Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Flowers on Our Big Saguaro Cactus

Saguaro Flowers

The medium large saguaro in the front of the garage by the driveway has been producing flowers for over a week now. Only yesterday we were finally able to take the telephoto lens and get a close up of a flower not pointing straight up so we can see the inside of it. The arms of the cactus extend to twelve feet or so above the ground making it difficult to get a straight-on photo of the flowers.

We are noticing a few new buds that are more on the sides of some of the arms that might allow us to get a better image of the flowers when they open. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, click on the image to enlarge.

17 May 2016 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

The All American Eclipse

The Great American EclipseAlthough the event is over fifteen months in the future, we ordered our special eclipse shades from Rainbow Symphony last week. This week, they showed up with the poster depicted at the right as a bonus. We ordered twenty-five pair of shades and plan on handing them out to family and friends as the event approaches.

Earlier, we made our reservations for an RV park near the centerline of the path of totality in Casper, WY. I’m sure the campgrounds are going to fill up very quickly as this is certain to be the most important and popular celestial event in our lifetimes. As spectacular as the Annular Eclipse was that we witnessed four years ago in Page, AZ, this one is certain to be more impressive, weather permitting.

The good thing about this eclipse is that nobody in the entire lower forty-eight has to travel more than a few to several hundred miles to get to the band of totality. Our trip, as currently planned, takes us over a 1,035 mile route with some extra miles due to sight seeing side trips along the scenic route through Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Image: All American Eclipse Poster; click to enlarge.

13 May 2016 by Astronomy Environment Wanderlust

Hot Pink Cactus Flower

Hot Pink Cactus Flower

We purchased this potted cactus recently with the intent to eventually put it in the cactus garden. In the meantime, its spring flowers have been opening, the most recent of which is pictured above. I am not sure of the name of this variety, but it sure has beautiful hot pink flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.

10 May 2016 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

May 9, 2016 Transit of Mercury

My efforts to photograph the Mercurial transit of the sun today were less than optimum; the diminutive disk of the small planet did not resolve well with my Canon SL1, 300mm lens and a $10 solar filter. Moreover, looking at the sun through Eclipse Shades was a bust; you couldn’t resolve the planet at all.

But, all was not lost – thanks to the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s images on the internet, I captured several screen shots to combine into the animation below. The sequence starts when Mercury is almost at mid-transit (I did not want to get up at 4 AM) and continues to the point where the shadow is barely touching the east limb of the sun. I find it very interesting that the sunspots at and above the equator move to indicate the solar rotation over the few hours it took for the transit.


09 May 2016 by Aerospace Astronomy Rocket Science

Saguaro Flower Season

Saguaro Flower and Buds

This image (click to enlarge) is of the top of a saguaro 400 feet down the road from our little house in the desert. This particular cactus doesn’t have any “arms” like a lot of them do, but it has an abundance of flower buds on its crown and the one lovely open flower. There will be many more, as you can see.

We will be posting lots of flower pictures as the spring/summer flowering season progresses. We love our desert and the seasonal delights it provides.

05 May 2016 by Arizona Environment Flowers Photography

Hoot Owl Cactus

Hoot Owl Cactus

I don’t know the exact type of cactus this is, but I think it is probably in the cereus family. The little guy’s first four flowers opened up today and the configuration of the flowers reminded me of a couple of hoot owls staring.

There is another flower bud that will probably open up after the hoot owl effect goes away. Click on the image to enlarge.

04 May 2016 by Arizona Home & Garden Photography

A New GPS for the RV

New Garmin GPS

I have had the little Garmin Nüvi 205W GPS since July of 2009. Once understanding its limitations, it turned out to be a reliable gadget in our old Denali SUV.

We bought our Ford F-150, which had a built-in navigation system so we retired the 205 to the office shelf. When we bought the Roadrunner, our Georgetown 30X3 32 foot motorhome, I resurrected the 205W and have been using it in the RV when we travel.

The old GPS has only a four inch display which, in the larger dimensions of the RV, could be hard to read from the captain’s chair. I decided that if Garmin were to have a larger format GPS, then we would need to get it to overcome the display size issue. An Amazon query turned up this nice Garmin Nüvi 2797 with lifetime map updates and a traffic report receiver. The price was within budget, so I ordered it.

The GPS showed up yesterday and I have been getting acquainted with the unit which, fortunately, is similar enough to the old unit that familiarization has gone quite fast. The new features (traffic, bluetooth, etc.) will eventually come into focus as well.

The best thing is that the larger display will be MUCH easier to read while seated in the captain’s chair and underway in the Roadrunner. We will not have the opportunity to use it until toward Memorial Day or after since our May is sort of booked up with caduceus-oriented appointments.

30 Apr 2016 by Technobabble Travel

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