Eclipse!

Tomorrow, 20th February 2008, brings in the first lunar eclipse of the year.

A lunar ecliplse, unlike a solar eclipse is visible from more than half the earth’s surface. This particular eclipse is located very favorably to the western hemisphere.  For sky watchers in the Pacific Standard Time zone, the totality phase of this eclipse begins around 7 pm, and ends few minutes before 8 pm.

You will not see this eclipse if you live in India, Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, most parts of China or in Siberia.

Unlucklily for me, the weather is not really co-operating where I live. Tomorrow’s prediction calls for rain (and that means cloudy sky even if there is no rain )  So I may not be lucky enough  to see tomorrow’s eclipse after all.

But I am really disappointed for my son. After showing a few things in the sky,  this ‘sky bug’ has caught on  him too.  I had mentioned about this coming eclipse and he was really looking forward to see this event. Probably this could have been the first eclipse that he would remember into his adulthood. I still remember seeing those eclipses when I was his age, and I can feel his excitement. Alas, I don’t know if he gets to see this at all. Mercy Oh Weather Gods!

Did you say lunar eclipses are not so rare? Yes, true. But I have to wait for almost two years to see a total eclipse (Dec 21st, 2010)  similar to tomorrow’s eclipse from my location.  And guess what? The weather here in December won’t be any prettier either! So next realistic possibility for me to watch a total lunar eclipse with my son is on April 14th, 2014. By that time,  I am sure my son would not remain the dreamy eyed little lad that he is today.

Oh well, that is a bit too far out to think about. But I can always hope that the god Varuna is pleased, and takes his clouds away to give us a clear view of the eastern sky tomorrow evening!

Anyway,  if the skys are clear where you live, don’t forget to peep outside to see the eclipse!

-neelanjana

The Road to Paradise

To be accurate, the title should have been the ‘Road from Paradise’, for that is the road you will drive if you drove from Paradise, CA to Quincy, CA. Drive, I did, to Quincy. But not from Paradise, but from San Jose, CA area last weekend.

It was a leaf-peeping trip. California is not blessed with the typical fall foliage that the east coast of USA is known for. Not that I worry about it – because the absense of fall color also translates to more tolerable winters, and not having to scrape the snow off the windshield  To make the long story short, this day trip to Quincy, CA in Plumas county was to enjoy  the sights of the fall.

Most of the fall color wonders in CA occurs on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, bordering the state of Nevada. On the more popular passes on the western side of the mountains (like the highway 50, 80, 120, 140 etc) the vegitation is mostly coniferous, and hence evergreen, which means no fall foliage. Except in couple of passes like the Feather River Pass and the Yuba River Pass.

I knew this was a long road. At least 5 hours of drive – one way. So we made an early start @7 am. 3 + hours of drive brought us to the small town of Olivehurst, CA with a non descript main street. One Pizza Parlor. One gas station. One hardware store. And a break for us to eat our ಉಪ್ಪಿಟ್ಟು. And yes, there was some good fall color on the parking lot, sort or preface for things to  come.

 

 Maple leaf turning golden  in Olivehurst, CA

California state highway 70  going from Oroville, CA to Quincy, CA is also called the Feather river canyon. The road meanders next to the north fork of Feather river, crossing countless bridges, and a few tunnels. There are several small dams on the river. There is a big dam one at Oroville too. We skipped seeing that, but I belive we crossed it’s backwaters.

A view of North Fork of Feather River.

From Oroville to Quincy, it is about 75 miles. The first 25 miles are uneventful. You go up about 2000 feet, and then come down about the same. The road is one lane each side. But the traffic was very light.

 

Bald grey hill  

Even before we could spot any color,  one of the sights seen from miles was a grey bald hill, with trees burnt from a forest fire sometime back. I was rally hoping that our drive would not be fruitless, after watching this hill for a while.

 

Finally, color starts showing up!

All along the Feather river canyon, you will see a railway track close by. I have no clue where the rails lead to. But we spotted several freight trains on our drive. So they should be leading somewhere

After a while. color started showing up everywhere! Some of these pics were taken from inside the car, and that explains the blurriness. Entire hillsides were drenched in color.

 

 

Color, color, and more color!

The road has it’s own quota of curves. But not as bad as some other sierra roads. It is in good state of repair. One thing is it does not snow much in Feather river canyon. Actually it is the lowest pass that crosses the Sierra from west to east. But at some really nice spots, there was no place to pull over the car and take pictures

 

 

More Curves, and More Color!

Finally, we made it to Quincy by 1 pm in the afternoon. Quincy is a sleepy town, (or should I say a village? I don’t know), but is the main town of Plumas county. It has a  college and even an airstrip.

We found some nice picnic benches in front of the elementary school. My son later tells me that the building also houses the Plumas county board of education. Very nice place for our ಹುಳಿಯನ್ನ and ಮೊಸರನ್ನ!

 

 Quincy Elementary School. The board says it was built in 1905! 

Rainbow tree in front of Quincy School, and (perhaps the only?) grocery store

A street in Quincy, alive with color

 

Red sandwiched between yellow

 A street in Quincy -Trees, and cars, and electric lines!

 

Good bye Quincy!

The weather was near perfect. Not cold, but with a tinge of cool air. After a good lunch, it is time to head back home. On the way back, I noticed the colors at some places were much brighter due to the changed angle of sunlight.

Orange clad hillside

 

Another curve on the Feather river

Almost exiting the Feather river valley.

The colors will be here for another week or ten days. After that, all there will be bare trees and bleak landscape. May be something like below.

First trace of winter?

I have read that Feather canyon is beautiful in spring too- thanks to hundreds of waterfalls that line the hillside. I sense it would be great, because I saw remnats of many small falls on the roadside. I hope I will do that drive sometime. No, definitely not next year. After having to go through myriad “are we there yet?”, “why not turn back and head home right now?” from my kids I want to give them a break.  April 2009? May be. My kids will be little more grown then. Also I am sure the questions will be different. “Did we come here to see these little waterfalls, where you can’t even swim?”

-neelanjana