33 replies to this topic

[ski3pin]

On the west slope of the Sierra Nevada yellow jackets are commonly called meat bees.

 

Yellow Jacket - Meat bees

 

How to - Meat Bee Trap

[Cayuse]

Great TR!  Really like the alpine lake and granite!

[Lighthawk]

Just plain beautiful. I'm staying tuned.

 

Meteors give off an emission spectrum that is mostly due to the air around the meteor being heated, but also to material being ablated off the meteoroid itself. Speed of entry plays a role, too. That's awesome that you caught colors in your images. I guess what I'm trying to say is those colors could be real and not an artifact of the camera.

 

I was hoping you would chime in, highz

 

All the meteor tracks had the same spectrum signature, from what I can see on my screen.

I assume the camera sensor is recording 'accurate' color.

[Lighthawk]

Great TR. What a lucky pup. Did you guys get ride of the inflatable sea eagal kayaks? Which camp ground did you folks stay at? 

 

Hello Super D

 

We only have the Wilderness Pungo 'yaks, which are rigid.  You may be mistaking us for someone else.

 

We stay at the Loon Lake CG, on the southern tip of the lake.  Reservations are recommended.

We prefer the first or last loop where we have access to the shore.  There's another loop that's away from the lake.

Some of the outhouses seem to date back to the 1960's and I don't think SMUD does much for them.

We bring our own clean waste potty, to avoid those stinkers. 

[Lighthawk]

On the west slope of the Sierra Nevada yellow jackets are commonly called meat bees.

 

Yellow Jacket - Meat bees

 

How to - Meat Bee Trap

 

Yellow jacket seems more accurate but around here we call them meat bees.  I've heard they go after protein, but apparently eat carbs too. 

 

The trap seems like an excellent idea.  We've killed queens before when SR has recognized them.

We'll have to try out the trap idea next year in the spring.

 

Here's what I found interesting:

 

There are hundreds of species of wasps in California, and like bees they are part of the heritage of the land. In the San Francisco Bay Area some of the most common wasps are: yellow-jackets, paper wasps, mud daubers, sand wasps, thread-waisted wasps, and potter wasps.

 

We also have paper wasps at home and also bald-faced hornets down in Grass Valley.  Don't even get me started on how many different sorts of bees we see.  Maybe this is a topic for another forum about entomology . . .

[GroovyDad]

Wow, what a beautiful lake.  Why haven't I heard about this place before?  Well, now I have and it'll be on my "to do" list soon.

 

I like the beach umbrella--I'm all about cheap and effective.

 

While reading you TR, I thought, I'm going to have to send you a link to a Meat Bee trap I just found online, but I saw that Ski3Pin beat me to it.  

 

Looking forward to Part II

[highz]

 

All the meteor tracks had the same spectrum signature, from what I can see on my screen.

I assume the camera sensor is recording 'accurate' color.

In the photo you posted in the TR, the green side is the side closest to the radiant of the shower (closest to the Double Cluster in Perseus in your image).  Is that the case for the other meteor images you took?

[ski3pin]

Some of you may be interested in the history of the reservoir that damned, Bixby, Loon, and Pleasant lakes. Although it has an interesting history dating back to the gold rush days - The California Water Company - now it is a catch basin for moving water from the Middle Fork American River watershed over to the South Fork American River. It is at the top of Sacramento Municipal Utility District's hydroelectric project. For power production, it is said, that every inch of water is worth a million dollars. The first power house in the series is a quarter mile under the reservoir.

 

History can be found here -

 

Loon Lake & Dam 

[PaulT]

On the west slope of the Sierra Nevada yellow jackets are commonly called meat bees.
 
Yellow Jacket - Meat bees
 
How to - Meat Bee Trap

Thanks, Ski.
I was sure they must be yellow jackets. Just never heard them called meat bees.

Paul

[Lighthawk]

In the photo you posted in the TR, the green side is the side closest to the radiant of the shower (closest to the Double Cluster in Perseus in your image).  Is that the case for the other meteor images you took?

 

Thanks for your interest, highz

 

Here is a composite I created using over a dozen images, with foreground lit by the setting moon.  

The top left object may not be a Perseid or I may have goofed the rotation.

 

 

crop

 

I used the David Kingham method with this tutorial.  I was really frustrated until I realized that while doing the transform step, you must drag the center to match with Polaris.  The key concept is that you shoot hundreds of frames using an intervalometer (some modern cameras now have this function), hopefully capturing a number of exposures with meteors.  My battery worked for 200 mins. during which the earth's rotation will advance the celestial view.  Therefore,  you must rotate the images with meteors to align to the stars in your base image, then use a mask and paint in the just meteor track, which should then be aligned with the radiant.  It was my first try and I got it, but my 2009 iMac was smoking under the hood before I dumped all the excess layers.

 

https://youtu.be/u7JVwSX1iAg