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On the Road Again. A Colorado State Open Thread, 10/9/2023 [1]

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Date: 2023-10-09  

I’m not sure exactly which road I will take — I’m likely to take I-70 or US 36 and CO66. I might let the car choose the way. I will be heading to eastern Kansas, so I have about 600 miles to drive today, with a similar 600 miles when I return Saturday. I plan on stopping occasionally to refresh ice, walk around a bit, snooze at least once in a rest stop or behind a barn or under an overpass. The car still has less than 300 miles on it, and I’m supposed to gently break it in by not driving at a constant speed for hours — at least for the first couple of thousand miles. They recommend varying the speed so the car gets exercised at different speeds. As a result, I doubt I’ll use cruise control. Instead, I’ll just pay attention to my eco-mode while driving and see what I can do to maximize the mpg rating. Right now, the car says I’m averaging about 86 mpg (it’s a plug-in hybrid), but after I get out of the mountains, I’m expecting to see a lower reading.

I will report in the Open Thread next week what mileage I got on the way there and separately on the way back when I’m gradually headed uphill (and thus, likely to be worse mileage). I had a 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid and the only bad reading I had was on a trip across Kansas heading west. I had filled up at a BP station in Lawrence (BP was “recommended” by Ford, so while I generally used cheaper gas, I decided to splurge) and instead of the 30mpg I usually got, with the BP gas I averaged about 20mpg for that tank. That was the one and only fill-up of BP I have put into a car in nearly 20 years.

I will be taking my camera since I will be returning to Colorado on Saturday when the “Great American Eclipse” #2 happens. I’m not sure just where I’ll be while it’s going on. I won’t be able to see the full annular ring that those folks in SW Colorado and other areas of the west will see. I did buy a new filter for my new camera so I’m hoping I can take a photograph or two. I think it’s supposed to be at least partly sunny, but this far out, I’m not taking bets. If you can, I’d like to recommend you see the eclipse, but as always, don’t look directly at the sun. Most especially, don’t point anything at the sun to look through unless it’s specifically made for looking at something that bright — that means smoked glass like you’d have in a welder’s shield or over-exposed film. Honestly, I find the best way of observing an eclipse to be using paper. Take a sheet of paper and poke a hole in it. It’s good if it’s somewhat stiff, like construction paper or thin cardboard — go ahead, tear apart the tissue box. Then hold that paper with the hole up and cast the shadow from that onto a second piece of paper or even onto a wall. You will be able to see the light shine through the hole and, if you are looking at the shadow, you will see the circle of the sun as it shines through the hole, with a circle or slice taken out of the sun where the moon is blocking the sunlight. It actually is a pretty cool projection and you can see a much bigger image than one seen if you’re looking through dark glass at the sun (and it’s safer too). Unlike Stupid Trump, although I was hoping he would blind himself when he looked at the eclipse directly. If you try and project using some sort of magnifier like binoculars or a telescope, it might work, but it also might magnify the light so strongly that it might melt the device. I discovered in the last solar eclipse that I must have tried taking pictures using my telescopic zoom on my Nikon camera and I destroyed the lens during a few shots that weren’t protected by the filter. Oops! Fortunately it was still under warranty and Nikon never asked how it happened.

science.nasa.gov/… is a website where you can see the paths of the 2023 and 2024 eclipses, along with the time to view the sun as it moves on its paths over the US. This Saturday, the sun will be in eclipse over the four corners area about 10:30-35 AM. An interactive map is at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/… where you can click in the lower right corner to see what percentage of the sun will be covered wherever you are in the country. According to NASA, nearly all of the US and much of Canada and Mexico will see at least some of the eclipse because of how the sun will be traveling along with the moon (well, the sun won’t move, the earth will, but if the earth moves, we won’t likely feel it). I will, at best, have a slice taken out of the sun of about 65%, but that’s what I get for timing my trip poorly. This is an annular eclipse, which means the moon is not going to fully block the sunlight. The moon will be far enough away from the earth at this particular point that the sunlight will always be visible around the edges of the moon. The sky won’t turn to night, you will still see just one star in the sky (the sun) and yet if you can see the moon covering part of the sun, I still find that very cool.

This is much better than I will see Saturday.

Taken during the last total eclipse that passed over the central US. Before I melted my camera.

This is less coverage than what I may see. The spots on the sun are indeed sunspots (cooler spots on the surface of the sun). We’ll see what is visible — it depends upon clouds and my paying attention.

I know that I used to post some pictures of various places in Colorado and I would challenge people to identify what the photograph was of. Usually it was a place or thing, and I am hoping to find some things that might give me material for some more challenges. Unfortunately, I won’t be going as far south as the SE corner of the state to go witness the tarantula mating searches (it’s not right to call them migrations because they only travel a few hundred meters or so, until the males find a female burrow, but this month is a month to go view this Colorado-ish adventure. Apparently this takes place in September and October. One of these years I will go down there to see the spiders on their quest for love (and their fleeing the ravenous females who want a nice snack after copulation instead of a simple snuggle)..

I’ve been avoiding much of the political news in Colorado. A neighbor of mine, a conservative and probably MAGA Republican, is running for the school board though he’s now a grandfather with no family in the district. I shudder to think what his reasons are for wanting to direct the learning of the local kids, but I’m quietly spreading my thoughts about him to friends to try and encourage the other candidates to get some more votes.

If you’d like to share what’s going on in your corner of the state, please let us know in the comments below. I will read them after I stop for the night. The floor is yours...

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