Spring & Sunset

Only if the wind is from the South.

Well, the roar of the crowd and even some of the music was audible yesterday. Apparently some big game on.

Interesting – must have to do with Hunt Park being higher up. We used to hear the roar here on East Stadium, but since the enclosure was built don’t hear anything. Was there a big game?

I live close to Hunt Park, and we can hear the stadium at “big” moments in our yard :) It’s awesome.

Living between Forsythe school and Miller Road, we’re well insulated by trees from the stadium, but we can still hear it just fine, and the band practicing at Ferry Field too. Fact is Ann Arbor is like a big amphitheater, and Hunt Park is an amphitheater within an amphitheater. Try going up to Hunt Park Christmas morning sometime, around 2 or 3 AM, even the truck traffic on the highway beltway is quiet then for the only time of the year; I once heard a truck at that time that I figured must have been carrying a load uphill going north on US23 between Washtenaw and Plymouth, nothing else was making noise, so it was easy to locate from 4 miles away. Goes to show that we are surrounded by sound pollution to the point where we don’t notice it anymore.

Another treat is to go there at the same time of the early morning on a very cold clear winter night, when it’s zero or below and all of the moisture has been sucked out of the atmosphere, you can clearly see the drape of the lights on the Ambassador Bridge, and other Detroit landmarks—I’ve heard it said you can even see Detroit under those conditions from as far away as the Sears/Willis Tower in Chicago, thanks to the elevation.

Cosmonican, you got me to thinking. I am not sure what you do or do not see from Hunt Park with certain conditions but …

Taking an average number for the diameter of the earth of 7,900 miles and a separation of Detroit from Chicago of approximates 235 miles as the crow flies. There is a roughly 1¾ mile high bump (9,000 feet) between the two cities due to the curvature of the earth. The Sears / Willis viewing deck is just under 1,500 feet so there is still about 8,000 feet of earth blocking the view. In this case Battle Creek seems to sit at the high point.

Now maybe there is a depression in the earth’s sphere through this region but I do not know.

That said I have little doubt that the glow of a city’s lights could make the atmosphere a few thousand feet up glow. Maybe that can be discerned from Chicago.

It is not only noise that is ubiquitous but also artificial light.

Hey ABC, so far as Chicago goes, I only know what I’ve heard, which is undoubtedly meaningless drivel, just passing on an urban legend.

The bridge I have seen for sure, it’s even more striking though from M-14 & Sheldon, which is only about half the distance.

If you don’t want to strain yourself, go to Hunt Park and look for the Arborland sign, unless somebody put up a building since the last time I looked, it’s always been easy to see.

That’s awesome about the Arborland sign! I’ll have to try it. I’ve seen Detroit from M14 and Sheldon many times, and many times not because of the haze. Hard to imagine seeing anything much farther away than that.

I remember during the blackout of 2003, being struck at night first by how dark it was (no mercury vapor glow on the horizon) and then by how quiet it was–no cars on the roads, but especially no air conditioners.

Atmospheric inversions can do strange things- growing up, I heard stories of being able to see Canada across Lake Erie from Cleveland when the weather was right (if you’re curious, do a search for Lake Erie Mirage).

wow cool! snow tonight too.

Another atmospheric phenomenon I used to play with is out of date now, since the equipment and broadcasts are obsolete. I used to be able to get UHF TV signals, with an antenna near Hunt Park and at the same elevation, that ID’d themselves from as far away as Wheeling, West Virginia, and Toronto, Canada. Again, on very cold nights, late at night when there is little interference. Maybe low air pressure, + or – ionization, I don’t know, maybe a Ham Radio person would, but it’s a different kind of signal. I’m not the boffin for that, there must be one around.

We used to occasionally pick up the London, ON TV station from Cleveland when conditions were right- same thing. I think the radio term for it is “skip”. You can pull in some very distant radio stations under the right atmospheric conditions.