Hookah Tips

On a recent trip to Atlanta for an orchid show, our friend Tish arranged dinner at a middle eastern restaurant called Divan. Tish is one of the most flexible vegetarians I know and we've been to all sorts of places with her, even seafood restaurants. She can always talk the kitchen into preparing something wonderful for her tastes. At Divan we had Lebanese wine, which was a quite decent red, similar to zinfandel, and a variety of middle eastern appetizers and entrees. Tish avoided the lamb Deb and I ordered, but we all shared in the vegetarian appetizers.

One of the main attractions to this restaurant is hookah smoking. And after dinner, we decided to order a hookah. When you make an order, you choose one of several flavored tobacco mixtures. The mixtures include various fruits, molasses, or spices. We asked the waiter to bring us his favorite special blend, the contents of which he wouldn't tell. No, it wasn't that special! I think it was more mollasses and spice than fruit. The hookah tobacco mixture is placed in the bowl and a foil screen is placed on top of the bowl. The waiter brings it out fully loaded, then places a burning charcoal on top of the screen with tongs. Each smoker at the table is given a plastic mouthpiece tip - don't want to spread germs! After placing the lit charcoal on the top of the bowl, a few drags on the mouthpiece brings out a cool, sweet, and very light smoke. The smoke is almost like exhaling on a cold damp day. There's almost nothing to it.

Deb is very sensitive to tobacco smoke in restaurants and we simply avoid places that allow it. We expected there to be seperate rooms for hookah smoking and dining, but hookah smoking was allowed throughout the restaurant. They do restrict cigar and cigarette smoking to the bar. While eating, we noticed two other tables smoking hookahs and were surprised that it didn't seem any smokier than burning a few scented candles. It was fun, seemed a bit daring, and I'm glad we did it, but I don't plan to make a steady diet of hookah smoking. If you want a rush, a cigarette is a better bet. Hookah smoking is almost like candy cigarettes - at least here in America. I wonder what they really smoke in the hookah lounges of Cairo or Amman?

Comet 17P/Holmes (Oct 28, 2007)

I took this shot of comet 17P/Holmes from my front deck using 130mm f5.7 Newtonian reflector. The photo was taken at 10:56pm Sunday evening. I plan to post a photo every day that I can get a good shot to chronical the changes in the comet over time. I'm sure I'll get tired of the effort, but let's see how far I can go.

Comet 17P/Holmes (Oct 27, 2007)

Here's a photo of Comet 17P/Holmes I took from my front deck using a 130mm f5.7 Newtonian reflector. The photo was taken at 11:51pm Saturday evening. The comet was very faint on Wednesday at 17th magnitude. By Friday early morning, it had suddenly jumped in brightness to magnitude 2.5. Since each magnitude is about 2.5 times brighter than the next, that represents a jump in brightness of about a million fold. The comet doesn't have a tail yet, presumably because it's still rather far from the Sun (somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in distance from the Sun), and it's tail, if any, is aimed roughly directly away from Earth. In the photo, you can see the coma rather distinctly in the center, while a bright flair is visible to the lower left. The comet is in Perseus, just to the northeast of alpha-Perseus and closer to lambda-Per. It's certainly visible to the naked eye, but it looks just like a star. A pair of binoculars will resolve it to the fuzzball splotch that it really is. For more detailed information on finding it yourself, take a look at: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10775326.html

M57 Redux

This is a stack of seven 8-second exposures of M57, the same object I posted earlier in the month. It was taken with my 130mm f5.7 reflector and a Meade DSI CCD camera on October 6th, 2007. I feel much better about this image than the last one. I aligned the telescope more accurately and used the FTS format image capture technique to take seperate RGB exposures. I then used GIMP 2.2 to combine the three colors into one final image. I processed it only slightly to brighten the whole image in an effort to bring out more detail.

Sputnik

This evening we attended a panel discussion titled "Reminiscences of Sputnik and its 50 Year Aftermath." The event was hosted by the local chapter of the National Space Society and the Panelists were Ernst Stuhlinger and Konrad Dannenberg, both original Von Braun team members from Germany, along with Dave Christensen, early Huntsville rocket team member.

The first photo shows (L to R) Dave Christensen, Ernst Stuhlinger, and Konrad Dannenberg. The second photo shows me and fellow amatuer astronomer John Young on either side of Ernst Stuhlinger.

On October 4th, 1957, the Russians announced the succesful launch of the world's first artificial satellite. They called it Sputnik, which means "Co-Traveller-1". This evening, the two German rocket scientists, in a room full of citizens whose lives were altered in many different ways by the event, described the mood and consequences surrounding the day the west learned of that little beeping metal ball that flew 500 miles above them that Fall.

The year 1957 had been designated two years earlier as the "International Geophysical Year". It was an international scientific effort that lasted from July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958. At a conference preceding the IGY, Ernst Stulinger attended as part of a team of American scientists. He met with some of the Russian scientists working on similar projects. Ernst described his discussions with the Russians as informative and somewhat competitive. They claimed that they would be able to launch a satellite before the year's end. It seemed clear to him that the Russians were serious, but when he relayed the news to officials in Washington, they blew it off as so much Russian hot air. Those guys were always claiming something. Everyone new the US was the technological leader in every way.

As part of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), Ernst approached General John Medaris, commander of the agency, with the news about the Russians and practically begged him to allow the Huntsville organization to pursue a satellite launch post haste. The general denied the request. He pointed out that Eisenhower did not want to provoke the Russians, thinking they may not take too kindly to a percieved spy flying overhead if launched from an Army rocket.

At the time, there was serious in-fighting between the Army, Navy, and Air Force over which branch should develop and manage large missile and rocket programs. Bob hope had even commented that "the Army has recently developed a rocket large enough to blow up the Navy." When Stuhlinger met with General Medaris right after the news of Sputnik arrived, he said the general told him, "Those damned bastards!", incredulous that the Russians had actually been able to accomplish the feat.

Immediately after news of Sputnik's successful flight, Eisenhower requested the military to respond. Dannenberg said the ABMA in Huntsville said that they could launch a satellite within 90 days. This was trumped by the Navy, who said they could launch their satellite, originally planned for a spring 1958 launch, within 60 days and they got the nod from Washington. Dannenberg went on to describe the launch of the Navy's Vanguard I on December 6, 1957. It was braodcast live on radio. The rocket was lit, rose about four feet off the launch pad, then suddenly lost power and dropped back to the ground in a fiery explosion. It was an embarassing setback for the Americans.

Von Braun's team was then called to ready their vehicle. They would not disappoint. The team had been working on a launch despite the knowledge that the Navy's rocket was planned to go first. Ernst described his own effort to construct the final stage firing mechanism. The device had to detect the angle and speed of the craft relative to the Earth and fire the last stage at just the right moment and attitude. Too soon and the rocket would simply shoot higher above the Earth and drop back down without going into orbit. Too late and the rocket would drive directly into Earth's atmosphere and burn up in reentry. He constructed the device in his garage.

The team prepared themselves for a launch on January 31, 1958 at Cape Canaveral. The converted Redstone Rocket, renamed Jupiter-C to feign a non-military image, performed flawlessly. The Explorer I satellite carried simple instrumentation that beamed back data used to discover the Van Allen belts surrounding the Earth and protecting its inhabitants from deadly solar storms. While Sputnik I fell back to Earth in early January, 1958, the Explorer I stayed aloft for more than 12 years and was still orbiting Earth when the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon. It was quite an accomplishment for the Huntsville based rocket team.

After the launch of Explorer I, General Medaris was quoted as saying he "could kiss that Sputnik on both cheeks!" There's no doubt that we all owe Sputnik a great deal of thanks for launching the space age in a way that lit a fire in the hearts of Americans and inspired this nation to achieve great heights. And it was a wonderful experience to witness the reminiscenses of these two scientists who were in the midst of the mealstrom during that exciting time in the history of Huntsville and the history of mankind.

M57

This is a photo of M57 that I took from my front deck using a 130" f5.7 reflector and a Meade DSI CCD camera on Sep 29. It's a stack of 21 4sec exposures. The white spots are hot spots on the CCD.

The object is on the Messier list of 110 of the brightest deep-sky objects, thus its name, M57. It's a planetary nebula, so called because early astronomers thought they may be giant gaseous planets. They are actually much more distant remnants of slowly exploding stars. This particular nebula is about 2300 light-years away and is about 4' wide, or about 0.06deg. That makes it about 1.6 lt-yrs in diameter, which is about 9 trillion miles. Our Sun is believed to be of the size and composition that it will end its life in this manner. Planetary nebulae are rather short lived and this one is believed to have started it's expansion about 1500-1800 years ago.

Rules Of The Road

1. Drive at least the speed limit.


2. If there is no car in front of you within 100 ft, you are too slow.


3. If you are the front car in a line of cars in a lane, you are too slow.


4. If you are in the left lane, go faster than the cars in the right lane (unless you plan to turn left within a ¼ mile).


5. Never run red lights or stop signs. You may get away with it, but if you don’t, punishment is swift and severe – and worse, you will “punish” others for your misdeed.


6. The exit ramp and the center lane (of a 3 or 5 lane road) are for deceleration. Don’t decelerate until you are in these lanes.


7. If you are in line at a traffic light, when the light turns green keep close to the car in front of you until you are well through the intersection.


8. Use turn signals.


9. Never turn right from the left lane, nor turn left from the right lane.


10. Don't talk on the phone while driving. Doing so may cause you to spill your coffee or smudge your mascara.

What are your driving rules or pet peeves? Let me know and I'll add them on. We need more rules!

Blue Ribbons at Birmingham

This past weekend we attended the Birmingham Orchid Show at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. We entered five orchids in flower and had four of the five awarded ribbons - two first place and two second place ribbons. Orchid shows are a bit like dog shows (only with orchids - duh) and there are dozens of awards handed out. Probably 25%-50% of all plants entered in any given show get some kind of ribbon or award. Among the plants we entered was one that is rare in the US, a Habeneria medusae (pictured above), with a slim hope of it winning an American Orchid Society award. The AOS awards go to plants that are compared against existing precedence of the same species or hybrid from across the US. The medusae didn't win an AOS award, but it did win a blue ribbon for its category and it caused quite a stir at the show simply because few attendees had seen one prior to this specimen.

Our society was one of about fifteen to put up an exhibit (photo right). Yes, the exhibits are judged too and our society exhibit won first place for its category (there are three categories) and an additional special award presented by Orchid Digest for the exhibit at the show that best meets the criteria of the Orchid Digest. Like I said, many awards are presented.

Shopping Cart Crime

Deb and I stopped at Sam's yesterday. We didn't need much, but they have this really good aged Canadian white cheddar that we always keep around the house. Anyway, we'd picked up the cheese and had one or two other items in the basket. We then started looking for a block of Mozzarella cheese to use in an eggplant Parmesan we were planning to make. We left our cart behind while we strolled down a couple of aisles looking for the Mozzarella. When we came back for our cart, it was gone! Where could it be?? We were only gone for a minute. We asked a nearby employee if she'd seen the thief. No luck. "They do that all the time." she said. It was a minor mystery at first and then Deb noticed our cheddar cheese and other items on a shelf. Someone had emptied our cart and took it! That's when I got pissed. I mean, it's one thing to accidentally take off with someone else's cart and then get embarrassed when you realize it's not yours and just leave it wherever. This, however, was obvious, deliberate hijacking of another shopper's cart. Inexcusable! We started staring down every customer that passed near us, all the while holding our items awkwardly in our hands so everyone could see we were cartless, hoping against hope to detect some sign of guilt in the lowlife who stole ours. I actually felt violated. What kind of shopper would do such a thing. I bet this wouldn't have happened at Costco. Oh, I wonder where our poor cart is now!

Shooting Stars From The Rocket Park

The Space and Rocket Center held an educational event for their members last Saturday night. The USSRC contacted our current VBAS president, Michael, to ask if we would support telescope observing after their indoor activities. This is the sort of thing we love to do anyway, so Michael, James, and I agreed to meet there with our telescopes. Michael always invites me to these public outreach events because he loves my telescope so much (it's barely visible in the photo on the lower right under the Mercury rocket). My scope is a homemade 10" Newtonian with a 7ft square wooden tube. It produces sharp images and people viewing through it feel that they're really looking through something substantial. James had his 8" Schmidt-Cass and Michael carried the society's 14" LX200.

John Dobson, one of the most avid amateur astronomers and designer of the Dobsonian mount, a variation of which I use on my scope, said that the value of a telescope should be measured by the number of people who've looked through it. I love that. It's helped push me to seek opportunities to share my love of the skies with others. There's a wide wide universe out there and most people keep staring at their shoes.

We each settled on a different subject to view as the parents and their kids started pouring out after the indoor activities. Michael showed them Jupiter, with its four Galilean moons all on the same side of the planet that night. James had Albireo, a beautiful double star with one icy blue star and the other a golden yellow. I was on M13, the Hercules cluster. It's a globular cluster with several hundred thousand stars and is about 25,000 light years away. Albireo is about 400 light years away, and Jupiter is less than 20 light minutes away. Yeah, it's a big universe and all of these objects are in our Milky Way galaxy (although M13 is out of the galactic plane). The kids and parents both had lots of questions. Even the employees, mostly college students, had a great time. I heard several "awesome!"s and "fantastic!"s when they would take a look.

This was the first time that I took my telescope to the Space and Rocket Center and it was great fun to view the night skies from among these historic rockets. We even saw a satellite pass overhead - one that may have been launched by one of the types of rockets on display at the park.

On the Indecision of Squirrels

I had to go downtown to Lewter's Hardware Saturday morning to get parts for modifing our new gas grill from propane to natural gas. We live part way up Monte Sano about two miles from town. As I drove down Bankhead Parkway I turned a corner and up ahead was a squirrel about a third of the way across the road. He could easily have made it across if he'd just kept moving. But when he became aware of me, he went into a huge fit of indecision. He darted back-and-forth a couple of times and finally decided he could make it. He did, thank goodness. I slowed down a bit, but I don't brake hard for animals ever since I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting a Labrador retriever and wrecked my clutch. I could've bought a litter of replacement pups for what that cost.

I continued toward town, and you know, there were two more squirrels who darted out in front of me before I got to the hardware store. Each time one darted out, it could easily have made it across the road or turned back and made it. But it seemed like on first spotting my car, they each went into the same fit of indecision - going back and forth trying to make a decision, but not committing either way until it really became a matter of life or death. They all escaped alive. I was thankful for that, but was curious why so many squirrels were trying to cross the road. Oh well, maybe it's just the cooler weather that's got 'em scampering.

This morning I made a trip down to Home Depot for a different project. This time I counted three dead squirrels by the time I got to Five-Points. These three weren't as lucky as their brethren the day before, and maybe even one or two of them were the same squirrels I saw yesterday. Who knows?

I started thinking about the evolutionary implication of the phenomenon. Cars have only been around for the better part of a hundred years. Road kill from cars certainly puts a a new stress on populations of squirrels (among other critters). Is it severe enough to selectively remove enough of the squirrels with genes that contribute to "decision deficit disorder" to ultimately select out that behavior? Could humans be playing a part in selectively breeding for squirrels with sharp decision making skills? One day, perhaps hundreds of years from now, highly decisive squirrels may dominate the population. What would we have wrought?

Ninja Dream

I awoke this morning to a rather stressful dream, the level of which I rarely have. In my dream, I was in a room with a shirtless oriental ninja type and his prisoner. I was just there, watching. The prisoner was in a chair, while the ninja paced a few feet away at a table. He was obviously angry. I should state right here that I didn't recognize the ninja nor the prisoner as anyone identifiable in real life, and the prisoner's face was never in focus. His anonymity bothered me, but in the dream I was relieved to find that it wasn't my face or the face of someone I know.

The room was not too dark and had walls that were made of bamboo or wood. The ninja picked up a large knife from the table and threw it at the chest of the prisoner. The knife plunged into his chest a few inches and the prisoner writhed in pain. The ninja went over to him and pulled the knife out. The prisoner was relieved and didn't seem to be too damaged. The ninja repeatedely threw and extracted the knife. He yelled at the prisoner each time he extracted the blade. I never could figure out what the yelling was about, nor why he was doing this. I was puzzled how the ninja could throw the knife as to avoid a fatal wound, and marveled at the skill. After a few repetitions, I started pleading for him to stop. With each attack, my pleas were louder, more insistant. But I was powerless to act. The ninja finally started yelling at me and I demurred.

He went back over to the table and picked out a large, thin bladed knife. His throw thrust the knife into the man's chest so hard that the it went through and stuck out of his back. Still, the knife seemed to have avoided the heart and major organs. This time when the ninja walked over to the prisoner, he didn't pull out the knife. Instead, he reached around and grabbed the bloody blade between his thumb and forefinger and sorta wiggled it, which reinforced the actuality of it. I started pleading for him to remove the knife from the man's chest, but he just smiled at me and wouldn't do it. Again and again I pleaded, all to no avail. I finally realized consciousness and decided that I'd had anough of this dream and forced myself awake. It was 6:23am.

Family Portrait

This past weekend my Mom, aunt, and sister blew into town unexpectedly for the weekend. My Mom is a Katrina Survivor and has moved four times since that dreadful storm two years ago. Now she's facing her fifth move. She's currently renting a house two doors down from my sister and the landlords just informed her that they want to sell the house. They think they have a captive buyer, but it's the wrong house for Mom to buy. While I still think she's better off renting, the insecurity of renting a house has her on the market to buy again. That was the excuse whe needed to come for a visit.

She set up an appointment to look at a retirement community here in Huntsville, and it was a great opportunity for her, aunt Harriet, and my sister Donna to organize an impromptu family reunion. The visit to Redstone Village, "Huntsville's first true lifecare community", was impressive. This is the kind of place you check into, and are driven out in a box. They have three levels of living space - independent apartment living, assisted living, and full-time care living. I've talked to two residents and both really like it. I know my Mom would fit in very well, but I really think she's too young at 72. Besides, their pricing model is a real stretch for her.

After the tour of the Village we invited everyone, including my brother and his family, over to our house for grilled chicken and other goodies. That's when our younger niece, Haley, got really excited because we were all together and exclaimed "I love my family!!", by which she meant that she loves having an extended family with aunts and uncles and cousins and grandmothers and such. Yep, it's great that we could all get together.

Neofinetia falcata x Rhynchostylis coelestis

This vandaceous cross is an intergeneric orchid hybrid commonly known as Neostylis Lou Sneary. Neofinetia falcata is a species native to Japan and we collect them. They are rather slow growing, even among orchids. This particular plant is a hybrid between two genera. The other species in the cross is Rhynchostylis coelestis, a species native to Thailand. The Rhynchostylis tend grow faster and produce more and larger flowers than the Neofinetia. The combination produces a larger plant with very Neofinetia-like flowers, only a bit larger and with a bit more color (Neofinetias are usually pure white).

Undercover Mosques

I found this BBC 4 production a few months ago and recommend everyone view it. It speaks for itself. There are six parts on YouTube. With the current trend in Western societies to bend unjustifiably to Islamic sensitivities, it's rather surprising that this made it through production and to final airing.

Defending The Indefensible

Whoopi Goldberg used her first day on the daytime chat show "The View" Tuesday to defend football star Michael Vick in his dogfighting case. Goldberg said that "from where he comes from" in the South, dogfighting isn't that unusual. "It's like cockfighting in Puerto Rico," she said. "There are certain things that are indicative to certain parts of the country." (Quote from BreitBart.Com).

1. "In the South, dogfighting isn't that unusual". Uh, yeah, it is unusual.

2. "It's like cockfighting in Puerto Rico". Right, it IS like cockfighting.

It is unfathomable that a woman whose recent ancesters were forced into slave labor would defend the enslavement of animals forced into raw fighting like gladiators for human entertainment. It would be ironic if it weren't so sad. Of course, she may have taken this position out of a desire to stand out in the crowd on the show. If so, it shows a serious lack of judgment on which topics to pick a contrarian view. Either way, it's indefensible to come down on the side of promoting such cruelty to fellow mammals simply to entertain oneself. Let's hope it was a lack of thinking rather than a healthy dose of it that brought her to that position.

The photo is one I found showing a dogfight in Afghanistan. I also found photos taken in East Asia and the US. It seems Ms. Goldberg is right in that the practice is widespread. Could social acceptence of such practice contribute to higher levels of other forms of violence?

Oh, and cockfighting isn't very nice either.

Fun With Math

Here's a nice trick for helping you calculate your gas mileage. Since it's easier for most people to multiply rather than divide, this technique transforms the problem into one of remembering a simple table and performing one multiplication. It can therefore be performed quickly in your head, without pencil and paper.

The technique is to memorize a handful of numbers that divide 100, then mutliply the appropriate number by the "number of hundreds" of miles you drove since the last fill-up.

Steps:

1. When you fill up your gas tank, note the number of gallons of fuel. Let's call that 'f'.
2. Check your odometer to note the number of miles travelled since your last fill-up. Call that 'm'.
3. Look up the number of times f divides 100, or compute (100/f). Call this number N. This is the key step and I'll give more information about it later. Think of this value as "miles per gallon per hundred miles".
4. Now multiply 'N' by ('m'/100). That's your mileage in miles per gallon.


Wow, this looks hard. But it's actually easier than dividing m/f directly. Here are the techniques that make it easy:

1. Remember a few key divisions of 100, those that result in numbers that are typical of the number of gallons you normally purchase when you fill up your tank. For example, 100/8 = 12.5. I often put between 10 and 15 gallons of fuel into my tank. Here's the table I use:

15 divides 100 6 times (remember 15 gals -> 6)
14 divides 100 7.1 times (remember 14 gals -> 7+)
13 divides 100 7.7 times (remember 13 gals -> 8-)
12.5 divides 100 8 times (remember 12.5 gals -> 8)
11.1 divides 100 9 times (remember 11.1 gals -> 9)
10 divides 100 10 times (you better know this already!)

I've memorized these divisions of 100 and a few more that are convenient.

2. It's very simple to divide a large number by 100; just move the decimal two places to the left. For example, 345/100 = 3.45


Sample Problem
Today I filled up my tank with 12.5 gallons. The odometer read 269. You could divide 269 by 12.5 directly, or you can use this method:

Step by Step Answer
1. I know that 12.5 goes into 100 8 times. I note the number 8.
2. 269 is about 270, so I round up to 270 and move the decimal two places to the left to divide by 100 and get 2.7.
3. I multiply 8 x 2.7 to get 21.6 mpg.

Even the last multiplication can be made easier by breaking it into parts:

8 x 2.7 = (8 x 2) + (8 x .7)
= 16 + 5.6
= 21.6 mpg Hmmm, mileage not too good...

The Second Coming

Alabamians have been waiting for the second coming of their savior for quite some time. Maybe the time is nigh. No, it’s not Jesus Christ they expect to see coming round the corner soon – it’s the second coming of The Bear that has them enthralled at the moment. And the fans of Bama football now believe he just may be back in the form of Nick Saban. Alabamians seem to practice Sunday religion as a warmup to the real test of faith, the faith that Alabama will reign supreme once again under the leadership of a bigger-than-life football coach. Several coaches have stood for the test. The fans have chewed on them, found some more flavorful than others, but eventually spit them all out.

Last night’s match-up with Western Carolina was a prophetic lucky break in scheduling that occurred before Saban’s move to Bama. However, that shameful victory over a grossly outmatched opponent may be sufficient tonic to seal the fans to their new messiah long enough for him to really make a difference. Success at football seems to hinge as much on an indefinable form of faith as it does on raw talent. I don’t know of a winning team that doesn’t have that ‘je-ne-sais-quois’ magical ingredient that can’t be defined or captured, but everyone recognizes when present. Of course, Saban’s real test will come in November against a powerful Auburn team. If he pulls that one off, allegiance will be sealed – at least until next season.

Being a savior has its price, however, and Saban must behave himself and perform successfully year after year under the scrutiny of the intense fandom and the ghost of The Bear himself, against whom every Alabama coach will always be measured.

He could be the true savior, but then again, his name does rhyme with Satan…

How to Host a 50th Birthday Party

I turned fifty a couple of weeks ago and my wife Deb organized a dinner party for fourteen. I must say she did a fine job on the party and we all had a great time! My Mom came down from Tennessee, where she's now living near my sister. Some friends from out of town stayed over the weekend and the rest were close friends who live here in Huntsville. The mix of people worked out very well - ages ranged from 22 to over 70. Dinner lasted about four hours and spanned eight courses plus sorbets. All of the food was homemade, with deserts brought by two other party attendees. We consumed three bottles of champagne, four bottles of white wine, and six bottles of red. Cigars and brandy were served on the front deck. The atmosphere was relaxed, fun, and special.

Here is the menu:

Jeff’s Birthday Dinner
August 11, 2007
Prepared by Debbie Delmas and Lauren Obermann
Served by Debbie, Lauren, and Adam Dauro



Cheese Filled Phyllo Triangles
Moet & Chandon White Star Champagne


Shrimp and Artichoke Salad with Lemon, Mint, and Parsley
Pavilion 2005 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc


Savory Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Asparagus, Bacon, and Infused Oils


Chilled Cucumber Soup with Pickled Red Onions and Cucumbers


Pineapple Ginger Sorbet


Tostada of Frijoles, Smoked Barbeque Pork, and Caramelized Onions
with Chipotle Cream
J. Lohr 2004 Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon


Mango Sorbet


Lasagne Verde
Spinach noodles layered with vegetables, pork, beef, and white cream sauce


Cheese Tray
White Cheddar (Canada), Morbier (France)
Humboldt Fog (USA), Blue (USA), Tallagio (Italy)
Dried Fruits, Nuts, Fresh Grapes


Carrot Cake
prepared by Lauren Obermann


Chocolate Pate΄ with Crème Anglais and Raspberry Coulis
prepared by Karen Bachmeyer

Lunar Eclipse

My internal clock went off this morning about 3:15am. Then again at 4:10, then 4:27. I finally decided to get out of bed at 4:42. I walked out onto the front deck to look for the Moon and quickly found it. It was close to complete totality - maybe 7/8ths covered at that time. I went back inside and told Deb to get up, that we were within five minutes of totality. It was completely quiet outside except for the distant sound of sparse traffic on Highway 72 over Chapman mountain. As soon as totality was reached, I went inside to check the time on the "Atomic Clock". The moment I looked, it was 4:51am. I stared at it a few seconds and it changed to 4:52am. That was the time predicted for our area. Damn, those astronomers know their stuff! At about that time, Deb and I heard some dogs or coyotes howling in the distance. Did the eclipse freak them out?

We stayed up for about twenty minutes more and watched as the Moon seemed to get darker and darker as it dropped closer to the horizon into the haze filled with the skyglow of Huntsville to the west of us.

Oh by the way, the photo is not one of this eclipse, but it is a photo I took through my 130mm telescope on November 27, 2004 at 8:49pm. I didn't take any photos of this one because of the inconvenient time and position of the eclipsed Moon.

Chainsaws and Skycaps

After the thrill of the downed power line sizzling the drive at VBAS on Saturday, I was pumped with enough testosterone to get out my chainsaw and go back up there to cut down another tree that threatened to fall on the power line in the future. In my opinion, there’s not much that's more fun than ripping through trees with an 18" Husqvarna!

Once the fun started, I hated to quit. So Sunday morning I called my neighbor, Larry, to see if he wanted to clear out the two or three small trees that've grown to block the streetlight in front of both our yards. He was ready and I met him after breakfast to tackle the trees.

About a month ago, I found out about a program that our local utility company has to shield streetlights that produce intrusive light. The shield is in the form of a Hubbell Skycap (see : http://store.starrynightlights.com/hub-skycap.html). As an avid amateur astronomer, I’m very interested in preserving and restoring our dark skies. The program to shield nuisance light has the side effect of reducing light pollution. In my case, I wanted both. I do most of my home observing from my front deck, which is on a hill and thus elevated above the level of the top of the streetlight. I always hated the blaring light shining upwards into my face while trying to observe the Crab Nebula or some such faint fuzzy. The Skycap assures that light only shines downward, not upward. I was glad to plop down the fifty bucks to have it installed. Once it was installed, however, I found out that the tree in the adjacent vacant lot had grown so close that it was reflecting most of the light up to my deck. That’s why I wanted to get out the chainsaw. My neighbor wanted to cut down a few other small trees to provide space for a nice yellow maple to thrive.

I wielded my chainsaw two days in a row and it felt good. We finished the job around 11:30am; in time for me to put up the tools, take a shower, and take my woman to a movie matinee.

Energized

This is my first blog posting and I'm energized! Right now, my intent with this blog is to chronical events and post random thoughts.

Like today, for instance. I went up to the local observatory, where I volunteer (http://www.vbas.org/), about 10am this morning to work on fastening the right-ascension optical encoder mount to our 21" diameter telescope. I worked on it a little while and then had to go downstairs to drill a couple of holes using the drill press. So I was downstairs talking with our newsletter editor, Steve, and preparing to drill the holes, when all of a sudden... CRASH---POP... and the power goes out. There were four of us up there: I, Steve, John, and Jared. Everyone walked outside to make sure everyone else was OK. Thankfully, all were fine. We then walked down the drive to find a dead tree that had fallen across the road and snapped the power and phone lines. It was about 11:30am when the power went out.

The energized line was lying across a tree and down onto the pavement. Because of a storm the previous night, the street was wet, which allowed the line to arc to ground. The line sizzled like bacon on a hot griddle. Worse, the branch that the line laid across started smoking and sparking. The current going through the branch and down the tree to ground was slowly turning the branch into charcoal. The observatory is in the midst of the Monte Sano State Park (www.alapark.gov/montesano), so John contacted Kent, the park ranger, immediately. Kent reported no further power outage and then called the power company.

Meanwhile the live wire had burned its way through the first branch and was now lying across a lower branch, which also started smoking and even flamed up for a bit. Lucky us, after three weeks of drought, we just had nearly two inches of rain the night before and everything was still quite wet - so there was little danger of starting a serious forest fire. The ranger drove down to take a look at the situation. He stuck around only briefly after seeing that there was no immediate danger and returned to his post to await the power company. About a half hour later the line burned its way through another branch and we could tell it would soon fall to the gound. After a bit more smoking and sparking, the line finally burned its way completely through the branches and as it fell it touched the other broken line, the return line, and we heard another loud POP. This time it shorted out the system further back up the road and, this time, about half of the park campground lost power. It didn't take long for Kent to drive back down to see what had happened. The power company was contacted once again to let them know the situation had worsened. By now, Kent was headed back to the office to deal with the upset campers with no power. But hey, they're camping right? They should know how to deal with no power.

Once the second short occurred and knocked out a wider swath, our downed lines were now de-energized and posed nearly no threat (I still wouldn't trust the things not to suddenly get re-energized). Steve and Jared left about 2pm. Since the lines were already down, John and I decided to take the opportunity to cut down another dead tree that might one day fall and cause a similar calamity. We finished that about 4pm and the power company had still not arrived. We were tired and decided to drive out and leave contact information with Kent.

It's now after 9:00pm and I just got an email from John saying that he spoke with Kent and the power is back on - Praise Be Unto TVA!