A Darker View

Just in case there is still anyone monitoring the old blog site or the RSS feed. This area no longer updates. Update your links for the new Darker View!

Just finished deleting a few hundred spam comments from the old blog. Since I no longer monitor the old blog site daily the comment spam was piling up. I am just going to shut down commenting here.

For four years Darker View has run on a software package called Serendipity.

No longer.

I am switching to Wordpress. It will be painful, It will be ugly, but it will happen. As of midnight, the very end of 2011, it will be live. Bear with me as I fix all of the little issues.

Those of you who use the old RSS feed will need to switch to the new feed. The old blog and the material in it will continue to be available. All new posts will be on the Wordpress platform.

Welcome to 2012!

You know it is cold when the very air starts to freeze.

This is what happens in a Martian winter when no sunlight reaches the polar region. It grows so cold that the atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide, begins to freeze and fall to the ground as snow. Frozen carbon dioxide, dry ice, accumulates into a permanent polar cap. While the extent of this polar cap waxes and wanes with the Martian seasons, there is always some ice.

The image below, taken by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows of a section of the southern permanent polar cap. Late summer has caused much of the polar cap to sublimate (convert back to gas), exposing some of the rock under the ice.

Here much of the terrain is shaped by the annual freeze and thaw cycles. These pits are probably the result of these cycles and are about 60m (200ft) across. Soon the region will return to the darkness of winter and the pits will be re-buried in the ice.

Mike Brown did more than give a lecture while in Hawai'i. He just finished a four day observing run using Keck 2 with AO and OSIRIS, as well as gathering data with NIRSPEC. The target? Among other things Mike and his team observed Neptune and the large moon Triton. Triton is thought to be a captured KBO (Kuiper Belt Object). These objects, including well known Pluto, and lesser known, but just as large objects like Eris, Haumea, Makemake and Quaoar, are Mike's area of expertise.

It is always nice to see a system I help maintain operating well and producing images like this...

We were doing more engineering tests with the K1 laser Sunday night. And as usual, Dan Birchall, working the night over at Subaru, took advantage of the opportunity to do some time lapse photography. Enjoy...

I do not usually post random YouTube vids here. But sometimes I just have to. I seriously suggest you select 1080pHD and expand to full screen now.

The shot starts over the west coast of North America heading south. This particular orbit went right down Central and finally South America. You can pick out a lot of major metropolitan areas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Mexico City, etc., by the lights. Also spectacular is the lighting in several storm complexes along the coast of Mexico and further into South America.

Living in Arizona I often witnessed dust devils. From little swirls of dried grass and leaves, to monsters powerful enough to bounce a car around. Here on the dry and hot side of the Big Island of Hawai'i we get them from time to time as well. Towers of dust above the kiawe trees, bright against the blue waters of the ocean. Impressive demonstrations of what a little heat can do with air.

It was a surprise to scientists that the thin carbon dioxide air of Mars can also form dust devils. But they have proven to be quite common. Tracks crisscross those rocky plains, traces in the red dust. Both the rovers and the orbital probes have spotted dust devils in action.

A nice guide to your right to photograph by the ACLU. It is interesting to note the current restrictions to the audio portion of videography that some states have attempted to enforce using wiretapping laws. Fortunately Hawai'i is not a "two party consent" state, removing that issue here.

Curled into the top of a coral head, dressed in nighttime camouflage colors, pretending to be part of the coral. Sitting still just makes it an easy target for the camera...

Two failed LCD monitors, nice Samsung 216BW 22" widescreen displays. Much better than my current monitor. Having had some success repairing failed LCD monitors in the past, this was worth a go. Get the screwdriver...

I previously posted about my experience repairing a Viewsonic display. The post continues to draw web traffic at a surprising rate. Thus I will post about my experience with this monitor, in hopes the information can be of use to others who have trouble and need some information.

I have occasionally seen these starfish tucked into the coral by day. When you see just a small part of the animal it is not immediately recognizable as a starfish, just a lump of something that does not match. They emerge at night to feed on the coral itself. Once in the open the five-fold symmetry begins to suggest that you might be looking at a starfish.

Planning a night of observing is a challenge. There is the choice of equipment, setting up observing lists of objects to target. And then there is deciding where to go.

Finding a dark spot can be a challenge in Hawai'i. Almost every bit of land is gated and tied up in bureaucratic rules. We often use the area around the Mauna Kea VIS to observe. Located at 9,000ft on the south side of Mauna Kea the area has much to recommend it for amateur astronomy. This land is under the administrative control of OMKM, who actively support astronomy, both professional and amateur. But the area does have a number of lights, and there is regular vehicle traffic, even in the middle of the night. Thus I have been actively looking for other places.

The area around the MK VIS is state land, under the control of the State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. Just below the VIS is the start of a back road that almost entirely circles the mountain, R-1, also part of the Na Ala Hele trial system, a road designated for public access. Perfect! All I need is a place just enough out of the way to avoid any lights or activity in the night.

Get out of my face!

The fish seems to pay no heed to my strong mental shout. Some fish seem to follow divers around for a ways, maybe to see what potential food the diver might flush from cover.

OK? Not getting out of the way? Take this... [Flash!]