So much for that

A couple weeks back, I came across another photo of the International Space Station in front of the sun, and it renewed my interest in trying to obtain an image of this on my own, especially since I now have a working solar filter – I’d be fine with the moon, too. Thus began the research into how one got an accurate prediction for the passes as seen from one’s own location.

Here’s read more

Blink and you missed it


The conditions held and I did get out to watch Spica disappear behind the moon. I tried a short video clip, unable to tell if it was actually capturing Spica or not but suspecting that it wasn’t – the frame rates for video translate to a pretty short shutter speed and even as bright as it was in comparison, Spica was still pretty dim. Upon returning home, I found that read more

Preliminary


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 read more

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 read more

Too cool, part 52: Falcon transit

The latest ‘Too Cool’ entry comes from Astronomy Picture of the Day again, but wonder of wonders, it’s not a composite edited photo – I was starting to think this was a requirement for them. Instead, this is a carefully planned and timed shot, one that took a lot more effort than it might first appear.


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Cut y’self

Many things happening this week, in many directions, so little of it was photography. Part of this was, I was getting some warning signs that my ‘Main’ harddrive was about to fail, and I replaced it, copying it over onto a new drive – but the program that I used took something like 27-28 hours to complete this task (just over a terabyte of info,) and I suspect it would read more

Tripod holes 25


N 28° 8’18.14″ W 80°37’49.41″ Google Earth location

This one’s precise – not of where I was standing, because the angle isn’t perfectly recalled, but certainly of the tree itself, which is still there despite this image being taken in 2003, I believe. I was cruising around at night on my bicycle looking for good subjects for B&W film and realized that read more

Not the Beehive!

I have a small number of images to post from an outing yesterday, but first, some images from a later outing (because they’re fewer and easier and I’m lazy.) We’ll start with a comparison.


That’s the moon on top, seen through many obscuring tree branches because I wasn’t out there after the moon, but I was using it for sharp focus, because what I was read more

Extraneous


I have a lot of video editing to do, which you will see the evidence of shortly – probably not tonight, but it should be within 24 hours anyway. Right now, I’m just throwing up a quick moon pic, taken early this morning as I was setting up the tripod – the detail came out nicely, and I didn’t even bother boosting contrast or anything. Just wanted read more

Why is this still here?

Starting to catch up on a few tasks here and there, and went into the image stock folders on the magic meme box (what some stodgy people call a ‘computer’) to see how much needed to be cleaned up in there. And realized that I still have a ‘Facebook’ folder with a handful of images in there.

You may have noticed the anti-social media widget over there on the sidebar, and if read more

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