Starship Asterisk*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Lake wrote:

<<The Old Man of the Lake is the name given to a 30-foot tall tree stump, most likely a hemlock, which has been bobbing vertically in Oregon's Crater Lake since at least 1896. At the waterline, the stump is about 2 feet in diameter and stands approximately 4 feet above the water. The surface has been bleached white by the elements. The exposed end of the floating tree is splintered and worn but wide and buoyant enough to support a person's weight.

Fontinalis, a moss that is present in the waters of Crater Lake at a depth of 394 feet, also grows on the Old Man of the Lake, the only place the moss is found near the surface.

Joseph S. Diller published the first geology of Crater Lake in 1902, the same year the area became a national park. In his work, Diller briefly describes a great stump in the lake that he had found six years earlier. Thus, in 1896, The Old Man floated just as it does at present, giving it a documented age of more than one hundred years.

Movements of The Old Man have long been observed. In 1896, Diller established that The Old Man could travel, by tying baling wire around the log and pulling it a short distance. Five years later, Diller observed the Old Man to be 0.25 miles from where he had previously noted its location. The earliest known photograph of the trunk dates to this period.

As the result of an inquiry from Washington, D.C. as to its precise location, the project of recording The Old Man's location was undertaken between July 1 and September 30, 1938. Those observations indicated that The Old Man of Crater Lake travels quite extensively, and sometimes with surprising rapidity. Since it can be seen virtually anywhere on the lake, boat pilots commonly communicate its position to each other as a general matter of safety. During one three-month period of observation in 1938, The Old Man traveled at least 62.1 miles. Not surprisingly, the days on which the greatest movements occurred were days of relatively high wind and waves. In 1988, submarine explorations were conducted in the lake, and the scientists decided to tie The Old Man off the eastern side of Wizard Island to neutralize the navigational hazard until their research work was complete.>>

Beyond wrote:Those observing partners are really c-o-o-l cats

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orin stepanek wrote:I thought todays APOD was neat!

Beyond wrote:Those observing partners are really c-o-o-l cats

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They're really cute too!

Henchard wrote:There have been several magnificent pictures of the home galaxy recently, all with it bending across the sky. Has anyone thought of using a photo improver to stretch a complete picture of it, end to end, in its horizontal state? I would love to see one.

Henchard wrote:There have been several magnificent pictures of the home galaxy recently, all with it bending across the sky. Has anyone thought of using a photo improver to stretch a complete picture of it, end to end, in its horizontal state? I would love to see one.

Dan S. wrote:In what way were the nine images combined into this "composite"? Were they stitched together side by side to get a wider angle view, and/or was the meteor added from a separate photo, and/or were the sky and foreground photographed separately?

DavidLeodis wrote:I wonder what day "last week" this nice composite photo was acquired? The annotated version (brought up when moving a cursor over the APOD) was very helpful.

Edit added a few hours later:- I have now managed to find the image's Exif data and in that it states "Date Created 2012:04:21 01:53:19.092". I guess the time may be the first or last of the nine images used to produce the composite, but it still seems likely that all may have been taken in the early hours of April 21 2012.

goldpaintphoto wrote:

DavidLeodis wrote:I wonder what day "last week" this nice composite photo was acquired? The annotated version (brought up when moving a cursor over the APOD) was very helpful.

Edit added a few hours later:- I have now managed to find the image's Exif data and in that it states "Date Created 2012:04:21 01:53:19.092". I guess the time may be the first or last of the nine images used to produce the composite, but it still seems likely that all may have been taken in the early hours of April 21 2012.

David,

You are correct. All images were taken from 1:37am - 1:53am PST on April 21, 2012.

Brad Goldpaint