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Utah | 7 Oct 2021
by Jim and Melanie Sunset in Arches NP the previous day was beautiful. We decided to enter the park at sunrise this day for a comparison. At the La Sal mountains viewpoint we watched the sunrise and...
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Utah | 8 Oct 2021
by Jim and Melanie The weather forecast for this day was for light rain by mid-day. We arrived early at our destination in Arches NP called Park Avenue. This picture is from the viewing platform next...
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Utah | 9 Oct 2021
by Jim and Melanie For our fourth day in the Moab UT area, we decided to hike in nearby Grandstaff Canyon instead of in the national parks. This canyon has an interesting history. Here are typical...
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Utah | 10 Oct 2021
by Jim and Melanie This is the final post about our visit to Utah. Links to: Oct6, Oct7, Oct8, Oct9. Thanks for following along. If you have been to this area before, you know how special it is. If...
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Leaf Abscissions
Many of the trees here in eastern Iowa have continued to hold their leaves this year. It is a little later in the year than normal. Last night, the temperature got to 26˚F which prompted a phenomenon...
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Road Trip | Dec 2021
We set out on a road trip December 1 to visit Colorado Springs, Trinidad, and Oklahoma. It took 2 weeks. They are marked as A, B, and C on this map. The Colorado visits were for sightseeing and...
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Venus Crescent
We went to a spot with a clear southwest view hoping to see comet Leonard. The conditions weren’t quite favorable. Instead, we admired the alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus. I pointed my camera...
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Crows vs Bald Eagle
Lots of commotion from the Crows this morning. Several of the them were scolding an immature Bald Eagle in the tree right behind our house. It is a BIG bird. It didn’t seem bothered. We have a lot of...
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Optics Lesson
Seasonal changes occur very slowly. I enjoy watching for them as the year passes. Last fall, I did a simple set of observations to record how much lower the path of the Sun was tracking as the weeks...
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American White Pelican
It is springtime in the midwest. Great flocks of American White Pelicans Pelecanus erythrorhynchosare fly north toward breeding grounds. We are fortunate in Iowa to have many of them visit our lakes...
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Jupiter Nears Venus | 27 Apr 2022
How I See It The Moon was watching from below as Jupiter and Venus neared each another. This view was at 5:40 am local time. The closest approach for the two planets is Saturday 30 April. They will be...
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Lunar Eclipse | 15 May 2022
How I See It The skies cleared as evening approached. The Moon was aligned with Earth and the Sun. Their syzygy at 9:30 pm CDT brought the Moon into the umbra of the Earth’s shadow. Desktop software...
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Maharishi Vedic Observatory
How I See It Fairfield is a city in southeast Iowa with a population of 9416 based on the 2020 census. Like many places, it has a varied and interesting history. Higher education played a large role...
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New Fawn
I stepped out onto the front porch and was startled when this thing bleated at me not more than 2 feet away lying next to the lavender flowers. It looked at me seeming to wonder ‘Are you my mother?”...
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A Sand County Almanac
Over the years, this book by Aldo Leopold has been recommended by many as a good read. I was born and raised only 30 miles from his hometown. My farm life and closeness to nature were strong...
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Sunset at Vanishing Point
Near us are railroad tracks aligned southeast to northwest. In early August and May, the Sun sets inline with the tracks. Often, it is cloudy or my timing is bad. This year things worked out so some...
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Hummingbirds vs Shutter Speeds
Our feeder hangs not far from the front window. The tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbirds come and go quickly. Sometimes there are aerial duels. Wasps and hornets are carefully avoided by the little birds....
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Star Trails | Ursa Major and Minor
This was a fun project. How I See It I was inspired by a recent post in the blog Cosmic Focus by fellow amateur astronomy Ggreybeard in Australia. He put his DSLR camera on a tripod facing north and...
View ArticleMagnetic Raisins
The common phenomenon of magnetism is familiar to most of us as the result of playing with magnets to pick up paper clips and nails. That strong effect goes by the name of ferromagnetism. There are...
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