Sunspot Observation for 31 March 2019

The sunspot visible last week has been carried to the other side of the sun. No sunspots were visible this afternoon.

Borehole Temperatures for March 2019

I know there isn't much data yet, but I want to give a monthly report on my newest experiment.

The borehole is a four-foot deep hole in our want soil. Using LM335 temperature sensors, a PICAXE is recording the temperature at one foot increments every hour. Here's what the data for March looks like.

The temperature on the surface is strongly affected by the sun, even though the sensor head is covered worth a Styrofoam chest.

The diurnal temperature change one foot below the surface is only about 3 degrees Fahrenheit. We'll have to see how it changes over the course of a year.

At two feet and deeper, the temperature is warming up slightly after the hole allowed cold air to enter.

At three-feet deep, the temperature is warming up from the hole being dug during a cold day.

It appears the temperature four feet deep is recovering from the hole I dug in cold weather.

Visibility for NearSys Station, 30 March 2019

The UAVSonde was launched around 19:00 hours on Saturday. That was rather late, but kept me from launching on Sunday.

The Western Treasure Valley has very good visibility, the Boise Mountains 50 miles away were visible.

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24-hour Photometer for NearSys Station, 30 March 2019

A mostly sunny day on Saturday. And we got the funny spikes in IR and violet again.

24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 30 March 2019

We're getting frost and 100% relative humidities at night, still. But at least the days are getting more comfortable.

A Hike Up Lizard Butte

Driving home on a short excursion, I approached Lizard Butte outside of Massing, ID and realized I hadn't climbed in a while. I am sorely in need of hiking practice, so I took this opportunity.

But I made sure to collect some data during the hike.

First, I turned on my altimeter app. It showed that I hiked 0.2 miles and climbed 335 feet in the around five minutes it took to reach the top (it took additional time to start the screen capture app and record this image).

When I got to the top, I recorded this image.

The view is pretty spectacular from up here. This is looking northwest towards the Snake River and I think Rabbit Island.

On the way down, I used an inclinometer app to measure how steep a typical part of the trail was.

The trail seemed steeper, I thought I might be walking a 45% slope. This makes me realize that even a 24 degree slope can be treacherous, if you lose your footing.

Idaho has a lot to offer with local hiking trails and scenery. Be sure to stop by sometime and try some of the smaller trails.

Visibility for NearSys Station, 24 March 2019

Images from the UAVSonde indicate the visibility is barely 50 miles.

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24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 23 March 2019

Conditions got damper over the last 24 hours. Overcast skies and a small amount of rain were the results.

24-hour Photometer for NearSys Station, 22 March 2019

A partly cloudy day that ended in light sprinkles (only 0.01 inches of rain). There's a lot of variation in the sky intensity.

Visibility for NearSys Station, 18 March 2018

The UAVSonde was launched this morning and it's images indicate the visibility was in excess of 50 miles. This is not very surprising since we are under a high pressure system.

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Clavius Region of the Moon

Clavius is the second largest crater on the moon with a diameter of 141 miles. It was also the location of a moon base in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. North of Clavius is one of the moon's most prominent craters, Tycho. In 2001, that is where the monolith was dug up.

These craters are located in the lunar southern highlands, an old and rugged terrain. Clavius on Wikipedia. This region has not been resurfaced from volcanic flows and dates back to the Late Heavy Bombardment.

I used a ZWO color digital camera to record this region last night on the 10 day old waxing gibbous moon. The program SharpCap recorded the image and I'm hoping to use AviStack to process video I took. One thing became apparent in the video, even a light breeze causes my 16" f/4.5 telescope to rock back and forth.

Clavius is the large crater near the bottom left and Tycho is straight above it. Notice that Tycho is a much brighter crater. Also, traces of rays emanating from the crater are visible on it's right.

24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 16 March 2019

We're still getting 100% relative humidity and frost at night. However, the days are definitely warming up.

24-hour Photometer for NearSys Station, 15 March 2019

It was clear or mostly clear today. So it's odd how the sky brightness spikes and then decreased starting around 10:00 AM. Even odder is how this occurred for violet, ultraviolet, green, and infrared.

Visibility for NearSys Station, 10 March 2019

The UAVSonde was launched shortly after 1300 hours today and recorded the following images. Based on these images, the visibility is well in excess of 50 miles. Based on thermal IR data, the ceiling is 4,200 feet AGL.

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24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 8 March 2019

The temperature and relative humidity datalogger (Amprobe TR-200) recorded all day March 8th. The temperature after 24 hours was nearly the same; however, the relative humidity decreased. So drier air has moved in. Also note that the relative humidity did not reach 100% like it typically does during cold weather.

24-hour Photometer for NearSys Station, 8 March 2019

The morning was clear, but shortly after noon the sun began passing through clouds.

February Weather for NearSys Station.

The air and ground temperatures continued to climb and the average relative humidity continues to decrease. More surpring was the amount of rain we received while the mountains got snow. NearSys Station experienced three snow storms and that pushed our snow amounts to 5.3 inches for the year.

All Sky Photometer for NearSys Station, 2 March 2019

The sky remained party cloudy until near sunset. Otherwise, a good amount of sunshine was enjoyed by all.

24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 2 March 2019

The humidity decreased and the temperature increased during my monitoring.

Visibility for NearSys Station, 3 February 2019

The western Treasure Valley is mostly overcast today, but experiencing very good visibility. From outside of Homedale, ID, the UAV can see over 50 miles.

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ROV Practice at Wilson Ponds, 2 March 2019

For the first time, it was sunny when I took my Seaperch ROV to Wilson Ponds. I could see deep enough into the water to try folliwing a fish and there were a lot more ducks on the pond. I've edited down my video to two short clips that I found interesting.