Great American Eclipse!

                                                                                                               August 21

As soon as I got up, I looked out the window and saw a wall of low clouds blocking the Sun. To avoid being run over by clouds on The Great American Eclipse day, I packed up the camera and the tripod and headed out to the Dos Picos County Park in Ramona, a rural town just east. Since it was a Monday morning, not a single person was there in the park. 

Many times in the past, I had taken close up shots of the eclipsed Sun and so decided to create a Time-lapse movie of the eclipse. For those interested,
                  Camera:    Canon T3i
                       Lens:    Tamron 16 - 300 mm (covered with Solar film)
       Intervalometer:    Phottix TR 90
 Continuous images:    744 images with 10 seconds gap


                                                                    The first Time-lapse is from just before the eclipse started to beyond the mid point.

                                                                    The second Time-lapse continues from beyond the midpoint to the end of the eclipse.

@Night San Diego: Cabrillo National Monument!

                                                                                                                      April 22

On September 28, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, sailed in to San Diego Bay.  He was the first European explorer to set foot on present day California. High above where he landed, on the cliffs of the Point Loma peninsula is the Cabrillo National Monument (CNM), one of my favorite places in San Diego! CNM offers beautiful, panoramic and spectacular 360 degree views of San Diego Bay, Downtown, Coronado island and the Pacific ocean. The place shuts down at 5 PM. I always used to think how am I going to find a way to access this place at night. When I heard of an evening fundraiser event held there by the CNM Foundation on April 22nd, I signed up. After an excellent dinner on the patio overlooking the Pacific, I was roaming the monument grounds up to 10 PM, taking night sky photos.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

San Diego Downtown. View from Cabrillo National Monument.

The Old Point Loma Lighthouse, built in 1855.

Spiral staircase of the lighthouse.

Constellations Canis Major and Orion.

Constellation Orion on the left, the "V" of Taurus and Pleiades right above the roof.

"The Path to Orion".

Constellations Canis Major, Orion, Taurus and Pleiades over the Pacific!

Jupiter (bright object above center) in the constellation Virgo.
Constellation Corvus above the lighthouse.

Orion landing!

Constellation Auriga over the lighthouse.

April 22nd was Earth day and April 24th was Hubble Telescope's birthday! With my birthday sandwiched in between, I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate these very important events!!! ;)

ISS Over San Diego!

Last week, almost every day, the International Space Station (ISS) was visible from San Diego.  Though I have watched the ISS 100s of times, I have the same level of excitement; getting outside the house and eagerly waiting for ISS to show up above the horizon and the pure joy of watching it cross the sky and disappearing in to the earth's shadow.

April 14:

Orion at bottom left and Auriga at top right. 20:57 PM.

21:05 PM

April 15:

Gemini at top left and part of Ursa Major at right. 20:12 PM

20:13 PM

Borrego Bloom !!!

The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is 2 hours east of San Diego and is the largest State Park in California. Anza-Borrego is a desert and doesn't get much rain. During the summer, temps can reach up to 115 F.  With the drought-busting rain storms we had for the last 3 months, the desert floor and valleys are exploding with wild flowers. Our last trip to Anza-Borrego to watch the wild flowers was in 2008. With lot of expectations, we got out there last Saturday!

                                                                                                 Click on the photos to view them in Full Screen

Desert Dandelion

Desert Chicory

Sand Verbena

Dune Evening Primrose

Desert Sunflower

Once in a decade, with heavy rains, these wild flower blooms happen and they last for just 2 weeks. Very soon, an army of very hungry caterpillars will attack and these flowers will be recycled!

@Night: OU

                                                                                           Norman, OK
                                                                                November 11, 2016

Previous post: A Stroll Down Memory Lane: OU

OU Visitor Center.

Evans Hall.

Bizzell Library.

Bizzell Library.

Bizzell Library.

Football Stadium.

Felgar Hall.

Student Union.

Student Union.

Campus Corner, Boyd Street.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane: OU

                                                                                            Norman, OK
                                                                                November 11, 2016

For the last few years, my buddy Santosh and I had been talking about visiting OU (The University of Oklahoma at Norman), our Alma mater. The plan had been to visit the campus, hang out at our usual locations, meet the professors and watch an OU football game. Recently, we pulled the trigger on that plan!!! Though it was early November, we had sunny skies and the weather turned out to be just perfect and warm. It felt so good going back to the place that educated us, meeting and thanking our favorite Computer Science Professor and reminiscing about all the things we did good/bad,  while at OU :)

We pulled over at Parrington Oval, off W. Boyd St.,  and walked in to the visitor center to find out where to park. When I showed my old OU Student ID, the lady helping us was so happy that we are visiting after so many years. She showed us where to park free and gave tips on parking for the Football game the following day.

Student Union, where we used to have our lunch, coffee, buy stationery, make copies of text books!!! and hangout in between classes.

Beautiful and luxurious study area in the Student Union.

Bizzell Library. There are more trees now or the trees have grown taller.

Bizzell Library

The beautiful and ornamental facade of the Bizzell Library with gargoyles!

Inside  Bizzell Library. As a Grad student, I used to have my own private study room with key access!

Good old Sooner Trolley; still running!

Of course, we went for a free ride for 15 minutes! :)

Physics Department, where I had my Research Assistant job, paying me $500 per month with a tuition waiver.
Unfortunately, Dr. George Kalbfleisch who gave me the RA job had passed away in 2006.

The High Energy Physics labs where I used to work 20 hours/week as a Research Assistant.

Carson Engineering Center, where we had our classes and labs.

Inside Carson.

Davon Energy Hall. A brand new and modern Computer Science building has popped up next to Carson.
This is where the CS professors have their offices now. Our CS Professor told us that OU is staring a
Bio Medical Engineering program and new building is going to be built right across from Davon Energy Hall.

Engineering Library, right across from Carson.

Felgar Hall, where CS professors had their offices at the first floor.

It was time for lunch and we ended up at my favorite, Greek House, off campus at S. Jenkins Ave.
I Used to visit this place often. A nice family run place with authentic Greek food.

Nothing much has changed at all (:-P...

Lindsey St. & Van Vleet Oval. Towards the left is Dale Hall. Dale Hall is completely covered by tress in the front and I couldn't get a clear shot.

View from Lindsey St. The Gaylord Hall building is brand new.

From Lindsey St., walking towards Bizzell Library. Architecture building (Gould Hall) on the right.

Adams Hall.

Price Hall.

Asp Ave. & Boyd St. The coffee shop named "Starbucks" was not there when we graduated :)

Jenkins Ave. & Brooks St. Towards the left is the OU Football Stadium.

E. Lindsey St & Classen Blvd.
Our apartments were on Sooner Drive, towards the right before reaching this signal.
Those apartments had been completely demolished and Sooner Drive is empty.

It is a very unique, refreshing, challenging and life-changing experience to study at an university in USA, especially after you have gone through the Indian education system. As international students on a student visa in a new country, at the farthest distance away from home, with practically living on Teaching/Research Assistant or hourly jobs, we were all trying to survive. There was so much going through your mind on top of demanding Graduate studies and working 20 hours/week. I believe this experience exposes one to the system and people from the bottom up and makes one resilient.  126 years after starting, OU is still growing and expanding. While we enjoyed the campus life as students, going back after all these years, the beauty of the OU campus is striking. Santosh and I loved every nano-second of our visit.