Mt. Wilson Hooker Telescope 100th Anniversary Event

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On May 4th, I had the opportunity to attend an event at Mt. Wilson Observatory celebrating the 100th anniversary of the official opening (first light was in 1917) of the 100-inch (2.54 meter) Hooker Telescope. Sponsored by the Institute for Student Astronomical Research (InSTAR) and PlaneWave Instruments, it was a afternoon through evening event that allowed us to get close to this historic observatory. The event included a full tour of the observatory, several informative presentations, dinner, and then viewing through the 100-inch telescope.

We arrived around noon, and broke into two tour groups to visit the telescopes. We started off from the Museum and headed past the 150′ Solar Tower toward the 60″ telescope. (Click on a picture for a full-sized version.)

The 150′ Solar Telescope on Mt. Wilson

Our guide was Tim, a scientist from CalTech. Tim has been giving tours at Mt. Wilson for 30 years. These are real tours. You get to get inside the domes and touch the telescopes. There is a lot of history here and the guides present it very well. The 60-inch (1.52 meter) Telescope was the largest in the world when it went into service in December 1908.

Our tour guide, Tim, at the 60″ telescope


The size and nature of the galaxy and the universe were at the center of debate in astronomy in the early 20th century. The answers were found at Mt. Wilson. A major discovery in this debate was made with the 60-inch Telescope by Harlow Shapley. Shapley had been hired by George Ellery Hale to work at Mt Wilson. Shapley, used measurements of Cepheid variable stars to determine the dimensions of the Milky Way. He determined that it is far larger than previously thought. He also established that our solar system was in a nondescript, off-center position in the galaxy.

The 60″ Hale telescope

The 60-Inch Telescope was a marvel of engineering and construction. George Ellery Hale, the moving force behind Mt. Wilson Observatory, had a knack for raising money and a determination to build bigger and bigger telescopes. More information and more photographs below the fold.

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Mulshi Lake, Maharashtra, October 2018

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Last October, I was able to take a nice overnight excursion to a small resort on Mulshi Lake, near Pune, about a 100-mile (165 km) drive from the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai. We departed from the hotel just before lunch, having just arrived from Ahmedabad that morning. Our route took us on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and we left early enough that the traffic was not bad.

Our travelling group took several cars, each leaving from different locations. Our past trips of using a bus taught us that the logistics of getting everyone to one location to start, along with the slow pace of the buses themselves, make a car trip more practical. India has a relatively new policy that requires for-hire cars to have a speed governor that limits the maximum speed to 80 KPH (50 MPH). Our driver’s car did not have a governor. There were several times we wished it did, as he drove very fast and aggressively. It kept us alert.

Upon reaching the outskirts of Pune, we turned off the highway and headed southwest, navigating the difficult Pune traffic. Once out of the city area and into the country, the traffic lightened up, but the road significantly worsened. It was a bumpy ride but quite scenic. After a couple of hours of driving, we arrived at the Residency Lake Resort & Spa, our accommodations for that evening. The resort is about 2 miles (3 km) past the Mulshi Dam. The view from the resort is quite pleasant.

The Residency Lake Resort and Spa on Mulshi Lake had a nice view of the lake

Mulshi Lake holds about 42,420 acre-feet of water (per Wikipedia 0.0523 km3 [0.0125 cu mi]). An acre-foot is the amount of water that would cover an acre (0.405 hectare) to a depth of one foot. It is about 325,853 gallons (1,233,489 liters), the approximate amount of water a US household uses in a year. For comparison, Shasta
Lake, the largest reservoir in the California State Water project, can hold 4,552,000 acre-feet. Mulshi Lake is about the same capacity as the Ice House Reservoir on the American River west of Lake Tahoe. Since the monsoon had just finished when we were there, Mulshi Lake was very full.

Mulshi Dam produces power for Pune with a 300 megawatt power plant run by Tata Power. It was built in the 1920s.

Here is a shot of Mulshi Lke from our hike the next day, and the teaser to get you to keep reading beyond the fold.

A final view of Mulshi Lake as we head down the hill
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Valentine’s Day Storm: Damage in Aguanga

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On February 14th, 2019, 4.6 inches of rain fell in Lake Riverside Estates in less than 24 hours. I was able to watch the storm on security cameras as it progressed. It ended up causing some serious damage to the drive and our hillside. It also took out a large cottonwood tree. This post chronicles the events of that day and our cleanup almost a month later.

Up through noon on Valentine’s Day, things seemed under control. There was some mudflow but the brow ditch on the hill between the upper and lower drives seemed to be holding up OK. There was some flow from the upper part of the ditch which indicated a weakness, likely caused by a squirrel burrow. This picture was taken at 12:44pm. As of 12:30, almost 3.5 inches of rain had fallen — most of the total for the storm.

Things appear under control, but the mud coming down indicates that a larger flow is ahead. 12:44pm and the tree is standing.

This picture shows the upper driveway at 11am. There is a lot of water coming down from the lot above the house, but at this point the brow ditch, seen in the middle of the frame, is handling the water flow well. Note the large tree in the middle of the frame. As in the previous picture, there is some errant flow down the hill at the upper end of the brow ditch.

You can see the brow ditch full of water, doing its job. But the breach at the upper end has already started.

Shortly after noon, the storm got much worse. The wind came up with a gust of 34 miles per hour. The rain rate topped 1.1 inches/hour. The flow of water from the lot uphill and to the west from us became overwhelming. Water flows down Lakeshore Boulevard and onto Osage Court. In this storm, the bulk of the water flowed across Osage Court, into the lot above us, and down onto our driveway. This next picture is at 1:47pm. Note that the tree behind the basketball hoop is gone and the hillside has been breached with a major mud flow coming down across the driveway.

The brow ditch is fully breached and the tree has fallen. 1:45pm.

This picture was taken at 3:50 pm. Most of the rain had fallen with only .3 inches more to go in the storm at this point. The tree is clearly down. There is still substantial flow of water from up the hill.

The tree is down and the damage from the water flow from uphill is apparent. 3:51pm.
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Dusshera in Ahmedabad, October 2018

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On my trip to India last October, the itinerary covered the last days of Navratri, a major festival across India. Navratri means “nine nights,” the last night being a special celebration known as Dussehra. I was in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on the last day of Navratri and was fortunate to experience the very special celebration they have in Gujarat.

According to Wikipedia, There are four Navratris in a year, with the one in the fall, post monsoon, being the most celebrated. The fall Navratri is linked with the goddess Durga and the festival of Durga Puja is at a similar time. Durga is known as a great victor of good over the forces of evil, and Durga Puja celebrates her victory over “the shape-shifting, deceptive and powerful buffalo demon Mahishasura.” [Wikipedia] Rama is also honored at this festival time for his victory of good over evil.

In Gujarat, in northwestern India, a form of dance known as Garba is performed as part of the festival. This practice has spread to many parts of India, but it is particularly celebrated in Gujarat. People dress in elaborate and colorful clothing and dance in a large circle. Venues across the city host these dances on large fields. My hosts had arranged for us to attend the celebration at the Rajpath Club, a private club in Ahmedabad. Along the way I got this picture of a well used two-wheeler with four people on it and one on her phone.

Four people on a two-wheeler, and phone on ear

The festivities were well under way when we reached the club facilities. Just outside the dancing area (a large field) there was a small shine to Durga.

The Goddess Durga shrine at the entrance to the celebration area

Two young ladies were dancing outside. You can see how elaborate their outfits are.

Colorfully clothed dancers outide the celebration field
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New Year 2019

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We were out in Lake Riverside over the change of the year, and had a fine time. The highlight of the stay was New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. We started off relatively early to visit the The Living Desert, a wonderful zoo in Palm Desert. It was raining on the drive down the Palms to Pines highway, but the rain stopped before we reached the bottom of the hill.

It was cold, however. We walked briskly about the zoo, seeing our usual favorites. In addition to the desert bighorn sheep (or borrego), we saw all our favorites, including giraffes, the leopard, the jaguar, burrowing owl, mountain lion, and many more.

A borrego on the hill at the Living Desert

And of course, we saw the the three cheetahs living at the zoo. These are three sisters out of a litter of five (the two males have been placed at other zoos for breeding) and are about four years old.

The three cheetah sisters at The Living Desert

The real fun started on our return drive. As we started up the hill, we drove back into the rain. We could see up on higher slopes that it was snowing. Shortly after passing the Royal Carrizo / Pinyon Crest turnoff, it started snowing around us. Great excitement. As we got closer to Pinyon Pines, I had some concern as, even though the pavement was bare, CalTrans had turned the “Chains Required” signs around effectively requiring chains. I don’t have chains for the truck, although it has big tires and four-wheel drive. As usual, I was worried for naught as the chain requirement was never enforced and the road remained bare.

When we got close to the turnoff to Anza we decided to stop to play in the snow. The Pacific Crest Trail crosses the Palms to Pines Highway (CA 74 east of Mountain Center). There is a parking area there and that’s where we stopped.

Snow at the parking lot at the Pacific Crest Trail and the Palms to Pines Highway
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Marquette, Michigan, December 2018

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I visited Marquette, Michigan in the middle of December to help my Mother celebrate her 90th birthday. We had a wonderful visit. Here is a travelogue-style post of my trip.

A couple of notes on how I handle pictures in this post. I have always linked to what WordPress calls the “attachment page” which provides a larger picture with title and caption. In this post, I will link to the media file, which will be larger, but will let you see all the details if you click on the image.

Back to the trip. While we were 2.5 hours late in arriving, we did an approach over Marquette itself, which with the new Sawyer Airport in Gwinn, I had never done before. I was able to get decent nighttime aerial shots of the city on my way in with my Pixel 2 phone. This is right off lighthouse point looking down Washington street. The yellow lights on the right are Northern Michigan University (NMU) which uses sodium vapor lamps. Apparently the rest of the city has switched to LED.

Marquette from the air on approach to Sawyer

I also got a good view of the Marquette Branch Prison, which had all the lights on.

Marquette branch prison lit up at night

All of these pictures in this post have been processed in Adobe Lightroom CC. This version of Lightroom syncs all of you changes to the internet and works the same (well, mostly the same) across desktop and mobile devices. I normally do my processing in Adobe Lightroom CC Classic (the full desktop software version). There are some limitations to CC vs Classic and I will point them out as I go along. (All the links go to the photography products because I don’t trust Adobe to keep the detail links consistent.)

So, with weather in the 40s F/ 5s C, what does one do? You go to Presque Isle, of course. You cannot drive around the island, so one starts at the break wall. But closed.

The Upper Harbor Break wall is closed for the winter
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Pratapgad Fort and Mahabaleshwar India, March 2018

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March’s trip to India has produced quite a number of posts. There are Hoysaleswara Temple, Chennakeshava Temple, Elliot’s Beach, and now this post on Pratabgad Fort and Mhabaleshwar.

Leaving Mumbai on a Friday late morning, we started a 170 mile / 274 kilometer 6-hour drive on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, passing through the outskirts of Pune before heading south and then into the Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountain range to the hill station of Mhabaleshwar. Mahabaleshwar is 4,439 ft (1,353 m) above sea level and the weather there is quite pleasant. During the British Raj, it served as the summer capital of Bombay Province. We have often visited hill stations as they are popular tourist sites and in very pretty areas.

We stayed at the Evershine Keys Prima Resort. The hotel was very comfortable and the staff most helpful. We had a pleasant finish to the day with a good meal and good company.

The gardens of the Evershine Keys resort are quite nice

Before I dive into the main topic of this post, I’d like to put in a picture to tempt you to click on the “more” button and read the rest of the post. While we start off at the resort, the real highlight of the trip was the visit to Pratabgad Fort. This fort was the site of a major victory for Shivaji in the Battle of Pratapgarh (Pratapgarh is an alternate Latin character spelling of Pratabgad). More on that below. This bastion is one of its prominent features.

This is the imposing bastion you see as you arrive

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Elliot’s Beach, Chennai, India, March 2018

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Following up to my posts on Hoysaleswara and Chennakeshava Temples in Karnataka, this post follows my journey east from Bangalore to Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. Unlike the former posts, this is a travelogue not attempting to get at history.

We arrived in Chennai in the late afternoon and headed straight toward Elliot’s Beach along the waterfront just south of the city center. Fully named as Edward Elliot’s beach, it is named after a former superintendent of police.

We arrived just at sunset. Chennai is on the east coast of India, so the sunset set the mood rather than impressed. There were quite a number of people of all ages walking along the beach enjoying the pleasant weather.

Elliot’s Beach in Chennai just after sunset

The scaffolding and lights made an interesting geometric sight against the twilight sky.

Silhouette of construction along the waterfront

As a teaser to get you to click through to “more”, here is a picture from the marketplace we visited a short walk down the beach.

As it darkens the lights take over

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Lakenenland, Superior Lakeshore, Upper Michigan, August 2018

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I will take a step away from India travel to post some pictures of a very interesting place on Michigan state route 28 (M-28) a short distance outside of Marquette, Michigan. Lakenenland is a marvelous sculpture park, filled with many amazing creations made from scrap metal and other items. It is 17 miles (27 km) east of Marquette on the south side of M-28 just past the Ojibway Casino (I’ve never been to the casino, but have driven past many times) as you head toward Munising.

Apparently Tom Lakenen started making sculptures from junk art. He accumulated enough to need a place to put them and acquired land along M-28. It is a wonderful park. You can walk along the road through the park or drive if you prefer. It is free, although donations are accepted. If you are ever in the Marquette area, I highly recommend a visit. It is open 24 hours a day all year round. Here is the start of the tour at the parking area.

Main entrance by the parking lot.

A comfortable skeleton greets you as you walk along.

A seated skeleton

The art is really quite good. I made this picture black and white as I think it makes it spookier.

A scary face

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Chennakeshava Temple, Belur, Karnataka, March 2018

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This is the second of two posts about visits to beautiful temples in Karnataka in March, 2018. The first post covered our visit to Hoysaleswara Temple in Halebeedu. This post will document our visit to Chennakeshava Temple in Belur. Belur is a short 10 mile (16 km) drive to the west of Halebeedu. As soon as we finished our visit at Hoysaleswara Temple we headed out to Belur and the Chennakeshava Temple.

The Chennakeshava Temple was built over 103 years starting in 1117 AD, when it was commissioned by King Vishnuvardhana. Like Hosaleswara Temple, it was damaged in wars and fighting while and has been continually repaired, even to today. It has functioned as an active Hindu temple since it was founded. (Wikipedia)

You enter the temple through an ornate gate, known as a Gopuram. The gopuram and surrounding walls were added in the 14th century. The lighter colored material on the gopuram is recent reconstruction. Wikipedia mentions extensive repairs performed in the 1930s financed by the Mysore government and Wadiyar dynasty but is not clear on whether this particular repair was part of that work. As an active temple, there is quite a lot of activity outside the temple complex.

The entrance to the Chennakeshava Temple complex. The lighter colored material is a restoration.

There are many structures within the temple complex. The pillar on the left is said to stand without any support but the carefully balanced weight of the pillar itself. The main Chennakeshava Temple, also known as Kesava temple, is in the center. It had an extensive wood and stone tower instead of a flat roof when it was built, but the tower was removed in the late 19th century. I am not clear on what the structure on the left is.

The temple grounds are extensive, with many structures.

This is looking directly into the main entrance of the Chennakeshava Temple. You must leave your shoes outside, so it is nice that there are rugs laid out to help prevent burnt feet.

This is the entrance to Chennakeshava Temple. This is the main temple, also known as the Kesava temple.

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