Star Trails

The Bonaire skies were very clear last night, so I went to a "secret spot" that I'd scouted out and shot a load of wide field images of the sky.

This picture uses the first 80 of the 177 exposures I made between 8pm and 11:30pm.  It will probably help to click on it to see it in a larger size.

I actually kept shooting 'till midnight, but clouds started rolling in, so I didn't keep the last batch of images.

As I type this, my computer is churning out a version with all 177 exposures in it.  And I'll try making a time lapse movie from these images as well.

Moon and Planets

The Moon and Venus were STUNNING in the sky this evening, Jan. 21.
And, if you knew where to look, you could see Mercury too. 

This picture was taken where Hotel Bonaire used to be at Playa Lechi.  Venus is the brightest object towards the upper left, with some stars of Capricornus visible as well.  The Moon is pretty obvious on the right side.  Mercury is at the middle of the bottom edge.  The trio just barely fit in the field of view of my lens at 70mm.  Phew!

Because Mercury was so close to the edge of the frame, it isn't that round, which makes it easier to see in the image, which is cool by me.

Comet Lovejoy on Jan. 12

Comet Lovejoy formed a nice equilateral triangle with the Pleiades and the Hyades (the horns of Taurus the bull) on Monday evening. 

Here is a picture that is a combination of 26 two minute long exposures from our back yard, here on Bonaire.  The stars came out nice and round, but the comet is a bit blurry, because it moved during the course of the imaging run.
the Pleiades are 2/3 of the way up on the left side of the picture.  The blue glow around the Pleiades is a reflection nebula.  The Hyades are an upside V shape centered near the bottom of the frame, and the comet is the greenish thing 3/4 of the way up on the right side.
The X shows where the comet was due to be on Tuesday evening.  I'm happy to report that it did not disappoint.









Here are the same 26 frames, but combined by indexing on the comet and not the stars.  So the stars show up as streaks, but there is more detail in the comet.  Click through to the larger image and check out the cool tail on the comet.

Spot Comet Lovejoy Monday evening

Comet Lovejoy will be easy to spot Monday evening, because the V shaped horns of
Taurus the Bull will point right at it.  You'll need binoculars though.

Here is an image from the other night.  Be sure to click on it to make it bigger. The lower arrow shows where Lovejoy was, and the upper arrow shows where it will be tonight, Jan. 12.
I drew lines around Orion and over the stars that make the horns of Taurus.
You can spot the Pleiades to the upper left of Taurus.  It looks to me like the comet will make an equilateral triangle with the point of the horns, and the Pleiades.

Comet Lovejoy

It was super clear tonight, and dark too, until the moon came up.  I could easily spot comet Lovejoy with the naked eye.
Here is a picture of the comet.  It is the whole frame as taken with an 85mm lens on a Canon T1i.

Venus and Mercury

Happy 2015.  The skies here on Bonaire are either super cloudy or super clear in January.  We've been watching comet Lovejoy for a few weeks now.  I hope I can get a picture of it this week.

Venus and Mercury make a nice pair after shortly after sunset this week.  They will be closest together on Saturday evening.
Here's what I saw this evening between 6:40 and 7pm,  at Playa Lechi, across the street from the TWR offices.  You'll need to click on the image to see it full size probably.  Venus is pretty obvious between the two palm trees.  Mercury is dimmer and is a little to the lower left of Venus.

 

The planets became easier to see as the sky grew darker.

Live Broadcast of The Messiah this Saturday

Duke University Chapel’s beloved annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah is going international this year in a broadcast and live-stream collaboration with TWR.
We'll be broadcasting the Saturday concert here on Bonaire, on The Voice of Hope, 89.5 FM.
Pre-concert music and interviews will begin at 2:30pm Bonaire time, and the live event will run until 6pm.

This concert, as well as the Friday evening performance will also be streaming live on the Internet at www.TWR360.org
You can find out how to listen to it here.

Chocolate

We recently visited Hershey's Chocolate World with Richard and Nancy.

It was great being there in the off season.  We did chocolate tasting and created our own candy bars and wrappers.  Yum!

And we checked the yummy smelling, just completed, chocolate house, made for the Christmas season.

So you can imagine my reaction this morning, when i came across an article from the Washington Post on MSN dot com, about the looming world chocolate shortage.  Yikes!

Bonaire Photo Print Sale

In connection with the 50th anniversary of Trans World Radio, Bonaire, I made a series of 13x19 prints of Bonaire scenes, that we've been offering at the TWR Office here on Bonaire for $20.  Half the proceeds go to TWR and half to my printer and ink fund. :)

We've had the prints on our BradSandra.Swanson Facebook page for a while, but I think you can now see them in one of my Picassa albums as well.  Try the link below.

13"x19" Bonaire Prints

Flamingo Fun

From time to time, as we travel in the States, we see the fabulous Bonaire Flamingoes' plastic front yard cousins.

Last week we were amazed to see an apparently new species of tree dwelling flamingoes.

Retirement Recreation

Our first stop during our two months in the States was with my parents at Willow Valley, in Lancaster, PA.  When we weren't stuffing ourselves silly in the dining hall, we visited the brand new recreation center.


There is a golf simulator that looked pretty cool to our untrained eye.
















There are a bunch of vintage 1950s and 1960s pinball machines, ski-ball, and the baseball game that I loved to play as a kid.

One does not need to insert coins or tokens to play any of these.















There is also a swimming pool, a couple eating areas, meeting rooms, a large gymnasium set up for volleyball and some indoor racket sports.  A basketball hoop is coming soon.  There's also a modern exercise center, and a bowling alley.

Once the word gets out, kids all over are going to be chomping at the bit to visit grandma and grandpa.

TWR 360

I just got this update from our TWR office in North Carolina.

twr360 now has more than 29 languages available. Last month, between 8,000-9,000 unique visitors per day from more than 225 countries/territories spent time on the twr360 site.

Check out the language of your choice online at twr360

TWR Global Quest Starts Today

Just a reminder that the TWR Global Quest online game starts up today.  No, i haven't signed up yet myself, :) but i'm planning to, so I can see what all the buzz is about.

TWR Global Quest online game

From September 9 through September 30, the USA office of Trans World Radio will be sponsoring an online game, TWR Global Quest.

Visit the site now and sign up so you will be ready to compete for weekly prizes, as well as a grand prize of a trip to a TWR broadcasting site.  If you live on Bonaire, you'd probably want to choose the Guam or the Swaziland option, not Bonaire!

You'll also learn how God has used ordinary people like you and me to reach every corner of the world with His Word over the past 60 years, and what is happening with TWR all over the world right now.

Ray Alary Reports from Bonaire

Ray Alary, president of  TWR Canada, was here on Bonaire a few weeks ago for the 50th anniversary event.  He wrote up an insightful behind the scenes look at the operations here.  Be sure to check it out and meet some of our unsung heroes.

Snorkeling Championships

As you might know, Bonaire offers world class snorkeling.  But not everyone is so blessed.


From the "if you have a lemon, make lemonade" department,  check out this video of the Bog Snorkeling Championships.

TWR Bonaire Office - Then and Now

I think I'll file this under "The more things change, the more they stay the same." 

Here's a shot of the first TWR Bonaire office at 139 JAA Blvd back in the day.  Looks like all the staff members had the same idea about what the hot setup for vehicles was, don't you think?

Here is a shot from a few weeks ago.  Looks like we still have the herd mentality going strong.

There are a couple more pickups that could have been in this shot, but they were out and about I guess.

TWR Bonaire Photo Archives

Carol Van Dyken created a PowerPoint presentation consisting of hundreds of old images from a variety of TWR archives.  We showed it at the open house on Aug. 11.
I've uploaded the pictures from this PowerPoint to a new Picasa album.  Hopefully this link will take you there.

TWR Bonaire 50th Anniversary

Trans World Radio just celebrated 50 years of gospel broadcasting from Bonaire.  We had a number of events last weekend, Aug. 8-11, and guests from near and far.
I took a bunch of pictures and have just put them on a new Picasa online album.  Hopefully this link will work for you.

The pictures can also be seen on Facebook, but the Picasa ones might show larger on your screen.
"TWR-Bonaire" is the name of the Facebook page.

You can read more about the 50th anniversary events in a article I wrote for The Bonaire Reporter.  It is on page 8 of the current issue.

Getting Here from There

If you've been wanting to visit Bonaire, but haven't been able to afford the airfare, have i got a deal for you. We recently booked some tickets at a great price by flying on the new Friday Atlanta to Bonaire Delta Airlines flight.

Now Delta is having a fare sale for Friday travelers.  You can do a round trip from Baltimore, or JFK in New York for $600.  Boston is $618.   (We're flying to Harrisburg, PA for not too much more than that.) The best prices are available online.

According to The Bonaire Insider, you have to purchase your tickets by August 12 and travel between Aug. 22 and December 12.  There are some blacked out dates around Thanksgiving.  You can read the details on the Bonaire Insider site.