Super clear Skies

We had some heavy rains Saturday and a little bit Sunday morning.  The skies were crystal clear on Sunday and on into Sunday night.  Sandra's cousin, Bud Gillan, saw a great green flash at sunset time.
I set up an equatorial mount and camera in our back yard and shot a bunch of images of the area around zeta Ophiuchus.  There is a monstrously huge, but faint H-II emission region there. 
While those automated five minute long exposures through a h-alpha filter were happening, Bud and I drove out to the south end of the island to see the Milky Way.  It was truly awesome, as good as it gets here on Bonaire.
Here are a couple shots of the Milky Way stars with the lighthouse in the foreground.  It is the same one minute long exposure, one version has been sharpened more than the other.  You can click on them to see them bigger.  That yellow glow on the horizon is Venezuela.  You can use Google Earth to identify the cities, some 70mi. away.  The streak in the lower left corner, that looks like a meteor, is actually an airplane.  We did see some great meteors last night, but I don't know that I caught any of them in a picture.

Milky Way and Lighthouse

A bunch of us were out looking at the Milky Way with my 20x80 binoculars the other night, and a friendly guy came by and took some pix of the stars behind the Willemstoren lighthouse.  This was something I'd been meaning to do for years, but never got around to it.  But now I was inspired and we went back the next night and had a go at it. 
Here are two versions of the same shot, one or the other might look better to you depending on how bright your screen is.

Short Milky Way Time Lapse Video

I've assembled some 250 or so images of the Milky Way, from Tuesday evening, into a short time lapse video clip.  You can see the clouds and cars zoom by, and you can see the stars slowly move from east to west.
Here is one frame from the video.  Note the bright meteor to the right of the towers.  And you can see the "coat hanger" asterism at the top edge of the image, near the left side.  You'll need to see the picture full size to spot the coat hanger.  (which is rotated clockwise from vertical by about 120 degrees).

Here is the video clip.  If you have a fast internet connection and/or a HD screen, you can view this on YouTube at 1080p resolution.  I watched it at 720p and it looked pretty good compared to the very downsized version I have here.

Summer Milky Way at the TX Site

Back in October I took a couple pictures of the Milky Way setting behind the TWR antenna towers and made them into posters at Short Run Posters.  I particularly like their 18x24 inch UV coated posters at $5 a pop.  I've got a number of Bonaire scenes hanging on the walls of my office.

I've been hoping for a clear night or two this summer, while the Milky Way is positioned high in the southeast.  Tuesday night was relatively cloud free, but somewhat hazy.  I shot a ton of pictures which I hope to assemble into a short time lapse video clip.  I also combined some of the shots into an image that shows the motion of the stars across the sky over time.  You can see the stars near the south (right side) starting to curve around the south pole, which is below the horizon.  And you can just tell that the stars towards the north are starting to arc around the north pole.  The bright fuzzy patches right in the middle of the frame are the milky way star clouds.  The yellowish streaks towards the lower left are Bonaire clouds.

On Wednesday evening, the skies were wonderfully transparent, but there were quite a few clouds passing by.  I patiently waited for a few hours for a break in the clouds, and got a few shots that I think will be keepers.  Here is a first look at one of them.

3 Planets - Tue, Wed, Thur

This is a follow up to my recent post with pictures of Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury's close encounter in the evening sky.

If you look back to the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday pictures,  you'll see that Jupiter was to Venus's upper left, but was getting lower in the sky relative to Venus each succeeding evening.  Mercury was on the right side of Venus and was moving higher in the sky every evening.  Mercury was also losing brightness, but I don't know if you can see that in the pictures.

Well, this trend continued on into Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  In these three pictures, Jupiter continues to drop lower and Mercury continues to rise.  The pictures here are un-cropped frames made with the same camera and 85mm lens that I used on Sat, Sun, and Mon.  You'll probably need to click on these pictures to see the larger versions, in order to spot the planets near the middle of each shot.

Jupiter has moved to the lower left of Venus by the Tuesday image below.

Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury form a crooked line from lower left to upper right by Wednesday, as seen below.

The line made by Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury is straighter and more vertical by Thursday evening, as seen below.  Jupiter had almost dropped into the haze by the time is was dark enough to get a good picture.

Busy Weekend on the Water

The wonderful waters around Bonaire are going to be a busy place this weekend, from the tippy top of the wave crests all the way down to the deep dark depths.

The 9th annual Prokids Windsurfing event will have sailors zooming around on the water's surface.  Its pretty windy these days, so it could be good....

And a research submarine will be conducting surveys at those all so mysterious 60 to 300 meter depths.  They'll dive at the town pier, the WEB pier and the Cargil pier this time around.  Wonder if they'll find any hand blown bottles downtown, that we missed back in the day.  You know, if I were going to take a submarine ride, I'd pick Karpata and Slac Bai.  Those reefs seem to keep on going down forever.

Waiting for the Planetary Parade

I set up early at my shooting locations, and was treated to some nice sunset colors on Saturday and Sunday.  Here we see the Aquaspace glass bottomed sailboat heading back to town .
Venus is a little to the upper left of the dark U shaped cloud.  Jupiter is to Venus upper left right at the top edge of the frame.






Here is what the sky was doing while I was waiting for the planets to appear Sunday evening.  I can see Venus and Jupiter in this image, but you might not be able to spot them in this downsized for the Web version.

3 Planets Sat Sun and Mon

We went out and saw Venus, Mercury and Jupiter on Friday evening.  I've taken pictures on Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings.  You can easily see the planets moving with respect to each other from night to night.  I also was interested to see that the orientation of the planets with respect to the horizon appeared a little different than the simulation from Sky and Telescope, which was set up to show the skies much farther north and west compared to Bonaire.
These images are all full frame, (un-cropped) so the positioning of the planets from evening to evening can be directly observed.
The first image is from Playa Lechi, across the street from the TWR office.  The second shot is from the south end of the Plaza Resort, and the third shot is from a TWR house across the street from the Divi Flamingo hotel.


Here is what the planets looked like on Saturday evening.  Venus is at the bottom, Jupiter is well to Venus' upper left and Mercury is to Venus' upper right.  the planets are a little to the right of the middle of the shot, and in the blue sky just above the band of grey clouds.  The planets form an isosceles triangle pointing to the upper left.  You'll probably need to click on the image here to see a bigger version.






Here is what the planets looked like on Sunday night.  They were closest together on the 26th.  I shot this somewhat later than the Saturday image, so the planets are lower in the sky and the sky is darker.  The planets were getting into the haze at this point  This planetary equilateral triangle was quite striking to the naked eye, if one happened to look to the west at the right time of the evening.  It is still Venus on the bottom, with Jupiter to the upper left and Mercury to the upper right.  The star to the right of Mercury is Beta Taurus and the star to the upper left of Jupiter is probably Zeta Taurus.



Here is what we saw from our front yard on Monday evening.  We've been living in Playa Pariba for a few months while our Hato house is undergoing renovations.  Venus is still at the bottom, with Jupiter to the upper left and Mercury well to Venus' upper right.  The planets are in the large blue gap between the trees in the middle of the frame.  They form an isosceles triangle pointing to the upper right.

New Annotated Aerial Images of Bonaire

A big thank you to Susan Davis at The Bonaire Insider for alerting me to a new feature on the InfoBonaire web site.

There are 15 new aerial photos of Bonaire with click-able labels identifying many tourism related points of interest.  I don't think that the online version of these areal photos shows any more detail than what one can see in the latest Google Earth images of Bonaire, BUT these new images are not taken from directly overhead, like the Google Earth ones.  And they shot the pictures at the right time of the day so that the sun is in a favorable locaton.

That all makes it easy to orient oneself and identify roads and buildings on these new images.  I enjoyed looking at them.

The May Planetary Parade

If you have clear skies right after sunset any evening between now and the end of May.  Be sure to look towards the north west horizon to see Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter grouped close together.

The configuration of the three planets will visibly change from night to night.
You can read all about it and see nightly illustrations of what you can expect to see at Sky and Telescope's web site.

If we ever have any clear skies here on Bonaire, sigh, I'll try to get some pictures.

One last Kibrahacha gasp

We had some serious torrential rain earlier in the week, coming from a backwards direction too.  It triggered a couple more Kibrahacha trees into bloom.

The one pictured here bloomed a week or so ago.  Sometimes only some of the branches of a tree bloom, and later the rest of the tree blooms.  Pretty cool.  You can just barely see green leaves at the top of the tree, among the yellow blossoms.  When I rode by this tree on Thursday, it was all a deep green color.

Sunset at the TX Site

Sandra and I zoomed south Saturday evening to see if we could watch the Sun set behind the TWR antenna towers.  We were a little late, but we still got to see a nice sunset and I got a couple pix. (and got eaten up by no see-ems)  You can click on the pictures to see a larger version of them.

There was some heavy duty haze and cloud action, which kept the Sun's disk from being too bright.

Then we spotted the evening KLM flight coming in to land, so I snapped some more pictures, as the sun dipped below the horizon.

 

Kibrahacha Trees II

Just in case you haven't had your fill of Kibrahacha tree pictures.  Susan Davis has posted some very nice ones on the BonaireInsider web site.

The weather forcast here is calling for rather stormy weather coming up from Venezuela.  If the whole island gets some good old tropical downpours, it will no doubt encourage the rest of the Kibrahacha trees to burst into bloom.  At which time I'll have no choice but to go out and take some more pictures.  ha-ha

Upgraded Sports Facilities

A lot of work has been done over the last year or two to upgrade the athletic facilities here on Bonaire.  A number of sports fields now have night lighting.  I can attest from personal experience that it is a lot more fun doing sports at night than under the broiling Bonaire sun.

Three soccer fields, that I've seen, have artificial turf surfaces now as well.  I'm not sure if there are any others that I haven't spotted.  I grew up playing softball on the grass, so playing on Bonaire's hard packed dirt fields was quite a change.  I'm sure playing soccer on these new fields is waaaay more fun than on the dirt.

Here is shot of the Rincon soccer stadium, with its new artificial turf surface.

Annual Rincon Bike Parade

The annual Rincon bicycle parade is held the day after Rincon Day.  Lots of people line the streets as young and old pedal around on their decorated bikes.  Each year, one of Rincon's senior cyclists is honored.

After the group tours all the streets of Rincon, prizes are awarded in a number of categories.
Here is a view of this year's action from up on one of the hills overlooking Rincon.

Kibrahacha Trees

There are quite a few Kibrahacha trees blooming this week.  But there are just as many that haven't popped.  So, if we have another dry spell and then heavy rains in say, July, we might be treated to a rare second Kibrahacha display.

I think I like it best when the Kibrahacha tree is really spindly, with blooms like Christmas decorations, scattered along its bare branches.

Here is another look at a bare branch sporting delicate blossoms.

And then there are the big bushy trees, bursting out with color amid the muted olives and grays of the usual Bonaire flora.  This shot captures it fairly well, although sometimes the contrast is even more pronounced.

Adobe Youth Voices II

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the creative projects put together by young people from the Bonaire Youth Outreach Foundation.  A number of these productions have been chosen as finalists in the world wide Adobe Youth Voices competition.  I'm going to copy and paste an email I received from the BYOF.  It has links to these projects so you can easily check them out, and vote for them if you like them.

Yesterday Bonaire Youth Outreach Foundation got the great news that Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards has selected 10 of the Adobe Youth Voices Bonaire projects to be finalists in 8 youth media categories.

Now you, as our followers can help us by clicking on all the links below and like"" our videos+poster. When you are done liking them, a small window will open, please share the video also. Then, if you have a Twitter account please tweet the video and then re-tweet the video. We are very grateful to you if you do so. Thank you.

Music videos:
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/5170fa7e8d5362816600004e
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/517101228d53628166000079

Documentary:
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/5170de1e8d53620de40006a7

Poetry:
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/5170e7f58d53620de4000702

Collaboration:
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/5170b5cc8d5362102a0004cc

Poster Campaign:
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/5170cb648d53620de400065c

Narrative:
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/51718b6c8d5362816b0007e3

Animation videos:
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/5170498f8d5362020200005b
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/516b99c88d536234190003fe

UNICEF Award:
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/517278b28d53628166001569

Speaking of Kibrahacha Trees...

Someone has just commented on my Kibrahacha trees post from 2012.    Which is very timely, because many of the Kibrahacha trees on Bonaire are blooming right this minute.

We've been experiencing "the dog days of April" lately;  rainy, cloudy, and not much wind.  (great for cycling-ha ha)
On my ride last Saturday, I spotted a few Kibrahacha trees doing their thing right by the main road in Sabadeco.  Today, those trees are past their prime, but lots more are popping.  There are a bunch on the hill east of the main road in Sabadeco.  And the new roads up there let one get up close and personal with these trees.

There are quite a few around Goto Lake and Dos Pos - I may drive out there this afternoon to take a few pictures.  And, the trees to the east of Antriol and North Saliña are starting to bloom.

I'd say that the trees in Sabadeco and up north by Goto Lake are at their peak right now, while the ones east of Antriol will probably peak tomorrow.
So, if you are on the island, be sure to get out and see them.  They'll be gone before you know it.

Lionfish, Yum, Yum!

Some of our friends here on Bonaire are active Lionfish hunters.  They got into it a few years ago when the evil Lionfish of doom first started showing up on Bonaire's reefs.  It is hoped that enough Bonaire divers can band together to keep them from completely overunning the reefs and wiping out native species.  After a while, it was discovered that, unlike my childhood hero, Charlie the Tuna, they taste good.

Here is a video I just saw that talks about the Lionfish problem and introduces a Lionfish cookbook.

Adobe Youth Voices - Bonaire 2013

Back in 2012, a couple of the Bonaire Youth Outreach Foundation young people finished up near the top of the world-wide Adobe Youth Voices competition.

So there was lots of excitement a week ago, when the BYOF held an event at the Plaza Resort to let the young people present their efforts for 2013.

Here are links to a few of my favorites:

The Francees brothers spent their Easter week vacation making a  music video.  This one already has quite a few views on YouTube.

Jeanviêr Janga did a very creative piece about changing your community for the better, one act of kindness at a time.

Angelo Alberto's moving mini documentary, "Marshal," is insightful, I think, and communicates very effectively.

There are links to a bunch of other projects, as well as clips where the young people talk about their work, on the AYV Bonaire channel.  Scroll down the page to see the various clips.