Sunset and Sunrise at Staunton River State Park

Being on the field at the Staunton River Star Party was an opportunity to observe sunsets. It is a time when the telescopes being readied for the night – everything in place and ready to go. The first two nights there were almost no clouds at all and the sunset was boring. I took a silhouette picture of a telescope with some sunset color behind it.

The next night – the last one we were staying – was a little more interesting. There are pine trees on the horizon that look great in silhouette.

As it got darker, the activity on the field picked up. Everyone was watching the sky and hoping the clouds would dissipate. Evidently they did. The dew was the bigger challenge.

I only saw the sunrise on only one morning – the last one we were there. The mornings were cool (even cold) and the sleeping bag was comfy. I was glad I got up early enough on the last morning because the sunrise was spectacular. I took pictures as I walked down to the bathhouse/café to dress for the day and get hot tea. Five minutes or less…. the walk at sunrise started the day off right!

The Field at the Staunton River Star Party

The Staunton River Star Party was last week. I took a few pictures while I walked around the field. Some people set up there telescopes and other observing gear on the field and camping in the campground or stayed in a cabin; but most people stayed on the field.

There was heavy dew each night so everyone has covers for telescopes and other equipment. Some covers looked like big pillowcases specifically made for the purpose.

Others used tarps. I noticed several telescopes with green foam padding around the legs of the mount and wondered if it glowed in the dark.

Many people had tarps under their telescopes – making it easier to find anything that was dropped. One strategy I heard talked about was retreating to the tent for a nap while a long multiple exposure observation was collected…so it was handy to have the tent very near the telescope.

One observer had a binocular type scope….no possibility of this being hand held!

There were some larger RVs on the field – running on their own power…since there were not connections for the RV on the field. One had a carpet from the door of the RV to the domed tent that housed the telescope (the top came off at night. Not the yellow power cord going into the tent. That is how the power was delivered to all the telescopes on the field…yellow extension cords.

We came home before the end of the Star Party…but managed to stay longer than we did last year and were more comfortable too (since we remembered the tent this year)!

Staunton River Star Party – Day 1

Last week, we drove to Staunton River State Park for the fall star party – getting their by midafternoon. We selected a place on the field and set up for the week. It was breezy so setting up the tent was more challenging that we anticipated. The rain fly seemed ready to take off but was very stable by the time we got all the stakes and guy wires into the ground. The tent is made to attach to the back of the car (i.e. an extra flap on one side to ‘seal the opening’) which we used to attach to the roof rack of the car instead making a shady place between the tent and the car. Last year it was hot enough that we needed shade in the afternoon; this year, the only day we needed it was the very first day. Other days we needed the warmth of the sun! My husband got his gear set up and was pleased to discover that there was cell coverage on the field. The air mattresses and sleeping bags left plenty of room for other gear and even a chair inside the tent. I discovered that having a chair inside the tent on the cold sunny mornings was wonderful – 10-15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature.

We walked down to the Deep Space Diner to purchase a Black Hole Cup (endless tea and lemonade for me….most people were using it more for the coffee). There was a pumpkin by the door of the Diner that was appropriately carved for the event!

More about the star party tomorrow!

Packing for the Staunton River Star Party

Last week we drove down the Staunton River State Park in southern Virginia for the fall Star Party. We went last year but only stayed two days (blog post from last fall here). This time we made sure we remembered the tent! The picture I’m including with this post was while we were packing. By the time we were finished we had almost every nook and cranny in the back of the car packed with gear.

We were taking enough food so we would only ‘buy’ one meal per day at the 6-day event. My staples were salad stuff and mixed nuts; my husband had makings for sandwiches and cashews. I made zucchini bread to eat as part of our breakfast…and there were chips (a treat since a don’t normally buy them).

The telescope and associated equipment take up a fair amount of space as well. My husband ended up not taking the solar telescope to save some space for other necessities. Stay tune for more about our 2016 adventure at the Staunton River Star Party later this week.

Fall Foliage Trips in the 1980s

Back in the early 80s when we were living near Dallas, we took annual fall foliage trips to southeastern Oklahoma – to the Ouachita National Forest Area. Sometimes we took curvy forest roads into Arkansas as well. We camped at Cedar Lake State Park in October of 1980.

We took frozen steaks in an ice chest to cook over a camp fire – little realizing that it was going to be cold enough that the steaks would take a long time to thaw!

It was quite an adventure during the night too – with skunks and racoons being used to finding food around the campsites.

The next morning, we were up early since it was cold and we all wanted to move around as soon as the sun was up. We decided to hike as soon as we scarfed down breakfast. There was a heavy dew which made for some good leaf pictures

And the sunshine was bright enough to showcase the colors of the leaves still on the trees too.

In the forest we saw ground pine

And a large spider (tarantula?).

Along the dam the sumac seed pods looked very red.

The overflow for the lake seemed pretty elaborate too.

The next October we went back to the forest again but it was very wet the entire time we were there. My husband took very few pictures – lichen,

Moss,

And a very wet campsite. We managed to spend the night but left the next morning – in the rain.

In 1982, the weather was a little better although we didn’t go until November. Many of the leaves had already fallen off the trees.

There were some startlingly red leaves (maybe sumac?)

And some beautyberries (although I did not know what they were when the picture was taken).

The highlight of the trip was the critters: a millipede

And two harvestmen – a type of arachnid that is not a spider. Unlike spiders, their body segments are fused and they have a single set of eyes. These two seem to be kissing!

We moved to the east coast in 1983 and in the fall of 1984 we made a fall foliage trip to Shenandoah National Park area. We were a little late for the fall color but we enjoyed waterfalls,

Clouds in the valleys,

And mushrooms in the forest - very different than in Texas!

All this looking at pictures of past fall foliage trips has me planning one for this year too! Hopefully it will include some post worthy items.

Sinkhole Ponds in Virginia – September 1984

As I continue my scanning project of old slides and pictures, I am recalling again a field trip we took with the Nature Conservancy to sink hole ponds in Virginia. They were located about 20 miles west of Charlottesville. I don’t remember the exact location. All the details I am savoring today are from the pictures themselves and a letter I sent to my sister in mid-September 1984. Here’s a clip of the text from that letter illustrated with the slides I recently scanned.

… sink holes that had been artificially dammed so they contained water, but were still fairly shallow.  They had golden rod and button bushes.  Evidently they had cranberries on one side, but we couldn't get over there without waders. 

The next pond was totally dry, on]y containing water for a short time after a major rain.  It had one lone tree growing right in its center. 

The next one was more of a rounded funnel than a bowl shape.  The very deepest part contains water year round.  A form of grass sprouts, blooms and produces seed right at the water’s edge.  You can tell how fast the water is evaporating by noting how far up the slope the grass is still growing.  Evidently it doesn't last long once away from the water's edge. 

Of course, there is a carpet of peat moss all around the pond and it's very interesting to note the different appearance of the peat as it dries out.  It's very squishy when it’s full of water.  The last pond was my favorite.  It stays full all year since it is fed by springs that bubble up through the peat.  It's quite shallow but has been a pond for over 2,000 years (a core sample has been taken). 

Charlottesville VA in 1980

I recently scanned pictures from a conference my husband went to at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville back in 1980. At the time, we didn’t even think about me accompanying him; I was working full time but we were both still in graduate school…and very conscious of living within our means. So – the one or two roles of film he took on the trip was the extent of my experience of the trip. I think my favorite image from the beginning was the oculus skylight from The Rotunda at the university. Evidently there was a tour offered to conference participant to Monticello as well.

The thing that I realized as I was looking more closely at these pictures was that we still take very similar pictures today but, because we don’t have to worry about the cost of film and its processing, we take many more images and probably try more experiments. Enjoy the slideshow of the University and Monticello in 1980!

I picture that my husband was surprised by was a picture of a Ryder truck that had gotten stuck under an overpass! It was with the pictures of Charlottesville so it was probably something he came upon as he was walking around the campus.

Mount Vernon

I’ve posted about Mount Vernon before – back in the summer of 2013. This time it was hotter and the wind was blowing hard enough to kick up dust. There were a lot of people. I enjoyed trying to photograph the magnolia flowers again while I waited for them to call our time slot for the house tour but the wind had contorted their petals; none of them were symmetrical! Based on the signage about them - most were planted in the 1860s.

I took a picture of the ‘necessary’ at the corner of the garden. This was the area that had overgrown boxwood when we first visited Mount Vernon in the 1980s. Now the garden beds are surrounded by small boxwood and there are flowers and vegetables planted there.

I didn’t remember the shutters over the front door. This is the view from the line for the house tour…on the land side of the house.

Standing further back on the circular drive – on sees the breeze ways on both sides of the house. There used to be steps on the route from the kitchen (on the left) to get to the house but now the line for the house tour goes there and they have a raised floor so that the house can be entered via wheelchair.

The river side of the house has comfortable chairs that are used by almost everyone for a few minutes after they finish the tour - a pleasant shady spot on a hot afternoon.

This is the view of the Potomac River from the house.

The cupola is worth looking at from several vantage points: the river side of the house,

from the side where there are other out buildings, and

from the front.

I’ve noticed lightning rods in all of the older trees before. This time I also saw them on all the outbuildings.

There was also a building that had been newly shingled – not yet painted red. There must always be some maintenance going on even during Washington’s time. One of the outbuildings actually was for storing paint!

Last but not least – I had never really looked at George Washington’s signature….it’s everywhere in the visitor’s center.

Wallops and Chincoteague in 1978

I’ve been scanning our collection of old slides and will be posting about some of my ‘finds.’  This post is about the first exposure to Chincoteague and Wallops Island. My husband – in the early days of grad school – went on a research trip there in May of 1978 and stayed at the Refuge Inn (still our favorite place to stay). The picture of the pony corral from an upper floor of the Inn looks about the same – dated only by the cars in the parking lot.

Growing up in north Texas – the ocean scenes were new to him. The research was a collaborative effort with the Russians and they were based on a research vessel off the coast which added to the experiences. One trip out to the Russian vessel resulting in my husband’s camera getting sprayed with salt water; it never recovered fully and he started his collection of Canon cameras with the following year.

Pictures of nature are relatively timeless. There are still egrets, water, and grasses,

Gulls (and unfortunately discarded tires),

And my husband and I still try to photograph the birds in flight. He succeeded with an egret in 1978! I was surprised that there were no pictures of Great Blue Herons from 1978. Did he just not notice them….or were there not as many as there are now?

The lighthouse still shows up above the trees although the trees seem higher now.

There are still a lot of radio dishes at Wallops island that can be seen from the road.

Since he was actually on the facility, he got closer views.

He travelled with a lot of instruments. He checked a lot of equipment. He was assigned a small vacant observatory for his set up for the week. This pile was what it looked like after he packed it all back up to come home. I suppose some of the briefcases and luggage date this picture too! The plaid suitcase was one that had been collapsed on the trip up but contained laundry and seashells collected on the Wallops Island beach for the trip home!

The last to be packed: the insect repellent (he still remembers the salt water mosquitoes vividly) and his sunglasses. The packaging for OFF has a familiar look!

Chincoteague Sunset…and Sunrise

Chincoteague was the only refuge on our 4 refuge trek that the weather was good for late and early day photography. We chose a place with water and pines for sunset and got there when the color was just starting in the sky and the reflections in the water were very clear.

I adjusted my camera to get the color and let all the vegetation be in silhouette just as the sun was at the tree tops.

And then it was in the trees.

Two Great Blue Herons flew to a snag behind us and waited there while the light faded still more.

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The next morning we were up an entering the refuge when it opened at 6 AM (this was before daily light savings time and the refuge was on winter hours). The sky was already rosy by the time we got to our spot – a little further along the road that we had used for sunset.

There were birds already busy in the water that took on the color of the sky.

A contrail was reflected in the water closer to us.

The light became more yellow and the geese continued their morning grooming and breakfast.

Then the color turned to orange. The sun was above the horizon.

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

The last refuge on our trek was Chincoteague. I’ve posted about our two prior trips (fall 2014kingfisher, egrets, cormorants, herons, gulls, lighthouse, and sunrise/sunset; spring 2013vultures, blue grosbeak, and egrets). We always see Great Blue Herons at Chincoteague. When I photograph them now I am looking for something a bit out of the ordinary. There was one that was all fluffed up in the cold – standing very still on one leg – framed by dry grasses and brush.

Another Great Blue Heron was perched on a branch over some water – preening.

I noticed a lot more dead and splintered trees this trip and found out that the pine bark beetle had been particularly hard on the pines the past few years and

Winter storm Jonas brought such high winds that is brought trees down on the refuge.

There were tundra swans that we saw in greater numbers at Eastern Neck

And snow geese (sleeping here) that we saw in greater numbers at Blackwater.

This ring-billed gull (adult non-breeding) was not pleased that we pulled up on the road shoulder near him.

We saw a few pintail ducks (and some buffleheads which, again, were difficult to photograph – and I am refraining from posting another blurry picture!).

The birds I had to look up on allaboutbirds were this marbled godwit (I think)

And a juvenile black-crowned night heron (my husband is the one that spotted this one in the brush over the water where we often see other herons).

Eastern Shore Wildlife Refuges Road Trip

Last weekend we made a 3-day trip to 4 National Wildlife Refuges on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia.

• Eastern Neck (Maryland)
• Blackwater (Maryland)
• Prime Hook (Delaware)
• Chincoteague (Virginia)

I’ll be posting about each one of them in the days ahead but today is about the driving part of the trip….the beginning and ending of the trip. WIth my husband driving - I am free to take pictures through the windshield.

We started out early enough that there was still some color in the cloudy sky and we neared the entrance to the interstate that would be the beginning of the drive – for a very short distance before we were on good roads, but not interstates.

There is something about a treed cloverleaf that is appealing to me – although it can be disorienting if you are not familiar with the area since the trees block the broader view.

Maryland’s Bay Bridge was along the route a little later but the clouds made the day so dim that it was mostly a silhouette.

Skipping ahead to the journey home – we left from Chincoteague and got stopped in traffic on the road near the perimeter fence for NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. A pickup had gone over the guardrail into a deep ravine and a crane had been brought in to get it in – stopping traffic on the two lane road for about 15 minutes. I used the time to photograph a blue bird on the fence. Note how centered the bird it between the barbs!

Continuing on ---- Maryland’s Bay Bridge from the other direction as we got closer to home.

Next time we'll have to make a stop at Sandy Point State Park.