Northwest Waterfall Survey of
- While I’d long known of a tall cascading waterfall near the headwaters of McCoy Creek, I hadn’t really given second thought to the small ravine near the mouth of the creek as it breaks into the Skykomish Valley. However, after receiving word from some fellow local hikers that a sizable waterfall was just ¼ mile upstream, I was sold. The results were surprisingly unexpected. While the falls weren’t quite as large as I was originally led to believe, the formation was much different than I had pictured. McCoy Creek plunges through an old mill dam of some sort and then fans out over a chunky bedrock face before contracting back to a narrow stream at the base of the 45 foot falls. Unfortunately several trees block clear views from the side of the road, but with a little hazardous scrambling I was able to attain a good viewpoint. With a rope and a revisit, I hope to eventually get all the way to the base for better photos.
- Albireo (Wikipedia)
Albireo /ælˈbɪrioʊ/ is a binary star designated Beta Cygni (β Cygni, abbreviated Beta Cyg, β Cyg). The International Astronomical Union uses the name “Albireo” specifically for the brightest star in the system. Although designated ‘beta’, it is fainter than Gamma Cygni, Delta Cygni, and Epsilon Cygni and is the fifth-brightest point of light in the constellation of Cygnus. Appearing to the naked eye to be a single star of magnitude 3, viewing through even a low-magnification telescope resolves it into its two components. The brighter yellow star, itself a very close trinary system, makes a striking colour contrast with its fainter blue companion.