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Observations for 2021 May 09


It was a cold morning, so not in any hurry to get out and about. It was nearly noon before arriving at Grand, and as we walked up, we noticed steam to the left of Beehive's cone.

As it turned out, there was plenty of time to get to Beehive and back for the start of a steamy eruption. I saw Vent overflow, hit a button in the timer app, Grand started so I hit that button, and looking up saw Turban. So three button presses in about four seconds. As expected, Vent started in well less than three minutes. Most of the Turban starts I've seen this trip have been well after Grand started, with Vent sometimes close to 3-1/2 minutes after Grand.

Shortly after Grand started, Castle started its post-minor eruption. And a few minutes later, I noticed it was off. It continued to look like it was trying for restart, but by the time the One Burst Grand Eruption was over, so was Castle. The last two minutes of Grand were of the Big Sawmill style of weak bursting.

After that, it was on down to check Fan & Mortar, where there was still no eruption, and the incomplete cycle we saw seemed dull and ordinary.

The day was cold and blustery, but it was acceptable to go to Biscuit and spend an hour trying to see one of the large Rusty eruptions. Or at least a second one, as there was a large, Aurum-like eruption as the vehicle turned into the parking area. Most of the time there the small eruptions came regularly every two minutes, although there were some six minute intervals tossed in.

Finally, went out to Grand for the early evening eruption. Walked up to find West Triplet had just ended, and Grand in good overflow. Only waited five minutes for the eruption to start. The wind had died down, so I could actually hear (but not see) the boop that preceeded the eruption by a few seconds.

At just under eight minutes, Grand started to go into Big Sawmill, then quit completely. It was too steamy to see the pool until the second burst started. It was also disappointing that despite a duration of less than ten minutes, there was no attempt for a third burst that we could see.