Franklin Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant

  Yesterday (02/12/23) Dan Miller gave Robert King and myself an hour-long tour of the Franklin Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant on Baxter Road. Dan has worked there several years and it's a tour I've wanted to make almost since the beginning. I'm intrigued by the process of the path taken by what seems an innocent toilet flush.

 Owned and operated by Veolia, the city of Franklin's website says, "The Plant provides services for Franklin, Carlisle, Germantown, Franklin Township, Warren County and Montgomery County.  Just recently the Hunter area has started discharging to the Plant."

 As many times as I've driven by it, the plant lies far enough off SR 73 that's it's barely visible tucked in beside  the Great Miami River. But a wide satellite view shows its location:

Credit: Google Maps

And a closer view shows the layout:

Credit: Google Maps

 The following pictures start at the far north of the facility where the wastewater enters via huge pipes. Then they roughly follow the path the water takes as it's cleaned.

 I asked Dan about the many Canada Geese at the facility. Did they actually get into the wet muck? Indeed they do, he said. And also this area where the top layer seems dried but Dan said it's more like quicksand. The geese can traverse it easily and seems not to be bothered by the smell.

 Speaking of the smell, it is minimal and that's quite surprising to me.

 It was a beautiful day for a tour of this sort ... a cool 46° and calm. Probably  the heat of summer would aggravate the situation considerably.

  The size of the pipes and pumps  is amazing to see. Think of what goes into it the next time you flush your toilet.

Chasing ZTF

 For about the last year now we've been hearing about a comet called C/2022 E3  (ZTF). What would happen when it rounded the sun on January 10, 2023? Orbital predictions say it's not been in our neck of the solar system since the last Ice Age 50,000 years ago.

 And then how bright might it be when it came closest to earth on February 2 at a distance of 26 million miles?

 I began preparing for this early, working up a chart of azimuth and altitude numbers starting on January 21. Surely one of those nights would provide a good view.

 Well, in a word: no.

 We've had cloudy skies almost continually since my chart began. And in those few instances when the sky cleared, it was either in the daytime or very briefly in the evening. How many times did I set up my camera on a tripod and  have it at the back door ready to haul it out to the back yard and try to view the comet.

 Estimates were for a magnitude of 5.4 in early February. They've been downgrading it to 6.6 now. Both numbers, being positive, predicted a poor attempt at naked eye viewing.

 So when yesterday arrived at the sky cleared - and stayed clear throughout the evening - I was ecstatic. I knew just where the comet would be at 8 PM local time (just to the left of Mars). Here is a crop from Stellarium which I used as my locator:

Credit: Stellarium

 Mars is always  easy to spot so I was provided with a guidepost. And Aldebaran - often called Taurus the Bull's bloodshot eye - served as another location marker. And then the Pleiades - the Seven Sisters - as clearly visible even to my poor eyes as a hazy cluster of white. There was no doubt where to look.

 I took about 25 pictures (and noise images) and stacked them with Sequator. Then I cropped out an area about equal to the predicted view  above. This is what I got:

 The two agree very well. But where is the comet? I've marked a "smudge" at about the location I'd expect it, but it's neither green nor does it have a tail:

 Frankly, all the  stars look a little fuzzy. But I'm using a Canon SureShot SX10 IS and that's certainly a poor choice for astrophotography. But it's what I have so it's my only choice. I had the camera make 15 second exposures at f/2.8 (as wide open as the lens will go) and with the camera set to its higher ISO (1600) and the lens set to wide angle (20mm). It's no wonder the results are so poor.

 Here is the stacked image converted to a  JPG to make it a manageable size for posting here:

Click to view a higher-resolution image

 I also used my 10x50 binoculars hoping I'd have a chance with some magnification. Mars was a beautiful sight but scanning to its left showed me nothing I'd identify as a comet. Just stars and more stars.

 I then used my Pixel 4A w/ 5G cell phone and set it up on a tripod and had it take about a 4 minute stack of images. It produced this result:

 And here's the Pixel image as a one minute video:

Four minutes condensed into one second

 I spent about an hour in the cold (it dipped to 18° overnight) but at least it was calm. The sky was gloriously clear and I can't complain about a single minute I stood there. I wish I could have seen the comet without any doubt.

 But I can't.

Pinehaven Gingerbread

  I was thinking of what dessert I might make yesterday and saw that I had a little dark molasses left and thought a pan of gingerbread would fit the bill. But I had very little molasses  - no more than a quarter of a cup - but I also saw that I had some leftover  Karo syrup. And just enough to make a full cup if the two were combined. Why not?

 This modification, of course, makes a much lighter colored cake and also one less intensely flavored. Tom called it "more of a spice cake". I actually prefer it to the gingerbread I've made in the past. Here's how I made it:

Pinehaven Gingerbread/Spice Cake

1/2 cup shortening (I used those blocks of Crisco)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
3/4 cup Karo Light Corn Syrup
2-1/2 cups bread flower
1/2 teaspoon  salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup boiling water

 I mixed everything in the order shown  except the flour which I added last.
This makes a very liquid batter.

Bake in a greased 9x9" metal pan; 350° for 40 minutes

Test after 40, minutes (use a toothpick). I've found the center might take a little longer. Even so, the center tends to drop a little for  me as the cake cools. This would normally indicate it's not quite done  and yet a day later it seems fine to me. I'd err towards a slightly longer baking time, especially if your oven runs a bit cool.

 Here's how the pan looked as I took it out of the oven.

 If you want a lighter gingerbread with a less pronounced taste, this is a good option. The cake is also more moist than previous gingerbreads I've made. I think the  Karo might be the reason.

How Long Can it Go?

  Back in the 1960's when I was a teen and the Beatles had just conquered the world, there's nothing I would have liked more than to grow my hair long. The trouble was I had curly hair and my parents were dead against long hair.

 But now, on the other end of my life, I find my hair much less curly (though now white) and my parents, long gone, offering no objection. The few times I've asked Tom whether he minded me letting my hair grow he'd always say "do whatever you want. I don't care".

 So with the objections all gone I got a haircut on 9-7-2021 and decided to see how long I could go.

 I'll answer that question right off: 506 days.

 I got no haircuts in 2022 but finally decided after  72 weeks and two days that I'd had enough.

 And here is how the growing went ...

03-12-22

04-02-22

04-09-22

04-13-22

04-18-22

04-25-22

05-07-22

06-05-22

06-25-22

07-02-22

07-29-22

08-07-22

09-06-22

10-04-22

11-07-22

11-30-22

12-19-22

01-04-23

01-11-23

01-26-23

 Finally in late January I'd had enough (and probably those seeing me had had enough, too). I have no plans to ever do it again but I'm happy to say I once had long hair.

 And I saved money. I normally get a haircut every 13 weeks so I missed five cuts in that period. I usually pay $14 (+$2 tip = $16) so I saved $80. Was it worth it? Hard to say. But it was a safe experiment  I was able to perform on my own  body and no one was harmed.

 I think I last used that argument in 1963 with my parents  and it didn't work then.

Update: January 2025

 I've been at it again and this time managed 118 weeks (2-1/4 years). I haven't had a haircut in 2024 or 2025. I've measured my hair at 9". I keep it pulled back into a short ponytail with a rubber band so it doesn't look that long. I'm not sure it'll ever got this long again so I took a picture for posterity:

New Miamisburg Kroger

  The Miamisburg Kroger we've shopped at for many years closed on Thursday (01/26) and their new Kroger Marketplace opened just north of the current location on Friday (01/27). Needless to say, Tom and I had to visit.

 At 123,722-square feet, the store is massive and nearly double the space of the previous store (68,860-square feet). I remember when Miamisburg's first Kroger was located at the west end of the Plaza Shopping Center (now occupied by Big Lots). The space has increased substantially from that.

 When you walk in, this is the first thing you see: the Produce section.

 We couldn't believe the breadth and depth of the selection.

 The Bakery is massive ...

 That's Tom taking in the sights ...

 This place is going to take lots of business away from other area stores. It's nice having everything under one roof.

 There's a massive wine department.

 This isn't a traditional grocery so much as a food warehouse. It's going to take a long while the get used to the wide open spaces and where everything is located.

 The dairy isle goes on and on. And there's lots more besides this.

 The Pharmacy is on the east end of the store and my brother, who uses their service, said there are two drive through lanes.

 The check-out area is equally large. I know there are lots of complaints about stores offering self check out but I love it. I can take my time and be sure every price is correct. There were plenty of cashiers there, too, while we toured the facility.

 The "Marketplace" label means they carry more than groceries. Tom enjoyed the toy isle (Star Wars!) and there's electrical appliances clothing, dinnerware and more.

 I understand the previous store will be demolished and the space will serve to construct a Kroger gas station. Presumably there will also be additional parking spaces.

 The store represents a $27 million dollar investment, the Dayton Daily News reported. Their story can be found here.

Sequator

  I've always been interested in astrophotography but have been hampered by where I live (light pollution) and my finances. A much better camera than my Canon SX20 IS would offer more options. But it is what it is so I'm  working with what I've got.

 The Canon isn't a bad camera. It has an F/2.8 lens which is entirely useable for the night sky. But its highest ISO is just 1600 and that's magnitudes slow for what I need. It also have no "bulb" (B) setting so I'm limited to  the longest exposure the camera is programmed to deliver (15 seconds).

 It didn't prove particularly capable during the recent total eclipse of the sun, either. And with  the next coming in April 2024,  I hope to have something better by then.

 For now, at least, I may be hampered but I'm not quite down yet. I've experimented with "stacking" software in the past which allows for better resolution of dim stars and handily filters camera "noise". In the past week I've been reading about Sequator, a free Windows  10 program for stacking photos.

 Last evening we had generally clear skies (though not as clear as I'd have hoped) and I went out with both my Canon, and later with my Pixel 4A and though I'd experiment. The Pixel includes internal stacking software and does a good job for such a small lens and a hand-held package.

 Over about a four minute period it integrates night sky photos into a single image. Click here for how it works.

  Last night as I walked across a frosty back yard, Orion was rising in the east. Here's how the Pixel saw it:

Standard Night Shot

 That's a standard night shot. Astrophotography was not selected.

Astrophotography Shot

 Astrophotography mode lightens the picture and shows more stars after a 4  minute time exposure.

 While an astro-shoot is underway, the Pixel generates an MP4 movie of how the stars have moved during the time exposure. For "stacking", every star has to be slightly adjusted so that it's positioned below the previous shot. The final picture is thereby layered and gains more and more detail with each new shot.

Movie of the previous shots

Orion Close-up

 The three center stars of Orion's Belt (top to bottom: Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak) and Orion's Sword are highlighted in  this image. The Orion Nebula is roughly centered in the Belt. It's hard to get any detail with a cell phone but you can see the nebula in the shot below.

 Considering this is a phone, I'm amazed it can be seen at all.

Now, compare that to my Canon camera. For this sequence I was aimed northwest. I took 20 fifteen second exposures of the same scene. I used the widest position of the lens (5mm) and the lowest F-stop  (2.8). This is a single basic frame.

 As you can see, there was plenty of haze and even a bank of clouds close to the horizon.

 To best used image stacking, "noise" images are also taken under the same conditions. In this case I merely took 20 shots with the lens cap on. "Dead" pixels and electronic noise can then be removed from the finished picture.

 Sequator is much easier to use than any other similar program I've used. It's also fast. I stacked the photos several times and changed various options but none took much more than two minutes on my PC. Here's the final image.

Click on this image for full-resolution

 Here are the settings I used for the picture above ...

 With image stacking a lesser quality camera is still able to be of some astrophotography use. It's nothing like a high-end DSLR with very high ISO capability, but it allows for much better results than the camera alone.