Milky Way Time Lapse

We had a very clear night last week, the first one since February. So I zoomed out to Red Slave to take pictures of the Milky Way rising over the huts.

At the start of the sequence, you can see the red Eta Carina nebula towards the lower right edge of the frame. The Southern Cross and Coal Sack nebula are to the upper left of the Eta Carina Nebula.

Scorpius looks like a giant fish hook on the left side of the frame. After a little while, the Sagitarius Teapot enters the frame from the lower left side.

A bunch of planes fly by, there is lightning on the horizon, and a car zooms by. And then after about three and a half hours, clouds start rolling in.

I drew some lines in the picture, above, to show what some of the constellations look like. You'll probably need to click on it to see it large enough to see the lines. This frame comes from the middle of the sequence so Eta Carina has already set and Sagitarius has already entered from the left.

Scroll down the page to see the video. If you select the 720p version, it looks reasonably good, even at full screen size.

Braced for Action

Ivan is busy prepping new parts for our next round of tower rebuilding action, which will probably take place in early 2012. Notice the giant fan in the background. There was little to no wind last week, here on Bonaire, which made for great bike riding, but hot and nasty working conditions. The new cross brases are cleaned, taped, primed and painted. The braces have to make good metal to metal contact where they connect to each other and to the tower legs.

After all new parts are bolted onto the tower, the joints are all primed and painted in place.

Better Mousetrap

We've got guys up painting the towers again this year. Lately they have been painting in between the rain showers. I suspect that is why they are working down low, so they can escape the rain when it comes along. Lionel designed and built this trap and it is working great. They caught a number of rats last week.

Church Construction

Some of us stuck around after the monthly Saturday morning men's meeting at the new church site and did some work on the roof.

Walt hopes to get the last windows installed in the next day or two, which will make the building weather tight.

He also hopes to construct the platform/stage this week.

As you can see, there are lots of clouds these days, but we still felt pretty fried by 1pm.

Morning Planetary Parade

Four planets are putting on a beautiful show in the pre-dawn skies here on Bonaire. It's been pretty cloudy here, so I've only seen three of the four planets so far, but I'll keep looking... The triangular pattern will change from morning to morning because the planets are on the move. The view is best here on Bonaire from around 05:15 t0 05:30. By 5:45am the sky is getting kind of bright. The further north you are the more difficult it will be to spot the planets. Sky and Telescope has a great animation that shows just how the planets are moving relative to each other right now. I highly recommend it.

Jupiter is at the lower left. Venus is at the top center and Mercury is to the lower right of Venus. Mars is to the lower left of Jupiter, but the clouds were in the way Sat. and Sun. mornings. I did spot Mars on one of my pictures from Saturday, but just barely.

8th Annual Rincon Bike Ride

This past Sunday, the day after Rincon Day, the people of Rincon held their eighth annual community bike ride. Each year they honor one of their senior citizens who is still actively riding their bike. It is a fun family event with great support from the community and quite a few Bonaire businesses.

We swarmed up and down most of the streets of Rincon.

The reason they invite me each year can be seen at the far right side of the picture below. They have prizes for the oldest rider, the youngest rider, the best decorated bike, the most unusual bike, the oldest bike etc.

Church Building progress

We are having a work day at the new IBCB church building today. I'll see if I can get some action photos. Here is how the site looked earlier this week. We had a lot or rain yesterday so it is probably muddy this morning.

Annual Kralendijk to Rincon Race

April 30 is a holiday here, known both as the Queen's Day, and for the last 22 years as Rincon Day. It is also the day of the annual running race and fun walk from the Stadium in Kralendijk to Rincon. As I recall this race predates Rincon Day, but I can't figure out how many years it has actually been held.

I always ride my bike to Rincon on the west side "tourist road" on the morning of April 30 and then cheer on the walkers and runners as I head back home on the main road. This year I shot video clips of the various runners and walkers. I may not have gotten everybody, sorry to anyone I missed.

I isn't really that great a video 'cause I was shooting into the rising sun for the most part, and it appears that the ride quality of my road bike leaves a lot to be desired compared to my mountain bike. I think I have shot smoother video off-road on the mtn. bike than I got today on the road on my road bike. The roads here have gotten pretty rough though, and I actually do ride the mtn. bike on the road quite often now to save wear and tear on the old bod.

Rolling On

Perhaps they were inspired by the recent visit of, and the painting prowess shown by, the senior class of the Perry Hall Christian School. A number of the youth from the IBC are using their Easter vacation time to paint the new church building.

I only saw guys working on the church when I visited the site, but the young ladies have swung a mean paint brush in the past, so they might yet take roller in hand this week.

Here we see they guys cleaning up after a long day of work.

Kibrahacha Trees

The heavy rain we had last week has caused some of the Kibrahacha trees to pop. I first noticed them on Monday morning.

These trees are east of Antriol and North Salina. I'm not sure what the trees north of Sabadeco, and up around Goto Lake are doing.

Annual Kite Flying Contest

Sunday was the 33rd (i think) annual kite flying contest here on Bonaire. There was quite a crowd out enjoying the festivities and great weather. The competition was highly organized and the judges were actively involved in the proceedings.

These guys were holding on for dear life to a rather large kite. Eventually they tied it off to a telephone pole.

It wasn't windy by Bonaire standards, but the steady breeze was great for flying kites, as you can see here.

Perry Hall Christian School trip part 2

Cutting in the edges isn't as much fun as rolling paint on large sections of wall, but they persevered and made everything nice and tidy. Dionne, Daphney, and her friend (who's name I forget-sorry) painted the Spanish language TWR sign last summer. The crew shown here made short work of the English language sign this year. Check out the piles of weeds in the background. We had two inches of rain one day, which softened the ground and made weed pulling easier.

Yup, they even painted the part of the building that no one sees. Hooray.

more Perry Hall Pix

Some friendly donkeys came by to check out the freshly painted building. Or maybe someone told them that the young people also trimmed a bunch of bushes and pulled out a ton of yummy weeks. Here some of the team is putting the finishing touches on the front of the office wing. It is looking very nice.

Heading off to the airport with the spiffy office in the background.

They wisely arrived early so as to be at the head of the rather long check in line. Then they spent the next couple hours in the comfort of the air conditioned transit lounge, instead of standing in line in the heat.

Blast from the Past

It was great to have Mr. Solomon (center) at church a week or two ago. I haven't seen him out and about for quite some time. Also in the picture are Amado Felix on the left and Denny Hogan, on the right. Christophe Lusse (left) is here for a week. Denny Hogan is in the last week of his time here helping with the antenna tower rebuild project.

Perry Hall Christian School

The Senior class of the Perry Hall Christian School is here on Bonaire for a week. In addition to enjoying the warm weather, they are doing a bunch of projects for TWR while they are here. Here are some action photos. The office wing hasn't been painted since 2004. We didn't notice how dull it looked until we saw some shiny new paint on the walls.

Um... those pesky cacti, sand burrs and thorn bushes will definately get you if you let your guard down for even a second.

They worked on the shady west side of the building in the morning and the equally shady east side of the building in the afternoon.

I call this one Rambo.

PHCS Monday

In addition to painting the office wing, the group is tidying up the grounds. There are loads and loads of weeds to cut back with the string trimmer.

It was an overcast day, which made for very pleasant working conditions, and a perfect backdrop.

Was it Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn who talked everyone into white-washing the fence for him? Whoever it was, he's got nothing on these guys.

Cleaning paint rollers is the worst job in the world, but the power washer makes short work of them. It spins the paint right out of those puppies - and all over one's clothes!

Visitors from the North

We've been blessed with some talented and very helpful volunteers so far this year. Cees and Clary came from Canada to help our director, Joe Barker, figure out the new Dutch tax laws. Rick, from California, designed and built a few engineering projects at the transmitter site, and also thoroughly traced and documented all the control circuitry for the transmitter and antenna systems.

Jim, from Pennslyvania, accomplished some much needed electrical projects in the TWR houses.

Pat Hogan came from Ohio to visit her husband, Denny. She made about a zillion curtains while she was here.

Denny Hogan has been here for a couple months, replacing the cross braces on the antenna towers. (and enjoying the view from way up there in the air)