Observations for 2023 August 26


Wanted to go out to Grand last night, but rain started just about the time to head out. Looking at the weather maps, it looked like it wouldn't clear before the moon set, so stayed in.

That rain made it extemely humid, and there was a thick fog in the morning. It didn't help that at the time I didn't know when the previous Grand eruption had happened. Turned out I probably saw the first Turban eruption after Grand's first overflow. So ended up waiting two hours. After that, it was still fogged in, and dead calm when we got the One Burst Grand eruption. Afterwards, as I biked back in, the fog was starting to break at the south end of the basin.

2023-Aug-26:08:33:32 T1C

08:33:22	Turban		-0m10s
08:33:32	Grand B1	---	d=9m25s
08:36:09	Vent		2m36s
08:42:58	P1		9m25s
Vent & Turban continue

				     	ΣD=9m25s
	* * * * *
06:22:43			d=2m04s 	
06:43:06	Int: 20m23s	d=4m57s 	
07:03:05	Int: 19m59s	d=3m54s 	
07:21:39	Int: 18m34s	d=3m54s 	
07:38:22	Int: 16m43s	d=4m09s 	
07:57:21	Int: 18m59s	d=3m29s 	
08:14:17	Int: 16m56s	d=3m47s 
		     Turban: 19m04s

Was still not totally clear when Beehive erupted, but because it was calm, the water column was straight up, and only a portion of the walkway got wet.

There was another event at Fan & Mortar. As in the previous cases, Bottom Vent had a strong eruption, Main Vent was splashing, and Lower Mortar was also high. But while Fan's vents started strong, after a couple of minutes they'd died down well before Angle started.

The midday Grand eruption was a bit of a fiasco. I went out early because I had not much else to do. Almost immediately I caught a Turban eruption, one which lasted almost six minutes. That's usually the sign of a Turban Delay Interval, and when the next Turban interval had little Grand overflow, I was pretty sure of that.

Around the time of the second Turban eruption after that, I looked at a weather map and saw that there was a pretty strong thunderstorm headed our way. That's when the NPS radio had a severe weather alert, with one inch hail and 40 mph winds headed our way. Normally,with less information and with the way the sky looked, I'd have just hunkered down and waited the weather out. But the "one inch hail" part was enough to make me decide to clear out. I got into the trees between Liberty and Lion when the hail started, and decided that was a better place to experience hail than Geyser Hill. Turns out less than ten minutes later, the sky was clearing and the rain was mostly over. So much for the "severe weather."

I headed back to Grand, and arrived at about 22 minutes after the previous Turban eruption start. Grand was obviously in heavy overflow, and having another Turban Delay interval. Most of the people who had been waiting for Grand, gazers and tourists, had cleared out. At exactly 25 minutes, Turban started, followed almost immediately by the One Burst Grand Eruption.

2023-Aug-26:15:00:08 D3/D0/T1Q

15:00:05	Turban		-0m03
15:00:08	Grand B1	---	d=10m20s
15:00:10	Vent Ovfl	0m02s
15:03:01	Vent		2m53s
15:10:28	P1		10m20s
15:11:59	V&T Quit	11m51s

				     	ΣD=10m20s
	* * * * *
13:56:17			d=5m44s 	
14:14:21	Int: 18m04s	d=4m22s 	
14:35:05	Int: 20m44s	
		     Turban: 25m00s

There were clouds obscuring the moon as we went out to Grand. Once again, I saw what appeared to be a Turban Delay interval when I arrived. Fortunately, Grand erupted just two Turban eruptions later. Not only did we get a second burst after a fairly long first burst, but the moon was shining through a clear spot in the clouds.

2023-Aug-26:21:11:25 D2/T2Q

21:11:03	Turban		-0m22s
21:11:25	Grand B1	---	d=9m07s
21:20:32	P1		9m07s	d=0m48s
21:21:20	B2		9m55s	d=0m48s
21:22:08	P2		10m43s
21:23:07	V&T Quit	11m42s

				     ΣB=9m55s	ΣD=10m43s
	* * * * *
20:31:16			
20:49:36	Int: 18m20s	d=4m45s 	
		     Turban: 21m27s