Observations for 17 July


Grand seems to have fallen into a nice little routine. There's an attempt at erupting at around the 6.5 hour mark, then it waits the three or so hours before it's time for the next eruption of West Triplet. The resulting eruptions a one burst that's just short enough that a second burst is possible but unlikely.

At least that's what we got in the morning.

Castle's predicted time came and went, and all it did for the rest of the day was slop.

Mid-day decided that might Iwant to do the Geyser Hill death wait for this visit, and instead got Beehive's Indicator within 15 minutes. Was quite windy, and no matter where I tried to be, the wind seemed to be coming directly over Beehive. So picked a spot and hunkered down when the drops came, which was mostly in the last minute or so of the eruption.

In the evening realized that if Grand didn't go short, that would put the eruption just before sunset, which is great time for an eruption. I hadn't had one at that time of day yet. Just as long as it didn't delay so long that it was dark. Arrived to find a wet West Triplet and Penta in the middle of a long eruption. The Turban activity proceeded as usual this past week, then we got an appearance of water in Vent and a slight overlfow. Fortunately, long Vent delays are uncommon, and this one was just three Turbans. When it came time for Grand to erupt, the pool filled early and stayed up, flooding the formations. Conditions might have been a little better, as the rainbows were a bit hard to see, but definitely there.

In years past, when Grand actually had multiple bursts and one burst eruptions were rare, some of us would jokingly start yelling or asking for Grand to stop. Because we knew that the subsequent bursts were the best part of the show. This evening it was Mike Keller's daughters who were making the "stop" pleas, and they were rewarded with just that at around 9m30s. Perfect time for a second burst, which we also got.