New Binocs

Just before Christmas, Canadian Tire was running a special on Celestron 15 x 70 Skymaster binoculars, regular price $149.99 marked down to $49.99. Couldn't believe my eyes. Debated with myself for 24 hours, is this for real? Read reviews online, most said they were good binocs. Sooo...off I went and got myself a pair. I am quite pleased with them. They had a cheezy little plastic adapter to mount them on a tripod, as you simply cannot handhold these steady for star viewing. I set about building a sturdy mount plate instead, took a piece of hardwood, added a Tbolt for the quick release plate, stitched together some plastic padding to help reduce vibration, and added one inch wide strapping with a good dose of velcro. I adjusted the binocs to my eye width and strapped them to the plate, put them on the tripod and headed out for an hour long session to gawk at the sky. I am impressed. I can see the moons of Jupiter, the 4 stars in the Orion Nebula, and Pleaiades fills the whole viewing frame. Only problem is, now that I have my new toy, we're going to have crappy cloudy/rainy weather for the next 5 days. *sigh* just classic. Can't wait to take these out birding some nice day.

Fun with photography

A recent presentation at our photo club showed us how to use various light sources for various effects. I scooped a few of the discarded glow sticks at the end of the meeting and proceeded to play with them at home. I have a few "nature artifacts", sometimes they come in handy, like this deer skull and antlers. Still working on ideas for compositions, this is just trying out the light effects with long exposures.

Jupiter

Jupiter has been "at opposition", high in the night sky and easy to see. Took a shot with the 300 mm lens, can see 3 of its moons. Gotta gotta gotta get me a telescope, just can't decide what to get.

View of the night sky from my backyard, October 28, 2011, 4:50 a.m., 10-20mm lens at 10mm, f4.5, ISO 800 for 30 seconds.

Glow-in-the-Dark Firewood

There was a thunderstorm rolling in at about 2:00 a.m. this morning that woke me up, so I grabbed the camera and set it up hoping to get some shots of lightning. No dice, the lightning was up in the clouds lighting up the sky but no clear bolts. I stoked up the woodstove and sat on the couch for a while, and when my eyes adjusted I noticed a strange green glow by the firewood box. I wondered what the heck that was, as there were no electronics there with little lights that would cause the glow. I turned the light on and saw some pieces of firewood I had set beside the box. I turned the light off and let my eyes adjust, saw the green glow. Turned the light on and took the topmost piece and set it on the table and turned the light off. The piece of firewood was glowing. I set up the camera and took some long exposures of the glow. It is the bottom butt piece from a small dead tree that I had cut yesterday, the bottom end glows but not the top end. Must be some kind of fungus in the decaying wood, I'll have to investigate this further. The gnarly root piece is still (I think) out beside the firewood pile, I'll have to see if I can find it. It's too bad I don't know where I had collected this particular supply of wood, yesterday I had taken my little 16" chainsaw and went out the laneway, stopping in several places to collect small dead trees for firewood for our woodstove, things that had fallen over, "easy stuff" that I can gather on my own. This particular piece is 5 1/2 inches wide at its widest. I'll have to do some investigating on causes of phosphorescence in decaying wood.

Excuse me, WHAT kind of potatoes???

Sometimes when you read some pretentious nonsense on the side of a package your really have to laugh out loud. This time it was on the side of a small bag of potato chips. I LOVE potato chips. Bought a small bag because I will sit and munch non-stop on the largest family size bag of potato chips you can buy. An open bag is an empty bag. Anyway, I digress... Having enjoyed my small bag of ketchup potato chips I got to wondering what kind of spices they use to get the ketchup flavour, so started reading the list of ingredients. Now, the main ingredients are always listed first, and you can usually assume that the main ingredients in a bag of potato chips are: (insert *drum roll* ) potatoes. In THIS bag, however, we didn't have just any old potatoes. Noooo...these were "specially selected" potatoes. Not red potatoes, not Irish white potatoes, not PEI potatoes, not sweet potatoes, not yellow potatoes.... "specially selected" potatoes. I'm picturing some bespeckled guy in a white lab coat and boots, clipboard in hand, pen clutched firmly in other hand, as he steps between the furrows of a freshly plowed field specially selecting the potatoes. Just warms the cockles of my heart, and the digestion of my belly, to know that I have just eaten specially selected potatoes.

More Orion

This is how this dog sleeps. Honestly. Sometimes she rolls up against me on the bed, I wake up, all I see is feet in the air. Finally managed to grab the camera in time to catch her in the act.









I think it's obvious that Orion is my favourite constellation. While the rest of world, my dog included, were sleeping, I got up just after moonset this morning and got out the camera and tracker, knowing that this would be the last chance to photograph stars in a dark moonless sky for a while. This was the night of the Droconid meteor shower, but with the nearly full moon and the shower peaking on the other side of planet, no Draconids were seen. (I was out a couple times just after dark to check.) There is, however, a minor meteor shower, the Arietids, originating from Aries/Taurus, and I did see a few that were probably those. Lovely to the eye, too dim to show up in the photographs, in spite of high IS0 and wide apertures.



At least it was a mild night, we've been enjoying sunny warm weather this past week. There were a couple of firefly larvae lighting up lime green in the grass near my feet.


I had forgotton to put the slip of paper in my pocket that listed the time the ISS was coming over, and of course had the camera pointed in the other direction. Fortunately I looked around in time to see it coming, so didn't miss it entirely.

*sigh* The full moon is coming around, and by Wednesday we're supposed to get another rainy spell for a few days. Hopefully there will be some breaks in the clouds during the night, lovely to see the moon shining through, lighting up the clouds and reflecting in the water.

Kerrie the Merry Pup stuck her nose in my face at about 3:30 a.m., and insisted on going out. So...on with the pants, shirt, boots, coat and out we went. When my blurry eyes cleared a bit I realized that it was clear skies, moon had set, and the temperatures weren't that cold, so I got the tracker and camera bag and headed down to lake to try for some shots. Conditions were good but photography was total frustration. Could not for the life of me figure out Polaris, so couldn't set the tracker. While I was wandering along the lake shore looking for it I set the camera for a few minutes, thought I may as well get a star trails shot. Took a few 30 second shots, I'm *sure* I had set the camera for 1600 IS0 but found out later that it was set for 400 IS0, not good.

I then headed over to the dock to see what the viewing was like there. Still couldn't figure out which star was Polaris, with the field of stars turned many degrees at that time in the morning (now 4:26 a.m.) it was confusing, not a view I'm used to. It finally occurred to me to set for a star trail shot for about 3 minutes and then check the viewfinder in the camera, the one in the middle's gotta be Polaris. So, having done that, could finally set the tracker. At the far end of the dock Orion can be seen *just* above the trees at "the point". I love trees, but being down in the valley with trees on a hill, ain't good for astronomy.

Another source of frustration is the Manfrotto ballhead. It's a squat shape, the release knob is large, doesn't allow the camera to settle into the angle that I want for some shots. Again, I had set the camera for some 30 second shots at IS0 1600, was *sure* I had set the IS0, but they were on 400 IS0 where I had it set for the tracker shots.

At least the dew held off, I could see a bit of steam rising off the lake in the flashlight beam while setting up, that's usually an indication that you don't have much time before the lens fogs up.

Finally gave up around 4:45 a.m. and went back to bed.

My first Star Party

Photo taken at around 4:30 a.m. the Fall'n'Stars Star Party.

It's that time of year again when the fat mature caterpillars start showing up. Here are 2 that I photographed today.




Since 2006, Giant Swallowtail Butterflies have been seen in our area. I finally got to see several of them this summer, and recently discovered their caterpillars in the prickly ash bushes along our laneway.























When you prod these guys they suddenly sprout red tentacle-like structures called osmeterium as a form of defence. Also helps to hide in plain when you're shaped like a bird turd.

I nearly stepped on this big caterpillar, it was over 3 inches long. Closest I can figure from caterpillar book is that it may be the Great Ash Sphinx, will have to have that confirmed. It was a lively fellow, (m?f?) thrashing about excitedly when I picked it up, nearly dropped it.

Summer storms

Saturday wasn't too bad weatherwise for most of the day. Along about 11:00 p.m. the clouds came rolling in and I saw lightning coming up in the distance, so I grabbed the camera and found a dry spot to sit and take long exposures. Had fun watching the storm and shooting the lightning until it was directly overhead and pouring down rain, figured then it was time to skedaddle indoors.

Summer night skies

Haven't had much time to play with the cameras during the daytime hours, but there have been a few nights when I got out the barndoor tracker and took a few shots. These were taken just past midnight on August 2, 2011. The first on is looking southwest. Lens Sigma 10-22mm set at 10 mm, ISO 400, f 4.0, 267 seconds exposure.

The second shot is northeast to southwest, same shot settings, exposure time 249 seconds. Both shot in RAW and converted to .jpg

The Perseid meteor shower is coming up Friday night/Saturday morning, predictions are for clear skies. The only drawback will be the near full moon. Going to be interesting trying to shoot meteors with the bright moonlight.

Flashdance

I was ready to go to bed last night, turned out the lights, peered out the window...and saw lots of little green sparkling lights dancing over the beach. The fireflies were putting on a good show, so I decided to take the camera out and see if I could get some pictures. I did manage a few good long exposures.

It's interesting to watch the patterns of the flashes. This was discussed on the nature list, that we should learn the flash patterns of the different species. I'm just wondering where one would find the information on the flash patterns. I was thinking this would be difficult, but when you stand for a while and watch the fireflies in action, after a while you can pick out different patterns. Some are *bippitybippitybippity*, pause, repeat, others are *bip* pause *bip* pause, repeat, and still others are *bleeeeeep* pause *bleeeep* pause. A couple of these patterns are apparent in the shots.

A mass of firefly lights in a long exposure. There were about a dozen fireflies in this location.

Here are two of the patterns, the *bippitybippity* and *bip* *bip* *bip*.

One of the fellows on the astronomy forum has some wonderful shots of fireflies and star trails. I'm inspired by these, and hope that I can find a location where I could shoot something similar.

Dragonfly with Shrunken Head...or a case of Head Ripped Off?

The Update/Correction: Okaaaaayyyyyy.....I was bound and determined to see a shrunken head on this dragonfly. Now I'm not so sure, it's probably a head ripped off. It LOOKS like eyes and mandibles, but I have no good magnifier to put on it. I have found out that a dragonfly's brain is not necessarily in its head. "Ichabod", as I've named it, lived about 6 more days. Then I was reminded of how cockroaches can live without their head for a week. I have found newly emerged dragonflies with some kind of deformation, some not even making it out of the exuvia and dying half way through emergence. I am thoroughly creeped out by this episode. I am also reminded of how badly I need new glasses! Time for some bifocals for the closeup views.

The Original (Erroneous) Post and Observation:
?This morning I was moving plants out onto the patio, and saw what I thought was the body of a dragonfly laying there. I picked it up, thinking to set it aside and examine the remains later, try to identify the species. It looked to me like something had bitten the head off. I had it by the folded wings, and the legs started kicking. This creeped me out a little, and had me wondering how the body could keep moving without the head. I took it upstairs and set it in a container. A couple hours later I came indoors for something, looked at it again, poked at it with my finger. Legs started moving again. Surely it couldn't live that long without a head. So I grabbed it by the wings and peered at it closely. I realized that it wasn't headless, it had a shrunken deformed head, really bizarre looking. What really puzzles me is how the heck the thing managed to live out its larval stage with a shrunken head. The snapper swing-arm jaw must have been working. The mandibles on this adult are pretty much useless, it is doomed to starve to death. It's already weak, or it probably would have flown away while I was photographing it out in the bright sunlight.

Snow Goose

We've got a northern visitor in our back yard. This snow goose has been hanging around the lake shore the past couple of days, looks like it may have an injured wing. It trots up onto the lawn and grazes, swims quite well, looks like it's otherwise okay, just can't fly. I'm keeping an eye on it, hopefully it just needs a little time to rest and recover.

It was a dark and stormy night....

It started out as Quest for Treefrog, but after stumbling around the hillside by the frog pond for a bit in the dark there was a bright flash and a boom of thunder, so I skedaddled out of there. I headed down to the lake to see if there was a storm to be photographed, it headed across the east side of the lake and south. Lightning lit up the clouds, but didn't catch any bolts.

As I was standing there with the camera, I noticed bright flashes coming from the west, across the peninsula, so I headed over to the dock at the other bay, only to discover that I had been missing a good storm cloud on that side headed south.

That cloud had a nice big cumulus being lit up spectacularly by lightning. In one of the shots I did manage to catch a couple bolts. Looks like some kind of creepy outer-space alien monster from a B movie.

After all the storms had headed south, the sky above cleared, but I sat on the dock continuing to take long exposures of the night sky as the clouds lit up now and then in the distance. Lo and behold, I was lucky enough to catch a meteor in one of the late shots.

Waxing Gibbous Moon

This gets downright addictive. I was wanting to take more pictures as the moon waxes and wanes, but the weather's not cooperating.

Crescent Moon

I finally got the adapter so I can attach my camera to my Bushnell 60mm spotting scope, and have been playing around with it trying to shoot the moon. The exposure is okay, but I can't seem to get the shots really sharp. Still, fun to play with. Took some shots of the crescent moon 4 days past new last night, then took the barn door tracker setup out to the field and shot the moon as it was close to the Pleiades cluster and just over from Orion. Orion is my favourite constellation, easy to find, and lots of interesting things in that section of the sky. Have to see how much I can save this summer, I have dreams of a decent telescope.

Geese in the wind

Last night it looked like we may have been getting another good sunset, and I ran out to the back field, but it fizzled out by the time I got there. The geese have been coming over at dusk by the hundreds to settle in for the night on the marsh to the northwest. There was a strong wind blowing, and the entertainment began. As the geese came from the south and southeast in their V formations, and then lowered altitude towards the marsh, every now and then a sharp gust of wind would hit them. There were near collisions, geese getting flipped over, their tidy V formations suddenly being thrown into a jumble of birds that looked like a flock of drunken crows. I tried to photograph some of them, only got a few out-of-focus shots with the short lens and poor light, but here's a couple that show what a struggle the poor birds had in that wind. I am amazed at how quickly they managed to recover from being knocked around in the gusts.

One bird here got flipped right over.

Sunset

We had on/off clouds and wisps of rain yesterday, typical spring day. At sunset I noticed the sun peaking out from under a band of clear sky, and realized we may get a pretty sunset sky. I wasn't disappointed, got this "ring of fire". After a day of things going wrong around the house, at least this worked out.

Speculations about a possible Water Shrew

In the field by the cemetary out back there is a drainage ditch leading to a creek. Last fall I noticed a few tunnels in the mud close to the water, and caught a couple glimpses of a black mouse-sized creatures scurrying for cover into one of the tunnels. Discussion on the nature list led me to believe this may be a water shrew. Now that the snow has recently melted, it is evident that the wee creature(s) has been quite busy over the winter. There were only a few tunnels at the end of the ditch, now both sides of the ditch are littered with these tunnels. Would be interesting to find some sort of live trap to catch one of the critters and get a closer look at it.

Last flight of Discovery

Tuesday evening was a rare clear night, with the last flight of the Shuttle Discovery scheduled. I had missed the better sight the night before, when Discovery had just parted from the International Space Station. Now, I didn't know that Discovery was still in close proximity to the ISS, but I wanted to get a shot of the ISS. Later, when I had news from an astronomy forum that people had seen Discovery several degrees ahead of the ISS, I went back through the pictures and found one shot with a faint streak ahead of the ISS. So I did manage by dumb luck to get it.

The ISS as it passes below Orion. Orion is one of my favourite constellations, easy to see, big and bold in the winter sky. I have a theory about Orion and

the pyramids,, but need more information and don't know how to go about getting it. Internet searches don't quite show what I'm looking for. Need to get myself down to Queen's library one of these days and do some reading.

The Boys

My boys. Two spoiled rotton cockatiels. When my rabbit Chelsea passed away, I wanted to get another rabbit. A cute, cuddly, soft, furry little bunny rabbit. Ike wanted these birds. Ike got the birds. After a year, Ike lost interest in the birds. Now, any critter that comes into my house (any except things like ticks or spiders) is going to get their claws into my heart. These guys came squawking into my house about 12 or 13 years ago, so they've pretty much got a firm grip. They're not cuddly, you don't want to get your fingers too close to those nasty sharp beaks, and when they're excited they can scream a shrill squawk that drills through your eardrums into your brain. But I love them. I don't like keeping birds as pets, I think if you're going to keep a creature whose very life and soul is flying around, you should have a large room where you can let them do so. I don't have the space. So I have to keep their wings trimmed. They have a very large cage, but that's not the same as having space to let them soar as their very nature intends them to do. They're used to being kept in the livingroom, where they can watch the goings-on of the household, but since the Monster Puppy Kerrie (more on her later) came into our lives, I have to keep them in this back room for their very safety until we can train the Beastie not to chase them. I hope she settles down soon, I want them back out where we can watch each other through most of the day.

In Memory of TANKA

I miss my "Baby Bear". My beloved Tanka was a big lumbering German shepherd. I got him when he was a wee pup only 3 months old, a clumsy lively bundle of energy with short legs and huge paws that he would occasionally trip over just walking across the livingroom. His antics would make us howl with laughter. He loved to play fetch, and would chase a tennis ball for hours if you had enough strength to keep throwing it for him. He grew up to be a good-natured dog, a big goofy giant of a dog, not an ounce of aggression in him. People who knew him wouldn't believe that, his sheer size intimidated many humans, and his penchant for barking at anyone who came near me didn't alieve their fear of him.

We put him through the obedience training, and he learned to be quite civilized in some ways, but in other ways he had a mind of his own. He did not like the word "come". His motto in life was "What's in it for ME?", and often had to be bribed with treats. In spite of a few quirks he was a wonderful companion, always happy to see me when I came in the door. He hogged the lion's share of my bed, averaging 100 pounds throughout his adult life, and wanting his half out of the middle. In spite of my own size I often woke to find myself clinging to the edge of the bed with my feet hanging out in mid-air. I'd have to get up and shift him over, or bribe him over with a treat. He didn't sleep with his head pointed in the same direction as mine. I was faced with a big furry butt by my waist, and feet that would kick me in the backside during the night. Thank heavens he rarely farted! Rare was enough, a couple times a year the aroma would rudely wake me from my sleep. He was never "cuddly". He loved sitting beside me and having his ears stroked and liked being petted, but never liked having an arm around him or being cuddled. His left ear never came up straight, but flopped, and when I talked to him he would turn his head back and forth while he was listening, giving him a really comical look. If you wanted to get his attention REAL quick you just had to say "Cataraqui?" Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area was his absolute favourite place to go, and during the cold months we went there almost daily so that he could sniff his way around the trails. I didn't even have to say it, he was so tuned in to me that I just had to think about taking him, and look at him, and he'd KNOW. He didn't even have to be in the same room, sometimes Dad would look at me, point to the south silently asking me "Going to the park?" I would nod, and 5 seconds later Tanka would come bouncing in the room, staring at us, and then excitedly jump around. Too bad we didn't have some way to document this seemingly doggie ESP.

It's been four months since Tanka got very suddenly and very seriously ill, and I had to face that heart-breakingly painful decision that many pet owners have to face. Dogs don't live near long enough. I'm one of "those" pet owners, you know the kind, the ones that get seriously attached to their critter companions. My life has been made so much richer by having shared my life with Tanka. And Norrie, the Boss Bitch. And Champ, another Boss Bitch. And Chester and Chelsea, the rabbits. Guinness, Guinea, Cinnamon and PeeWee, the guinea pigs. Buster the hamster. Wolf, Fritz, and Esther, German shepherds we had when I was a kid. I miss every single one of them.