Category Archives: Stuff

Eclipse, Take Two

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Back in 2017, Nate, Garrett, and I traveled to Columbia, South Carolina to witness our first total solar eclipse.  My former team leader, Lisa Shuler, was kind enough to host us at her lovely home just on the outskirts of Columbia and very nearly on the center line of totality.

“The solar eclipse in August of [2017] swept across the United States. Prior to this event, no solar eclipse had been visible across the entire contiguous United States since June 8, 1918; not since the February 1979 eclipse had a total eclipse been visible from anywhere in the mainland United States. The path of totality touched 14 states, and the rest of the U.S. had a partial eclipse.

The boys and I road-tripped to South Carolina to the home of Lisa Shuler, who graciously hosted us for the event.  This is an edited version of the photo I took at totality. The only change was to add color to the corona, as that’s what most people expect.  However, the actual corona was pure white.”

At then end of the 2017 eclipse, Nate tells me that I said words to the effect of, “Next stop: 2024!”

It’s 2024 — just under seven years later — and Nate, Garrett, and I found ourselves at the Huron County Fairgrounds in Norwalk, Ohio, for the second once-in-a-lifetime total solar eclipse.  We picked Norwalk because like Lisa’s house, it was very nearly on the center line of totality.

We were not disappointed.

Here’s a photo gallery and some videos of the event as experienced in Norwalk in 2024. The real winner for best photo taken by the family was Nate’s photo of the totality taken with an iPhone through the lens of his telescope.  While the photo he took is incredible, it pales in comparison to looking through the lens on the telescope and seeing it for yourself.  While spectacular, Nate’s photo really doesn’t do the view through the telescope justice. 

According to CNN: ” The next total solar eclipse with a coast-to-coast path spanning the Lower 48 states will occur on August 12, 2045.”

Next stop: 2045!

View of totality through the lens of the telescope.
Nate and Garrett After the Eclipse
Are you sure you're looking at the correct sun?
Nibby, an 18-year-old, three-legged "pup" we met.
Panorama of Huron County Fairgrounds
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NASA’s Europa Clipper

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Back in this post, we celebrated the landing of NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover launch and landing. NASA created a program by which the names of individuals here on Earth could be etched on a chip and sent to Mars as part of Perseverance. We submitted the names of the folks in the household and now our four names are among 1.2 million of our closest friends’ names on Mars.

NASA is at it again with their Europa Clipper mission scheduled for launch in October, 2024. Since I egregiously failed to include my sons, Jonathon and Andrew Wolfe in the previous mission, I made sure to not just add these fine gentlemen to the list of names destined for Europa, but gave them top billing in the gallery below.

From NASA’s website, “[The Europa Clipper’s] three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition and geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

“NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will perform dozens of close flybys of Jupiter’s moon Europa, gathering detailed measurements to investigate the moon. The spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, will make nearly 50 flybys of Europa at closest-approach altitudes as low as 16 miles (25 kilometers) above the surface, soaring over a different location during each flyby to scan nearly the entire moon.

“Europa shows strong evidence for an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. Beyond Earth, Europa is considered one of the most promising places where we might find currently habitable environments in our solar system. Europa Clipper will determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life.“

It will be an honor to accompany the Europa Clipper to the outer reaches of our Solar System. It will be an even greater honor to be with the family for all time one more time.

Cool Pictures That I’m In or That I Took: “Just Because” Edition

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Here’s another in a series of posts I’m going to make when I find some of these treasures. Some will be captioned, others will not. The only criteria for posting in this series is that:

a.) I’m in the photo or…

b.) … I took the photo.

This was taken at the wedding reception of my classmate, Cassie Brewer, and her new husband. Seated to my left, classmate and close friend, Crystal Starks Daniel, and to my right, another classmate, Chris Kavanaugh. Crystal, Cassie, Chris, and I were all members of a multi-semester cybersecurity study group at Stark State College. This weekend, Cassie and I are on a cyber forensics team competing in a one-day hack-a-thon contest at the college. Cassie and I both graduate in less than a month!

This is a photo of Jeff Tobin, KC3NJE, and me, KN4FYR after we both passed our FCC License exams a couple of years ago. (Photo by Jeff’s wife, Laura)

Also from a few years ago, a group of Westminster College radio station WKPS alumni gathers at our local hot dog hangout, MP Coney Island, in New Castle, PA. Noteworthy is the presence of Mark Klinger III, our professor and faculty advisor who passed away recently at age 78. (Photo by WKPS’s Charlie “Pretzel Man” Weisel.)

A screen shot taken from an 8mm movie transferred to video, me as a freshman member of the East Pennsboro High School marching band in 1970, I believe, not too long before moving from Camp Hill, PA, back to Fostoria, Ohio.

A Graphic Birthday (and Other Lies)

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Over the years, I’ve been asked to do some digital photography as part of my employment. Since I’m not a very good photographer, by necessity, I’ve learned to use Adobe Photoshop. As gag projects, I’ve created parody movie posters for Beth Geyer’s birthday and on occasion, for the rest of the family and others.

Below is a compilation of these posters. Click on the image to show the full-ish resolution version.

Click to see Nate with his favorite group of Friends.
This was created as a gift from Beth’s friend, Nisha, for her husband’s birthday.
This is the poster that started it all. And here is what started it.
Garrett as a cherub for
the Deadpool 2 poster.
Original photo of Tobin and Wolfe with the Space Shuttle Enterprise in the background.
Photoshopped photo of Tobin and Wolfe with the Starship Enterprise in the background.
Vazquez Rocks, CA, aka. the Gorn Planet from Star Trek: TOS. Frank Simons and me in photos taken 30 years apart.

Cool Pictures That I’m In or That I Took: “So Yeah, This Blog Still Exists” Edition

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Here’s another in a series of posts I’m going to make when I find some of these treasures. Some will be captioned, others will not. The only criteria for posting in this series is that:

a.) I’m in the photo or…

b.) … I took the photo.

Photo from Hamvention 2022, the world’s largest ham radio convention. From left, Chris Kavanaugh, Jeff Tobin (KC3NJE), me (KN4FYR), and Donovan Wheatley (KE8TKI).

Departing the High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA) Conference at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. From left, Glenn Goe, Ben Nash, Zander Thompson, Danielle Kulcsar, and me.

Here’s a remarkable birthday gift from sons Jon and Andy. It’s Bluetooth, it’s sturdy, and it’s a great gift! I love it!

Another birthday gift, this time from Jeff Tobin, KC3NJE. Jeff scored a vintage D-104 ham radio microphone like this one for himself some months ago and I’ve been crazy jealous. For my birthday and just before Hamvention, Jeff gifted me a D-104 of my very own! I was excited, humbled, and grateful for the magnificent gift.

View from my former front porch of the fireworks display, part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Week activities here in the Canton, Ohio area.