Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
This eight-pointer was one of two browsing in the back-yard grove:
Eight point buck deer in velvet
The other was a mere four-pointer. In a few weeks they’ll get all feisty and browse the grove in shifts.
The notion of a “suburban hunting license”, perhaps with crossbows, may eventually gain traction.
A few days later, Mary awoke to a great clattering caused by a buck fighting free of the slot between the garden’s mesh “deer fence” and the neighbor’s wood fence, flattening the corner post in the process. A similar encounter a few years ago ended poorly.
An hour before the festivities started, I lashed together an official NASA-approved pinhole eclipse viewer from available materials:
Eclipse 2017-08-21 – pinhole projector
Although the solar disk showed up fine on the white paper screen, the Pixel’s camera can’t show the notch growing on the left side, even with HDR+ mode in full effect:
Eclipse 2017-08-21 – pinhole projector – interior
As usual for astronomy around here, clouds threatened the outcome:
Eclipse 2017-08-21 – high clouds
Near the maximum, the skies cleared:
Eclipse 2017-08-21 – maximum – lens flare
Although it’s not proof, there’s a definite bite out of the lens flare at about 4 o’clock:
Eclipse 2017-08-21 – maximum – lens flare – detail
The maples south of the driveway produced lower-contrast images better suited to silicon sensors:
Eclipse 2017-08-21 – maximum – shadows
And, although everyone was specifically enjoined not to do this, because UV reflection = blindness, the obligatory solar eclipse selfie:
Eclipse 2017-08-21 – obligatory selfie
I’m sure similar lens flares count as UFOs in someone’s telling of the tale.
We planned to dance naked in the yard, but our neighbor’s lawn crew picked that moment to scalp his grass and we chose discretion over valor …
Each of the three Mystery Caterpillars wandered around the aquarium for a few minutes, found a spot surrounded by leaves, and tucked themselves into their cocoons.
The smallest one went first and probably got the best site:
Mystery Caterpillar – Cocoon 1
The medium one:
Mystery Caterpillar – Cocoon 2
The largest caterpillar munched the leaf around the new cocoon and removed some of the silk (?) wrapper. It looks like the caterpillar’s fur falls off and becomes insulation inside the wrapper.
The large one with mostly black fur managed to bind two leaves together:
Mystery Caterpillar – Cocoon 3
The Monarch remained calm, well above the scramble:
Monarch Chrysalis – with skin
The caterpillar’s skin (or whatever it is) remained loosely attached to the outside.
Mary spotted it on the outside of the window screen in the front bathroom. We watched it for ten minutes as it strolled around the screen, all the while keeping at least one compound eye aimed at us.
If humans were half as tall, those things would be terrifying!
Monarch butterfly eggs occur in onesie-twosies on each milkweed plant, but Tussock Moths carpet-bomb the leaves with eggs that hatch pretty much all at once:
Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillars – detail
With a population density like that, the plant doesn’t stand a chance:
Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillars
A few hours later, they were gone and so were the leaves! Presumably, they’re traveling across the ground to the adjacent milkweed plants; one or two may find our patio.
Despite all the egg-laying we saw, we haven’t seen any Monarch caterpillars out there.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 