Turkey vulture

[altivo]

Saw a turkey vulture in Harvard, circling over Lions Park today. I'm sure this is the earliest I've ever seen one. Went to the Audubon meeting tonight with friend Susan who said she had seen a red headed woodpecker in her yard, as well. That's about a month earlier than we usually see them.

Gary called the heat pump guy a couple of days ago because our system was acting irregular again. It would run normally for 20 hours or so, then lock up. He found a defective (sticky) relay. No parts cost because there were spare contacts on another relay that operates in parallel with it anyway. He transferred the problem circuit and everything is working again. Hopefully we're now good for a couple of years. He checked the pressure in the underground loop and it was OK. The compressor is transferring heat as it should, and the problem with the relay was cutting off the pump that circulates the coolant in the wells. All seems to be functional now.

Clear skies, brilliant full moon. Even if there is an aurora display tonight, I suspect the moon will mask it for us.

Comments

[hrrunka]

The HF bands have gone for a loop, so I suspect there is some auroral activity, but the full moon was very bright last night.

[altivo]

Yeah, there sure was aurora. See spaceweather.com for spectacular photos.

Another flare today suggests more activity to follow.

[hrrunka]

Impressive pictures there. Not so good for HF contacts, though. ;)

[altivo]

Point given. Since my antenna is not currently usable, though, I'm not directly affected. I'd enjoy seeing some aurora, since the last one I saw was in 2000 or so.

[hrrunka]

It looks like it was spectacular last night (or early this morning) over your way, if the sky was clear. Here, less so, and the moon didn't help. By this morning there was thick cloud, too.

[altivo]

Alas there was nothing visibly where I am by 11 pm or so. And I couldn't stay up later.

Farther north they saw stuff, perhaps as little as 100 miles or so away.

[hrrunka]

I gather things started happening around 8:30 UTC, which, I guess, would have been past your midnight?

[altivo]

Well past. Midnight here was only 0600 UTC on Thursday. After tonight, it will be 0500 UTC due to the political and pointless perversion of the clocks.

I see yet another flare and CME took place today. This sequence should keep the magnetic storms going for at least a couple more days.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

I saw a turkey vulture flying over the building at work last week (which made me concerned, but there were no emails from management, fortunately...). I thought it was awful early to see that. There are a handful of vultures that hang around the zoo, but work is far enough away that it probably wasn't one of those.

[altivo]

Flying overhead is one thing. Finding one sitting in your boss' office is quite another. Believe me I've been there and you don't want to see that.