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!

Mangazina di Rei

One of our son's friends from school recently stopped by the TWR office here on Bonaire.  After graduating from HAVO, our son, Richard, continued his studies in the USA while Izaïn Mercera went to the Netherlands.  Richard is working in New Jersey, in the USA, but Izaïn is back on Bonaire and involved with the Mangazina de Rei cultural park and learning center, located just east of Rincon.

Sandra and I last visited the Mangazina de Rei back in 2006.  It looks like lots has been happening since then.   Some things Izaïn mentioned include internships, leadership development and cultural education for local children and youth.  It sounds like many of the "ansianonan" are being given a great opportunity to pass on the cultural heritage and oral traditions of Bonaire to the next generations.

There is also lots going on for visitors to the island, including cultural discovery tours at 9, 10, 11, 2 and 3 o'clock Monday through Friday.  Work is also progressing on an all new exhibition about the history and heritage of Rincon, due to open in September.

If you are on the island right now, there is a Cultural Market at the Mangazina di Rei this Saturday from 8am to 1pm.  Entrance is free.  Besides great local foods and beverages, a highlight this month will be a presentation, at 10am, about traditional Bonaire architecture by one of the oldest local construction workers, Sr."Cola" St. Jago.  There are some wonderful examples of early Bonarian construction methods on the Mangazina de Rei grounds.  And last but not least, he local band, Kariño, will be performing from 11 to 1.

Moon and Planets

The Moon joined Venus and Jupiter tonight.  Venus is above the Moon.  Jupiter is to the lower right.  You can see the star Regulus to the upper right of Venus.

There is a comet out there too, between Jupiter and the horizon, but there was no chance of seeing it tonight.  I did catch it in an image shot from our driveway the other night.

Kibrahacha Surprise

I saw a few Kibrahacha trees in bloom yesterday on my afternoon bike ride.  The still looked good today too.  It was just a handful of trees in northern Sabadeco, and only small parts of each tree.  We're still waiting for a good heavy rain that will make all the trees pop.

 It turns out that I wasn't the only one checking out the trees.

Ostracod Party

Bud Gillan and the CIEE held an Ostracod watching session last night at the Oil Slick Leap dive site here on Bonaire. The group also encountered a swarm of Moon Jellies, and then got out of the water pronto when box jellies showed up.

This week is CIEE Bonaire's first ever session for High School students.

There were loads of people in the water, and I think everybody enjoyed themselves immensely. By the way, the 12th annual "Jelly Jamboree" is coming up Thursday night, downtown at Carl's.

Zooming In on our Intrepid Interns

I was recently experimenting with Photoshop and created a short video clip from a wide angle (40mm lens) shot of the TWR - Bonaire transmitter site.  This clip goes from a full frame view of the transmitter building and towers to an actual pixel sized crop of just Schylar (top) and Elizabeth (bottom) climbing the tower.




Now that I'm watching this video, especially the 720p version, I'm inspired to try the same thing on some wide field astro photos.  Like zooming from a wide angle shot of the Milky Way, all the way in to some specific feature like the "Coat Hanger" asterism, for example.  It has been very hazy and cloudy so far this summer, so this way i can recycle some of my old images.  :)

Venus and Jupiter Planet-gazing

We held a planet gazing session at the TWR office/studios here on Bonaire on June 30, when Jupiter and Venus were super close together in the evening sky. The skies were pretty hazy and cloudy, but I think most people got at least a glimpse of the planetary pair.

















I set up a small scope in hopes of taking a few planet-pair pictures, but it ended up being too cloudy and hazy.





































Julius Wong Loi Sing brought a fun group from the Dutch Church downtown.  They supplied snacks, beverages and music.

Verlare Vacation

Former TWR missionary Jim Verlare recently visited Bonaire while on vacation with his family.  During their stay on the island, they volunteered some of their time to paint a large section of the transmitter building roof with a special hi tech paint. (that was donated by other volunteers!)



Jim and the "kids" were super thorough in power-washing the roof to prep. for the paint. That should really help this "guaranteed for 50 years" paint do its job.


Maybe we should have a contest to see who can correctly guess how long this "50 year" paint will last in the sun, wind and salt here on Bonaire!


Thanks Jim and family, for your contribution to the TWR ministry.

Brave Summer Interns

Schylar and Elizabeth are both college seniors studying mechanical engineering.  Here at TWR Bonaire, they are doing a survey of the integrity of the tabs on the vertical legs of our antenna towers.

Bright Planet Pairing

Be sure to go out each evening and check out Venus and Jupiter in the west.  You can't miss them and they are getting noticeably closer together night by night.

BYOF Featured on Adobe Youth Voices Community

I don't think I ever blogged about the recent visit by the King and Queen of the Netherlands with the Bonaire Youth Outreach Foundation (BYOF), back on Rincon Day, April 30.  Dennis asked me to take some photos of the event, so I got a rare insider's view of the proceedings, which I inexplicably failed to share with you all.

Fortunately for us all, Adobe Youth Voices has posted a nice write-up of the Royal Visit, and some of the activities of the BYOF.  Check it out.

The BYOF has their headquarters/training center/youth hangout room in what used to be known as Master Control, here at the TWR - Bonaire studios.

Excuses Excuses

So we had our monthly elder's meeting at the International Bible Church last night, and Kees-Jan wasn't there.   Grrr....

Turns out he had a good excuse though.  He and Eric de Jong were in The Netherlands hanging out with the royal family and accepting an award from the Orange Fund for the work Krusada is doing on Bonaire.

Kees-Jan is on the right in the upper photo.  foto's Bert Homburg - Oranjefonds ©

Southern Cross

The Southern Cross is perfectly placed during the evening hours, here on Bonaire, at this time of the year.  Unfortunately, the winds and haze have made it hard to see much of the time.  There is a great article about the Southern Cross on SPACE.COM, and a nice photo as well.

The Southern Cross is at the lower left side of this photo I shot a few years ago.  The eta Carina nebula is towards the upper right side.  I've been hoping to redo this image this year, but time is running out...

Late Night at the TX Site

Benny and I were at the TWR transmitter site 'till about 9pm last night.  We were helping store four giant spools with the feedline for the new transmitter.














We also got to see a really nice crescent Moon and the planet Venus hanging out with towers three and four.

AmazonSmile Update

I buy quite a lot of stuff at Amazon, particularly because they are good about shipping to the two freight and package forwarders I use to get stuff shipped to Bonaire.

When i buy stuff, i actually go to www.smile.amazon.com because the AmazonSmile program donates .5% of the purchase price to charities, one of which is TWR.  $140 was donated to TWR during the first quarter of 2015 because of people's AmazonSmile purchases.  I don't think everything on Amazon.com is eligible for the Amazon Smile program, but most of the stuff I buy seems to be.

To shop AmazonSmile on behalf of TWR, simply follow this link.

Thinking Outside the Box (jellyfish)

I've heard a lot of good things about Dr. Allen Collins from Sandra's cousin, Bud Gillan.  So when I learned that he and his wife, Jennifer, were here on Bonaire, and that he'd be giving a Jelly talk at the CIEE, I just had to be there.

We probably should have buckled our seat-belts because of all the polysyllabic Latin sounding words, like medusozoan cnidarians, that were soon bouncing around the room.

 Dr. Collins' presentation was quite interesting and informative, and despite his calling cousin Bud a "jellyfish nut," Dr. C seems to be every bit as nice a person as Bud said he is.

Planting Churches by Radio

TWR - Americas ministry team leader, Joe Barker was recently presented with an interesting plaque by the Baptist convention of Cuba.  It seems that when they accept a new church congregation into the convention, they also award a certificate to the parent church.




In this case the new member church was a direct result of the TWR ministry from Bonaire, so they presented the certificate to us!   This photo shows Joe Barker delivering the certificate to Bonaire Station Director, Dick Veldman.

Wild Winds

Bonaire is outside the path of most tropical storms, unlike our Guam station that just took a direct hit from a typhoon.


But this has been a windy year here, with sustained winds frequently above 30mph.  This is great for sea salt production and for windsurfing, but not so good for antenna tower climbing.  We are somewhat behind in our annual tower repairs and painting work this year.







They guys have been busy on the ground though.  New trenches have been dug to the four antenna towers.













A new STL (studio transmitter link) tower has been installed too.  There is a lot more concrete in the ground that you can't see in the photo.  Think "Iceberg."

New Feature on TWRBONAIRE Web site

We’ve added a new feature to the www.twrbonaire.com
web site.

Under WHAT'S NEW, on the main page, you’ll find a short blurb about what we’ll have on the air each evening on 800AM.

For example, tonight, May 12, Andy Napier interviews Greg Harris of Thru the Bible, for a behind the scenes look at that ministry, on Footsteps.


Salome had today’s blurb up first thing this morning.(see Salome and Jonas on the "Staff" page.
Check it out and tell your friends.


 If you don't live in our sizable listening area, you can find Footsteps here: https://www.twr360.org/ministry/88/