Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

ISS HD Earth Viewing Experiment

Southeast Asia

This is an interesting thing to watch live streaming from the International Space Station. It is a high definition view of the Earth below taken from one of four HD cameras aboard the ISS. I screen captured the image above of somewhere over Southeast Asia as the ISS sailed off to the south pacific. Read the entire description of the experiment at APOD.

This is a good site to find out the current location of the ISS. Click on the image to enlarge.

UPDATE: I watched the streaming video as the ISS approached the terminator and was surprised to see the full moon rising in the distance.

Full Moon Rising

UPDATE II: This is looking back at the setting moon at about 1815UTC 5/16/2014 as the ISS passed into western Canada.

Moonset

Click on the images to enlarge.

14 May 2014 by Aerospace Astronomy Rocket Science

Coming Soon – Pride of Barbados Flowers

Flower Pods

The Pride of Barbados (a.k.a. Red Bird of Paradise) shrubs in the courtyard are coming up much faster than they did last year. This stem’s flower pods will likely be opening very soon, about a month earlier than last year.

Neither of the other two Red Bird shrubs have any flower pods. This shrub has this almost fully developed pod stem and another tiny one that will be coming along soon. This shrub was the last one to have flowers a year ago. My, how things seem to change from year to year.

All three shrubs were installed in June of 2011, so this is their third spring/summer in the courtyard. Click on the image to enlarge.

13 May 2014 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Hashtag Diplomacy

Hashtag Diplomacy

Cartoon and this excerpt from The Patriot Post:

#BringBackOurGirls Rhetoric

Political commentator George Will blasted the White House’s response to the kidnappings in Nigeria and had this to say about Michelle Obama’s #BringBackOurGirls twitter promo. “Are these barbarians in the wilds of Nigeria supposed to check their Twitter accounts and say, ‘Uh oh, Michelle Obama is very cross with us — we better change our behavior’?” he asked. “It’s an exercise in self-esteem. I do not know how adults stand there, facing a camera, and say, ‘Bring back our girls.'” Of course, we don’t understand how Democrats can stand in front of the camera to exploit every mass shooting, either. Will added, “Power is the ability to achieve intended effects, and this [social media campaign] is not intended to have any effect on the real world.” Michelle delivered a speech on the situation over the weekend, but her remarks excluded any reference to Boko Haram or Islam. #ProfilesInCourage

We note that political cartoonist Gary McCoy has comically exaggerated every feature of the first couple EXCEPT for the first lady’s BUTT!

12 May 2014 by Beltway Kabuki Humor Whacko Politics

Mothers Day 2014

Beavertail Cactus Flower

Happy Mothers Day!

We noticed that a new flower opened on one of the beavertail cacti in my rock and cactus garden today. It is very unusual for a flower to open this late in spring. All of the other beavertails in our garden stopped getting flowers several weeks ago. I guess this one is a special flower just for Mothers Day. Click on the image to enlarge.

11 May 2014 by Arizona Flowers Holidays Photography

Our First Saguaro Flower of the Spring

Saguaro Flower

The first of many flowers on our big saguaro cactus out front opened today. The tops of the cactus are twelve feet up in the air, so I got out the telephoto lens and took this photo from across the driveway. As you can see, there will be many more flowers soon. We hope to have flowers opening daily for the rest of spring and maybe into summer.

From 50 States dot com:

In 1901 the saguaro’s blossom was adopted as the official territorial flower, and later, in 1931, it was confirmed as the state flower. The saguaro cactus typically blooms in May and June. It is one of the most unique state flowers, and is characterized by having a waxy feel, but fragrant aroma. There may be hundreds of flowers on a saguaro cactus that bloom just several at a time over a period of more than a month. The saguaro flowers have a short life; they open at night and close permanently during the next day. Many of the blossoms will become pollinated and, later in the summer, the flowers become red-fleshed fruits that are enjoyed by the local bird population.

10 May 2014 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Red Tailed Hawk

Red Tailed Hawk

When we finished walking the dogs after breakfast this morning, I saw a hawk perched on the roof of the neighbors’ house. I took the dogs in, grabbed my telephoto lens and went back out to take a photo of the bird. Shortly after I took the photo of the hawk perched, it took off and flew down toward the wash west of the house.

I consulted Stokes’ Field Guide to Birds and concluded that this bird is a red tailed hawk. The first entry in the guide indicated that red tails have “extremely variable plumage.” Red tails are also the most commonly seen hawk and range throughout most of the contiguous states and Mexico.

Click on the image to enlarge and on the link to see the perched hawk.

07 May 2014 by Arizona Critters Photography

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