Wednesday - August 12, 2020

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PERMIT NO. 30 JULIAN, CA

ESTABLISHED

An Independent Weekly Newspaper Serving the Backcountry Communities of Julian, Cuyamaca, Santa Ysabel, Shelter Valley, Mt. Laguna, Ranchita, Canebreak, Sunshine Summit, Warner Springs and Wynola.

Julian News

PO Box 639 Julian, CA 92036

1985

Change Service requested

DATED MATERIAL

The Newspaper of Record.

For the Community, by the Community.

Wednesday

1870

YEARS

Julian Branch Library Hosts Blood Drive With San Diego Blood Bank Julian Branch Library is hosting a blood drive in partnership with the San Diego Blood Bank. This Thursday, August 13, 2020 from 10:00 am ‑ 3:00 pm. At 1850 Highway 78, Julian in the parking lot. All donors will receive a FREE Comic Con Limited‑Edition t‑shirt (while supplies last, sizes subject to availability.) Anyone 17 and older, who weighs at least 114 pounds and is in good health may be eligible to donate blood. A good meal and plenty of fluids are recommended prior to donation. Appointment and photo identification required. Please call (800) 469-7322 or visit SanDiegoBloodBank.org for more information.

3 More Covid-19 Cases Identified The County’s latest figures on Covid-19 cases has brought the total in 92036 to seven, 3 more that identifird 2 weeks ago. Ramona has reached 200, Sata Ysabel 3, Warner Springs 6, and Ranchita 3. Borrego Spring is showing 17 cases, figures released through August 8. 20 reported COVID-19 Community Outbreaks, in a Preschool, business office, retail business, a religious orgaization and bar/restaurant. The 14 day average of new cases is 5.3%, with number of tests averaging 7,100 per day. Over 630,000 tests have been administered in the County since testing began in mid-March.

Census Deadline Your Input Needed

Have you done your Census? 68% of Julian residents have! If not, respond today and be counted. A counted community is a funded community. Federal dollars for the Julian community for the next 10 years are at stake. Respond today on-line at https:// my2020census.gov/1 or call 858-285-7539. Local Census employees are available to answer questions or to complete the questionnaire on your behalf over the phone. English and Spanish available. Let’s get counted Julian.

Julian, CA.

Volume 36 — Issue 02 ISSN 1937-8416

www.JulianNews.com

Back To School With A Chromebook

ESTABLISHED

August 12, 2020

School started Tuesday at all three Julian schools. You would never know by the lack of noise or the empty parking lot at the high school. All schools are starting the year with distance learning, much to the disappointment of the administrations. On Friday elementary and Jr. High students began picking up their supplies for the semester, including “Chromebooks” and for some internet “hot-spots” The high school is scheduled to disperse their learning tools on Monday. All students are expected to sign in with their various classes everyday on their computers. Unlike the spring when evryone was feeling their way, this will be a full and immersive learning environment for all concerned. And much to the dismay of some - grades will be given at the end of the semester.

Night Sky Photography Basics Julian is a wonderful place to enjoy the dark night sky. Stars, meteors, planets, etc., are visible year-round on cloudless nights. There are several times each year when meteor showers appear, or a rare comet will provide an even better show for those who take the time to be patient and look up. You can see the International Space Station whiz by occasionally and the wondrous milky way is visible for much of the year. The Perseid meteor shower occurs between late July and mid-August and this year will peak Aug 10 through Aug 13 in the NE sky with up to 100 meteors an hour. Capturing night sky images with your camera is not as difficult as you might think if you follow some basic guidelines. When shooting night sky images - stars, meteors, comets, planets – the main limitation is that you never have enough light. So, you need to use every feature of your equipment to help you capture as much as you can. Here are some basic rules to follow which apply no matter what camera you have. To capture stars, you will want to choose a dark night with no clouds and with no visible moon if possible. Then you will want to find a location with a clear view of the sky and with little or no light from terrestrial sources – buildings, streetlights, security lights, etc. You will also need a sturdy tripod since you will be taking multi-second exposures. In a pinch you could rest your camera on a rock or a car but that is not very convenient. There will not be enough light to use the Auto features of your camera so you will be using the ‘manual’ mode of your DSLR or mirrorless camera as well as the ‘manual’ focus of your lens. Not to worry, here are some basic settings to get you started and once you have captured a few images you can then adjust any of these settings as necessary. Start with ISO 3200, shutter 20 seconds, and your lens aperture as open as you can; f/1.4 to f/2.8 if possible. Use a 14mm to 28mm lens to capture a wide view of the sky. Remember that you will need to set your camera to Manual if you normally use Auto. Now the tough part, you must manually focus on the stars. It is a good idea to practice during the day to see where your lens should be set and then mark or remember that for night shooting. Once you are all set up, take a shot, review it, and then adjust

the focus. You may need to do that multiple times before things become focused. And remember to keep checking it between subsequent shots. One fact that can surprise people is how quickly things in the sky move. Shooting stars streak across the sky in less than a second of course (we will talk about capturing those below) but all the other stars move too. In fact, they move so quickly that they become lines rather than points of light in your photograph even after only a few seconds of exposure. To avoid this, you will need to limit the exposure time. You can use a simple guideline called the ‘500 rule’. It says to divide 500 by the focal length of the lens you are using. For example, if you are using a 24mm lens you have 500/24 = 20 seconds before stars begin to be lines. For a crop frame – or APSC – camera you have less time with the same lens; only 333/24 = 14 seconds. (You can check your camera documentation to determine if it is full frame or crop frame). In either case, this is just a guideline; you can certainly use a longer exposure if you’d like and I’d recommend using all sorts of settings so you get the feel of how your equipment performs. It is OK if you come home with hundreds of shots that you end up deleting as long as you captured a few keepers. One more bit of technical advice; you can increase the ISO setting to more than 3200 if your camera allows that. That allows the sensor to capture more light; doubling that number doubles the amount of light sensitivity. Some cameras are quite capable of 6400, 12,800 or higher. Just be aware that as you increase ISO, more noise will be captured in the image and you will need

Cedar Creek Falls and Three Sisters Falls Trails Under New Restricted Guidelines Through The End Of The Year

by Kevin Wixom

to filter that out later. Again, play with your equipment and take images using lots of different settings. In short, you are constantly balancing things; more light sensitivity means more noise, more exposure time means stars become lines, smaller aperture means less light hitting the sensor, etc. You have three main levers to balance: aperture, shutter speed and ISO (called the Exposure Triangle). Focusing is the fourth challenge. Be patient and be as precise as you can. Taking pictures of the night sky can be frustrating and it takes hours of practice, but the rewards are tremendous. Did I mention patience? Now that you can capture images of the stars, how in the world (or rather, out of this world) do you capture shooting stars? Now we need to add another little variable… luck. You have no idea when a meteor will appear and it will be gone in a second, so you want your camera to be exposing when that random meteor flies across the sky. You can do this a couple of ways. First, you can keep manually starting each exposure. That works but can get boring. Plus, you do not want to keep touching things after you have them set properly; invariably you will bump the focus ring or some other setting. Second, you can use something called an intervalometer. This device connects to your camera and will continue to trigger the shutter using the exposure time you have set as long as the camera battery lasts. Did I mention you should have extra batteries with you? You should. Intervalometers are easy to find on Amazon or your local camera shop; just get one that works with your camera. By the way, shooting the moon

continued on page 8

Effective Saturday, August 1, 2020 the Cleveland National Forest will be moving into ELEVATED fire restrictions. These restrictions are put into effect to provide for emergency resource protection and public safety during hazardous fire conditions. The following are the ELEVATED fire restrictions as of August 1, 2020 through January 1, 2021: Smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, or within a developed recreation sites. Welding or operating an acetylene or other torch with an open flame. Target shooting, discharging a firearm, air rifle, or gas gun. Building, maintaining, attending, or using a fire, campfire, or charcoal fire except within a developed recreation sites. General fire restrictions are in place year-round and remain in effect: Fireworks are never allowed on the Cleveland National Forest. No wood or charcoal fires are allowed except in identified developed campgrounds and developed picnic areas within designated fire rings. Discharging a firearm using the following ammunition is never allowed, this includes hunting seasons: steel core, armor piercing, and tracer ammunition. Visitors are asked to be aware of wildfire conditions in their area and take appropriate prevention measures where necessary. For more information visit: www.fs.usda.gov/cleveland To protect the health and safety of visitors, cooperators and employees, Three Sisters and Cedar Creek Trails closure will be extended from Tuesday, August 4 through Saturday, October 31. All permits for the Cedar Creek Falls Permit area will be cancelled for these dates.

Popular Forest Trails Require Higher Level Of Skill And Preparedness On Warm Days Cedar Creek Falls and Three Sisters Falls trails, near Ramona and Julian, located in San Diego County, are known for their beauty, but they are also extremely dangerous on warm days. Among the most popular destinations on the Cleveland National Forest, these trails require extra precautions during summer months. Every summer, often multiple times a week, hikers find themselves overwhelmed by the heat, dehydrated, and in need of help. Since June 27, 2020, emergency responders have performed 11 rescues in these areas, including one which tragically resulted in a fatality. “As more and more people come to the National Forest for fresh air and exercise, they may not be aware that hiking these trails can be extremely dangerous, even deadly,” says Amy L. Reid, the Palomar district ranger. “We encourage visitors to be responsible for their safety by being prepared, considering the conditions, and possibly choosing another location on warm days.” The waterfalls, generally shown flowing beautifully at full capacity in pictures on social media and the internet, dry up during the warm months and the pools turn stagnant. In general, the USDA Forest Service does not recommend hiking either the Cedar Creek Falls Trail or Three Sisters Falls trail between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on warm days, and does not recommend hiking the trails at all if the temperatures are over 90 degrees at the trailheads. When hiking in the Three Sisters or Cedar Creek Falls areas during the summer months, the Cleveland National Forest asks visitors to plan for an arduous hike in desert conditions with little to no shade, expect temperatures to be significantly hotter along the trail than at the trailhead, carry a minimum of one liter of water per person, per hour of planned hike (both trails take 4-5 hours on average to complete), and wear light-colored clothes, sturdy shoes, and a hat. On days that the National Weather Service issues a heat advisory or excessive heat watch, local officials will implement an emergency closure. With today's heat advisory announcement, temporary closures will be in place Saturday, July 11 and Sunday, July 12. However, even days without a heat advisory or excessive heat watch can still be dangerous. Hikers visiting Cedar Creek Falls need a visitor use permit, which can be acquired at www.recreation.gov. Cleveland National Forest officials encourage visitors to be aware of their surroundings and responsibilities when visiting the Forest. For more information, please visit the website at www.fs.usda.gov/ cleveland or call the nearest office.

NATIONAL RESURRECT ROMANCE WEEK * Enjoy it with your special someone.

ESTABLISHED

1870

YEARS


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