[Geysers] Visit 6/23-6/29

[Chris Daubert]

I took an impromptu trip to Yellowstone following the second Morning eruption with the hope of seeing Morning erupt.  Several people have inquired about my time spent in the park and specifically at Fountain/Morning's Thief/Morning.  (and even more have inquired about my sanity) I spent my time in the park working on the assumption that Morning would erupt somewhere near the middle of the Fountain interval (which seems to have been sound, based on the third eruption).  So after my arrival on Saturday, I stayed for the next Fountain eruption and then left for several hours until the middle of the interval approached.  I continued to do that until I left on Friday.  Since Fountain was throwing some short intervals of about 9 hours occasionally, I would try to be back at the 4 hour mark from the beginning of the previous eruption.  Since I enjoy Fountain, I would stay for the eruption (basically waiting more than half the interval hoping for Morning and then expecting Fountain/counting Thiefs/watching Fountain).  Many of the durations were around 45 minutes, so watching Fountain and getting out of the parking lot was about an hour of the 4 hours I would give myself off.  Basically, I was spending about 9 out of 12 hours at Fountain.  And yes, I'm crazy enough to be there in the dark (rewarded with several nice night eruptions of Fountain - especially enjoying the moonlit Fountain early on 6/29 with Maureen and Ed). All told, I'd estimate that I spent 100+ hours observing Morning/Fountain/Thief.  Unfortunately I never saw an eruption of Morning, so I can't say how it differed from the intervals I watched.  I usually saw Morning's pool rise to a level I'd never observed before (Tara said one day that it was higher than the day it erupted) and there would be some bubbling in the back center of the pool.  During this time Morning's Thief would usually remain empty, but then just as I would get excited that Morning was looking good and Thief was empty, water and splashing would appear in Thief, leading to a rising and falling in Thief until one of the rises would result in an eruption.  After Thief erupted multiple times (usually ending in short intervals (</= 10 minutes)) Fountain would begin and erupt for 30-50 minutes.  That's when I'd take my break. The following data is based on ten eruptions of Fountain (I saw 12 but one was ie and one was ns so no Theif eruptions were observed and no true duration available)Average number of OBSERVED Thief eruptions prior to Fountain... 6Average Thief interval prior to Fountain... 9.9 minutes (only two of ten were over 10 minutes (one 13 and one 14))Average Fountain duration...  40.1 minutes I enjoyed visiting with my friends, meeting new (to me) Gazers, and reconnecting with some I hadn't seen in years.  To those looking forward to seeing the Dauberts in the park on the 7th (as I'd advertised), we have had a death in the family and will not get back until the 10th or 11th.   Hope to see many of you then, Chris Daubert  		 	   		  
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