A Night Under the Stars

Time has been in short supply for me for the last couple of months. Between helping clean out my mother-in-laws home and some other commitments that I have I haven't had a lot of time to relax or do anything fun outside of my normal bike rides. Even thought the weather is turning colder I am still getting out with the posse for some rides. Last week we went to Lahaska and this Saturday we did a short ride to Millstone from Cranbury. We are settling into our winter time routine where we let the weather determine where and how far we ride. This means shorter rides and more rides on the trails. 

This time of year brings longer nights which I plan to use to spend more time looking at the stars. Back in July I purchased a Dwarf 3 smart telescope. This is not your normal telescope where you look through the eye piece to see the stars. This is a smart telescope which has a camera made for astrophotography along with electronics to find and track any object in the sky. Technology has come a long way in the last few years. It use to cost $10,000 to $20,000 to get a setup where you could get good photos of deep sky objects, now for $500 to $600 you can get similar results. 

The way these smart telescope work is that they use multiple short 30sec to 60 sec exposes over hours and integrate them together. This helps gather more light and improve the signal to noise ratio. There is also sophisticated software built into these scopes that remove noise and improve the color and clarity of the image. The image at the top of the post is of the eastern veil nebula. About 15 years ago I have a friend who had a large 15inch dobson telescope and we got a view of the veil nebula. It was very faint and hard to see. Even in his big telescope the best I could see was some cotton like fuss against the dark sky. Now with my Dwarf 3 I can see it in full color and see the twist of gasses caused by the super nova explosion.

Although I have taken some good photos of the sun and moon through my small telescope and camera I never was able to get any good images of any deep sky objects like galaxies and nebulas. Now I can. (See Trifid nebula below)

 

This Dwarf 3 is easy to use. You just install an app on your phone and tell the Dwarf 3 what you want to take a picture of and it scans the night sky and finds it. In my old telescope I use to have to go through an alignment process to get it orientated before I could point it at a target. The alignment process usually required me to manually point the telescope at 2 to 3 different bright stars so the telescope could calculate its position. The Dwarf 3 doesn't need any help with alignment it uses a thing called "plate solving" to align itself. Basically it just looks up at the sky and knows the distant between all the stars in the sky so it can stare at a small piece of the sky measure the distant between the stars it sees then does through some extremely complex calculations know exactly where it is and does a precision alignment. 

The advantage of this way of doing an alignment is that you only need a small part of the sky to do an alignment. This also allow the Dwarf 3 to precisely track a target which is important as it takes a least an hour or two to get a good image. 

I spend August learning how to use the Dwarf 3 and it didn't take too long before I got some pretty good images of the some deep sky objects. Here is lagoon nebula with just over an hour of imaging time.

It's good but with more time I could get even more detail and color out of the image. The thing that impressed me about this image is that I took it from a field wasn't that dark and had a lot of stray light reflecting to the sky. 

At the end of September I got a chance to go to Belleplain state park down toward Cape May. The southern Jersey astronomy club has a weekend each year where they hold a star party. It's not really a party where you eat and drink and dance under the night sky it's more where a bunch of astronomy geeks sit in an open field under dark skies and look through telescopes and talk about astronomy. It's my kind of party which speaks to the geekness of my nature. 

I got to the field in Belleplain state park about 6pm. There were 10 other people already there most of them had some type of camper or tent set up to stay overnight and next to the tent was some type of telescope set up. One of members of the club actually had a small camper with a tent next to it. In the tent he had a couple of laptops set up like a mini mission control center. From the laptops there were bundles of cables going to a large telescope. I talked to him about his setup and it was impressive. He showed me a few pictures that he took. One was the shadow of the moon IO on Jupiter which was as good as any picture I had seen from NASA. 

My setup was not as impressive.

 

It was just my Dwarf 3 which is just he size of a book on a tripod. But this was all I needed. I spent the entire night taking pictures of different objects. Including the Andromeda galaxy 

 

The Helix nebula

and lastly the Orion nebula. 

 

I spend about two hours imaging each one and Dwarf 3 track and imaged perfectly. It was a good clear night which helped. For the first few hours I hung around with the other astronomy geeks talking about the stars and just staring at the night sky. It was very relaxing. I was glad there were other people with me in the dark field because if I had been by myself I would have worried about some animals or the Jersey devil coming out to get me. As the night wore on and it was past 1am I took a nap in my car between setting up the Dwarf 3 to image the next object. By 6am in the morning the sun came up and I was done. I spent another couple hours napping in the car which actually was pretty comfortable so I got about 5 hours sleep. 

One of the interesting discussions I had with the other astronomy geeks is the fact that some people don't think that these smart telescopes are as good as an experience as looking through a real telescope and seeing the object live. I will agree that looking through a telescope and seeing the rings of Saturn live is cool and it feels more real. I look up at the sky then through the telescope and see the rings of Saturn and I feel more connected to it. When you use a smart telescope you just see an image on your phone or computer after the fact so it does seem as real. However smart telescopes allow you to see a lot more of the night sky in a lot more detail. I can see details I couldn't see before. It's not only the fact that I can get some cool picture it's that I can see reflections of the star light in the nebula or the structure of a galaxy. This helps me understand how these structures formed and gets me thinking of the physics and processes that caused these formation. As I tell people who want to observe the night sky you have to look with you mind as well as your eyes because what you see is cool but the reason for all those object you see is something that will feed your curiosity for years.  

The picture I got at the star party were good but I have barely scratch the surface of what can be done with the Dwarf 3. Some people on the Dwarf 3 forums, I follow, have imaged objects for 8-10 hours and then done a lot of post processing to produce some images that rival the Hubble telescope images. Since we have more dark hours in the winter I plan to work on getting some more images during night with clear skies. With the Dwarf 3 I now have the tools I need to explore the night sky in a new a different way so expect some more pictures of the sky in this blog over the winter. 

Fall Weather

 

I know it's fall when I have to break out the long sleeve jerseys and tights. Although fall can be scenic with the leaves turning it means cold weather is coming. I have been very busy the past couple of weeks not only at work where I have been putting in some over time but also in my personal life. Last Saturday we had a estate sale to start cleaning out my mother-in-laws house and I have been providing some technical advice to  my community on some upgrades they want to make. I really haven't had much free time. 

I did get out last Sunday with the posse on a ride to Farmingdale which felt good after a busy week. This Saturday I decided to go with my other club. They don't have many people that ride when it gets colder so I don't usually ride with them in the late fall. I was planning on signing up for the B ride but when I checked nobody had signed up but I saw a few people I know who usually do the B ride signed up for the C+ ride.  

It was barely 50 degrees when we started the ride and we went out at a relaxed pace. The moderate wind from the west was annoying but the pace was easy so it didn't really bother me. It felt like a recovery ride which is what I wanted after another busy week. The wind got stronger after the break but it was now at our back so getting back to our starting point was a quick run.

Although life has been busy and the weather is getting colder I will always find a way to try to get out for a few miles to relieve the normal stress of life.  

To Ride or Not to Ride

 

The weather forecast is part of any ride preparation. The temperature, precipitation, and wind forecast determine what I will wear the type of route I will do and even if I will go out for a ride or not. I try not to ride in the rain so if it is raining or there is more than a 50% of some heavy rain I won't go out for a ride. I will in some cases push the boundaries to get a ride in which is what I did this past Saturday. 

Laura had scheduled a ride out of Lambertville for Saturday. The forecast was 60 degrees with a 30% chance of rain. Most of the forecasts had the rain holding off until late afternoon. However as I left my house to drive to the ride it started to drizzle. I thought I would drive through it based on the radar but it only got heavier as I headed towards Trenton. I almost decided to turn around. As I went through the tunnel into Trenton the rain stopped and it got brighter. When I got to Lambertville the roads were dry but it was still overcast. By the start of the ride it has started to drizzle again and there were several bands of light rain on the radar. At that point Laura decided to cancel the ride. I might had made the same decision had I been leading as you always want to err on the side of caution. You don't want to worry about keeping 9 people safe while riding on the road in the rain. 

However Pete had suggested that maybe we could just ride up the hill from Lambertville and at least try to get a few miles in. If it started to rain harder we would turn around and head back down hill. I join Pete along with Ricky, Martin and Brad? 

We didn't followed the plan route Pete just winged it as we headed up Seabrook. He kept us heading mostly north along the ridge. We did hit a few patches of drizzle but nothing that actual got us wet or caused us to turn around. We even saw some patches of blue sky and sun especially as we got closer to Frenchtown. As we kept going we didn't know exactly where we were. When we crossed Rt 12 we knew we were above Frenchtown but kept going. Then I recognized a few roads on Laura's route so I loaded the route and followed it as it took us along the ridge then downhill to Rt 29. 

The clouds were getting a little darker then so instead of continuing to follow the route to Milford we headed back to Frenchtown where we had a rest stop at the Bridge cafe. From there we decided to just head straight back on 29 as that would be the quickest way back if it started to rain. 

The rain never came and when we got to Lower Creek road we headed up it and then up over Sandy Ridge and eventually down Alexauken to Lambertville. We ended up with 47 miles and 2100 ft of climbing so more or less what the planned ride would have been. We definitely got lucky with the rain. It could have easily gone the other way with us getting caught in a drenching rain but in this case the risk was worth the reward.

Paradigm Shift

Since I started riding I have always uses some type of pickup truck to get to a ride. First is was my Ford Ranger then is was the Baja. It each case I had a rack in the bed of the pickup that I would mount the bike to. It was a fork mount rack meaning I would take the front wheel off the bike and attach the front fork of the bike to the rack. Like shown below in my Baja

 

It worked well and even when I got a thru axle bike all I had to do is get a different fork mount to put on the rack. The new car is an SUV which means I don't have a bed for my normal rack so I had to switch to a hitch mounted rack. I didn't have to do much research on which hitch rack to get as everybody I know has a 1Up rack and loves it.  It's a sturdy rack that attaches the bike by securing the wheels so you don't have to worry about scratching or bending the frame. 

 

Of course this requires a hitch to be installed on the car so I had that done this past Wednesday. I had the Stealth Hitch installed. I chose this hitch because the other hitches I looked out required a piece of the bumper to be cut out and I didn't want to cut up a brand new car. The Stealth Hitch does require a small hole to be cut underneath the car so that the hitch receiver can be attached but it is not visible and the hitch receiver can be removed when I don't need the bike rack so you won't even know that a hitch has been installed. 

As with any rack you always worry that the bike will fall off. With the old bike rack in the bed of the Baja I didn't worry much because worst case the bike will just fall into the bed of the car and I won't lose the bike. With a hitch rack if it falls out of the rack its going to be bouncing down the road. 

I will say the 1Up rack is very secure. As long as you attach it properly to the hitch and make sure the bike is locked in, there is no possibility of losing the bike. When I loaded the bike for this Saturday's ride I left my house then stopped in a parking lot about a mile from my house just to make sure the bike was secure after a few bumps in the road. The new car uses a camera at the back of the car for the rear view mirror and when the bike is in the rack I can just see the rear seat in the mirror so I can monitor the bike as I drive along. 

The rack was really steady and the bike didn't seem to move much driving along. The new car and bike rack are a lot different than the Baja so it is going to take a while to get use to everything. I like the new set up and know the new car, bike rack should be able to take me on any ride I want to go on. 

 

Moments of Sadness

Although my latest posts have been more about my vacation and the lost of the Baja I have been riding. There was just nothing special or interesting about the rides to post. This past Saturday Jeff had a ride to Lahaska from Washington crossing. I had not been in the hills for a few weeks so wanted decided to do the ride. I started with a few other people from the NJ side to get a few extra miles in. 

Jeff didn't put any hard hills on the ride so it was an easy ride to Lahaska where we stopped for a break. Jeff tried a new shop for the stop but it was super crowded so a few of us went to another store. At that point I decided to head back to the start on my own. I had a memorial service I needed to be at in the early afternoon and didn't want to be late. 

The memorial service was for a friend of ours, named Rich, who was one of the first people we met when we moved into our community just over four years ago. He was nice guy who helped us meet a lot of other people in the community and settle in. He became the core of our group and we had a lot of fun together. Because of him my wife now volunteers at a farm for rescue animals which she really enjoys. 

Unfortunately about a year and a half ago Rich was diagnose with glioblastoma an incurable form of brain cancer. He died a few weeks ago which was sad because he was only 65. When we first met Rich we knew we found a good friend that we could hang out. He was a very easy going person and always willing to help us out when we needed something. We had hoped to have him in our lives for a long time so it strange that we will not see him again. We will be ever grateful that he connected us to the other people in the community that now form our group of friends. I will also be grateful for Rich introducing my wife to the rescue farm where she volunteers once a week. It's a place that makes her happy ever time she goes there. We are very happy for the joy that Rich brought into our lives and are sad that he left us so soon.

Rich's memorial service wasn't the only sad moment on Saturday. My mother-in-law also passed away in the early afternoon right before Rich's service. She was 97 years old and her health had really started failing her a couple months ago. She had lived in her house on her own until a couple of years ago when we had to get an aid to help her out. The aid was part time then a few months ago it was around the clock. A couple of weeks ago she was put on hospice care so we knew she didn't have much time left. At 97 her body was just worn out. 

She and my father-in-law were good working class people. My father-in-law, who we lost 9 years ago, was a diamond setter in New York and my mother-in-law was a secretary at the local school in Paramus. They were the typical suburban couple who made friends with all their neighbors. The wife's got together for coffee when the kids went to school and the men got together to drink after work. When I met their daughter and were introduced to them they were nothing but kind. Once I married into the family I felt like part of it and had no problem getting along with them. I'm sad to see my mother-in-law go but she lived a full life. She was really starting to suffer for the past couple of months so her passing is really a blessing at this point that will give her some piece.

Friend and family dying is part of the things that we experience as part of our lives. These are sad moments that make us reflect on their lives and our own. These moments make us sad but they also make us realize and appreciate the people who have been a part of our lives.

Bye Bye Baja

It is with a heavy heart that I publish this post because my companion of 23 years is now gone. It may be silly to anthropomorphism a car but I can't deny that I had feelings for it. I bought this car new in October of 2002 and it has taken me on some great adventures during the time we had together. It got me to and from work on weekdays. And on weekends would either help me haul some dirt or lumber for a home project and/or take me to a bike ride. 

The Subaru Baja was a very versatile car. It was the Subaru Outback wagon with a pickup bed instead of the normal extended interior of a wagon. This meant I could haul dirt or plants or wood and not worry about the inside of the car getting dirty. The wall between the back of the pickup bed and the back seats folded down so I could carry long pieces of wood or other material. I could easily carry 4x8 pieces of plywood or 12 foot long pieces of hardwood. I once even got all the pieces of a shed in the back with the bed extender on. 

 

When the Baja wasn't hauling stuff it was a very comfortable car that could fit 4 adults. It was nimble enough to be fun to drive on windy country roads but could also cruise at top speed along the highway. It's 4 wheel drive took me without fear through snow storms and to ski slopes. I knew what every the weather or road conditions the Baja would get me where I needed to go. It was just fun to drive.

 

 

The car was garage kept since day one and I kept it cleaned and waxed. I did all the regular maintenance and never abused the car in any way. The car was very reliable and I only had a few unexpected problems over the years. Unfortunately the last year the car started showing its age. Last March the water pump needed to be replace as the original one cracked. Replacing the water pump was not cheap as they had to take part of the engine apart to replace the pump. At the time I debated whether I should do the repair or get rid of the car but the car was otherwise in good condition so I thought it was would be worth it if I could get another year or so out of the car. 

Over the past few months a clamp on the fuel line failed and I had a problem with the lock on the passenger door. I had to push really hard on the stalk to get the left turn signal to work. The final straw was a fluid leak of unknown origin. I could not find the source of the leak but guessed it was some seal in the engine that would be an expensive fix. Age had finally caught up to the Baja and there was no denying that it was time to put it out to pasture. 

I had been to the NY car show this past April to check out the new cars just to get and idea what was out there and what my options would be if I needed a new car. I took a look at a lot of the cars and tried to find the best EV and the best hybrid car that would fit my needs. Cars have changed a lot in the 23 years since I bought a new car. You now have a choice of the type of engine for a car, gas, hybrid or electric. Electric cars have come a long way in the past few years and are a viable alternative in certain conditions. If you are a two car family and have a home you can add a level 2 charger to then EVs can make a lot of sense. Most of the trips people make today are less than 50 miles so an EV can be your main car and handle most of the trips you need to make. 

That is why we decided to get and EV for the new car. We have always had two cars. My car and my wife's car. My car would be for hauling stuff and getting me to my bike rides. Her car would be the one we use for our road trips. Now we are going to have an EV which will be "THE CAR" we both use for all our local and short distance trips and my wife's car will be used for long distance trips and for times when we need to leave the car in a location like center city Philadelphia or an airport where you won't want to leave a new car. My wife's car is a 18 year old Nissan Altima so it's not a car anyone would want. 

So what car did we decide to buy. It is a 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5.

 

When I went to the NY car show I found three EVs that I really liked. The Nissan Airya, the Chevy Equinox and the Hyundai Ioniq 5. The Airya was my favorite followed by the Equinox then the Ioniq 5. I was looking at a SUV instead of some type of small pickup like the Baja because at this point of my life I don't have a big yard or need to build as much so I don't need a pickup anymore. An SUV will have enough room to haul what. I need now. 

So after making the decision that we needed to replace the Baja we spent a Saturday going to a few different dealerships and driving a bunch of cars. We tried to drive the Airya but Nissan didn't have one we could drive but we did look at it. We then test drove the Ioniq 5 and really liked it but wanted to check out a couple of other cars. We then tested out the Kia Niro and Chevy Equinox. We were really disappointed with the Equinox. It didn't drive well and although the interior was very comfortable it looked cheap. The Niro was okay but not as nice as the Ioniq 5. Then it was back to Hyundai to make a deal with a 21 year old salesman who was younger than the Baja ;) The good thing about my wife and I is that for big ticket items we have similar tastes in what we want and like so there was no doubt about the decision. 

So we made the deal and on Monday the 15th parted with a large amount of cash for the new car. The car is very different than any other car I have had. Being electric it is quiet, smooth and without any transmission has amazing linear acceleration. We ended up getting the all wheel drive model. I would have preferred the two wheel drive model since it offers more miles on a charge but they do not stock those models in states that have snow. However the all wheel drive model is faster and more agile so it should be fun to drive. 

The new car has a lot of new features. The Ioniq 5 was totally redesigned for 2025 so has a larger battery and updated electronics. I thought about getting a used EV to save money but the new features of 2025 especially the larger battery make it a much better car. The car has some self driving features like adaptive cruise control and lane keeping. It's not as sophisticated as Tesla's self driving but it is close enough for most of the driving we will do. 

It's going to take a while to get use to the new car and all of it's features. I'm sure I will like it once I get more familiar it but I don't think I will like any car as much as I liked my Baja. When I drove the Baja for the last time driving to the dealer for the trade in I felt like I was taking my dog to the vet to be put to sleep. I will miss the Baja but it was time for a change. 

There will be no funeral services for the Baja let's just remember the good times we had with it. In lieu of flowers I would suggest you make donations directly to the Baja memorial fund (i.e. me) This fund will be used to help the families who lost a Baja recover from the financial hardship of having to buy a new car. 

R.I.P. Baja you served me well and will be missed.  

 

 

The New England Coast

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After a couple of days in the far reaches of Lubec Maine we started to make our way south. The first stop was Bar Harbor. We hadn't been to up this was since 2005 so we thought it would make a good stop as part of our trip. It took a little over 2 hours to get to Bar Harbor and we arrived around noon. It was a cloudy day but warm. Since we couldn't get in our hotel yet we decided to take a drive around Acadia. We stopped at the Hull Cove Visitor's Center to check in and get our pass. To get to the visitor center you have to climb 52 steps to get to it. Not sure why they didn't put it level with the parking lot.

Once we got our pass we drove around the park stopping at different scenic vistas and other points of interest. There was Sand Beach, and Thunder Hole

 

 

as well as some good views of the rocky coastline 

We spent a little over 3 hours driving around the park. The only part of the park we didn't see was Cadillac mountain. The cloud ceiling was only a few hundred feet so there was no point. 

Our hotel was on Mount Desert Island in the Northeast Harbor. It was a decent hotel with a view of the harbor. 

The plan for our second day in Bar Harbor was to do a whale watch but it was going to be foggy and rainy all day so we bailed on the whale watch and instead checked out some of the stops of Bar Harbor and the Northeast Harbor. Although it was Sunday we managed to get a parking spot on the street in the middle of Bar Harbor. We walked around town for a couple of hours. We spent half of our time in the Atlantic Brewing Company sampling some of their beers. The last two times we were in Bar Harbor we have eaten at their restaurant and enjoyed their blueberry beer. It doesn't really have a strong blueberry taste but it is a very smooth beer. I had a flight of beer so I could try some of their other beers but the blueberry one was still the best and as good as I remembered. We didn't eat there this time but had one of the best large pretzels I have even had. 

The next day we left for the last stop on our trip which was Cape Cod. We took a scenic side trip on the way to the town of Rockport. Why Rockport? To see the Andre the seal statue of course. If you don't know the story of Andre the seal you can check out the this article or watch this video. 

The short version is that Andre was a seal who was and an abandon pup rescued by the harbor master (Harry) of Rockport. Even though he set him free when he grew up Andre always came back in the spring. Eventually Harry taught him some tricks when he fed him each night and people watched. This became a nightly event that drew crowds in the summer. One of those people in those crowd was me back in the early 70s. So the trip to Rockport was trip down memory lane. While we checked out the statue of Andre we actually met a few other people from NJ who also saw Andre so it was fun to talk to the and exchange memories. There was also a local teacher there who tells the story to her class each year. She actually recorded a video of me telling my story of when I saw Andre. It was fun to visit a place of one of my early childhood memories. I took a few pictures and then we headed on to Cape Cod.

Cape Cod is one of our favorite places to go and relax. We have been there enough to know our way around and have some favorite places to go. The first stop is always at Capt Parker's or the Lobster Boat for a bowel of claim chowder. We got some claim chowder in Maine but it doesn't come close to anything in Cape Cod. We don't have a favorite hotel but we usually stay in or around South Yarmouth. This time we stayed a little further to the east in Dennis Port in a hotel with a view of the ocean. The room was nice, large and comfortable. The day after we got to Cape Cod we had good weather so we spent most of the day relaxing at Corporation Beach.

It's a quiet beach used mostly by the locals and is never crowded. Then it was on to another good dinner and ice cream of course. The next day wasn't as warm so we check out some of our favorite craft and artistic shops then spent a couple of hours by the pool and beach of our hotel. 

It was then time to come home. I have been extremely busy at home and work for the past month so if felt good to get away for a week and relax and do some sight seeing.