Shadow Dancing

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Clifford at 12:54 pm, March 26th, 2006

Several people are off to various parts of the world (particularly North Africa) to get into position for a good view of Wednesday’s total solar eclipse. Here’s a shot of that ol’ devil moon getting in the way of the sun back in 1999. (I got it from Wikipedia):

total solar eclipse 1999

total eclipse path 1999 It should be fun! I saw my first such event in the South of England on August 11th, 1999 and it was fantastic. The path of totality just grazed the tip of Portland Bill, in ~~Devon~~ Dorset, where we were, which was a better bet (traffic-wise) than going into Cornwall (see picture I got from Nasa’s site showing the European trajectory from that event). I’ll never forget the two most dramatic things about it for me. One was the silence. All the birds stopped chirping (maybe they thought it was time to sleep?) and it was very peaceful all of a sudden. The other was the astonishing sight of the shadow of the moon rushing toward you over the ocean with a sort of terrifying speed. (”And darkeness fell across the earth”, you almost hear a booming voice say in your head.) Nobody seems to describe that latter effect when you hear about eclipses, but to me that was a most wonderful aspect.

Two of our regular readers, Amara Graps (I think) and also the person who goes by the identifier “chimpanzee” have gone off on trips for this purpose. Amara to Turkey and chimpanzee to the Egypt/Libya border. Very intrepid.

Chimpanzee seems to have taken some impressive optical equipment with him, not to mention a wisely chosen robust laptop (rather like mine) from which to
blog about his eclipse-chasing endeavours, involving fun-looking off-road vehicles and the like. You can check in to his two blogs on his adventures here and here, the latter being primarily a photo gallery. (Last time I looked there were interesting mechanical challenges to be surmounted……)

I’m hoping that chimpanzee and Amara might check back here later and tell us about their travels and the event.

Here’s Nasa’s website on the various solar eclipses coming up this year.

-cvj

Science, Travel
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29 Comments on “Shadow Dancing” rss feed

Clifford on Mar 26th, 2006 at 5:33 am

[Here's an earlier comment of Chimpanzee's moved to this thread from another. I have preserved the timestamp. -cvj]

________________________________________________________________
I’m posting from Marsa-Matrouh/Egypt, just before leaving for the Egypt/Libya border for the Mar 29 solar eclipse (this Wednesday). A CV poster (the gal from Italy) will be observing from Turkey.

I’m always amazed at the rich colors of 3rd world countries, especially the food markets. Here is what I found this morning outside our condo:

http://eclipsechaser.blogspot.com

CVJ seems to have found a fascination with Taiwan. I’m beginning to really get “into” Egypt. I find the Egypt trip similar to Turkey for the ‘99 eclipse , a Muslim country where the sights/sounds are very similar.

The girl sitting next to me on my Cairo flight, is an American (Muslim convert) married to an Egyptian engineer. She’s a UC Berkeley Sociology major, with aspirations of grad school (possibly @Univ of Chicago). She’s doing research in Cairo for this trip, & trying to get to the eclipse in Sallum. She encouraged me to goto to Dahab (on Red Sea), & do the $1/night on-the-beach huts. And, try the nighttime hike up Mt. Sinai, to see the sunrise. I’m doing that, after the eclipse.

I will try to blog those pics. Here’s the other blog site:

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com

Lots of interesting sights, I’m going for the ethnic/cultural aspects.
Uncle Al on Mar 26th, 2006 at 4:43 pm

Do you have your Foucault pendulum with you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect
Clifford on Mar 26th, 2006 at 5:00 pm

[Here is a comment from chimpanzee which was on the wrong thread (I have preserved the timestamp -cvj)]:

__________________________________________________________________

CVJ, I was just going to suggest that. I actually sent Sean a private email to help me post to my eclipse website..naturally, I forgot the FTP info! (Murphy’s Law). My dang ISP is clueless, & doesn’t have a tech-support email..it has to be by phone! (I don’t want to think about Int’l roaming on my Cingular phone, while waiting for half-an-hour for someone to respon).

I’ve updated the 2 blogs:

http://eclipsechaser.blogspot.com
[ stories & photos, some more food material. Had some taste of authentic home-grown Egyptian cuisine, Bedouin style. That "leaf dip" was killer.. ]

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com
[ bunch of images, sorry I can't put descriptions..too much time. It's about midnight here, & I have to get rest for big-day tomorrow to go on our 4x4 recon mission ]

Dang! The weather is not cooperating. See above. Jay Anderson gave me a Mar 23 report, see this CV thread. He mentioned how the “optmistic weather models” can quickly “go south”. Apparently, it’s happening!

“Prediction is what should happen, Weather is what you get”
[ Uncertainty Principle in weather forecasting ]

The Univ of Athens/Greece weather models are predicting clear skies, whereas the UKNet site is predicting rain! There is a LOT of energy & preparation being put into this, I’ve been collaborating heavily with Dr. Serge Koutchmy/IAP. I found the high-school where he will be observing from (instruments setup on the roof, with Internet access available). The threat of morning fog (& fog because of pre-totality temp drop) is forcing me to try for a site south of Sallum. We tried like HECK to get an army permit, to do some recon’ing along Egypt/Libya border..NO GO! See above blog for more details.

“Either we WIN, or we Break”
– Robby Gordon, offroad racer, SCORE ‘05 Baja 500
[ he got the win in Class, & 1st overall vehicle ]

I’m “going for it”. Either I come back a “Hero” or a “Goat”. It’s an “All or Nothing” approach. Robby Gordon has been quoted as “Go for the Gusto, Go for the Overall”. Weather is the main factor now. I REALLY wanted a scenic spot in the outback, to record an eclipse without people or buiildings (no sign of mankind). Ain’t gonna happen. The Egyptian army has a presence South of Sallum, which prevents this. There are extensive WWII minefields, which adds another danger. Sidi Barani, El Alamein..all big names in WWII history, N. African campaign.

I practiced my extensive eclipse program (shadow bands video, narrow-angle video, wide-angle video, HD wide-angle video, QTVR panorama, medium-format corona shots: B&W & color, narrow angle on digital SLR, etc), like mad the day before I left. It would be a shame to get wiped out, or even compromised by some cloud interference.

I was driving my 4×4 operator “nuts” numerous times today, with constant barrage of questions. We ended up laughing about it.

“You never know how many beers you had the last night”
– Heineken Uncertainty Principle

I personally don’t know WHAT’S gonna happen.. I guess that’s part of the thrill/excitement of solar eclipse chasing.

I find it really interesting that CVJ was posting from Death Valley (to get away from it all), a REALLY HOT place. Here I am, just norht of the “Sand Sea” of the Sahara Desert, the most arid desert in the world..trying to “get away from it all” (in terms of not getting people in the eclipse picture). I think they call that “Convergent Evolution” in biology. Two different domains, the same kind of result.
sisyphus on Mar 26th, 2006 at 7:24 pm

Thanx for the shadow of the moon thing; it’s a good one. I suppose it’s only observable under very particular circumstances but it is odd that no one else has commented on what must be a very dramatic effect.
donna on Mar 26th, 2006 at 11:05 pm

My neighbor is off to Turkey. I get to plant-sit.
chimpanzee on Mar 26th, 2006 at 11:20 pm

I woke up at 3:30am to check on weather updates, there may be good news. The Univ of Athens forecast is showing high-pressure area dominant, & no clouds for March 29 (E-day) @12:00 UTC (2pm local time). The eclipse in Sallum/Egypt is 12:38pm - 12:42pm. See

http://eclipsechaser.blogspot.com

for updates. It actually drizzled early last evening & 1am. NOT a good thing!

I am getting bombarded by flies, UNBELIEVABLE! I did bring insect repellant, so maybe I have to fight mother-nature’s creations during totality.

CVJ, nice title. Cat Stevens (famous American folk singer) wrote a song called “Moon Shadow”, after being inspired by a solar eclipse. He later converted to Islam, & is quite serious about it. He was traveling in the Middle East, & was “lost”..Islam saved him.

I gotta go back to this “equipment malfunction” with the left-front brake issue. Dang, it was at last Nov’s Baja 1000 (small village of Ejido Heroes La Indepencia) when my 4×4 had a similar issue! The left-front brake-line blew up, & I lost brakes just *before* I headed out on Hwy 3 to the twisty roads toward Ensenada. A brake failure here will end up in catastrophe, since the roads are crowned & there are steep drop offs into canyons. See here for what happened there. Again, it was roadside help that saved the day: a Class 7 racer was nice enough to stop by & had a replacement brake-line. We had it fixed in 15 min. Otherwise, I was looking at an incredible steep tow charge to Ensenada.

So, halfway around the world a few months later..the SAME left-front brake thing stings me. My 4×4 driver was going on & on, about how he has NEVER had such a WEIRD problem happen. Toyota Landcruisers are famous the world over for reliability. Apparently, the mechanic at the last checkup failed to tighten the 2 bolts holding the caliper to the backing-plate.

I’m not superstitious, but wow am I feeling “spooked”. My driver was particularly vigilant in being attentive to any noises/issues from the car as we drove to Sallum. With the unexpected rain (after NASA’s official forecaster predicted smooth sailing a week ago), I’m wondering: “what problem next”?

“Life is 20% what happens to you, & 80% how you respond to it”
– a wise man said

We have responded to TWO challenges so far: the vehicle breakdown & weather (tracking it over Internet, apparently OK for E-day).

Next challenge tomorrow is finding a “natural surrounding” site, to capture eclipse against the desert. We’re north of Siwa Oasis (famous place where there was an encounter between Alexander the Great & Cleopatra), which is near the “The Great Sand Sea”, what people associate with the Sahara Desert. Unfortunately, there are NO sand-dunes like that up here. I was *dreaming* of that, for my foreground eclipse shots. The Egyptian military presence & WWII minefields restrict us close to Sallum. Awad (”local Bedouin big-chief”) has told us about a couple of hills nearby, so we are checking them out tomorrow.

We were on the Libyan Plateau today (just outside town), trying to find the Scientist-Area. Saw a bunch of tents & facilities, but no scientists!? I don’t get it. They usually transport hundreds of pounds of equipment, & are setup well in advance.
chimpanzee on Mar 27th, 2006 at 12:02 am

I put up some more food images, for CVJ (see Taiwan food thread), see:

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com
[ I also put up "Categories" on the right, so you can check my progress day by day ]

I’ve been emailing those 2 gals I met on Lufthansa flight #584 (Edina the UC Berkeley sociology major, & Lina the SF area gym owner). Lina is in Siwa Oasis, planning to get to Sallum on the 28th. Edina is trying to make it out here, in between doing her research. I made friends with Will (Mech Eng major, east coast Univ), & we were discussing Egypt options. He opted to go for Turkey (here Amara is), & I just emailed him an update.

“What amazes me about Nature is the..INTERCONNECTIVITY”
– Dr David Suzuki, “Carl Sagan” of Biology

It’s cool that CV can get updates (near LIVE!) about an event, that is relevant to Physics. Esp, the 1919 Arthur Eddington eclipse expedition that gave corroboration to Einstein’g theory of General Relativity. A Caltech Computer Science prof I know, goes to solar eclipses. Dr. Glenn Schneider (Uof Arizona/Steward Obs, chief instrument scientist for Hubble/WFPAC camera) is a friend & he is in Turkey. Stephen Wolfram went to the ‘91 eclipse in Baja (I was there), see his website for pics.

About the eclipse experience. There is a phenomena known as “shadow bands”, which occurs near 2nd & 3rd contact. The light of the narrow sliver of Sun passing thru turbulent air, causes a rippling of light on the ground. The analogy oft used is how you see ripples at the bottom of a pool. It’s not fully understood, Dr. Barrie Jones/Open Univ (UK) was doing some measurements at the ‘02 eclipse (Botswana). I was in S. Africa at the time, see here. He published a paper. I was corresponding with him, & shot some shadow-bands video, but the camcorder & tape was stolen by my 4×4 tour guide! (17 yr old kid). Science was setback because of theft..dang.

Shadow Bands were seen in ‘98 eclipse in Curacao (CVJ is from Montserrat, the eclipse was seen there). My friend’s dog was barking like crazy, because of the rippling on the ground. I’ve never seen them, because I’m so focused on the dumb photography. I’ve setup a shadow-bands video camera, so hopefully I can get it. This phenomena would be an interesting problem for physicists on this blog to study.

Here’s my take on the onset of totality. A few minutes before 2nd contact, the surroundings get REALLY WEIRD: the light gets warm & dark, there is a sense of doom. RIGHT at 2nd contact, you detect something & naturally look up: DIAMOND RING!! Then , TOTALITY. You see this pearly-white corona extending out of a dark orb, & can detect these lovely pinkish prominences (this is naked eye, BTW). It’s UNREAL, this is against a dark sky..during the “day”. You look around the horizon, you see a reddish sunset. When you’re around people, you hear screams & shouts of amazement, some people cry. In Bolivia ‘94, the school girls started to sing. Animals behave strangely. You pull out your binoculars, to get a closer view. Before you know it, it’s over. There’s 3rd contact, diamond ring. The 1st thing you say is, “I’m going to the next eclipse, can’t wait!”. I.e., you’ve become an Eclipse-a-holic.

I read somehere “Physics is about doing”, i.e. a sense of Reality. Theory is good, but it needs feedback from Experiment [ insert inflammatory arguments about String Theory here ]. There’s something about seeing/witnessing gravity in action, the moon move in front of the sun. Every physicist should be in the eclipse path, to see supposedly the Grandest Event viewable on planet Earth. I liken it to CVJ’s jaunts up Mt. Wilson, to Death Valley (recently), escape to Taiwan..as an expression of a “change of pace”, “new horizons”. It definitely would help your work, the _contrast_ is a good thing. Doing just ONE thing can get stagnant. My offroad adventures give me the spark, everyone does their own thing. Lisa Randall does rock climbing (in one of here lectures she uses the analogy of climbing a mtn), as does Dr. Christof Koch/Caltech (leading Neurosience researcher). The Columbia math prof (whose hands was used in the movie “A Beautiful Mind”) is a mountaineer, I guess CVJ is beginning to get into that. There’s a really good quote from a Pakistani entrepeneur:

“I grew up at 7,000 ft. Life is like climbing a mountain, you have to pace yourself [ to take big step, you have to take a series of little steps ]”

All the current Science knowledge is the result of building on previous generations work (”taking steps”). I think it’s really interesting that scientists actually have hobbies of “mountain climbing”, which is a great analogy for their own research.

My own ‘06 eclipse adventure is taking on this modus operanda. I have to overcome a series of obstacles, or “steps” Car malfunction..a fairly serious one! Weather..a REALLY serious one, for eclipse chasers! Now, a location one (WWII land mines all over the place, lack of mobility along Egypt/Libya border because of military presence).

I’ve been working with a couple of leading QTVR artists, we did some tests & my pano rig looks good. Hopefully, I can deliver 3 QTVR panos: pre-totality, totality, post-totality. This might give CV readers the next best thing to experiencing the eclipse using “immersive technology”.

It’s 7am, I’ve been up for 3 hrs horsing around on the Internet. I better get some rest. These flies are driving me nuts!
Rockingham on Mar 28th, 2006 at 1:52 am

Portland Bill is in Dorset not Devon.
Clifford on Mar 28th, 2006 at 2:24 am

You’re absolutely right. Slip of the tongue.

Thanks,

-cvj
Clifford on Mar 28th, 2006 at 5:18 pm

A reader called Mike sent me an email, in which he asked:

[snip -cvj]

Anyways. I was wondering if you knew anyplace online that was giving a online show of the eclipse tomorrow.

[snip -cvj]

I dont think I have ever seen a total, and i would like to see this if possible.

Thanks for your time.

Mark

I actually don’t know the answer to this question, but maybe some of the eclipse specialists reading this might know? If so…come here and tell us!

-cvj
chimpanzee on Mar 29th, 2006 at 3:17 pm

I’m posting from an Internet Cafe in Sallum/Egypt. I just uploaded a 2nd contact diamond-ring photo, see:

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com

It was my 1st digital camera pic of an eclipse, I’m slowly integrating digital into my eclipse program (still mostly film).

The logistics that went into doing this eclipse was FORMIDABLE, many obstacles had to be overcome:

1) vehicle issues
major left-front hub issues (broken caliper. It was NOT looking good, I tell you.. We made 2 fixes: one on the Hwy (20 clicks from El Alamein), then limped on right-front brakes to Marsa-Matrouh for final fix.

2) weather issues
Man, it was raining 2 days before E-day!? Today, was “scary good”, according to a Boston meteorologist who spoke with Jay Anderson (official NASA eclipse meteorologist). The rain cleared out the air (dust was considered a factor in limiting visibility), this is one of the best eclipses I’ve seen in terms of weather.

3) location issues
DANG! I have to write about it later, it was so INVOLVED. I got permission to observe in a restricted Army area, next to a mausoleum (see above URL)..3 coffins inside. I slept next to it, under the stars the night before.

Some of my program ran fine, others had glitches. I went for the “bomb’, & ended up with a “grenade”. I’m dead tired, I’ve been going continuous since 5am, it’s 10pm & need to hit the sack. I might post some more pics from Marsa-Matrouh tomorrow.
chimpanzee on Mar 30th, 2006 at 4:07 am

I’m in Marsa-Matrouh, on way back to Cairo. Posting from an Internet Cafe. Here are some more eclipse pictures:

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com
[ various pics ]

http://eclipsescience.blogspot.com
[ a blog report ]

More stories & eclipse description later..
chimpanzee on Mar 31st, 2006 at 4:01 pm

I’m posting from Magy Hotel/Cairo,I leave in 30 min for Dahab (on the Red Sea) for an all night bus ride. I plan to do an all night hike up Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise. I spent the day @Giza pyramids, on a camel. I updated my mobile blog at:

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com

I ended up getting sick from heat prostration, came back early to rest. Feel better, for the Dahab trip.
chimpanzee on Mar 31st, 2006 at 4:14 pm

I also updated the blog at:

http://eclipsechaser.blogspot.com
chimpanzee on Apr 1st, 2006 at 9:55 am

I left Cairo on a midnight bus to Dahab (via Sharm El Sheikh, you might recall this town..it was in the news in recent political conference). Arrived at 9am, & proceeded to take a tour of this resort area. I had a good time with the cats who joined breakfast with me, & the local Bedouin children (selling souveneirs). I updated my blog at:

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com

I leave 11pm for an all night hike up to Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise.
chimpanzee on Apr 3rd, 2006 at 12:56 am

The night hike to Mt. Sinai didn’t happen, there was a foulup in scheduling. St. Catherine (monastery) is closed on Sunday. I ended up going to “Blue Hole”, & taking a camel to Abu Gamul, a small Bedouin village on the Red Sea. Here are some pics:

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com
http://eclipsechaser.blogspot.com

I ended up getting cramps & got sick..just like at Giza/pyramids. Raging temperature, but I got over it on the overnight bus ride back to Cairo. I thought for sure I was gonna get sick on the bus.

My flight leaves in several hours, I go now to pack.
chimpanzee on Apr 3rd, 2006 at 5:36 pm

I’m blogging from Frankfurt airport @11pm. I uploaded 4 big files of QTVR pano (17mb a piece) when I was in Dahab..good Internet access there (500mbps upload). My friend Robert Fisher stitched a couple of panos for me:

http://www.rcfisher.com/eclipse/full.html
http://www.rcfisher.com/eclipse/partial.html

It’s an attempt to give one a “virtuality reality” feel of an eclipse (Immersive Technology). I’m sitting next to a guy (from Colorado) who went to Antalya/Turkey for eclipse, he had clear skies. So, I assume Amara saw eclipse.

Here is the test pano I did 2 days before I left, to make sure I got the nodal point right:

http://www.rcfisher.com/pano.mov

You can see my collection of physics books (Feynman Lectures on Physics, one entitled Cosmic ****), math books (Springer Verlag yellow book). You can see that I live in a dungeon
chimpanzee on Apr 3rd, 2006 at 7:01 pm

I was blogging from outside Gate 41 (SwissAir), then I lost the T-Mobile WLAN! (after I paid $18 Euro). So, I wandered off looking for a more comfortable location. I found a couple of guys (Wade & Laurie) sitting at a table, working on PCs. Turns out Wade (Web Developer from Colorado) went to Turkey for the eclipse (near Antalya), & Laurie (studied at Estonia University) is headed back to Japan. Then, the power-outlet we were using “went away”!?

[ the guy sitting next to me on the flight from Cairo to Frankfurt is a geologist turned Environmental Scientist working for Siemens..he was reading Scientific American, the cover had something about particle Physics. He told me that in Germany, after 12pm everything stops. Maybe, that's why our power outlet quit ]

Our laptops were in jeopardy of losing juice, so we set out in search of a power-outlet. Found one, with a steel bar over it. My adapter wouldn’t fit, but Laurie’s adapter let us plug in our power supplies. So, we are connecting to Internet & blogging from the floor:

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com

I couldn’t maintain my T-mobile WLAN! (there goes another $18 Euro). But, we found a Vodafone connection. Except, now..I couldn’t upload! So, Laurie figured out a way around it (SSH tunnel, to use SOCKS protocol to access Web thru SSH server). So, you see the above uploads.

It’s 1am here, & we’re still messing around on the Internet. Wade did some Google Map simulations of the eclipse-path (see above URL), & Laurie related his experience from Estonia for the ‘99 eclipse (using smoked glass with his grandfather).
Plato on Apr 3rd, 2006 at 7:54 pm

This whole process was really wonderful to watch, using the “Future of the Notebook.” With what, you are doing Chimpanzee. Thanks.

I seen the worst of what humanity can do to each other from the battle front gone wrong, in Serbian Cleansing with villages of Croation men. While this was the worst it helped society keep an eye on itself and sparked the revulsion of present day that such things could exist, that we react as a society?

This “real time reporting” is what is wonderful about what cosmicvariance crew is doing, and others, like yourself are doing with science.

With knowledgeable and responsible science reporting, as KC Coles is teaching, this medium is sidestepping “controlled access” to information. Should this not be a right to get as good information as we can from the contributors here in their comments?

Real time reporting such as you’ve done is a wonderful extension of our abilites to get real time information. Shall we control the communication highway to captialistic adventures and lose the freedoms of expression?

Is uploading “science video” the next step for cosmicvariance? You seem to be on the forefront with this. Good stuff:)
chimpanzee on Apr 4th, 2006 at 8:44 am

I’m blogging from the 747-400 “Dusseldorf” on Lufthansa Flight 456 (Frankfurt to Los Angeles). As I was going to bathroom, I spotted a WiFi hotspot logo. Just to the left, was a German traveler with a Powerbook 17″ doing work. I wanted to get his pic, but he didn’t give me permission. (CVJ is a fan of Mac Powerbooks)

I asked the flight attendant about rates, & it’s 9.95/hr (14.95/2hrs). It’s Boeing Connexion. I recall seeing a show about WiFi capability for Apple employees traveling back to Silicon Valley. Apparently, I found it on my flight. I uploaded some pics of my flight:

http://solareclipse.textamerica.com

Check out the pics of the Greenland coast, the relief is AMAZING! We’re still over Greenland, the relief is real flat, some subtle mottliong on a flat snow plain. As I blog, the images are just 30 min old. Technically, this could have been done *near real-time* like I do at the Baja offroad races. But, I didn’t bring my special PDAs (they have Bluetooth, which allows my BT phone to send picture emails). I coulda used my Powerbook (BT capable) but I don’t have time to figure it out. I’m on a 30 min free trial for the WiFi hotspot (over in 3 minutes).

Yeah, Plato. I will have more to say, I certainly have a lot of “local knowledge” on this real-time mobile-blogging thing. My friends (Laurie/Estonia
& Wade/Colorado) & I were discussing it into the wee hours this morning (4am).
chimpanzee on Apr 4th, 2006 at 10:08 am

I updated my blog at

http://eclipsechaser.blogspot.com

my laptop about to die from dead battery..just made it . Whew!
chimpanzee on Apr 6th, 2006 at 9:59 am

I got back yesterday afternoon, & there were no issues with missing luggage.
[ my friend Dave, Caltech physics alumni Class of '77 who took Feynman's Physics X undergrad course, had his luggage go AWOL..incl his eclipse video! He went to Libya, & stopped off in Italy to visit friends ]

I updated my eclipse website:

http://www.comet-track.com/eclipse/secl06/secl06.html

[ I have LOTS more to upload, so keep checking back for the next 2 weeks ]

I came back with bit of a fever, along with being pretty tired. I still haven’t taken a bath since Mar 23 (when I arrive in Cairo). The blogging, traveling, etc simply makes demands that puts personal-hygiene on the back-burner. If you look at my 2 blogs (& above site), one must wonder “where does he find time to do all that?”. Answer: you have to make sacrifices, “pay the price”.

“Go Hard.or GO HOME!”
– offroad saying

“If you’re gonna go..GO BIG”
– offroad racing

I was going “Big” (a grand slam), & going “hard” (a Willie Stargell like homer out of Dodger Stadium). My ego needs to be fed.

The medium-format images weren’t that fouled up, I actually have a nice set for color & B&W (high-res). The latter has a long-exposure corona shot @3rd contact! (purely by accident) A very difficult thing to do as a “planned” task. However, I lost *precise* 3rd contact on my prominence camera..that was disappointing. Dave is coming by (I live 2 blocks from Caltech), to pickup the medium-format negs to scan. I should have some nice corona pics within a few days, something like you see here from Zambia: color & B&W versions.

You will notice a mutliple-exposure shot of partial phases with Totality. THIS is a tough shot to pull off. I had to be at my site 24 hrs in advance (which I wasn’t because of location logistics, see blogs) to find the sun into the middle of the camera frame (50mm lens); then on E-day, I slightly rotate the camera to find the eclipsed sun @1st contact in the diagonal of the frame. What I ended up doing, was doing the latter..& guess-timating for the former. I was close, see here. . So, I’m happy with this unexpected success.

My intervalometer-based wide-angles turned out more disappointing than I thought. The circular fisheye camera only did 7 exposure, non obtained during Totality. The 14mm rectilinear was 1.5 stops underexposed..I couldn’t believe I left the EV compensation dial to 1.5 under! The 16mm full-frame fisheye was fine. The 20mm (w/mausoleium in foreground) was fine during totality, but for some reason the pre-totality frames were unexposed!

Moral of Story:
Pre Flight Preparation Precludes Post-Flight Peril
“It’s all about PREPARATION”

I did myself in, by preparing my eclipse program FOUR DAYS before I left. Way too last minute. Being rushed, accounts for all the little mistakes.

I’m shooting the Long Beach Grand Prix starting today, this is what last year looked like:

http://longbeachgrandprix.blogspot.com
[ available as a video-podcast over iPod/iTunes, you can download the videos to your video iPod ]

Lots of color, pageantry, race cars, attractive women, partying, good food (hint to CVJ: you need to try to make it, Sat & Sun), Hollywood celebrities for their race, Beauty contest, music festival, Lifestyle Expo show in auditorium.

There’s some excitement about Kathernine Legge (English woman), she was promoted to the big-series (Champ Car, 750HP) from Toyota Atlantic. Last year, she scored THREE wins (yeah, a bunch of guys “got beat by a girl”)..2 of them were consecutive. One of them was LBGP..exactly a year ago. I did a video-blog for her (available as a video-podcast over iPod/iTunes):

http://katherinelegge.blogspot.com

Do a Google search on her, great stuff on gender issues in auto-racing. The latter has a number of woman racers (2005 was the year of the woman race car driver, Danica Patrick was leading the Indy 500 late in the race). Larry Summers needs to study the K. Legge “data point”, it shows that women are quite capable to compete at a high level alongisde men, in possible the most macho-sport on the planet. Auto Racing is a “rough game”, as per A.J. Foyt (aka “Big TEX”)

CVJ, I think you have a multitude of incentives to do the LBGP: food, partying, hanging with Hollywood celebrities, checking out “diversity in action” (women in racing).
chimpanzee on Apr 6th, 2006 at 10:15 am

I forgot to mention a HD video (fisheye lens) of totality:

http://eclipsescience.blogspot.com

It will be available as a video-podcast over iPod/iTunes by sometime today. I.e., downloadable to your portable video-iPod, so you can show friends the “experience of Totality”.

CV needs to get a Feedburner RSS feed submitted to iTunes, to get a Cosmic Variance video-podcast. CVJ/Joanne/Mark/Sean need to do informational-videos to combat pseudo-science (& any other issue you choose), so they can be viewed on a portable video iPod (42 million out there & counting, 14 million sold last holiday quarter). The nutcases are using this Technology, religious zealots are using the iPod (audio podcast) to deliver their message, called “Godcasting”.

Technology is a double-edged sword, it can help or hurt you. The latter manifests itself, when the enemy (anti-science types) embrace the Technology. All the frustrations expressed on CV by crackpots/idiots/fools/morons is even more worrisome! My Jumplive.com technology-initiative is ALL about Agile/Mobile/Hostile: using the mobile technologies (cellphone, PDA, laptop, mobile satellite-DSL) to deliver LIVE pics/videos from ANYWHERE..even from desolate areas like Baja Mexico (offroad races). My experience showed, in my recent blogging for the Egyp solar eclipse. I’d really like to see CV get on the “Bleeding Edge” of Technology, & raise your game to the “next level”. We need to talk privately about this (& other issues).

“If you don’t play, you get left behind”
– Zaslav, head of NBC Universal, after they did their NBC/DirecTV VoD (Video on Demand deal) when Apple’s video iPod experiment was a huge success

[ see here for details ]
Clifford on Apr 6th, 2006 at 10:31 am

“CVJ, I think you have a multitude of incentives to do the LBGP: food, partying, hanging with Hollywood celebrities, checking out â€œdiversity in actionâ€ (women in racing).”

Good Lord….. whatever gave you that impression? What kind of boy do you think I am?

-cvj
Cynthia on Apr 6th, 2006 at 10:53 am

chimpanzee, thanks for sharing this ecliptic experience. I feel the intensity of this experience is beyond words. A great way to relax ones thoughts…
chimpanzee on Apr 10th, 2006 at 11:08 am

I updated my eclipse site with more QTVR panorama material (incl, fixing a link for the pre-Totality pano. You can see the onset of Totality):

http://www.comet-track.com/eclipse/secl06/secl06.html

I hooked up with 2 of the leading QTVR photographers to pull this off.

[ R. Fisher & J. Leung, the latter who is friends with K. Turkowski. This is the "Art & Science" paradigm at work. "Art" is the photographers, end users of QTVR "digital photography". "Science" (Applied Science, or "Engineering" as Caltech calls it) are engineer/mathematicians like Ken who develop the algorithms for "Digital Photography" (Caltech has a course named like this). Ken is a UC Berkeley Elec Eng MSEE, & UIUC BSEE (we graduated nearly the same time)..he led the Apple QTVR group is quite a math whiz. He has given talks at MIT & Stanford, & is widely known/respected. He & S. Wolfram know each other. Ken & I are collaborating on some future projects. ]

Do check out the beautiful QTVR presentations from my Egypt trip by R Fisher & J. Leung. I had SO MUCH stuff going on, I had to have help from these guys. Just, like the CV blog is a Cooperative/Collaborative/Coordinated (”C cubed”) effort among CVJ, Joanne, Mark, Sean, Risa. Strength in numbers (”team work”). A Caltech CS professor told me about getting “New Ideas” accepted for publication (which are often rejected):

“go into it, with a group of people”
“Even Einstein had problems”
[ his work on Relativity was so "radical" (ahead of his time), his peers didn't understand it. The way it was told to me by my geologist friend was: "well, Einstein has got something here, but we don't understand it. Just give him a Nobel Prize for the Photoelectric effect"

(which is now being disputed credit-wise, his 1st wife the genius girl from Yugoslavia collaborated on it. See recent NOVA episode. Apparently, there is some paper-trail in Russia in a submitted paper. Einstein paid her w/proceeds of the Nobel Prize so there is some strong circumstantial evidence)

There was a good show on DNA Revolution, where a couple of Stanford researchers were using some of the new Bio-Informatics (heavy in computer algorithms). Their paper was rejected (Biologist peers don't understand Computer Science), which prompted the following response:

"I think I need to LIE DOWN!"

He was so flabbergasted by the ignorance of "peer review", he was about to go "unconscious". It happened to me BIG TIME during my Doctoral Research 20 odd yrs ago, I personally led a breakthrough in my field (it sometimes happens w/grad students). I single-handedly embarassed a LOT of big-name researchers, Proceedings papers were accepted BUT Journal papers were turned away. It's STILL LIKE this to this day..20 YEARS. It's being taught wrong @Caltech, Berkeley, Stanford, etc. Some clown wrote a book, & didn't research it thoroughly, so all these universities are "teaching out of a book":

"If you believe everything you read, BETTER NOT READ BOOKS!"
-- Japanese proverb

"Knowledge Creation [ new ideas ], VS Knowledge Consumerism [ rote memorizing, reading out of a book ]”
– R.L. Moore/UT Austin/Discovery Learning Project
[ one of my ex-classmates is a Physics prof @UT Austin, & is involved with above. We both came of out of a famous high-school, which was on the leading edge of "New Math" curriculum development, Dr. Max Beberman. The other effort was led by G. Polya/Stanford. BTW, I was classmates with David Pines (M. Gell-Mann's best-friend, best-man at this wedding) son & daughter. I think D. Pines & M. Gell-Man co-founded the Santa Fe Inst. Ira Handler was also a classmate (son of Philip Handler, they guy who annoyed R. Feynman after his Nobel, by calling him up to become a member of NAS? See Surely you Must be Joking book ]

“I cannot Understand, what I cannot CREATE”
– RP Feynman
[ great quote. In reference, to proving in Shannon's IT xxx, in an alternate context. Physics is about DOING. Many fields get caught up by "learning out of a book"..big mistake. Geology & Geophysics requires field-trips, getting up close & personal with the "medium". I think this is why String Theory is getting such a bad rap, where is the Experimental component? In my own PhD work, I went out & came up with New Ideas (very simple), & easy calculations. My field still hasn't caught on (after 20 odd years), they're still stuck reading out of a poorly researched book!? It reminds me of Feynman's "Cargo Cult Science" lecture, where "thinking" has been replaced by "reacting".

"No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical."
-- Niels Bohr to Einstein
[ the key word is "thinking"..ANYTHING ELSE (reacting, superstition, religion, etc) gets in the way ]

Even *researchers* can get caught up on this. Anyone who has done research knows about this in their own fields ]

All they have to do is a literature search, & they’ll find my papers which establishes:

“Simple Answers, to Simple Questions..TURNED OUT TO BE REALLY EXCITING!”
– M. Gell-Mann, from “Student to Scientist”
(a really outstanding PBS program, it’s aired locally on KLCS PBS in Los Angeles area, Wed 10am. Look for it.)

What is being taught at universities, is this ridiculous complicated (erroneous, there is a paper-trail where I found those errors, with acknowledgment to me) algorithms. They are teaching grad students how NOT to do research! (violation of the Simple/Elegant paradigm which is the “Holy Grail” (sorry about the religious reference) of Physics)

A few yrs ago, I wrote a Berkely CS professor..no response. Hopeless. One of my old profs ended up at Univ of Michigan, EE dept as Deptarment Head. He told me of story, where his NSF proposal was turned down:

“it was a Multidisciplinary proposal. It was shuffled around various depts, each of which said ‘oh, send it to the other dept..it’s not our specialty’”

You see how, the current bureacracy CAN’T HANDLE Multi-Disciplinary (”interdisciplinary”) research. It’s too over-specialized, compartmentalized. He told me he was going to re-submit it (in his retirement years!). Frankly, in my case, I’m just moving on to new stuff.

The classic case of the above is Alfred Wegener (German meteorologist who proposed Continental Drift in early 1900’s) & was ridiculed as a “crackpot” by his geophysicst peers. Do a Google search on some of the comments, it’s absurd. Of course, Wegener was proved right (after 70 odd yrs) & they call it Plate Tectonics (my geologist friend told me this was further disrespect, since they changed the name from “continental drift”).

You have to wonder about String Theory, is it going down the same path as:

“today’s Absurdity (radical proposal), is tomorrow’s Reality (accepted Theory)”
“Every Absurdity, has its Champion”
[ one of my favorite quotes ]

or, is the absence of the Experiment+Theory paradigm dooming it to just fanciful ideas. I ran it by a Caltech post-doctoral scholar on DNA Computing (I met him, where I met R. Feynman’s son-in-law..Rose Bowl field where people fly R/C aircraft), & he said “Cosmology is Religion”. On the way back from Egypt, this girl was wearing this really great T-shirt:

“This is Old, therefore it is GOOD. This is New, therefore it is BETTER”
– Progress paradigm

You look at research 2, 5, 10, 50, 100 yrs ago & you can see how backwards we were back then. The Leading Edge (aka “bleeding edge”) of Technology (or Research) definitely is Ahead of the Curve. There are a few cases of “Older is Better”. There are some cases of current research topics that are flat out foolish. Example from my own field: Quaternions. The Digital Photography in Computer Graphics research (QTVR, et al) stuff has re-introducted Quaternion representation of 3D rotations. This is ABSURD! In the late 1800’s, there was a great rift between the “Vector Analysis” & “Quaternion” camps in the Mathematics community: the VA crowd won.

[ this has implication in Physics, I ran it by John Huges/Brown Univ (Princeton PhD/Mathematics). He gave me an interesting insight, on how the Quaternion representation has been used in Physics. I also ran it by J. Baez/UC Riverside ]

For my research field, it’s just flat-out silly. They resurrected a “dead horse”. I look at the research papers today using Q representations, & just LAUGH! I was talking to an ex-Caltech CS researcher (now at UC Irvine, Yale PhD..a leading authority), & he agreed with me. He told me of a research topic, where a recent paper basically REPEATED work done in the late 1800’s. Peer Review does a POOR JOB of Accountability: current research is not *checked* against prior research (especially WAY long ago):

“You can deny Responsibility, but you cannot deny Accountability”
[ good quote, that came out of 9/11 fiasco ]

Sorry about rambling.

I got fried for 4 days at the Long Beach GP. Katherine Legge finished 8th in her debut ChampCar race. A Top 10 finish is very respectable, & I expect her to improve. I spoke with her
[ & other racers like Nelson Philippe (France, very computer savvy..has iPod hemself), Alex Tagliani (Italian Canadian)..who is computer literate in Windows Mobile ]

& she is excited about the video-podcast I did for her.

CV needs to get listed as a video-podcast on iTunes, to “broadcast” via video..over the 42 million iPods out there.
chimpanzee on Apr 12th, 2006 at 12:05 am

I wonder if CVJ made it to the Long Beach GP. I updated my website:

http://www.jumplive.com/lbgp06/index.html

Have a look at the QTVR presentation, it gives you an “immersive experience” of what it was like to be there.

Like the TV station said, it was a “picture postcard day”. It’s one of my favorite races.

- Long Beach Convention Center
they have concerts, theatre, etc there

- race cars
Engineering & Applied Science: front & rear wing downforce (aka, “negative lift” in aerodynamic terminology), engine (metallurgy, alloys, heat treating/equalization), chassis design/stress/fracture analysis..Condensed Matter Physics (my ex-classmate is a Physics prof @UT Austin..UC Santa Barbara PhD/Cornell undergrad, this is his specialty), Materials Science (carbon fiber technology). Stephen Hawking & his son are Formula 1 fans, & are sometimes seen in Williams F1 pit. One of John Doyle’s (Caltech/Nonlinear Dynamics & Control) grad students ended up at Williams F1, he has a website talking about “Complex Adaptive Systems” (M. Gell-Mann’s fascination at Santa Fe Inst) in relation to Formula 1 racing..it is a VERY complicated ordeal.

“I’d rather be LUCKY, than GOOD..any day”
– famous auto-racing saying
[ illustrates the importance of "chance" in the equation of "winning races". Something like the Wave function in particle physics, it's very probabilistic. Determinism is not a factor ]

Some drivers at this race are ex-Formula 1 drivers (A. Pizzonia/Italy, C. da Matta/Brazil, Nigel Mansell/UK, Timo Glock/Germany), & some drivers move on to Formula 1 (Jacque Villeneuve/Canada, Juan Montoya/Columbia, M. Andretti)

Auto Racing is a fascinating metaphor for Scientific Research: both involve teamwork, it’s EXTREMELY competitive, egos & talent abound, LUCK plays a big part in Winning (”making discoveries”), a long drawn out “campaign” over several years in getting a Season Championship (Driver, Mfr, Constructor, etc). My pet peeve, is that Academia (a bit of “Unreality”, isolated from the Real World: publishing papers, etc) suffers from a lack of “Reality”. They could use a dose of “Sun Tzu, Art of War” as part of their coursework in Research. It IS taught at all the big-name business schools (incl Harvard). I bet if it is taught in Engineering & Science curriculums, it would improve performance. Auto Racing has a Diversity componenet, & I think it’s ahead of Academia in that respect.

- great food
I was at the Motorsports Hall of Fame (Long Beach) ceremony, where Phil Hill (American Formula 1 champion) was inducted. Food was great. The cafes nearby had good food also. I also made friends with some team-owners (Kevin Kalkhoven/PKV Racing & Derrick Walker/Team Australia), & sampled their catering, & here

- lots of beautiful people
here & here. The professional models gave me their cards, & I gave them mine. They were excited about the LiveWebCasting & iPod/iTunes mediums, it obviously would be helpful to their careers..EXPOSURE. The hospitality area was filled with “beautiful people”, mainly people associated with Sponsors. Hugh Hefner was in attendance, with his bevy of beauties. It was his birthday, & I wanted to cover it..didn’t have time. Of course, the Celebrity Race had its share of celebrities. William Shatner (of Star Trek fame) was a driver, & Monday’s episode of Entertainment Tonight had some footage of his big wreck in Turn 1.

- excitement
racing, parachutists before race, F18 flyover, Mariachi band, Lifestyle Expo in Convention Center (incl Tecate Girls)
Clifford on Apr 12th, 2006 at 12:21 am

Chimpanzee. Thanks. Gentle reminder….. This is supposed to be posts about the Eclipse and the trip to see it. I’m not really seeing the connection to the women with the inflated fronts…. So let’s scale back the long posts on non-eclipse stuff. But thanks for sharing.

cheers,

-cvj
chimpanzee on Apr 12th, 2006 at 7:17 am

On Monday, Dave (Caltech physics alumni, Class of ‘77) dropped off the medium-format scans for my corona-camera shots (color & high-res B&W). I should have some outer-corona pics posted later today. I spent today dealing with computer issues (a failing main HD on my PowerMac!), got that fixed. Still recovering from the Long Beach GP. The LiveWebCast’ing, video-blogging over iPod/iTunes from Egypt solar-eclipse & Long Beach GP is good foundational work for future video-podcasting in blogs like CV.

CVJ, you really need to get a Feedburner RSS feed going for CV. Your Powerbook (w/iMovie & good video-camera, say the portable high-definition Sony HDR-HC1) is a nice solution for iPod/iTunes videos. It’s what I use, except I use a fancy Sony FX1 HD camera + iMovie. I myself got 5 video-podcasts listed yesterday (only took 24 hrs for Apple iTunes Music Store to review them, & list them). In 24 hrs, CV could be listed & searchable in iTunes Music Store on the term “Cosmic Variance”, “theoretical physics”, “SLAC”, “USC physics”, “Cornell physics”, “University of Chicago physics”, “Clifford Johnson”, “Joanne Hewett “, “Mark Trodden”, “Sean Carroll”, “Risa Wechsler”, etc (the special Feedburner RSS feed allows you to specify the relevant search terms). If you need help, get in touch with me via email or phone. There’s some Learning Curve, & Feedburner still has “issues”..it’s all late-breaking Beta software technology based on Apple’s “video iPod” test. Still bugs & snafus lurking around.

CV can start making video-posts: to combat pseudo-science, provide Public Information on your research (a better informed public is more likely to fund Scientific Research). You can carry around a video-iPod (or have the public do the same thing), showing videos & say “this is what theoretical physicists do, & the issues we have to deal with”. A GREAT Public Relations tool. It would also get CV rated as a #1 Blog.

I can contribute some of my eclipse videos (shot on HD) to CV, say as a “guest contributor”. I setup a Eclipse Science video-blog (& corresponding video-podcast), which has some eclipse videos:

http://eclipsescience.blogspot.com
[ click on the upper-right icon to jump to the iTunes video-podcast, or do a search in iTUnes Music Store on "eclipse science" ]

Again, it took only 24 hrs for iTunes Music Store to list the video-podcast. I can show people eclipse videos via iPod, i.e. “Public Information in a Pocket”. Phil Plait should do the same thing for his Bad Astronomy site, it would be an effective tool to combat crackposts/nuts/idiots/fools who intentionally push nonsense to the Public.

I look forward to seeing CV on iTunes as a video-podcast. It would be great to see footage of the USC Molecular Biology Lab, SLAC (via Joanne), etc over a video-iPod. QTVR panoramas can actually PLAY on iTunes (however, the iPod can’t play them).

BTW, does anyone here using the Texas Instruments CBL (”calculator based laboratory”) for their undergrad course work in Physics? (widely used in HS physics courses) I was using it to collect Temperature & Light data during eclipse (in conjunction with TI83+). Unforunately, I’m having problems downloading the data from my TI83+..I’m only getting 1/3 the data-set. I’m using an old TI GraphLink software (circa 2001), with an old GraphLink cable (modem-port connection for old Macs, not USB). I tried everything, but no go. I even tried a TI83+ to TI86 transfer, which failed. ARGH! There are no useful forums, to ask questions about problems.

I was collaborating with Richard Taylor (HS physics teacher in Texas, I believe he worked at SLAC many yrs ago), except he’s on sabbatical in UK..& on spring break in New Zealand! Not available to help me. Since I live 2 blocks from Caltech, I think I can find someone there to download the data from TI83+ (using more modern software & cables).

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