Life Is Short- So Are My Pants: February 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Boardwalk Souvenir

Lisa dug this splinter out of my heel this morning after I cried about it all night. It was straight in to some good meaty stuff- felt like she was pulling it out from my ankle.

I will not roar at her.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Monday, February 27, 2012

Sunday, February 26, 2012

What I Did Today

165ft deep for 27 minutes followed by 32 minutes of accelerated decompression.

With sharks.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Pretend vacation

Confession: sometimes I hang out at the fancy resort for a few hours and pretend I'm a guest.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

My Turn!

Its not a full page photo like Lisa's, but its my turn to be in Scubadiver Magazine!

That's me kickin' back with a barracuda under the dive boat I used to work on in North Carolina.

Thanks again to our friend Karen Doody who took the picture and Olympus Dive Center in Morehead City!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Monday, February 20, 2012

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Lisa's Booty

While diving out west we went to look for old artifacts from the steamship era where the old pier used to be. Lisa found two very old bottles and an intact bowl!

The embossed letters and 3-piece mold lines on one bottle show it to have been made in Scotland sometime after the 1840's. The other one is also handblown , but without mold lines and is likely older.

I found a brick.

At least its an old Danish brick. They were commonly used as ballast on slaveships and then sold here to build plantation buildings. The local ruins are made of them and blocks of coral and local stones. This one apparently never quite made it to shore 'til now.

What we didn't get a picture of is the 10ft or longer hammerhead that swam by us earlier in the day!

Almost too close.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Green Flash!

An extreme close-up-

The science behind the magic-

The American Practical Navigator

Bowditch
Chapter 34

3421. The Green Flash

As light from the Sun passes through the atmosphere, it is refracted. Since the amount of bending is slightly different for each color, separate images of the Sun are formed in each color of the spectrum. The effect is similar to that of imperfect color printing, in which the various colors are slightly out of register. However, the difference is so slight that the effect is not usually noticeable. At the horizon, where refraction is maximum, the greatest difference, which occurs between violet at one end of the spectrum and red at the other, is about 10 seconds of arc. At latitudes of the United States, about 0.7 second of time is needed for the Sun to change altitude by this amount when it is near the horizon.

The red image, being bent least by refraction, is first to set and last to rise. The shorter wave blue and violet colors are scattered most by the atmosphere, giving it its characteristic blue color. Thus, as the Sun sets, the green image may be the last of the colored images to drop out of sight. If the red, orange, and yellow images are below the horizon, and the blue and violet light is scattered and absorbed, the upper rim of the green image is the only part seen, and the Sun appears green. This is the green flash. The shade of green varies, and occasionally the blue image is seen, either separately or following the green flash (at sunset). On rare occasions the violet image is also seen. These colors may also be seen at sunrise, but in reverse order. They are occasionally seen when the Sun disappears behind a cloud or other obstruction.

The phenomenon is not observed at each sunrise or sunset, but under suitable conditions is far more common than generally supposed. Conditions favorable to observation of the green flash are a sharp horizon, clear atmosphere, a temperature inversion, and a very attentive observer. Since these conditions are more frequently met when the horizon is formed by the sea than by land, the phenomenon is more common at sea. With a sharp sea horizon and clear atmosphere, an attentive observer may see the green flash at as many as 50 percent of sunsets and sunrises, although a telescope may be needed for some of the observations.

Duration of the green flash (including the time of blue and violet flashes) of as long as 10 seconds has been reported, but such length is rare. Usually it lasts for a period of about 1/2 to 21/2 seconds, with about 11/4 seconds being average. This variability is probably due primarily to changes in the index of refraction of the air near the horizon. Under favorable conditions, a momentary green flash has been observed at the setting of Venus and Jupiter. A telescope improves the chances of seeing such a flash from a planet, but is not a necessity.