10 February 08
Astronomical Big Year
Having the fun that I am with our Bigby birding year, the idea came to me this morning that maybe I should do an astronomical equivalent. More precisely, I would attempt to see all the 110 Messier objects by the end of the year. The Messier objects are the most famous set of deep-sky objects in astronomy. They were catalogued in 1774 by French comet hunter Charles Messier, who wanted to have a list of fuzzy objects that could possibly be confused with comets.
I’ve never actually seen all these objects; I’ve gotten to about 80 or so back when I was more active in astronomy. Before moving to Davis, we lived halfway up the mountains behind Santa Barbara and had great dark skies there. Living at 45 feet elevation in the middle of the Central Valley there is a lot of light pollution and the skies are much hazier, both of which discourage my astronomizing. The Messier objects however are relatively easy to see, and I think all of them are within reach from our house with my 7” Dob. For now the rules of this venture are the same as for the Bigby — observations only count if I get to the observation site under my own power.
Tonight I got started by looking at Orion, seeing M42, M43, and then M78, followed by the Pleiades (M45), and then the open cluster M41 in Canis Major. A good start.
9 February 08
Better Luck Second Time
Last time we went to Lake Solano we rode into a storm and got wet, frozen, and skunked. Today we tried almost the same route and did a lot better.
Ten new birds for me today, including the gorgeous Barrow’s goldeneye, Western grebe, Bewick’s wren. We heard California quail and Hutton’s vireo; missed pileated woodpecker and osprey along with the “easy” phainopeplas. We never did catch up with a lark sparrow for Numenius.
Our favorite bird of the day: sharp-shinned hawk that flew in at eye-level and stared at us, gorgeous in new moult. We don’t see them often enough.
8 February 08
Clear Night
The weather has been very good this past week, and inspired by seeing an announcement that the campus astronomy club was having a stargazing session tonight, I got out my 7” Dobsonian telescope and had a gander at the sky this evening. Mars is small now as it retreats from its biannual closest approach to the Earth, but was still showing some detail. The Orion Nebula was beautiful as always — one of those objects that is remarkable to see no matter what size of optics you are using.
Coming up at the end of the month (from February 25 to March 8) there is an educational citizen science project called GLOBE at Night that is about light pollution. Basically sometime during this period you estimate the darkness of the sky using a set of star magnitude charts and report that along your exact location. These magnitude values will then get mapped — last year they got data from 60 countries.
7 February 08
Maine Caucuses
My mother moved to Maine recently and left the straightforwardness of California ballot elections for an arcane primary caucus system.
She’s registered “Decline to State” or whatever the designation is in Maine because she doesn’t want to be harassed by canvassers (in my experience this makes you more, not less, likely to be harassed, but that’s what she wanted to do). It turns out she’s able to change this designation on Sunday at the caucus and then go and stand on whichever side of the room she feels corresponds with her candidate. (This whole system of standing here or there feels medieval to me.)
Bucking the predictions of the New York Times and other worthy sources, her candidate and mine appear to be the same (I’m over the magical 44 that designates women-for-Hillary). She’s planning on voting for Obama. A lot can change between now and Sunday, of course. But still: I consider this a great transformation. (She campaigned for Eisenhower in ’52, came from a solid Republican family, one that valued fiscal responsibility and, well, responsibility period. I’m just glad my grandmother never lived to see the likes of W.)
This is by far the most interesting election I’ve lived through since I moved to the US in 1988…
4 February 08
Two Historical Atlases
I haven’t seen either of these publications in print, but both are intriguing. First, the U.S. Census has just released their first major atlas is over 80 years. The book has over 800 maps and weighs in at 7 pounds. Happily, the complete content of the book is available as PDF downloads, though each chapter makes for a large download, averaging around 15 Mb apiece.
Second, last fall the University of California Press published a Historical Atlas of California, written by Derek Hayes. With nearly 500 historical maps and illustrations, the book should be a visual feast.
2 February 08
Mishka's on a Rainy Saturday
We DID head out into the rain looking for the Cassin’s finch at Slide Hill Park (no luck), the prairie falcon at 102/Rd 28 (no luck), the mew gull at the impromptu lake west of the landfill (no luck). We saw some great birds, though: the rough-legged hawk we’d seen earlier in January was perched in a field off 102, very close to the road. And it was fantastic to see so many gulls, close, and to have the chance to practice identifying them. (The great thing about that was that nobody was around to correct us. I’m feeling pretty happy about herring gull vs. California gull, though. And glaucous-winged. Less sure about Thayer’s in any plumage other than first cycle, but I’m working on it.)
We flushed a burrowing owl at the gull spot and I drew a quick sketch. It looks much more like a harpy than an owl. I’m saving it for when I need a sketch of a harpy.
Wet and cold again, we stopped at Mishka’s cafe in Davis for a mocha (me) and a cardamom-cinnamon tea (Numenius) and a regroup before heading south into the wind and home. Three Davis conversations going on around us: Proposition 98 from a while back (school budgeting); skydiving and Bali; and a gal typing emails from her laptop with a Ron Paul sticker.
1 February 08
Focus the Campus
Despite the US Federal Government’s incredible lack of initiative on the topic, there is a great deal of activity taking place here to confront global warming. In California the legislative mandate for this is coming from AB 32, a bill passed in 2006 which requires California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, and to 80% of that by 2050. It seems the lead in this country on this issue will have to come from the bottom up.
Yesterday there was a nationwide teach-in on global warming called Focus the Nation. This was perhaps the largest teach-in ever in this country, with over 1750 institutions participating. The University of California took the event quite seriously, and our Davis campus had many events going on.
I didn’t go to any of the panel sessions that ran all day in the student Rec Center, but went to the Ideas Fair and the World of Ideas Café in Freeborn Hall nearby my office. The Ideas Fair which I went to over lunch was populated by lots of groups, everyone from the Community Alliance with Family Farmers to the campus Transportation and Parking Services department. My favorite booth was the one setup by Campus Utilities that invited you to do a blind taste test comparing UC Davis tap water, UC Davis filtered water, City of Davis tap water, and Arrowhead bottled water, the point being that bottled water isn’t necessarily better tasting than tap water.
The World of Ideas Café ran at the end of the day. 17 teams each with a different theme presented their ideas for dealing with greenhouse gases and increasing energy efficiency, and we got to wander around and talk to team members and then vote on what were our favorite ideas. I liked the ideas on achieving efficiency through eco-friendly urban design and transportation systems.
29 January 08
Prothonotarian Spycatcher
At a meeting of the Yolo Breeding Bird Atlas committee tonight it was mentioned that Alger Hiss was proved to have had association with Whittaker Chambers because he had once seen a prothonotary warbler on the Potomac in the 30s, which Chambers remembered. The person whose career was launched on the House Un-American Affairs Committee through this accusation of perjury in 1948 was none other than Richard Nixon.
This is why you need to subscribe to Birds of North America, folks. You learn all kinds of things.
27 January 08
The Story of Stuff
There was a front page post today on Daily Kos highly recommending a new video called The Story of Stuff. Annie Leonard, an activist who has been researching the flow and waste of materials through our consumer society, came up with the idea to present this tale in cartoon fashion overlaid with footage of her narrating. The 20-minute video is viewable at the link above.
In good simple living fashion we bicycled to Pica’s office this morning to watch the video (no broadband at home, it’s not worth it.) It is humorous and thoughtful, capable of entertaining five-year-olds and provoking those an order of magnitude older into thought and action.
We do pretty well here in avoiding accumulating and consuming stuff, though of course there are lots of little things to work on improving. One needn’t scratch very hard to find such critiques of consumerist society going back a long ways, but how will the values of simple living and frugality ever make it back into mainstream culture?
26 January 08
The Latest Poll Figures
Numenius reads me the latest poll figures. I think he’s joking. He isn’t.