Ministry Update :: July 11, 2012

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Our family is enjoying the warmer weather that summer is finally bringing. Lots of projects around the house are getting done, the kids are wearing holes in the lawn under the swings through much use, and the garden is growing. The kids are done school for the summer with Adelaine having graduated from kindergarten, and Naomi has finished her first year of homeschool teaching with Ellie! It was a lot of work for Naomi, and they are both excited for the summer break.

Meanwhile, at the office, I have some help in the video department! Ken has joined our GoodSeed team and is serving as an intern as a Video Production Assistant. He is helping move a couple old projects ahead, and will be freeing me up to work more on the “By this Name – Interactive Edition“.

Recently, Naomi and I were given a trip to Phoenix, Arizona to do real estate photography for some friends. We had a really good time together, and we saw this as a trip away to celebrate our tenth anniversary(!). Our actual anniversary was just a few days after I had returned from India, and I unfortunately spent most of that day on the couch with a fever.

While on our trip to Arizona we took a day to see some sights, including a big hole (the 1,200 m, 4000 ft Meteor Crater near Flagstaff), and a big ditch (a.k.a. the Grand Canyon). Thank you very much for the trip (you know who you are) and to Grandma and Papa for babysitting the kids!

Meteor Crater:

Grand Canyon:

Don’t drop the camera! Hanging the camera out over the precipice while watching the sunset at the Grand Canyon.

God bless,

Troy & Naomi

Kindergarten Grad

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Recently my little girl, Adelaine, graduated from  kindergarten. There was only Adelaine and one boy in the class (who once stated that there were way to many girls in his class after Adelaine teased him about being cute). They also had end of year ceremonies for the whole school where awards were handed out for Honour Roll, Scripture Memorization, etc.

 

Adelaine was the youngest recipient of the Art Award. Her love of crafts and creating stuff blossomed at school. Apparently, the older kids would come along to see how Adelaine was doing it, and sometimes be frustrated that they couldn’t do it quite as well.

They had a full day of activities and a BBQ before the ceremonies, and afterwards, all the kids were given squirt guns! It was quite a fun day for the munchkins three!

 

Transit of Venus

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I had been waiting since the last transit of Venus back in 2004 to see this rare sight again, and it looked like I was going to miss it entirely. A transit of Venus, superseded by a transit of clouds.

This was beginning to look a lot like the eclipse of the sun that was almost clouded out just a few weeks earlier.

Ellie was quite interested in hearing about what was happening and was disappointed that she was likely going to miss it. She wanted to do some reading up on Venus so she would know more about what was happening.

Reading my Peterson’s Field Guide: Stars and Planets

Just as we were sitting down for supper, I realized that there was a beam of light coming in the window, so I jumped up, grabbed my camera and solar filter and ran out the door. It was only a small “sucker hole” in the clouds, but I was thankful for at least a glimpse of Venus crossing the disk of the sun.

I set up the telescope and tripod for the camera and prayed for some more clearings so that the family and I could get a good look. After wolfing down my food, I headed back outside, and was treated again to some thinning clouds now and then. Naomi and the kids took turns looking through my pieces of welding glass and telescope.

Thick clouds move back in…

This was a longer exposure (1.6 seconds) taken through my solar filter. The reflections bouncing around off the glass and inside of the filter created an interesting image.

Finally, the sky opened up for a few brief moments and we even saw some blue sky, giving us a long look at this rare event. I don’t plan to be here for the next viewing in 2117.

“The last transit occurred in June 2004, and the next one won’t be until December 2117. Transits of Venus follow a peculiar pattern — two transits 8 years apart, then 105.5 years with no transits, then two transits 8 years apart, then 121.5 years with no transits, for a total cycle of 243 years” www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/Some-Details-About-Transits-of-Venus.html

When we had a truly clear shot of the sun, you could easily see the sunspots along with the spot of Venus.

 

Thank you, Lord, for an answered prayer for a glimpse of your marvelous creation.

 

Partial Solar Eclipse – May 20, 2012

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Image courtesy Amos

It looked like the partial solar eclipse was going to be eclipsed entirely by clouds. We missed the first contact of the moon to the disk of the sun because of thick cloud cover, but after about 45 minutes, the thicker clouds were breaking and we could see the sun through a haze.

Heavy clouds came back as we reached the maximum for our viewing location, and I was only able to get this image of the max.

After another 30 minutes the cloud cover was getting thinner and we were able to see the sun and start taking pictures again.

Just as I was waiting to get a photo of the final contact of the disk of the moon with the sun, the clouds once again rolled over that area in the sky. By this point,  there was lots of blue sky with only scattered clouds.

Thankfully, I was able to get a shot of the final contact through a gap in the clouds. Almost missed it!

Two minutes after the eclipse ended, the sky was clearer and I was able to get a clear image of the sun with three groups of sunspots on the surface.