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My office

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Click on Read More to view the video. A view of my "office" at the university. It is a privilege to have an experiment like this to teach the real-world aspects of chemical engineering. I need an updated photo that does not show the construction mess! This is a 20 foot distillation column separating methanol and water. It is controlled using a state-of-the-art DCS (distributed control system) and industrial instruments and valves. The system is indoors and spans about 50 feet in height accessed using industrial grating. It is a world-class experiment where students start up the process, bring it to steady-state, and shut it down inside a 3 hour lab period. I do not touch the controls - it is all them (with a little coaching)!
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C-130 Cockpit

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We were able to go inside one of the C-130s in the hanger. Yes, there were 2 of these beasts in the hanger PLUS helicopters. The hanger was kind of BIG! With no power on the plane and a black interior, the cockpit area was very dark. I shot these photos using some crazy settings (ISO16000 and 1/3 to 1/25 sec shutter) without a tripod. They came out much better than expected. You see in the first shot that the cockpit is heavy in electronics. The pilot seat is on the left and copilot on the right. You see very minimal non-electronic flight-critical instrumentation just to the right of the pilot yoke. The dials in the lower area are indicators for the trim/position of the flight surfaces. I'm betting this plane is not much fun to fly if the electronics go out. As a fan of flight simulators, I can identify a lot of the controls and can make pretty good guesses on the operation of those screens. With this much going on, both pilots are probably pretty busy as they approach their missio...
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Moon Photos

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So "everybody" took photos of the Super Blue Moon on August 19. The "Super" part was due to its orbit being closer to the earth than normal. The "Blue" can have two definitions. The more common definition is the second full moon in a calendar month. Obviously this moon did not fit that description given the August 19 date (moon cycle is 29.5 days). The second definition is a fourth full moon in a seasonal quarter. I didn't know about this definition until I investigated a little. Learned something new...... A few days prior on August 17, we were taking a boat ride on Cow Bayou in Bridge City. The moon looked great so I snapped a few photos from a slow moving pontoon boat hoping for a reasonable shot. The moon phase showed 95% visible. In my opinion, I like partial moon shots better than the full moon shots. Look at the extra detail we can see on the craters when they are on the edge of illumination. The sunlight is hitting the peaks of the craters and ...
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