View from the Back Door

Here is the view today, from the TWR Bonaire office here on Bonaire.

 

It was inspiring to walk out the door and see the blue sky and the blue Caribbean.

Sunset with Tower, Cacti, and Birds

Some birds flew through the frame during the sunset video I recently posted.  They really zoom by at the 4X playback speed.  Maybe a half dozen frames had birds in them. 

Here is one of the frames with the birds in it.

Sunset Video

Here is a video of the Sun setting behind one of the towers at TWR Bonaire.  It is at 4X speed so it only takes a minute to play, instead of the four minutes it took to film it.

Mystery Object

 

We found this extender card while rummaging around at the TWR Bonaire studios.

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what device it might be used with?

Sunset Video

Here is a two minute clip of the sun setting over the ocean.  There is a teeny tiny green flash at the end.  It looks best at 1080P and full screen.

Sunset - Moonrise

 

Sandra and I journeyed  to the southernmost point of Bonaire Monday evening to watch the Sun set and the Moon rise within a few minutes of each other. 

 

Here are a some shots of the sunset.

 

Sunset - Moonrise II

The Sun set around 18:41 and the Moon rose at 18:44 on Monday evening.

Sandra and I went out to Red Slave to enjoy the show.  We both were also capturing the scene with cameras.

Here are a few pictures of the Moonrise by the Willemstoren lighthouse.

 

Sunset Through a Telescope

Tyler and Tim were at the TWR transmitter site again last night. They are working on a super duper sunset time lapse. I got them situated and then drove over to the Sorobon road and shot a picture of the sun setting behind a tower as seen through a Mead ETX 90 telescope. According to Google Maps, i was 1.28 miles from the tower. (2.07 km)

 

That green rim at the top of the sun is not chromatic aberration from the lens, because a mirror telescope doesn't produce chromatic aberration. The green rim at the top and red rim at the bottom is the atmosphere acting like a prism and refracting the sunlight. This is basically where the green flash comes from. The green part of the Sun's image sets last.

 

Evening at the TWR Bonaire TX Site

 

 

I was out at the TWR Bonaire transmitter site last night to check out the sunset.

Tyler Gates, from the TWR office in NC is here shooting video and hoping to get a sunset time lapse at the transmitter site. So was hanging out there too.

I came up with a crummy time lapse, but got a couple interesting photos.

One of the sun setting right next to a tower, and one of the moonlit scene after it got fully dark.

Aerial Views of Bonaire 2016

Back around 2006, before there were affordable drones, I had a wonderful time flying around the island  in the flying club's plane with TWR missionary Ernie Franke, and shooting a bunch of pictures from the air.  You can find some of the shots on the blog.

Then in 2013, Susan Davis, at InfoBonaire, alerted me to some new aerial views of Bonaire.  These images were actually serving as an innovative advertising tool, but I loved seeing Bonaire from the unique aerial perspectives.  You can see our house on the right side of the Hato-North image, for example.

Recently, Paul Donahue, the man behind the Aerial Views of Bonaire visited us at the TWR office.  He shared how he came up with the concept and tested it in his home stomping grounds on the Gulf Coast of Florida.  Back before the Internet, these aerial views were printed on big posters and displayed around town, so to speak.  His business, Resort Graphics International, has really taken off since then (yes that's a pun) with great aerial imagery of quite a number of resort areas around Florida and the Caribbean.

Besides providing a unique advertising portal for a limited number of paying customers, Paul also donates some links on the Aerial Views maps to non-profit organizations.  So if you browse through the Bonaire images, for example, you'll see the Donkey Sanctuary and Trans World Radio identified.
So thank you very much Paul Donahue, for creating these cool aerial views, and for your generous heart as well.

Be sure to check out these awesome aerial images of Bonaire.

Orion Nebulae

I shot a couple pictures of the constellation Orion the other night.  It wasn't as clear as the night I got the LMC pictures, but it was still pretty good.  Seeing these images has me wanting to get back out and try to frame the constellation better.  I took four 3 minute exposures and combined them into a panorama in Lightroom.

I drew some lines on the wide field shot so you can see the outline of Orion, the belt and the sword.  Betelgeuse is the orange star on the left side and Rigel is the blue white star on the right side.  All the red stuff swooping around the scene is nebulosity.  It is known as the Orion molecular cloud complex.
For the second image, I cropped in to the sword and belt area so you can see more detail, like the flame nebula, the horsehead nebula, the running man nebula, and M42 the Orion Nebula.

If I don't get back out to image Orion again this year, due to haze, the waxing moon, etc.  I'll probably have another go at processing these shots.  I usually come back to them after some time ahs passed and try different techniques.

Another TWR360 Update

We're starting to promote www.TWR360.org heavily on the air, here at TWR Bonaire. An all new and improved version of TWR360 will be rolling out in two stages later this month. Check it out now and come back later to see the changes.

There is audio and video in 42 languages online now. There is a twr360 app for your phone too.

TWR360 received a record number of visitors in January, 639,524 to be exact, from 224 Countries and Territories.

There was a new one day record of 21,568 visitors on January 26.

Brazil again lead the way in visits from Web browsers. The rest of the top 10 countries, in descending order, are: Russia, the USA, India, Kenya, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Ukraine, the Netherlands and Mexico.

The USA lead the way last month, among visitors using Android and iOS Apps to visit TWR360. The rest of the top 10 countries connecting by apps include: India, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Argentina, and the United Kingdom.

Large Magellanic Cloud

I haven't seen the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy, since 2010.  But I've been hankering to try to get a better picture of it, with some foreground objects in there for scale.

 

The night sky looked pretty clear tonight, so I zoomed out to Red Slave to see if I could get a shot. The LMC is only about 6 or 7 degrees above the horizon at its highest, so the sky has to be very clear to be able to see it.

 

There was some light haze, but I was lucky enough to get a couple shots when the LMC was located in a hole in the haze. This is a three minute exposure with a 85mm lens working at f2 and ISO 800.

 

 

Three Moons over Bonaire

I went outside with the dog around 10 pm for his final pee and saw the Moon real near Jupiter. It was quite striking.

 

You can use the Moon to identify all the major planets over the next week or so.

 

The moon will be near Mars on Feb. 1. It will be near Saturn on Feb. 3 and it will make an equilateral triangle with Venus and Mercury on Feb.5.

 

 

 

I shot a picture of the moon and Jupiter and when I zoomed into the shot, lo and behold I could see two of Jupiter's moons! So the close-up picture below shows three moons in total. whoo - whoo 

You'll need to click on these images to see the larger versions I think.

 

I am regularly amazed at what a camera can capture with a normal lens, 85mm in this case.

Full Moon Rising

The Moon was only three hours from being completely full when it came up this evening at 6:20 pm. The Sun set at 6:30, so they were sitting on opposite horizons at the same time.

It was quite windy and there were still eight kite sailors out on the water at sunset.

Here is what the moon looked like a little later on as I continued around the south end of Bonaire.

Wednesday Sunset

We've been watching the moon grow in size since Monday evening.  It is still a nice crescent shape, but is much higher in the sky already.

The sunset was nice this evening, not super bright, but there was color of some sort around the entire 360 degrees of the horizon.

You can see the moon in the full size version of the picture.

Comet Catalina

The Moon was right next to Venus Monday morning.  In fact, the farther west you live, compared to Bonaire, the closer the Moon will be to Venus.  The Moon will pass right in front of Venus around mid day as seen from the west coast of the USA.  You can read all about it here.

Comet Catalina is lurking nearby too.  These shots show the Moon, Venus and Comet Catalina.  The comet is a faint greenish fuzz.  You'll probably need to click on the thumbnails to see the full size images.  The upper image is a one second exposure.  The low image is a two second exposure.

Animal Shelter Annual Christmas Sale

The Bonaire Animal Shelter, or Dierenasiel, had its annual December sale and flea market this past Sunday.  There was music, food, and many bargains to be found; but funny enough, I didn't see any fleas.
Good thing Sandra wasn't with me or we probably would have come home with a puppy!

Reception Reports from Far Off Lands

We received a reception report from a listener in Finland early last month.  He heard the Spanish language program, Mujeres de Esperanza, and sent us an mp3 recording of Annabel doing a Station ID at 1 am, Bonaire time.

Later in November we received a report from Jose, in Garciasville, Texas.  He heard La Voz Alegre at 9 pm, Bonaire time.

Here is a look at the post card Per-Ole sent us from Finland.

TWR on the World Wide Web

Here is the latest news from TWR's online media portal.  There is audio and video from 108 ministries, in 41 languages on TWR360.  Be sure to check it out today.

TWR360 received a record number of visitors in October, 563.069 to be exact, from 221 Countries and Territories.  October 27 set a new one day record of 19,603 visitors to TWR360.

Brazil lead the way in sessions from Web browsers in October.  The rest of the top 10 countries, in descending order, include:  USA, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya, Russia, Colombia, South Korea, and the Netherlands.

The USA lead the way last month, among visitors using Apps to visit TWR360.  The rest of the top 10 countries connecting by Apps include:  India, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, The Dominican Republic, Argentina, Singapore, and Japan.

projector mount bracket

I recently installed a video projector (known as a "beamer" here, not to be confused with a Beemer, which is a car) at our church here on Bonaire.  It is on a pretty long post hanging down from the roof beams.  It is pretty stable, considering how windy it can be here.
Here is a shot of the bracket the attached to the roof beam. (there is a story behind this seeming random post)

Moon, Venus and Mars with Foreground

Here is what the moon and planets looked like this morning.

Jupiter was up quite a bit higher, so I cropped it out of the picture, which was looking too tall and skinny for posting online.

Mars is to the upper left of the Moon and Venus is to the lower left of the moon.

You'll probably need to look at the full size image to see Mars.

Saturday Morning Moon and Planets

The Moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter looked great in the pre-dawn skies this morning.  Here is a shot that shows them all, and one that shows just Mars, Venus and the Moon.

Jupiter is pretty far to the upper left of the Moon and the other two planets. Better click on the thumbnails to see the full images.

I hope to have another picture later today.  A dawn bike ride is calling my name right now.

Planets on the Move Oct. 17-26

This picture represents much loss of sleep in the interests of science.  ha-ha.
We see Venus, Jupiter and Mars changing position between Saturday, October 17 and Monday, October 26.
Venus is at the top of the image and slowly moves down (to the East) day by day.
Jupiter starts out just below Mars and moves slightly up (West)  Actually, Jupiter doesn't move very much at all with respect to the fixed background stars.
Mars starts out just above Jupiter and slowly drops down (East).
You can't see the background stars in this composite image, but I used them to make sure that each frame was registered correctly relative to the other frames.  So the changing positions of the planets are real.  Venus and Mars really were moving eastward relative to Jupiter and the background stars, which made Jupiter look like it was moving up from Mars to Venus.
Venus will be down by Mars by the end of this week.
I'm not sure how well the planets will show up on a Web browser, but if figure it is worth a try.  The image is 1920 pixels wide, so if you have a 1920x1080 monitor, and click on this thumbnail, you might be in luck.  I'll have a look with a few different computers to get an idea of how this is working.

Morning and Evening Planets

The Bonaire skies were pretty cloud free last night, and I was tempted to attempt a shot of the crescent moon near Saturn and Antares, but decided not to...  'cause it wasn't that clear, and the Moon really mushes out if there is any haze in the sky at all.

However, this morning, when I saw Mars really close to Jupiter, with Venus shining up above and Mercury glowing way down below, I just had to venture out and try to capture it.

I enhanced the planets a little in these small images, so that on the screen they'd look about like what I saw with my naked eye.

Mercury is hard to see, directly to the right of the "Y" in the word Mercury.  Mars, Jupiter, and Venus are easier to spot.

The original image is 9500x5500 pixels, so if and when I print that up, the planets should be easy to see.  I also bracketed my exposures for the bottom of the image, so i can go back and get some more detail in the mural before I try printing the image.

TWR360 Update

 Did you know that if you can't listen to TWR Bonaire on your radio, like you live at the North Pole or something, you need to check out TWR360,  There is audio and video in 41 languages on TWR360 right now.  Don't be left out.  Check out
www.twr360.com today.

TWR360 received a record number of visitors in September, 505,123 to be exact, using a variety of devices. The breakdown is 65.38% in the mobile category, 31.23% using desktops, and 3.39% using tablets.

In September, Brazil lead the way in sessions from Web browsers. The rest of the top 10 countries with visitors to TWR360 using Web browsers include: USA, India, Vietnam, (unknown), the The Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia and Kenya.

And the USA lead the way among visitors using Apps to visit TWR360 last month. The rest of the top 10 countries using Apps include: India, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, and Venezuela.

Sunday Night's Eclipse

The Bonaire skies were nice and clear last night's eclipse of the Moon.  A bunch of us hung out in the parking lot at the International Bible Church to view it.  I shot a zillion images and have combined them into a time lapse video of sorts.

Unfortunately, I bumped into the scope a couple of times, so there are some big wobbles.  And there are some gaps, when the camera stopped shooting.  I can't wait for the next eclipse, so i can try again. You can see the moon pass by and over a number of background stars during the course of the eclipse.  That is pretty cool.

I'm not sure how the clip will look embedded here.  You can see if 1080p version on YouTube, if this one isn't too good.

Morning Planets Meet the Moon

Venus and Mars are looking quite nice in the pre-dawn sky these days.  Jupiter will be joining them soon.

This morning was special, because the Moon was right between Venus and Mars.

Venus is to the upper right of the Moon, and Mars is to the lower left of the Moon.  They make a straight line and Mars is more or less twice as far from the Moon as Venus is.

The darker photo includes a meteor that flashed by.  The lighter photo shows more stars.

You'll need to click on the images and see the larger versions to see much detail, I think.

Men's Conference in the Dominican Republic

We are airing some spot announcements on 800AM and 89.5FM about a big conference for men that will take place in the Dominican Republic from September 24-26.  The goal is to shed light on a Biblical model of masculinity.  The meetings, sponsored by Ministerio Integridad y Sabiduria,  will also be available online.

The sessions will be in the Spanish language I assume, but here is an overview of the events, in English.

Thursday, September 24

7:00am-8:30am---Doors Open and Registration

8:30am-9:00am---Welcome and Worship

9:00am-10:00am---Session 1:  Be a Man of Purpose (M. Núñez)

10:00am-10:30am---Announcements and Break

10:30am-12:00pm---Session 2:  Be a Man of God (O. Strachan)

12:00pm-3:00pm---Lunch

3:00pm-4:00pm---Session 3:  Workshops

     -Be the Spiritual Leader of Your Wife (O. Strachan)

     -Be a Man of Pure Eyes (T. Challies)

     -Be a Strong Man in "Mid-Life-Crisis Years" (F. González de Chávez)

     -Be a Mature Man (O. Sánchez)

4:00pm-4:30pm---Break and Worship

4:30pm-6:00pm---Session 4:  Be a Biblical Man (T. Challies)

Friday, September 25

6:45pm-7:00pm---Worship

7:00pm-8:15pm---Session 5:  Be a Man of Integrity (T. Challies)

8:15pm-8:45pm---Break and Worship

8:45pm-10:00pm---Session 6:  Be a Man of Influence in Your Society (O. Strachan)

Saturday, September 26

2:15pm-2:30pm---Worship

2:30pm-3:45pm---Session 7:  Q&A (Strachan, Challies, Castleberry, Núñez)

3:45pm-4:00pm---Exit to Workshops

4:00pm-5:00pm---Session 8:  Workshops

     -Be the Father that God Wants You to Be (T. Challies)

     -Be a Wise Man (T. Martínez)

     -Be a Man Content Man/Man of Contentment (G. Peacock)

     -Be a Man of Financial Integrity (E. Saladín)

5:00pm-5:30pm---Break and Worship

5:30pm-6:45pm---Session 9:  Be a Disciple of Christ (O. Strachan)

6:45pm---Conference Closing

Canon SX50 HS again

I did a post or two recently extoling the virtues of the humble Powershot SX50 HS and its surprisingly good zoom lens.  Canon USA is selling refurbished ones, until Sept. 7, for $150.  Since this is an older model, "refurbished" could very well mean new old stock.
I would rate this as a no-brainer if you need telephoto reach from time to time.

Goto Meer Fence

If you visit Bonaire during the rainy season, you'll see a long wood fence stretching from the East shore of Goto Meer waaaay out into the water.  If you pass by Goto Meer during the dry season, you'll see why the fence is so long.  It has to extend way out into the lake in order to still make an effective goat barrier after the water recedes during the dry season.

This fence had gotten somewhat run down over the years, but a crew was hard at work rebuilding it last Saturday.

Another SX50 HS shot

Here is another shot from my bike ride last Saturday.  I had seen this image in my mind's eye on previous rides and finally brought along a camera to try to capture it.

I'm going to try making a large print, sometime soon, just to see how much image quality I can eek out of this small sensor camera.

Canon SX50 HS - Oldie But Goodie

I keep seeing great stuff on my Saturday morning bike rides, but being the weight weenie that i am, i usually don't have a camera with me.  But I took my SX50 HS along for the ride last week and got a couple nice shots.
My nephew, Dan, clued me in to the Canon SX30, one of the early "super zoom" compact cameras, back in the day.  I told my father in law about it.  He took one to Africa and came back with some great wildlife shots.
The SX50 HS isn't the newest camera in the line, and it doesn't have the most megapixels, but i think it hits the sweet spot for a small camera with a big zoom.  It can occasionally be had at crazy great prices.  It is about $350 on Amazon right now, but back in July, Canon was selling refurbished ones for $170.  That is a no-brainer price.  If it gets that low again this fall, and you are into birding, or wildlife photography, buy one immediately.  You can't go wrong.
Now I have indeed gotten some higher quality images with a DSLR and a L series telephoto lens, but the SX50 HS's portability and bang for the buck can't be beat.
I haven't used this camera all that much actually, about 500 images over two years versus 10,000 images over four years for my T1i, but I think I'll start carrying it around more from now on.

Here are two downsized but un-cropped images from my bike ride on Saturday. One is at the 24 mm zoom setting and the other was shot from the exact same spot at the 1200 mm setting.  Sorry about the tilted horizon.  Can you spot the flamingo in the wide angle shot?  It is right in the middle of the frame.

One secret is to take lots of shots and hope that you aren't wiggling the camera for a few of them.  You know that Olympic Biathlon event where they rev up their heart rate by cross country skiing and then try to shoot at teeny tiny targets.  Taking pictures while on a bike ride is similar.  I've never had this kind of trouble holding a camera still when I just hopped out of a car to take a picture.

Mercury Rising

We've seen a number of Bruce Willis movies over the years, but I'm not sure if we've ever watched Mercury Rising...   But that isn't the focus of this post.
On Monday evening we saw the planet Mercury low in the west, to the lower right of the crescent Moon.  The sky was pretty clear that evening and Mercury was surprisingly easy to spot, at least here on Bonaire.  The moon is higher and brighter now, but Mercury should still be there, low in the West, after sunset.

Milky Way at Red Slave

The night sky was very clear a week ago, so i went out to Red Slave with Craig, who was visiting Bonaire with his family.  He brought along a nice William Optics refracting telescope and we had a good time looking at some of the southern sky objects that he can't see well from back home in California.

I also shot a few images of the Milky Way as it appeared over the slave huts.  This picture is a combination of a four minute exposure of the stars with a brief exposure of the huts when Craig's headlights hit them as he drove up.  You can see the shadow of my head, my chair and the camera tripod on the first hut!









This second shot is a combination of five four minute long exposures of the huts and sky.  I also Photoshopped out the garbage can!  It has been cloudy and hazy since then. (makes for great sunsets) but seems to be clearing up today.  Maybe we'll have clear skies for the Perseid meteors Wednesday night.

Summer Milky Way

There was a high haze in the sky tonight, but it was still better than normal, and worth heading to a dark site to have a look.
I also tested a Zeiss 35\2 lens (thank you Dennis) to see how it did with stars.  I shot some frames at f2, f2.8 and f4.  The stars were looking like "seagulls in the corners at f2.  It was better at f2.8 and quite good at f4, especially the right side.
The haze created a glow around the brighter stars, which actually makes it easier to see the constellations.
I'll post one version with constellation lines and one without.  These are from the frames I shot at f2.8 and are downsized, but not cropped.  (one minute at ISO 1600)  Prob. should click on these to see them somewhat larger.

 I didn't put in any lines, but you can just barely see Scutum at the top left corner of the frame, and you can see Corona Australis halfway between the bottom of Sagittarius and the bottom of the frame.

 I hope we have a really clear night soon, so i can do another test. :)

Timelapse Video of the Sun from NASA

My dad alerted me to this awesome (in the original sense of the word) time lapse video of the Sun, made up of images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite.  The SDO celebrated its 5th anniversary this past February.
The video is made up from individual frames captured at 8 hour intervals, beginning in June 2010 and finishing February 8, 2015. The different colors represent the various wavelengths (sometimes blended, sometimes alone) in which SDO observes the sun.  You can go to YouTube and see it bigger.

Busy Day at CIEE

It was a full day, today, for the CIEE high school students here on Bonaire. They spent the morning snorkeling in the amazingly calm and clear waters on the reef at Sorobon. They tried their hand at windsurfing during the afternoon.

I caught up their tireless leaders, Cinde Wirth and Bud Gillan, (pictured on the stairs) and the full-of-energy students this evening at "1000 steps." Bud said that it wasn't easy to keep the kids
out of the water, but if one has abundant curiosity, there is always something to explore, even from the shore. There were a number of turtles hanging out in like one foot of water!