Re: Half Dome, the Dancing Devil, Ansel Adams, and Rorschach

So I dropped onto Google Earth the daily update of the perimeter of the fire east of Little Yosemite Valley (see link) from Inciweb. Not much change, but I had accidentally turned on the feature that links places in the satellite view to photos on the web. At that scale there were only a few at Half Dome (there are hundreds if you zoom in close), but one bore the label "Dancing Devil". If you click on the link you get this splendid photo by Bruce MacIver:



See: http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer#user=85489&with_photo_id=7990954&order=date_desc for credits and comments. If you click on the photo there, you will get a much larger version. It is terrific.

Of course, I recognized the place right away. I've been up the ridge that is casting the shadow. To get from the base of the face of Half Dome to the Diving Board, you climb up behind it and then cross over and traverse right. (see: link) Sure enough, if you zoom in on Google Earth, the icon moves around to the right spot, sort of:



So. Dancing Devil, eh? It looks more like a lily or an angel to me. My hiking buddy claims it is Dorothy holding Toto from the Wizard of Oz. Dr. Rorschach would be most interested. My buddy took this photo from the Diving Board last March to echo the famous one taken from there in 1927 by Ansel Adams:



and Chick-on posted this on the "way to the Diving Board" thread (see link)



Except for one thing. The devil is missing from Adams' photo. It's also missing from the famous Moon Over Half Dome that he took in 1960, though in both cases the diagonal slash to the left of the devil is there, and the black streak that runs down the face through the devil is also present.

So, two questions:

1) When did the devil appear? There are thousands of photos taken of Half Dome every year. It should be possible to date it quite well. [see note added below]

2) What do you see in it? Here is a close-up:



We can analyze your visions, though I'm afraid that Dr. Rorschach and his blots are no longer with us...

Note added later: Adams wasn't sure about that 1960 date, but astronomers can date the moon photo at 4:14pm Dec 28, 1960.
http://www.nps.gov/yose/historyculture/upload/ansel-adams-sky&tel-1994-article.pdf
See what I mean?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2014 12:11PM by wherever.

To me it looks like a cat stretched out climbing and looking over its right shoulder.

Quote
wherever

My hiking buddy claims it is Dorothy holding Toto from the Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy holding Toto?

It looks more like one of the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz holding Toto.


.

Sept of 2002:


October of 2003:


Fur fun... Feb of 2010:


I don't think it has changed a huge amount since 2005... but my 2005 pix ... are too hazy to really tell

I'll let u narrow it down more...

---

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2014 07:30AM by chick-on.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/naturescience/rockfall.htm

and from there:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/746/

Main event looks like it was:
6/6/2003
followed by
6/19 and 6/29

and looks like
7/1/2005

Great resources available with looks of info.

---

Quote
chick-on
Main event looks like it was:
6/6/2003
followed by
6/19 and 6/29

and looks like
7/1/2005

Agreed. A Google photo search on Half Dome yields a couple of photos relevant to those dates. Cropped down to the face:

September 2002. Not much there:


Oct 2003. The satyr appears:


March 2005. No wings yet:


December 28, 2005. The current shape is complete:

Yup. Looks right. My 2005 photo was from October and looked complete.

Good stuff

---

Sept. 2002 ... I see Butt-Head looking to the left & down.