Bonaire Panoramas

Bill Heatley just sent me a link to a super cool Web site. It has 360 degree panoramic images of all sorts of Bonaire locations and sites. I've only looked at a couple of them but will be back to check out more as time permits.

BBBJ featured in Smithstonian article

Snndra's cousin, Bud Gillan, has just tipped me off that there is an article about the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish on the Smithstonian Web site.

Tuesday Green Flash and Planetary Parade

The sun looked pretty nice as I finished my after work bike ride today, (Tuesday) so Sandra and I hopped in the car and drove to where we could see the sun drop below the horizon. The sun almost set over a cruise ship, which would have been cool. We saw a great green flash, I'd say that on scale of one to ten, it was a ten.
Then as the sky began to darken, Jupiter and Mercury put on a nice display. If you live to the west of Bonaire and you read this soon enough, head outside after sunset and you'll see Mercury a little below and to the right of Jupiter. They are pretty close together tonight.

Bonaire Vortex

You've probably heard of the Bermuda Triangle, where boats and planes check in but don't check out. Well, Bonaire seems to be developing a car eating Vortex that sucks in cars and spits them out all crushed up. It all started a couple weeks ago when two medical students were driving to class, noticed their car starting to swerve around, and the next thing they new they had plowed into the giant boulders that protect the jogging path here in Hato. The car, seen above as it rests in front of our house, was very seriously damaged, but I'm happy to be able to report that the students survived the accident and are in fine shape. I don't know any details about the victims of the other recent wrecks.

This giant hole in the cemetary wall on Kaya Korona appeared sometime between the Kids Carnival weekend and the main Carnival weekend. That is a huge section of wall that has been smashed down there.

As I set out on my bike ride yesterday morning, (March 12) I saw the remains of this van resting within a few meters of the place where the medical students had their accident. Normally one would be tempted to blame Big Mo (mv) or his evil cousin Kinetic Energy (mv squared) for damage as serious as this. But all three of the above accidents happened in residential areas with 40 km per hour speed limits so I am driven to conclude that some sort of mysterious car crushing Vortex is at work. (he said tongue in cheek)

I first thought that the Bonaire Vortex was centered in Hato, and maybe had spread as far as town, but this car (also photographed on March 12) is out at Boca Onima. So it looks like no location on Bonaire is safe from its effects.

I hardly ever ride my road bike any more. Part of the reason is that the paved roads are full of holes, but the other reason is that I feel a lot safer on my mountain bike on trails and paths where cars can't go. So far it looks like bicycles are immune from the Bonaire Vortex, although come to think of it, a few weeks ago DJ got swallowed up by a large muddy bog out Lagoon way.... But that's another story.

TWR E-Snapshots

Here is a story from this month's TWR E-Snapshots newsletter. You can sign up to receive the E-Snapshots on the lower right side of this page.

A girl who lived in a refugee camp in Tanzania for ten years recently visited the TWR-Burundi office to tell how she had been blessed by the good news through our programs.

She said, “I used to listen to your program from the refugee camp in Tanzania. It was a blessing, not only to me but to the other Burundian refugees in the camp because we could hear a program in our mother tongue while we were away from our homeland. The messages in that program caused me to change my life and surrender it to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am amazed at how, from this studio, you are able to reach people thousands of miles away.”

It’s exciting that these programs reached her in crisis, they reached her within her cultural framework, they reached her with Christ and they reached her from another country! There are not many other means of outreach that can achieve all four of these at the same time other than radio!

You can read the full version of this story and see a picture of the TWR Burundi recording studio here on the TWR Africa Web site.

Southern Cross Rising at Red Slave

Here is a time lapse video showing the Southern Cross (SC) rising at Red Slave here on Bonaire. I drew lines along the outline of the SC in this picture, so that you will be able to recognize it in the video. You may need to make the picture bigger so you can see the SC. The SC appears at about nine seconds into the video clip.

The red blob low in the sky near the middle of the picture, is the Eta Carina nebula. This area of the sky is actually loaded with interesting objects to observe in binoculars or a telescope. Many of them show up nicely here.

This video represents about three and a half hours worth of pictures, taken at a rate of about two per minute.

The video looks best at 720p resolution and full screen. My internet connection is a little slow for 720p, but the view is worth the wait. Oh... these astronomy videos look quite different on each and every computer monitor I've viewed them on, so if you are curious, look at it on a couple different computers and see which rendition you like the best!

Star Trails

I've been taking more star pictures to prepare for some time lapse videos this summer. But most of the time it has been too cloudy. Above is a typical 3o second exposure and below is a combination of a bunch of them showing the movement of the stars over time.

The star trails photo really brings out the colors of the various stars.

Cloudy Nights or Orion Over the Huts

The moon is in hiding right now, so if it wasn't so consarned rainy and cloudy, I'd be outside every night soaking up the beauty of the Bonaire Sky Park, as George DeSalvo calls it. But, since I had already gotten soaked during my after work bike ride yesterday, I stayed inside last night and played with some images from last month. You can see Orion a little above and to the left of center in the photo below. The Pleiades are just barely above the middle of the roof of the right hand slave hut, and the Hyades (the horns of Taurus the bull) are to the upper left of the Pleiades. The photo above is a combination of five or six 19 second exposures at ISO3200 with the camera on a fixed tripod. Combining a a number of individual images helps cancel out some of the random noise that one sees when imaging in low light and with high ISO settings. I'm pleased that some of the star colors were preserved (check out Betelgeuse and Aldebaran) and that you can even see a hint of Barnard's loop arching above Orion's belt.

This is a close up of Orion's belt and sword that I shot from the back yard last month. It is a combination of 2 minute exposures shot with a 85/1.8 lens at f4. I processed the heck out of this image to try to bring out the red nebulosity that abounds in this part of the sky. What I really need is longer exposures from a darker site. (like Red Slave) You can see hints of this same nebulosity in the top image, and that does impress me, since the exposure time was so short for that shot.

Rains are Back

We've had some heavy rains here, beginning back on Thursday; probably has accumulated to over three inches by now.

One can find fairly detailed weather forcasts for Bonaire here. AND, "trumpet flourish", you can see a weather radar map of the ABC islands here. We just had a very heavy rain band pass over us and you can clearly see it on the weather radar display, especially the moving loop - if you have Java enabled. There were some yellow spots amidst the green on the display, and that must have been the downpour that hit us downtown.

I've checked out the satellite images of the Caribbean for years now, but local weather radar is a big step forward.

Sunday afternoon Photos

This is the view from near the radar installation at the top of the hill above Bopec. I was able to ride my bike all the way up the dirt road to the radar site when it was new and smooth, but now it is quite eroded and I can barely push my bike up it. Brandaris is on the horizon at the left side and the road around Goto Lake is at the right.

This is the view looking SW from the scenic overlook above Rincon not too far from all the cell and radio towers. I was hoping for a great image of Rincon but that didn't pan out. Looking back towards the setting sun was nice though. The sky really looked pretty much like this picture shows it, but the foreground stuff was somewhat lighter in tone than this image shows. I had to ride hard to get back home before dark after taking this photo.

Green Flash Video

I went to Andrea 1 this evening and shot some video of the Sunset. For a minute there, I thought the Aquaspace glass bottomed sailing yacht was going to pass in front of the sun at just the wrong time, but they zoomed by in plenty of time.

The picture here is one frame from the video that I've posted on YouTube. If you watch the video, you'll see lots of green fringing along the top rim of the Sun and then a brief green flash right at the end. Don't blink or you'll miss it.

Click on the 720p version and make it full screen for the best view.

Moon Video

I was out last night to try to get some video of the International Space Station passing overhead. Well, the space station put on a great show, but I failed miserably in my video attempt.

So I consoled myself with shooting the moon, which was nice enough to just hang up there in the sky for me.

The video below was made with a stationary telescope so the rotation of the earth makes the moon seem to glide slowly through the field of view. You can also see our nice Bonaire breezes jiggling the scope from time to time. You can see some wavering in the image from atomospheric turbulence too, but it wasn't too bad last night.

It looks like the camera adaptor doesn't hold the camera flat relative to the focal plane of the scope. The left side is in better focus than the right side. I'll check into that.

The 720p version looks ok when viewed full screen and is an iteresting simulation of what one would see while looking through a telescope.

TWR wins the KMA Bowl

Back in January I wrote " TWR's direct-mail partner, KMA Direct Communications in Dallas, in celebration of their home town hosting Super Bowl XLV, is sponsoring a bowl game of their own—The KMA Bowl."

Well the word came out today that TWR won that contest and will be receiving a $5000 check! I know some of my readers were active in this endeavor, so let me be among the first to offer my thanks and congratulations to you for a job well done.

Back on the Towers Again

It is cool, sunny and clear most of the time here on Bonaire now. It is my favorite time of the year, and good for tower climbing too. Tower work is in full swing with guys up on two towers each day.

Above we see Lionel, Denny and Benny preparing some new tower parts for hoisting up to the work area.

Yup, they are waaay up there.

Ha ha, I couldn't resist the shot below. Fortunately the towers are only dangerous when the transmitter is on. And there are all sorts of interlocks that are set to make sure that doesn't happen when the guys are working.

Midnight Building Supply visits IBCB

About 200 cement blocks and a bunch of bags of cement were stolen from the International Bible Church of Bonaire building construction site last night.
A report has been filed with the police.
Hmmm, maybe it is time to do a Sunday School class about "Imprecatory Prayer." But then again, maybe not.

The Cool New Non-Dollar Dollar Coin

Donna, our bookkeeper here at the office, just came back from the bank with some cool BES commerative Dollar coins minted in Holland. In fact they are so cool I ran across the street to the bank and bought some myself. They'll make great gifts, unless their value goes through the roof and I can make a killing on eBay, ha-ha.

I think you have to be a resident to buy them from the bank. They wrote down my Sedula number on the order form. From what I'm reading online, one can supposedly use them as currency in the stores and banks here in the BES islands; but they they are not official US dollars, and they are obviously not Guilders nor Euros.

Here is a link to the official explanation of this coin by the Netherlands Mint.

Here is a link to a somewhat humorous tongue-in-cheek story about the coin on a coin collecting Web site. The following excerpt captures the flavor of this mini article.
The islands Saba, St. Eustatius and Bonaire are now officially Dutch territory (part of Holland). So a day trip from Curacao to Bonaire means you were actually in Holland. Don't expect any tulips there though... That story tickles my funny bone and we certainly could use a little levity as we go through this comprehensive mind bogglingly life changing transition here on Bonaire, but not everyone may appreciate the tone.

So, now you know as much about the coin as I do, BUT I've got them and you don't.

Nyaaa - nyaaa!

Bonaire is Drying Out

When I rode my bike to Goto Lake last Saturday afternoon, the road around the lake was water free. One section was still damp and water was licking at the edges of the pavement, but like Moses, I crossed on dry land. Friends report that just a couple days before that, the road was still under water.

For pictures of the flooded road, start here.

The TWR transmitter site is drying out too, just in time for our intrepid crews to begin working at rebuilding and repainting the antenna towers. I have pictures to prove it, but they are still in the camera as of right now.

New Blog Layout

Do you hate change? I think I do, but I just made a minor change to the page layout of the blog so as to leave more room for the great Hi-Def astrophotography videos I hope to post some day.

Two Weekly Flights from Newark to Bonaire again

I had my fill of flying in 2010 and am hoping to stay put here on Bonaire for a while. But it is good to learn that my options have increased, should I suddenly have to head to New Jersey for some reason. (stop laughing, I like NJ)

Starting next week, Continental airlines will be flying direct to Bonaire twice a week. One flight leaves Newark just before midnight on Friday nights, and the second one leaves Newark just before midnight on Saturday nights. These flights arrive on Bonaire on Sat. and Sun. mornings respectively.

Meeting incoming friends at the airport can get a little crazy. When they say the are on "the Saturday Continental flight", do they mean the Conti. flight that arrives here on Sat? OR do they mean the one that leaves the USA on Sat. and arrives here on Sunday. Yes, I'll admit it. I have indeed gone to the airport at o'dark hundred and fed the mosquitos for an hour or more, only to find that my person wasn't on that flight. And then had the joy of repeating the experience the next morning.

I did some snooping on the Conti. Web site, and because the Friday/Saturday flights aren't that booked up yet, you can occasionally save some money.
For example, a trip to Bonaire on March 5 which returns on March 20 costs 900+ dollars.
But if you fly on March 4 (or 5) and return on the new flight on March 19, it costs 700+ dollars. What a deal.

The Sunday return flights from Bonaire seem to be fairly heavily booked. I looked at a couple weekends in May and found them sold out, but the Saturday return flights those weeks still had seats.

And of course, for you New Jersey-phobes, there are other direct flights to Bonaire from which to choose: like two Continental flights from Houston each weekend, a Delta flight from Atlanta, and an Insel air flight from Miami.

New TWR YouTube Video

TWR has posted a new two minute video on YouTube titled, "Speaking Hope to the World." You can see a squashed version here or go to YouTube to see the wide angle version.