Starscape

December 13, 2012.

Full Moon Rising

I took this photo from our deck on Nov. 29 of 2012. Full moon rising over our small town.

This picture was taken on Dec. 13th from our deck looking toward the hill. The bright light on the hill is the cross lit up for Christmas.

"The universe is wider than our views of it." ~ Henry David Thoreau

This is one of the favorite shots I took the night of the meteor shower! What I would love to do while Terry is off during Christmas is to go out in the country and take some night shots. We may have to do that.

I took this shot last night while I was out looking for meteors. It was the peak of the Geminid Meteor Shower. It was so cold, but it was worth numb fingers and toes. I got to see 5 meteors. Problem is my camera wasn't pointing in the right direction. That streak you see in this picture isn't a meteor, but a jet flying by.

The Man in The Moon

Full Moon. November 29, 2012

Stars

 

How countlessly they congregate
    O'er our tumultuous snow,
Which flows in shapes as tall as trees
    When wintry winds do blow!--
As if with keeness for our fate,
    Our faltering few steps on
To white rest, and a place of rest
    Invisible at dawn,--
And yet with neither love nor hate,
    Those stars like some snow-white
Minerva's snow-white marble eyes
    Without the gift of sight.

Robert Frost

Stars and Clouds at Dusk

Dreams in the Dusk

Dreams in the dusk,
Only dreams closing the day
And with the day’s close going back
To the gray things, the dark things,
The far, deep things of dreamland.

Dreams, only dreams in the dusk,
Only the old remembered pictures
Of lost days when the day’s loss
Wrote in tears the heart’s loss.

Tears and loss and broken dreams
May find your heart at dusk. 

Carl Sandburg

Another astrophotography shot by popular demand :0) I haven't taken new photos in awhile so I'm reaching back into my photo archives. Hope to have some new shots asap.

Another astrophotography shot from Sept. 8 of this year.

I love astrophotography! I took this shot outside our house on Sept. 8th of this year. All you need is a camera and a tripod. A remote shutter release is helpful too. Here are the settings I use for this type of photography. It's real easy to do.

Camera settings

• Program Mode - Set to Manual.
• Autofocus - Turn off, or set to Manual.
• White Balance - Set to Daylight or use a custom white balance (especially if your camera is modified).
• Drive - Set to One Shot.
• ISO - This is discussed in detail in a following section, but generally should be set to 1600 or 800 for long-exposure deep-sky astrophotos.
• Metering - Generally doesn't matter, but you can try setting it to Spot if you are shooting the Moon or Sun (with proper filtration)
• Exposure Compensation - Set to Zero, no exposure compensation. Doesn't really matter because you are not using autoexposure.
• Shutter Speed - Set to the exposure you want, up to 30 seconds can usually be dialed in directly. For longer than 30 seconds, set to Bulb. On some cameras, Bulb may be a separate exposure mode setting, or it may be accessed on the shutter speed dial past the 30 second setting.
• Self Timer - If you don't have a remote release, you can use the camera's self-timer to trip the shutter so you don't have to touch the camera, which will help reduce vibrations and possible star trailing.
• Mirror Lock-Up - For long exposures with a very solid mounting, it probably is not necessary to lock the mirror up before an exposure. For short exposures for high-resolution planetary or double-star work, it is a good idea to lock the mirror up before the exposure to reduce camera movement and vibration caused by mirror slap. Some cameras access this setting with a control on top of the camera and some through a custom setting in a menu. Some cameras like the 20Da require the shutter to be pressed once to lock the mirror up, and then be pressed again to actually open the shutter. Take care to learn exactly how your camera works for this feature, because you could press the shutter thinking you have opened it for a long exposure and go off to do something else, and then come back only to find that all you had done was lock the mirror up and that no exposure had been taken. Some cameras do not offer a mirror lockup up at all, but they may move the mirror up out of the way as the first thing when using the self timer. Read the camera manual to learn how your particular model works.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Night time in the Neighborhood

I took this shot in our side yard at 9pm on Sept. 8th, 2012. These night shots look so surreal. I love this kind of photography!

Stars and clouds.

Willow tree, stars and clouds. Sept. 8, 2012. 8:24pm. I took all these shots with my wide angle lens. Camera shutter open for 30 secs.

Night Sky

The Big Dipper over our house, Sept. 8, 2012.

Milky Way. Sept. 8th, 2012.

Venus & Jupiter

The planets Jupiter and Venus in alignment last night. It was a
gorgeous evening to go out and get some shots of this celestial
encounter. This event happens every 13 months. Last night, the
two planets were separated by just 3 degrees. Venus is the brighter
of the two planets even though it's much smaller in size.


When two planets line up in the sky, astronomers call it "planetary
conjunction." March 24th, 25th and 26th, a crescent moon will join
the global meeting between Jupiter and Venus being visible with the
two planets.


I took this shot of Jupiter and Venus looking through the top of our
garden arbor. Beautiful! If you get the chance and the sky is clear
tonight, go out and check this out.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky."

Full moon through clouds and our Yoshino cherry tree. I took this
shot with astrophotography settings.

Stars and trees