Negative Tides

Checking the tidepool tables this morning reveals that a series of negative tides is coming up again in the afternoon hours in November and December. Early December will have some really low tides. Unfortunately, they are mostly mid-week and the one on Saturday occurs more than an hour after sunset. You can expect the tide to be out for an hour before to an hour after the times listed here.

11/30/2009 Mon 02:07PM LST -0.7 L
12/01/2009 Tue 02:48PM LST -1.1 L
12/02/2009 Wed 03:31PM LST -1.3 L
12/03/2009 Thu 04:17PM LST -1.4 L
12/04/2009 Fri 05:06PM LST -1.2 L
12/05/2009 Sat 05:57PM LST -0.9 L

November 1st through the 5th, 14th through the 19th, and December 13th through the 19th are also periods of afternoon negative low tides. And it looks like we will be able to ring in the New Year with the lowest tides of all. It was last New Year's that my son and family and I made our first trip to Abalone Cove. Maybe we can make a return trip this year (hint, hint).

Jupiter and Many Moons

As I was heading out to play quartets last night, I noticed that the Moon and Jupiter were very close together in the sky. I regretted that I had no time to take any photos, the sight was so pretty, and left to go play some Haydn and Mozart. When I got back a little earlier than usual, they were still there, dancing together across the sky. So I went in and got out my camera and my new lens and a tripod.


The field of view of the new lens was almost too small to take in both objects. You can see Jupiter way off on the left in the photo. Another problem was that the Moon is so bright, it overpowers any other nearby stars. In order to get the features of the Moon to show up, I shot at 1/1000s so that the lens would close down a bit. But that meant that Jupiter was now very faint. So I decided to take a shot of Jupiter all by itself at a much longer exposure. I was amazed when I saw the result. I not only got Jupiter, I also got three of the moons of Jupiter, something I could not see with my binoculars because the Moon was so bright!


The four moons were all on a diagonal line with the planet. Europa is the bottom one (lower right), Ganymede is above Jupiter, and Callisto is above that (very faint). Io was so close to the planet (below it) that it got washed out by the light reflecting from the planet. The star way off to the left of the planet is Iota Capricorni.

I love my new lens.

Long Beach Aquarium

Just a few photos taken this morning at the Long Beach Aquarium.

Leafy Seadragon

Green Nape Lorikeet
Happy Halloween!

Done!

Just a quick post to say that the first Feather and Fan Cardigan is complete! And a lot of progress has been made on the second one for my daughter. I have finished the sleeves and upper bodice and am now working on the very long rows of the lower bodice in boring stockinette stitch. But not having to think about what I am doing or count anything, gives me time to listen to audio books while I knit. I have listened to Emma by Jane Austin as read by Prunella Scales and am now thoroughly enjoying Sense and Sensibility as read by Juliet Stevenson. Both of these actresses do a marvelous job of changing their voices to represent the different characters. Makes for delightful listening! I signed up for a subscription with Audible.com after recommending audio books to my cousin. Audible lets you sample the voices before you buy which is very important for me. And there are hundreds of books that I would like to listen to which should keep me knitting long enough to get all those unfinished projects done!