And so begins a new weekly topic, which will consist entirely of images shot right here at Walkabout Estates Plus, since it should be able to provide a decent array of subjects without too many repeats – that’s the goal, anyway.
Now, after deciding on this topic late Wednesday night, I went after a couple of subjects on Thursday but wasn’t successful in capturing anything compelling, and I thought I was going to have to start off with a Carolina anole. But then I went out last night/early this morning after the Quantarid Quadrantid meteors, the first time shooting the night sky on the property, which was almost entirely out of the question at the old place; nestled on the edge of two cities, with a streetlight right at the end of the driveway, and even out back there was only a narrow patch of sky visible through the trees. This place is a bit better.
I think all of those are cypress trees, but you’re looking at Mars in the center there, sitting within Cancer while Gemini is above it. A few minutes before this was taken, while the camera was exposing a section of sky off to the right, a Quantarids Quadrantids meteor cut entirely across this field of view, though probably too dim to have registered very well; it was dying out just as it would have been entering the frame I was taking at the time. Isn’t that how it goes?
But I did another little sample, because a faint haze was illuminated by the town lights as it passed through, and deserved an animation.
The twinkling is actually an artifact of rendering it as a gif (pronounced, “GOY-dr,”) but you can see the haze streaking through. Jupiter is the brightest spot of course, with Aldebaran just below it, Orion over the chimney, and Pleiades over the roof peak. I get a particular impression from this animation, but I’d rather not influence you; how does it make you feel?
I know, it would be better with meteors (wouldn’t everything?) but I shot 80 frames without a capture – it’s not like I wasn’t trying. If I hadn’t said anything about meteors you’d just be looking at the images for the night sky. It’s all about perspective…