We have been getting delightful rain showers for the last two days. The forecast says it is just about over, though. We welcome the rain anytime in the desert as long as it isn’t one of those destructive microbursts like we had last summer.
This picture was taken during a lull in the shower activity. I noticed the water droplets clinging to the Palo Verde out front and thought they looked very pretty. Click on the image to enlarge.
I bought a potted seasonal cactus at the supermarket earlier this month. The flowers have been opening on it ever since then.
This variety is frequently called Thanksgiving or Christmas Cactus since the plant flowers bloom during our year-end holidays. See the Wikipedia reference to Schlumbergera.
I took this photo yesterday in our outdoor patio. Click on the image to enlarge.
I haven’t posted a picture of this unique mountain peak for over a year. At that time, the weather conditions were clear and not with clouds as in this photo. There was a chance of showers yesterday when we were at the dog park, but they never materialized.
Some interesting facts about this mountain range from Wikipedia:
The Vulture Mountains are about 29-mi long, and east of center, about 13 mi wide; the range is somewhat crescent shaped, mainly trending east-west, and narrowing westwards. The northeast is followed by the course of a southeast stretch of the Hassayampa River; the river turns due-south west of Morristown, on US 60, making the east terminus of the range about 7 mi wide, at the rivers floodplain. The Hassayampa enters the north of the Hassayampa Plain, so a small river canyon region lies at the Vulture Mountain’s northeast, with the Wickenburg Mountains northeast, and the Hieroglyphic Mountains east.
The highpoint of the range is Vulture Peak, 3,658 feet (1,115 m)), at the center east of the range. Another major peak anchors the west region of the range, Black Butte, at 3,612 feet (1,101 m)).
While we were shopping yesterday at the supermarket, I noticed that they had orchids in the flower concession. I had never seen blue nor green phalaenopsis orchids before, but there they were. I did some research and found that the blue orchids are really white orchids injected with blue dye.
From BlueOrchid.org:
During the growth process, the stalk of a white phalaenopsis orchid is injected with a blue dye solution. The intervention is performed in an environment that keeps the infection risk for the plant at a minimum. The blue color is absorbed by the orchid and creates a blue flower.
I assume the same is true for the green orchids. Click on the image to alternate between photos I took of blue and green orchids.
This is a photo I took of some daisies eight years ago yesterday. The photo was archived on the terabyte drive that we use for backup. I found it by accident when looking for Veteran’s Day photos. I liked the fall colors and always love flowers in general. Click on the image to enlarge.
I’m just getting around to posting about the International Space Station (ISS) passing over the Arizona High Desert last week. It was a pretty good pass, the ISS being visible almost from the west horizon to the southeast horizon. The maximum elevation above the horizon for this pass was 78°.
We use the on-line SpaceWeather.com satellite flybys tracker to predict when a suitable satellite pass will occur. We use the filter function to display only the ISS, since those are usually the most dramatic flyovers.
The remarkable thing about the photo is that I candidly snapped the flyover using my less-than-optimum pocket camera, a Canon PowerShot A1400, and got this relatively good image of the ISS as it passed high over the parapets of our little house. Click on the image to enlarge.
I went out to the courtyard to photograph the last image of the great sunspot of 2014, AR 2192 before it rotates out of Earth view. According to the article below, there is a possibility of the spot to return to the Earth-facing side of the solar disk in a couple of weeks. Click on the image to enlarge.
From SpaceWeather.com:
SUPER-SUNSPOT PREPARES TO DEPART: The biggest sunspot in nearly 25 years is about to leave the solar disk.
. . .
As AR2192 approaches the sun’s horizon, it is no longer facing Earth. However, the odds of an Earth-directed radiation storm are higher than ever. The reason is, the western limb of the sun is well-connected to Earth. Solar magnetic fields springing out of that region spiral back to our planet. If a sunspot passing through the area explodes, those spiralling magnetic fields can funnel energetic particles in our direction.
In only a few days, the behemoth sunspot will begin a 2-week transit of the far side of the sun, carried around by the sun’s 27-day rotation. However, that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of this magnificent active region. Big sunspots typically persist for two or three solar rotations before they decay. After it leaves, AR2192 will return in November.