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By Ben, on August 6th, 2010
As you can see from today’s Astronomy Photo of the Day, the sun is becoming quite a bit active these days. I ran outside this afternoon and tried to figure out how to get my point and shoot camera to take decent pictures of the sun through the spotting scope, but, as you can see, I failed:
Sunspot, August 6. 2010. 4 p.m. EDT.
Another sunspot. August 6, 2010, 4 p.m. EDT.
Both of these spots were taken from the same image:
Sun in white-light Baader filter. August 6, 2010. 4 p.m. EDT
It’s challenging focusing on the sun through a point [...]
By Ben, on August 5th, 2010
Thanks to the wonderful ID skills of the folks over at bugguide.net, I can confidently say that the moth of the day (seriously, there are hundreds of them in my backyard–the only problem getting pictures of them is that they don’t alight often and they’re skittish on approach) is Melanchroia chephise (White-tipped Black – Hodges#6616):
This one is resting on the frond of a small Sabal palmetto (Cabbage palm) that still has a bit of the overnight rain (or the morning sprinklers, not sure which) on it. It’s already hot and humid, and these black-winged moths definitely prefer to rest in [...]
By Ben, on July 31st, 2010
I’m preparing a slide show for an upcoming talk on the Birds of India, and one of the most charming ones is Athene brama, the Spotted Owlet:
Tiny little birds (hence the diminutive “owlet”), they are nonetheless mobbed mercilessly if they don’t choose their daytime hiding place carefully. At the Okhla Bird Sanctuary where I snapped the above image, they roost in a giant banyan tree at the western end of a large weir, close by a house. They’re almost always there, but the trouble with finding Spotted Owlets isn’t knowing where they hang out: it’s spotting them! They are very [...]
By Ben, on July 27th, 2010
This morning I was able to get organized early enough to go for a bike ride with little e before breakfast and work. After each ride, there’s usually a decompression session where we play outside–him in the dirt, me with a camera if there’s something I can see. And this morning I saw, for one of the first times I can recall, the phenomenon of a butterfly “puddling.” There was a Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phileus) on the hood of my car, drinking up the fallen dew:
H. phileus is a widespread species in North America, most common in the South, but [...]
By Ben, on July 26th, 2010
Since I work from home again, my observatory is right outside my office door, and I can run out between emails and phone calls and see what the sun is doing. Today, there is a sunspot grouping called AR11089 (AR=active region; this numbering scheme was started by NOAA in 1972) that is visible enough for me to focus on with my P&S camera through the spotting scope:
The image itself isn’t all that spectacular, is it? Even when I blow up the region itself, it leaves a little to be desired:
White-light imaging through a homemade Baader filter without even a parasol [...]
By Ben, on July 23rd, 2010
The scarlet hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus) is one of six species commonly found in Florida wetlands, and is probably the most commonly grown native ornamental hibiscus in the state. The one in our back yard is an interesting little story. It’s a perennial plant that is so hardy it can be mowed when it’s done flowering for the season. The stems/stalks are very long, over seven feet tall in the peat tub that it shares with our pond apple tree and some purple flag lilies, and they resemble bamboo in their lightness and stiffness.
The stems aren’t segmented like bamboo, but they [...]
By Ben, on July 22nd, 2010
This spring, I started an occasional series of posts on the palms of Palm Beach County. Probably the most complete post was the one about our state “tree,” the Sabal Palmetto (Cabbage Palm). But, as any writer knows, the more you strive for comprehensiveness, the more you realize you are doomed to failure. Case in point: the palms are blooming right now, and I didn’t include any pictures at all of the blooms in that post! Here are a couple that I took today, while on my lunch break (I’m working from a home office again, so I’m able to [...]
By Ben, on May 13th, 2010
Every spring and fall for the past five, maybe six, years, I’ve participated in the North American Migration Count for Palm Beach County. Last weekend I was responsible for two areas: Lake Ida Park and Dog Park in Delray Beach and South County Regional Park in western Boca Raton.
I began well before dawn in my driveway:
and made it to the lake well before sunup; here’s the sun rising over the lake about 20 minutes after I’d already started counting:
A few birds there were:
And many birds there weren’t. The most popular migrants in North America are the warblers, but they always [...]
By Ben, on May 4th, 2010
In an article last year about Montana de Oro state park in California, I discussed how the land there includes a series of uplifted marine terraces. Those terraces are formed by a combination of geologic uplift at periodic intervals and the eroding action of the shoreline.
Well, here in Florida we’re pretty conversant with the eroding action of the shoreline. But for most of the east coast, at least, the forces of erosion and deposition are pretty much balanced. What the waves take away in the winter, they deposit in the summer, or vice versa. And in parts of the coast [...]
By Ben, on April 12th, 2010
The long pointed leaves of the blue flag iris (Iris virginica) are pretty enough, but the flower is where the action is. Mine have been bare blades of green for almost as long as I can remember; I was almost certain that they’d given up the ghost completely. Then, last Friday, I saw that they had just been waiting their turn. After the oak trees leafed out, the iris began putting on their show:
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