Just now, took a peek out there as the sky was darkening, noticed that it was more than clear enough, and did a couple of test shots. I also noticed another speck in the viewfinder and reframed, but I was still working handheld and sharpness was lacking. As I was setting up the tripod and getting the remote release out and the camera set for mirror lockup*, the last little light
Category: Photography
Watch Spica vanish before your eyes!
I really haven’t been finding posting material recently, because I’ve had a lot of other things going on, though I have a few unrelated pics that may show up a little later. Right now, I’m providing what little warning I can, having discovered only this morning that the moon will be occulting Spica this evening.
Basic orbital dynamics: the stars move across the
Just once, part 28
This week we have a curious specimen that was rather obvious when spotted that one time, nine years ago, because of both its size and its coloration. This is an elephant mosquito (Toxorhynchites rutilus,) and it was surprisingly easy to catch when it was perched atop the car, less so to photograph even with the help of a terrarium – the top image was tweaked to remove
This evening’s display
Late this afternoon or early this evening – before sunset, anyway – we had some storms roll through, looking quite ominous for a bit, but what we ended up with were summer showers. The scattered nature of the thunderheads did let the sun poke through, and so we got a quite vivid rainbow for a decent amount of time, but granted, I boosted contrast on these for better
Just once, part 27
While we found several examples of this species on the day this was taken, to my knowledge, I’ve never seen it before or since. Yet this red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) was found in the best location nearby to find salamanders and newts of any kind, which is West Point on the Eno River in Durham, NC.
It’s all cool
Or at least, a lot cooler than it has been for the past month.
Sunday finally brought some rain – not a lot, but enough to make some of the wilted plants look happier – and it also brought a brief drop in the overall temperatures, enough that last night we actually had the windows open, being cooler outside than in the house with the AC on. This morning, not facing the idea of overwhelming
Oh, gosh, another one
I was just glancing down at the clock and calendar of the computer after completing a stack of tasks tonight and said to myself, Thirty days has September, April, shit. Because of course it’s time for the end of the month abstract and I didn’t have anything prepared.
Not only that, but I shot extremely little this month, for reasons that will eventually become clearer, though it won’t
Just once, part 26
Today’s prehistoric installment comes to us from just over 20 years ago, this image being taken on June 4th, 2004 – I could potentially line these up closer to the anniversaries (not perfectly, since the 4th was a Tuesday this year,) but I’m working from a spreadsheet that lists the first post they appeared in and has no image date info, and it’s not worth
Could this be Al?
It’s been almost a week without anything but my routine weekly post, and for that, I apologize – it’s been a bit busy here, and while I obtained some frames here and there, I never got around to doing anything with them. Today, however, is Prove That You’re Not Dead Day, so it seemed as good a time as any to get them up here. Or for someone to produce a post
Just once, part 25
I knew this one was going to appear in this category and purposefully held onto it for this week. This is a summer tanager (Piranga rubra,) and it was photographed two years ago, coincidentally on the first day of summer (which doesn’t fall on a Wednesday this year, so this is as close as we get.) It was during an outing with Mr Bugg and, despite the brilliant red