On the one hand, the den cam is delayed 12 days. On the other hand, December 30 is 9 days earlier than last year. Maybe the cup is half full. Although the big ‘Thank You’ will come after December 30, we are deeply grateful to the team of engineers and technicians that has worked to make this a success. The delay is not their fault, as you know.
Today, we set up the solar panels, batteries, and cellular antenna. In addition to the technology, we went back to our college textbooks to get some sun facts to see how to aim the solar panels. At 45 degrees north latitude (which is Minneapolis), the sun is 21.5 degrees above the horizon at noon on December 21. That’s the shortest day of the year. For the next 180 days, the sun gets an average of 0.2611 degree higher each day to reach 45 degrees on March 21 and 68.5 degrees on June 21. The den is actually a couple degrees of latitude north of Minneapolis, at 47 degrees, 49 minutes north latitude, so the sun will be a couple degrees lower than the book listed for Minneapolis.
Since we won’t install the den cam until December 30, the sun will be up a couple degrees from the solstice. We figure the bears will leave about April 10 when the sun will have reached an azimuth of 48 degrees at noon that day. That’s quite a difference in height above the horizon. We’ll have to adjust the solar panels periodically. Today, we aimed the panels 27 degrees above the horizon. The beginning of February, we’ll aim them at 35 degrees. The beginning of March, we’ll aim them at 43 degrees.
Meanwhile, the days will be getting longer and the sun brighter, giving us more electricity to use the PTZ (Pan, Tilt, Zoom) camera that will be outside the den. We don’t have enough electricity or bandwidth to use both at the same time this year, and the PTZ camera uses more electricity. But by the time the bears start coming out for periods in spring, there should be enough electricity to cover it. When we install the cameras on December 30, there will be only 8 hours and 25 minutes between sunrise and sunset at this latitude. On April 10, there will be 13 hours and 22 minutes. The big question is whether the short days of January will provide enough solar power to run the system or if we will be making frequent trips to exchange batteries or run a generator to charge batteries.
No one has been to Lily and Hope’s den since October 29. That was before the snow. The den shed is about 80 yards away from it. We try to be quiet at the shed, but the bears probably hear us. They certainly hear us arrive on snowmobiles, but they heard snowmobiles go right past their den on the lakeshore last winter and got used to it. That should help us this winter in making periodic visits. What an opportunity with these bears!
And what a creative bunch you are! The Lily Fan's Digital Holiday Parade (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=314273&id=263755115498&saved)is a delight. Such skill and creativity to create those floats with the bears we know. The photos generated some big belly laughs here as we recognized the people and bears and what you had done. So funny and clever.
The Ely Timberjay ran a nice article giving credit to Lily fans for the $20,000 you worked so hard to get for Ely’s Schools. The link is http://timberjay.com/stories/20000-grant-for-schools,7785
Teasers for the BBC series “The Bear Family & Me (Gordon Buchanan)” are posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuDjVpbyzvQ&feature=channel and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEZ-yQ9lTeE&feature=channel. If these teasers prove popular it may increase the chance the series will be picked up by an American broadcaster.
Thank you for all you do!
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center