Get ready for the 2012 Perseid Meteor Shower!

Posted on by farlane

Sleeping Bear Twilight

Sleeping Bear Twilight, photo by Unified Photography

Here’s a gorgeous shot from just after sunset on the Sleeping Bear Dunes. That little meteorite reminded me to check on the Perseids. EarthSky’s Meteor Shower Guide says that the Perseids will grace the sky August 10-12, 2012 with the peak the evening of the 11th.

Meteors are typically best after midnight, but in 2012, with the moon rising into the predawn sky, you might want to watch in late evening as well … The Perseids are typically fast and bright meteors. They radiate from a point in the constellation Perseus the Hero. You don’t need to know Perseus to watch the shower because the meteors appear in all parts of the sky. The Perseids are considered by many people to be the year’s best shower, and often peak at 50 or more meteors per hour in a dark sky.

The Perseids tend to strengthen in number as late night deepens into midnight, and typically produce the most meteors in the wee hours before dawn. These meteors are often bright and frequently leave persistent trains. Starting in late evening on the nights of August 10/11, 11/12 and 12/13. The Perseid meteors will streak across these short summer nights from late night until dawn, with only a little interference from the waning crescent moon. Plus the moon will be near the bright planets Venus and Jupiter in the eastern predawn sky.

If you want to keep up on when the meteors are showering, the Meteor page at Stardate.org is a great resource!

See it on black and be sure to check out Kenneth’s small but gorgeous Sleeping Bear Dunes slideshow for more including a great photo of the northern lights over Sleeping Bear Bay!

More on meteors from Michigan in Pictures!

Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers

Posted on by farlane

Tigers Game_2012-07-21_15-08-05_P7210017_©MikeBoening_2012_HDR (1)

Tigers Game, July 21, 2012, photo by memories_by_mike

It may come as a surprise to regular readers that despite all the posts about the Detroit Tigers here and at Absolute Michigan, I’ve never been to Comerica Park. Today I not only get to go – I get to sit on the 3rd base line (2nd row!!)as the red-hot Detroit Tigers face the New York Yankees tonight!

Wikipedia’s entry for Comerica Park (edited a bit by me) explains that:

Groundbreaking for a new ballpark to replace Tiger Stadium for the Tigers was held on October 29, 1997 and the new stadium was opened to the public in 2000. In December 1998, Comerica Bank agreed to pay $66 million over 30 years for the naming rights for the new ballpark. Comerica Park sits on the original site of the Detroit College of Law.

In contrast to Tiger Stadium, which had long been considered one of the most hitter-friendly parks in baseball, Comerica Park is considered to be extremely friendly to pitchers. Except for dead center – 420 feet versus Tiger Stadium’s 440 feet – the outfield dimensions were more expansive than those at Tiger Stadium. This led to complaints from players and fans alike, and engendered the sarcastic nickname Comerica National Park.

Although a few public figures—notably radio announcer Ernie Harwell—supported the dimensions, most agreed that the left-field wall, in particular, needed to be brought closer to home plate. Before the 2003 MLB season the club did so, moving the distance from left-center field from 395 to 370 feet. In place of the old bullpens in right field, 950 seats were added for a new capacity of 41,070.

At the time of construction, the scoreboard in left field was the largest in Major League Baseball. The first playoff game at Comerica was played on October 6, 2006 against the New York Yankees. It hosted its first World Series later that month. The stadium also includes many baseball-themed features, including a “Monument Park” in the deep center field stands, complete with statues of former Tigers Ty Cobb, Hal Newhouser, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Al Kaline, and Willie Horton.

A few neat things I found are Comerica Park from Ballparks.com, baseball writer Geoff Baker touring Comerica,  Calvin Johnson hitting a HR in BP, Comerica on Michigan in Pictures, a time-lapse of the installation of the new high-def scoreboard, the slightly bizarre Comerica UFO footage and a very cool RC plane fly-over of Comerica.

Check this photo out big as a ballpark and in Mike’s slideshow.

A Map of the Wind

Posted on by farlane

Breakwall Waves

Breakwall Waves, photo by Gary of the North

The Great Lakes Echo’s Jennifer Kalish has a feature on an animated wind map that’s driven by real-time data.

Two digital artists recently released an animated map illustrating the speed and direction of surface winds across the U.S.

Its ever changing patterns are driven by wind data from the National Digital Forecast Database kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The database also feeds information to the administration’s Great Lakes current map released last month to help the public better understand lake currents.

Click here to see the Wind Map.

Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light says that the iron pier light is 55 feet tall, and Gary’s photo from Sunday at the breakwall in Grand Marais shows what wind can do to the waves of Lake Superior! See this photo as big as the big lake or jump into his slideshow for a couple more shots of the wave action!

Read more about the Grand Marais Pier Light on Michigan in Pictures.

The Beauty of Lake Charlevoix

Posted on by farlane

Lake Charlevoix Yacht Race

Lake Charlevoix Yacht Race, photo by Innerspacealien

Last week USA Today released their list of the best lakes in America. The Great Lakes were not eligible and Lake Tahoe was the winner, but Lake Charlevoix in Northern Michigan managed to grab the runner-up spot. Click that link to read what some of their readers wrote. The Lake Charlevoix Lake Association says:

Lake Charlevoix is the third largest lake in the state with a surface area of over 17,200 acres and approximately 60 miles of shoreline. The maximum depth in the main basin is 122 feet and in the south arm, 58 feet. It is located at 45 degrees north latitude and 85 degrees west longitude. It has direct access to Lake Michigan via dredged channels in and out of Round Lake in the city of Charlevoix. There are close to 1,700 lots on the lake, with approximately 1,200 different owners. The lake is usually frozen for about three months of the year from near the end of January to early April.

There are three cities at the ends of the lake. Boyne City is at the east end of the main lake and is a historic lumber and tannery town. It is now a year round recreation center with the lake in the summer and Boyne Mountain ski resort in the winter. East Jordan is at end of the south arm and was also important in lumbering in the nineteenth century as well has having a large iron works that is still there today. The city of Charlevoix is at the mouth of the lake and is both a historic and present day resort town.

The city of Charlevoix is named after Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, a French explorer who traveled the Great Lakes and was said to have stayed the night on nearby Fisherman’s Island one night during a harsh storm. Lake Charlevoix had been named “Pine Lake” until 1926 when it was decided to change the name because, among other reasons, most of the pines had been harvested in the previous century and there were 25 other lakes in Michigan with that name.

They also have some great historic photos you can check out.

See Craig’s photo background big and see more photos from the area in his Up North slideshow.

More great Michigan lakes on Michigan in Pictures!

Speaking of Alpena: Rockport State Park

Posted on by farlane

RockPort I

RockPort I, photo by Jeff Gaydash

In the course of writing about on how Alpena was named, I ran across this great photo from Rockport. It used to be called the Rockport Property, and in February it became the newest state park in Michigan. The DNR news release explains:

Rockport State Park offers many unique and special features. With 4,237 acres of land located on the shores of Lake Huron, north of Alpena, the property includes a deep-water protected harbor, an old limestone quarry of approximately 300 acres, a unique series of sinkholes, a dedicated Natural Area (Besser Natural Area), and a broad range of land types, vegetative cover, cultural resources and recreation opportunities. At the harbor, the Department has a boat launch facility, and there is a small park developed by Alpena Township on land leased from the State.

There’s no map on the DNR Park website yet, but you can get directions and some more photos from Quiet Solo Pursuits.

Check this out on black and in Jeff’s fantastic The Great Lakes slideshow.

Happy weekend everyone…

Sunflower Season in Saline

Posted on by farlane

Sunflower Field

Sunflower Field, photo by C E Andersen

August is sunflower season in Michigan, and this shot is a beaut!

Check it out background bigtacular and in Chuck’s Sunflowers slideshow.

More great Michigan wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures!

How Alpena got its name

Posted on by farlane

Brick Thunder

Brick Thunder, photo by cmu chem prof

The Pure Michigan Blog has an excellent series on how Michigan cities got their names. They are up to Part 10. One of the cities is Alpena:

Alpena

Alpena County was first named “An-a-ma-kee,” or “Thunder,” in honor of an old Chippewa chief of the Thunder Bay band who had signed a treaty negotiated with Henry Schoolcraft in 1826. After studying the Indian legends around the word “An-a-ma-kee” (or Animikee), Henry Schoolcraft concluded that the name was not completely appropriate. Then he manufactured the name Alpena from “Al,” an Indian syllable meaning “the”, and either “pinai,” an Arabic word meaning “partridge,” or “peanaisse,” an old French word meaning “bird.”

Check this photo out background big and in Phil’s huge Cities & Towns slideshow.

Sturgeon Moon, Blue Moon, August Moon

Posted on by farlane

August Full Moon for 2009

August Full Moon for 2009, photo by Kevin’s Stuff

In 2012 we have a rare treat – two full moons in the month of August! The Sturgeon Moon is full TONIGHT at 11:28 PM and the 2nd full moon swings around at 9:58 AM on August 31st. Kevin took this photo at the James C. Veen Observatory near Grand Rapids and writes:

The Full Moon for August is the Full Sturgeon Moon, when this large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water like Lake Champlain is most readily caught. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because the moon rises looking reddish through sultry haze, or the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.

Some other names are the Dog Day’s Moon (Colonial America), Harvest Moon (China), Dispute Moon (Celtic) and the Corn Moon (English Medieval).

See this photo on black (very nice) and in Kevin’s The Moon slideshow.

Cloud Bridge

Posted on by farlane

cloud bridge

cloud bridge, photo by gerrybuckel

In honor of the rain we’ve recently received in parts of Michigan…

Check this out big as the sky and see more shots she’s shared in the Absolute Michigan pool in her Absolute Michigan slideshow.

More Michigan skies on Michigan in Pictures!

The Ford 999

Posted on by farlane

Henry Ford and Barney Oldfield and the Ford 999 in 1902, photographer unknown (via Wikimedia)

Henry Ford, founder and namesake of the Ford Motor Company, was born on July 30, 1863. He’s shown above with early racing great Barney Oldfield and the Ford 999. The Motorsports Hall of Fame says:

The oldest vehicle in the Motorsports Hall of Fame is the famous Ford 999 racer from 1902. Although it is not the first race car ever built, it is certainly the first car to rise to the status of legend.

Always seeking publicity, Barney Oldfield dubbed the car 999 after the feats of the record-holding New York Central locomotive.

Although the car is equipped with only one seat, a “Mechanician” was often kept busy oiling bearings and making adjustments while the car was being driven! The role more closely resembled that of an active sidecar acrobat than that of a riding mechanic.

The sister car of the 999 was the Arrow. It was a rebuilt Arrow that Henry Ford drove to 91.37 mph on frozen Lake St. Clair in January of 1904, for the new automotive World Land Speed record. After Ford set the record, his racing partner, Tom Cooper, sold both the 999 and the Arrow. The Arrow was renamed the New 999 by the new owner.

…Shortly before his death, Henry Ford is said to have remarked to Barney Oldfield: “You made me and I made you.” Oldfield shook his head and replied “Old 999 made both of us.”

You can see a great gallery of photos of early Ford race cars that includes shots of Ford and his mechanician and a modern photo of the 999 from The Henry Ford Museum on Flickr. The Henry Ford is located in Dearborn and they (of course) have a ton of information about Henry Ford.

More cars on Michigan in Pictures!