The Last Day of Summer

I know that we are halfway through the fall but when the weather is sunny and the temperature is over 80 it feels more like a summer day. Luckily this weather fell on this past Saturday which somewhat makes up for it raining for the last 7 weekends. 

I thought about a couple of ways of taking advantage of the weather and decided to do a one way ride to the shore to meet my wife on the beach. I didn't have to ride alone because the many times postponed Don Sprague century to Belmar was starting from Cranbury with Laura and Ricky and a few other people I know so I decided to meet them at a rest stop in Jackson on the way. 

The timing worked out as I couldn't leave until after 9am. I was at the rest stop about 15 mins before the large group of riders pulled in. It looked like at least 20 people were on the ride. The actual ride leader had to bail at the last minute because of a family issues so Laura had to lead one of the groups. Although Laura knows the usual route to Belmar this route was quite different and not like any ride Don ever did to Belmar. It came into Sea Girt a slightly different way on a bike trail and then went all the way up the coast to Sea Bright before heading back east. 

Most rides to Belmar don't spend that much time riding by the beach because the road aren't as nice and there can be a lot of traffic especially on a warm and sunny Saturday. The group made a few wrong turns as we went from Jackson to Belmar. I didn't actually have the century route on my GPS but had looked it over in detail and knew the general directions so when the group made a wrong turn I helped Laura get back on track. 

When we got to Belmar we spend an extended time at the picnic tables by the usual pizzeria. It was very crowded by the beach. There were a lot of people on the beach and a lot of cars driving around looking for a parking spot. It was a little chaotic. 

For some reason one of the rides decided to try to do some body surfing in the water before we set off from Belmar. We left him behind to catch up. I continued up with the group through Ocean Grove and Asbury. It was not a lot of fun riding along the beach as we made a number of wrong turns and had to keep watching out for all the traffic around us.

I turned around at Asbury and headed back to Avon for a shower and then to the beach to relax for a hour or two before heading out to dinner. 

It was a beautiful day for a ride so was glad I got out and saw some of the fall foliage on the way to the beach. We are going to be below freezing a couple of nights this week so I think the summer weather may be done for the year. In fact it might be time to break out the winter gear.

Annular Solar Eclipse 2023

One of the main reasons we went to the southwest when we did was to see an annular solar eclipse. I admit to being and eclipse nerd and will try to see a solar or lunar eclipse if it isn't too hard to get to. We planned our vacation so we would be in Albuquerque by Oct 14th when the eclipse would occur. The eclipse would be partly visible in most of the US but Albuquerque was on the center line when meant you would get to see the ring of fire not just a partial eclipse. The solar eclipse was a annular eclipse when meant that the moon would not fully cover the sun but would cover only 95% of it and create a ring when it was directly between the sun and the earth.

We decided to view the eclipse in the Rio Grande Nature park in the south end of Albuquerque near our hotel. The Albuquerque Astronomy Society (TAAS) had events all around the city and this park was one of the places they would be. The eclipse would start at 9:13 am so we got to the park about 8:30am. There were already a few people there and by the start of the eclipse there were probably around 100 people there.

It was a good place to view the eclipse as it had a clear view of the southeast as the sun rose higher in the sky. My set up to capture the eclipse was my new Canon R10 with a 400mm lens. This worked well. Since I didn't want the hassle of bringing my telescope and drive motor through the airport I made what is called a Barn Door Tracker which when lined up properly allows you to roughly track the sun, moon and stars. It meant I wouldn't have to constantly adjust the tripod as the sun moved all I would have to do is to manually twist a screw to keep the sun in the center of the picture.

This worked well and allowed me to concentrate on just getting good photos as the moon started to cover the sun.

We are in a time of high sunspot activity. The week before the eclipse I did some test shots and saw 5 or 6 large sunspots but on the day of the eclipse there was only a few small ones.

I kept taking pictures as the moon covered more of the sun.

The temperature which was in the 60s actually dropped about 5 degrees as the eclipse progressed. This was different than the last annular eclipse we saw in 2012 where we didn't notice a temperature drop or change in the light. The difference was that eclipse was at the end of the day close to sun down where as this was at the beginning of the day.

As we got close to the ring of fire the light got a little softer and felt a little like twilight. 

Finally at 10:34 am local time we reached the maximum eclipse and saw the ring of fire.

I managed to get some really good pictures with my set up. I know it just looks like a black circle over the sun, but what makes it cool is understanding what is actually happening. This is a picture of the moon in front of the sun perfectly center over the sun. The fact that the sun is 400 time bigger than the moon but the moon is 400 time close than the earth make this possible. This makes the apparent size of the sun and moon the same from our point of view on the earth which is a strange coincidence. Predicting these eclipse was an obsession for ancient astronomer and helped advance our mathematics and understanding of the solar system.

One other cool things that happens during and eclipse is as it gets closer to maximum you can use a pinhole through a piece of paper to project the actual eclipse on the ground or other flat surface. 

I learned at the total eclipse in 2017 that I could cross the fingers of my two hand in a # pattern and get the same pinhole affect. I was able to do this to project the shadow of the eclipse on the ground. During the maximum eclipse I project a couple shadows of the eclipse on some ones pants and came up with shadow puppet I call the ring of fire monster.

After the ring of fire was over I continued taking pictures until the end of the eclipse. The composite at the top of this post shows the full sequence. I also put together an animation of it which I need to process a little more to get it to look better.

Solar eclipses that are easy for me to get to don't happen that often so I really am glad I made the effort to see this eclipse. They are all a little different and interesting in their own way. The next solar eclipse in the US will be a total eclipse on April 8th 2024. This may be the last one I will be able to see as after that most of them will be on another continent. I'm already working on plans to see that one and hope it will be a fun to see as this one was.

Scenic Views from the Desert Southwest

 

Click HERE for more Pictures

Although we have taking a couple of driving vacations over the last couple of years we haven't really had a long eventful vacations since before Covid. This past week we headed out to Arizona and New Mexico to see an annular eclipse and tour some of the geological features out that way. I'll talk more about the eclipse in another post but wanted to share some of the other things we saw along the way. 

Our trip started out with a flight to Phoenix. The flight was fine but I forgot how painful it can be to get through baggage check, security and the general chaos associated with flying. Once we got to Phoenix we drove north towards Lake Powell. The goal was to hike through Antelope Canyon. It is probably one of the most photographed canyons in the world. It is slot canyon meaning it is just a crack in the rock. Over time the occasional rushing water has carved out some really unique circular patterns on the walls. This mixed with the different colors of the rocks and sun beams coming in from the top makes this a sort of a magical place. 

Antelope Canyon is part of the Navajo land and anybody that wants to visit it has to go through a company that hires Navajo guides to take you through it. This canyon used to be one of the places they would come and meditate and talk to their animal spirits. I can easily see why this is a spiritual place and would have loved to spend hours just sitting on the floor and admiring the beauty of the canyon BUT this place has become so popular that there is a constant stream of people walking through it. 

I have to say though that our Navajo guide Cindy did a good job of giving our group of nine people some undisturbed time in each of the rooms in the canyon so we could get some good pictures and just gaze and look at all the strange formations in the canyon. She also seem to really know how to get the best pictures of the canyon whether you were using your phone or a real camera. She managed to take a good photo of me in the canyon as shown at the top of this post. 

After Antelope Canyon we took a quick trip to Horseshoe bend which is on the northern end of the Colorado river. It was a bit of a challenge to get full picture of Horseshoe bend without getting too close to the edge of the canyon but I managed to take a series of shots and create a good panarama.

From there is we drove towards Monument Valley and unfortunately got there just after the gates closed for the day. The problem was that Arizona does not use daylight savings time and Utah does and even through some Monument Valley is in Arizona the entrance is just over the border in Utah. It didn't really matter as we had seen Monument Valley on another trip and were only stopping because it was on our way to Albuquerque. I did manage to get a few shots just outside the entrance.

The next stop on our trip was Albuquerque. This is where we are planning on view the eclipse as Albuquerque has on average 310 days of sunshine a year. When we planned the trip I had a hard time finding a hotel in Albuquerque which is strange since it is a pretty big city and there weren't enough eclipse nerds to fill the city. It turned out it was also the time of the biggest balloon festival in the world. We have never been to a balloon festival so since we were in the area we decided to check it out. 

We attended the afternoon/night session. It seems each day has a theme for the two weeks of the festival. The theme for the day we attended was shaped balloon. At night the have what they call a Glowdeo where they inflate and then light up them up which ended up being way cooler than expected. This festival has over 500 balloon teams attending and there had to be 100+ shaped balloon. It was a sensory overload in the best way. We were so close to the balloons where we sat that we actually had to move when they blew one up because it was hitting our chairs

It was a really well organized event. It took about 30 minutes to blow up all the balloons so the field when from empty to filled with shaped balloons really quick and soon we were totally surrounded. 

When it got dark and they lite them up it which was insanely cool.

It was much better than we expected and I'm glad we got a chance to see it. After the Glowdeo there was a drone show where a few hundred drones took to the air with LED lights and formed all kind of cool patterns.

There was also sky divers flying through the night air lighting fireworks off as they came down and then a final fireworks show to cap the night off. Although we had never been to a balloon festival, now that I see what they are I would definitely do it again.

The next day on our way to the eclipse viewing site we actually saw the morning ascension of the balloons. It was really great seeing that many balloons up in the air at once. 

After the eclipse we took a couple of days to make it to Sedona and spent a couple of days taking in the many red rock formations and scenic drives in the area. 

 

We had been to Sedona over 20 years ago and were surprised how much the town itself has changed. The scenery is still spectacular but there is a lot more hotels, restaurants and houses than there use to be. It was a good way to end the trip. I'm not sure when we will be out this way again but it was fun to see some scenery that is so different from what we have here in New Jersey.

The Octogenarian Ride

 

Some 30 odd years ago I got serious about biking as way to get some exercise. After riding around my neighborhood on an old bike I bought a new one and joined the Princeton Freewheelers. It took me a few rides to get use to riding in a group and doing more than the 5 and 10 mile rides I had been doing. 

I was lucky to have met a few really nice people in the club who not only showed me how to become a better rider but also how to have fun along the way. There passion for biking was infectious and I quickly went though the normal milestones of a new biker. First 50 miles, First Metric and First Century. 

Eventually I became a regular out of Cranbury, Mercer County Park and Bordentown and looked forward to my weeknight and weekend rides. It went from a way to exercise to part of my social life and a way to have some fun. I had found my tribe and it made my life better. 

Some of the people I started riding with then were probably in their late 40s and 50s and it impressed me how healthy and active they still were.

Even though it is 30+ years later as I write this post some of these people that I started out with are still around and still riding. Today was a beautiful sunny day which was welcome after last weeks rain. It was a perfect day for a ride so I planned to get the posse together and sent out an email and got a few takers. 

Then I saw an email about an Octogenarian ride to the Olde World Bakery where some of the people I use to ride with 30 years ago would be. Although I had seen a few of these people on the all paces some I hadn't seen in quite a while and wanted to try and be part of the ride catch up with them.

The actual Octogenarians along with some younger 70 something riders started from Chesterfield to make it a shorter and easier ride whereas the other groups left from Byron Park in Allentown.

Because I needed to be home in the early afternoon I didn't want to ride one of the scheduled rides out of Allentown as they were more miles than I wanted to do and would be bigger and slower rides. I tried to get a few people to join me on my shorter faster ride but they all bailed out at the last minute. 

Still I'm glad I went to where the group rides started, in Allentown, because I caught up with a lot of people I hadn't see in a while. Then when the ride started I went left out of the parking lot and everybody else when right. 

It was a beautiful day to ride and for the most part the 23 miles down to the Olde World Bakery were traffic free. When I got there the Octogenarian rider, which had started from Chesterfield where already there. The oldest rider there was Spencer who is 89 and still riding. They club had bought some cinnamon, apple and pumpkin cakes which were cut up and waiting in the bakery. I sat at the tables catching up with Ira, Barbara, Joe M and a few other people. I also saw Dennis there although he did not ride today. 

There was a brief presentation and some general merriment as we gave a certificate to the Octogenarians. Although not all of the people I use to ride with 30 years ago are still around (Miss you Howie, Don, George,...) it is good to see that some are doing well. 

I rode the first 5 miles back from the bakery with the Octogenarian ride just to see what my future might look like. They may do shorter rides and not be a quick as they once were but they are still out there and enjoying themselves. Hopefully 30 years from now I will still be out there too.