Tag Archives: washington

The Aurora Forecast is Good but Will it Come?

I can’t imagine that there are too many parts of the world that didn’t hear something about the significant coronal mass ejection that came the way of earth in May 2024. If you lived nearer the poles, aurora discussions were everywhere, and social media posts were full of it. If you lived elsewhere, you probably still heard about the potential technical issues our infrastructure could experience. I have had no luck with previous aurora potential sightings so, while this was of interest, I had a dose of skepticism.

I didn’t make any plans to go and find a location to see the aurora if it was visible in our area although I had checked out the dark skies maps to see how bad the light pollution was here and how far I would have to go to make a difference. I didn’t do anything with this data though. We were watching a movie in the evening and, when it finished, I stepped outside to see if anything was visible. It was about 10pm and there was nothing.

I went to get ready for bed but kept my clothes on just in case. At about 10:30, I went out again and still the skies were clear. I had read that 10pm to 2am was a good window so I was still at the beginning of this so didn’t give up completely. I messed around with a few other things and then figured I would have one more go outside before giving up and going to bed. Fortunately, this proved to be the right choice. I stepped out of the front door and saw something strange in the sky above us like a streak. I watched for a bit and then things started to get livelier.

I grabbed my camera and the tripod and went out to grab some shots. I also let Nancy know this was all going on since I hadn’t taken my phone outside with me. For the next hour or so, I just stared at the sky. The colors that the camera reproduced are far different to what I could see. It is a more sensitive device for this light than my eyeball, but I could clearly see purples and greens in the sky. The colors weren’t rapidly changing but you could see the transitions occurring. One of our neighbors returned while I was out so wandered over to ask if I could see anything and I pointed behind them. They were amazed by the sight and spent the rest of the time I was out looking as well.

At one point, I was beginning to be a bit tired, and the colors were fading a little, so I decided to call it a night. Just as I said goodbye and walked back towards the house, the skies lit up again. It was not letting me go that easily. I watched for a little longer and then decided I had got a good enough experience and headed indoors. It was certainly an amazing thing to witness. Maybe somewhere with less light pollution would have made things better but it was pretty good seeing all of this over our houses. The following night was supposed to be another good one, but the intensity was less, and I decided to sleep instead!

The Holidays Bring Us Some A300s

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The freighter fleets of the big operators like FedEx and UPS are gradually being recapitalized. The older jets are heading to the desert and getting replaced with new airframes. The A300-600Fs in both fleets are not going away quickly but they won’t be around for a lot longer. The UPS A300s don’t normally show up in Seattle with 767s and MD-11s being the regulars here. However, the holiday season results in a big increase in parcel traffic and so extra jets tend to show up. That meant some A300s at Boeing Field. Great to have them here and I hope we get another time when they show up reliably.

Line 2 Opening Weekend

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The spring timetable change was the opportunity for Sound Transit to open a new line. The troubles with the crossing of the I-90 bridge mean that the Redmond to Bellevue section of what is to be Line 2 is isolated from the rest of the network. However, it was decided to open it up as a starter line to provide some service for the area pending the completion of the connection to the other side of Lake Washington. They had a grand opening. Rather than go on the Saturday when everyone was due to be out, I decided to try out the line on the Sunday.

I drove to the South Bellevue station which has a large parking garage. It is the southern/western end of the line for now. Trains run every ten minutes and I hopped on one to ride to the other end at Redmond Technology Center. This is also an interim terminus as there will soon be an extension into downtown Redmond. I checked out the route in the trip out and decided I would stop off at a couple of stations on the way back.

Plenty of people were out on the Sunday too. Many seemed to be like me and exploring the new service. Sundays aren’t a day to judge utilization of a system, but it will be interesting to see what ridership is like as the service gets going and people find out how best to use it for their purposes. I hopped off at Wilburton Station to have a look at the platforms and the view across to downtown Bellevue. I bumped into a guy I know from Sound Transit who was part of the opening support team for the weekend, and we ended up chatting for a while.

I then went to the station in Bellevue itself which is a nicely designed station just at the end of the tunnel that runs under the city. You get a long view of the trains approaching from east as they come across the bridge while you can hear the trains coming through the tunnel as they approach. After checking out a few elements of the station, I decided to head back to South Bellevue to pick up the car and go home. The alignment was pretty good. Ride quality was good in most areas and the stations seemed nicely put together both operationally and aesthetically. It will be a good line when it is fully connected but, as an interim step, it seems to be worthwhile.

Steve Ballmer’s G650 I Think

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I’ve shot this jet before but, on this occasion, I was really happy with the angles I was able to get on it. The big bizjets have so many power that, unless they are making really long trips, they are usually off the ground in no time at all. This time, this G650 ran a bit longer and allowed me to get some pleasing angles on it at rotation. When I was looking through the images afterwards, I saw the logo on the inside of the winglet. It looked like that of the LA Clippers. A quick Google search confirmed that the Clippers are owned by Steve Ballmer and, since he is one of the Microsoft founders, it made sense it would be here in Seattle. Quite a nice looking jet!

Intelsat’s CRJ Thwarts Me with Weather

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Testbed aircraft are the sort of thing I like to see and, when Intelsat brought their CRJ to Seattle, I was hoping to catch it. Sadly, its arrival and some initial flying were not at good times, so I didn’t get to shoot it. Then it was due out when I was heading to SEA for a trip of my own. However, the conditions were awful, and I could barely make it out in the gloom as it got airborne. Cameras – even with really modern tech – struggle to focus on something that is barely visible in the mist. I did have one last chance when it was taking off, but I was at the terminal at the time and could barely get some shots of it as it taxied and took off. After that, it left. I was frustrated throughout its time here. Will it return?

Malaysian Max Departure

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A simple post today of a plane taking off. Nothing too special about this one. Just a regular Max 8 heading to Malaysia. Since it was a delivery flight, I knew the jet would be a bit heavier and would have a longer takeoff run. I was hopeful of rotation in a good place for me to get some shots. It didn’t disappoint. I do like the livery on these latest jets for Malaysian Airlines.

Status of the Stuka

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When making my first visit to FHCAM after it re-opened, one of the things I was interested to know was whether the Stuka had made any further progress from when I last saw it or whether it was paused for restoration. Things looked like they had moved on a bit since I was last there, but it didn’t look obvious that a huge amount had happened so that could have been after I was there and before they closed down. It would be very cool to have a Stuka back in the air so we shall see if this one progresses. If anyone knows, please comment below. In the meantime, here are some shots of how it looks most recently.

Clipper Race Sailing Boats

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The Clipper Round the World race has been underway for many years. It is a race of a single class of sailing boats/yachts (depending on where you live) with two qualified crew and the remainder are individuals that can pay to take part on one or more of the legs around the world. It starts and ends in Portsmouth and stops off at various cities around the world. It has been to Seattle since we have lived here but I never managed to get down there to see the boats.

I had a work event down at the harbor one evening when the boats had arrived. After the event, I took a few minutes to walk along the waterfront to see them tied up. I managed to get a few shots with my phone in the low light – how impressive phones can be in dark conditions – but couldn’t get any closer. Then I made an error. They were advertising that you could visit the boats to look around, so I headed down at the weekend with Nancy. There was no one to be found. Turns out, they weren’t doing tours that weekend. It had been a wasted trip (combined with it being a wet and windy day anyway). However, there is more to come on this topic.

The A-26 Makes a Long Trip in the Rain

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During the holidays and just before New Year, my friend Paul was in town for a day, so we did some exploring. The weather started out being less than ideal. We had swung by Renton to see if there was anything of interest and the A-26, Sexy Sue, was out on the ramp looking ready to head off. We debated which direction they would depart and which would be most suitable for shots. In the end, we stayed where we were figuring it would be too high at the lake end of the field. (That proved not to be the case with a very low departure!)

Our chosen location did give us a good view of start up and taxi out of the plane. They were flight planned to Oakland CA which struck me as quite a long trip to take in an A-26. Sure, in combat people would have done that and when they were corporate transports it would have been normal but there are more comfortable ways to travel these days. Anyway, before long, they were lined up and powered off. There was plenty of vortex action from the props in such a damp atmosphere but it probably looked better from other angles. With them gone, we jumped back in the car and decided to continue our adventures elsewhere.

Two C-37s With One Being a Bit Shy

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The US military operates a bunch of Gulfstream jets for transportation of key individuals. One afternoon, I was at BFI and there was a C-37 from the USAF sitting on the ramp. It had the powder blue livery common across the USAF VIP fleet. I was hoping to see it takeoff, but it was not moving while I was there. A little while later, it was joined by a second example. This one was a lot less conspicuous. It had no livery and no obvious markings at all. The USAF has been toning down its planes recently and this was definitely in that style. The lack of a registration might have told you that it wasn’t a civilian Gulfstream but the bigger giveaway would be the array of antennae that were on the fuselage. This clearly could communicate with more than the average bizjet.