A Cool Caterpillar
...and a hot solar eclipse
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen something completely awesome in nature and exclaimed “WOW—that is TOTALLY going to be my Perpetual Journal entry this week!” I was fortunate enough to get to say that twice last week!
The first time was when Hubby bought 4 native Desert Milkweed plants for our yard, including one he specifically chose because it had a special guest attached to it: a Queen Butterfly larva!
WOW! Is that larva (caterpillar) C👀L or is it C👀L?
I learned that those pink pointy things are called tubercles and that they’re sense organs. I also learned an easy way to tell Monarch and Queen Butterfly larvae apart is by the number of tubercles: Monarchs have only 2 pairs of tubercles but Queens have 3 pairs.
Unfortunately, our little larva friend seemed to have a propensity for exploring off-world. The first day here, it went exploring but eventually returned to its mothership, the Milkweed. However, the next day, despite the fact that both Hubby and I were on Larva Patrol, our little friend disappeared sometime between 4:00 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. and we haven’t seen it (or a chrysalis) since! ☹️
The second time last week that I said “WOW—that is TOTALLY…” was on October 14 when Hubby and I watched the annular solar eclipse, using our high tech eclipse viewing device: a hole poked in a piece of cardboard. What you see in my Perpetual Journal above is my illustration of the view we had here in Tucson.
Here’s a self-portrait I shot during the eclipse, holding my high tech eclipse viewing device.
Hubby & I have solar panels on our house, so I’m sure you’re thinking, “Gee, Paula, did the eclipse affect your solar energy production??!” 😲 Why, yes, it certainly did! These two screenshots from the mySolarEdge app illustrate this very clearly!
The energy production from our solar panels is shown by the green area on each of these screenshots. The left screenshot shows our energy production on the morning of October 14 (the day of the eclipse) and the right screenshot shows our energy production the morning of October 15 (a typical sunny day). The energy production (green area) normally starts at a lower level in the morning and grows and peaks mid-day, as you see in the right screenshot.
You can easily see on the left graph for October 14 exactly when the peak of the eclipse happened at our house, because that’s where the energy production (green area) dipped to a low point. The vertical line in the middle of the left screenshot shows this happened around 9:30 a.m. The next day (the right screenshot) we were back to typical energy production! Go solar! 🌞
On a related note, I recently read an article entitled Solar Geoengineering Could Wreak Havoc on the Planet which explains why using solar geoengineering (which is, in a nutshell, taking measures to limit the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth) is NOT a good method for responding to climate change. I agree for many reasons, and the first thing I thought of when I read this article was, “Noooooo—this would decrease not only plant growth worldwide but solar energy production worldwide as well!” 😬
🗨️ Comics Corner
To end this post, here’s a fun comic about the solar eclipse, by The Oatmeal. 😁
I have a friend who took a multiple images of the eclipse through the holes in a Ritz cracker.
Wonderfully nerdy to have larval surveillance and to demonstrate dips in electrical generation due to the solar eclipse. Awesome!