly being called the “polar vortex.” Climate alarmists were quick to blame the cold snap on variable weather patterns being created by man-made global warming. The Weather Channel wondered, “Is The Record Cold Arctic Outbreak Tied To Global Warming”? while CBS’ Charlie Rose asked, “Is it definitely connected to global warming?” Putting scaremongering aside, the “polar vortex” is an upper-level cyclone that is always present. Pieces of the vortex occasionally break from the cyclone, taking with it pools of sometimes very frigid air. Bottom line: Mother nature gets the last laugh.

As usual, Cold is Hot, Freedom is Slavery, Good is Bad, etc.

07 Jan 2014 by Environment Global Warming Greenbats

Autumn Colors

Red Leaves

This is one of many trees around town that have changed colors from the summer green to all shades of yellows, oranges and reds. This tree is located along the main drag (US 60) a half mile west of old downtown. Click on the image to enlarge.

09 Dec 2013 by Arizona Environment Photography

On-Line Solar Movie Maker

Sunspots 12/06/2013This morning, I browsed my usual daily visits on the internet. When I got to the webpage at SpaceWeather.com, I noticed several sunspots were visible on the “Daily Sun” feature in the left sidebar. That made me have the urge to go out and capture an image of the sun over Arizona to see if I could resolve any of the sunspots. There were three distinct spots in my image, which I labeled, as seen on the right. The solar north pole is at about the ten o’clock point in the image I made. I didn’t bother to rotate the solar image to align the pole at the top as I sometimes do. Click on the image to enlarge.

I visited the SOHO Sunspot page to get the designation numbers of the sunspots in the photo, I noticed a link to a new feature called Helioviewer which purported to allow users anywhere make their own custom images and movies. After fooling with the website a bit, I made the video below to document the spots in my image. The motion starts about 24 hours before advancing to how the sun looked today. Solar north is up and the recording was made through a hydrogen alpha (or equivalent) filter. The bright spots are the location of the spots in my image above. See this screenshot from the Helioviewer site for reference.


06 Dec 2013 by Astronomy Environment Science

More Solar Optical Phenomena

planet X

After seeing the brilliant rainbow colors in the clouds near the sun, I went to get my camera and get some pictures. In this image, it appears that there is an object that resembles a planet or something near the sun. It actually is a phantom image of the overexposed sun, itself, caused by the camera lens optics. It is interesting and pretty, don’t you think? Click on the image to enlarge.

04 Dec 2013 by Astronomy Environment Photography

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