Orion, Jupiter, Venus, and the new moon

Along with Venus and Jupiter, the new moon is joining the show. Went out to the lake last night and got a few images of the sky.

Orion and the Zodiacal Light

We've enjoyed a week of summer temps. Literally. The hot weather dried up the laneway in to the lake, so I was able to get out and shoot the night sky while Orion is still high overhead. Jupiter and Venus are still in close proximity, and the no-moon dark sky made the stars shine like we never see near the city. I set up the barndoor tracker and took a few long exposures, I didn't see the zodiacal light with the naked eye but it shows up in some of the pics. It was great to be back out in "dark sky" country while listening to spring peepers, coyotes, and a pair of barred owls that set off into a frenzy of hooting when I imitated their call a couple of times. Sounded like I had disturbed a troupe of howler monkeys. The beaver wanted to come ashore but soon discovered I was there, and swam back and forth, slapping his tail to show his displeasure at my presence. So much for the peaceful woodlands. The most enjoyable part of this outing was the warm temperatures...and no mosquitoes! I would have stayed there half the night had I not needed to skedaddle on back home. It's unfortunate that a big system of cloudy weather has moved in upon us, I would have liked to have photographed the new moon with this scene, near Venus and Jupiter. The moon will soon outshine the stars, so I'll have to wait a couple weeks until the back side of the full moon before I get dark skies again.

Specs: ISO 400, f 4.0, Sigma 10-200mm lens at 10mm, 241 seconds, Canon Rebel XT 350D. Shot in RAW, minimal "tweaking" for exposure, cloned out a few hot pixel spots. Definitely want to get this one printed and hung on my wall.

Venus and Jupiter

Venus and Jupiter are coming close together in the night sky during their orbits 'round the sun, a lovely bright pairing in the western evening sky. Looks the eyes of some big cat staring back down out of the sky. From upper right in this shot: Orion, Taurus, Pleiades cluster, and Jupite and Venus lower left.

Auroras and Coyotes

Last night around 9:00 p.m. I realized that the sky was clear, and the temps were mild, so I decided to take the camera and tracker out to try to get some general shots of the winter night sky and constellations for my little astronomy project. I had checked SpaceWeather for auroras, but there were no predictions of a storm this far south. However, when I got out in the field out back of the cemetary, lo and behold there was a lovely green glow to the north! We were having an unexpected outburst of northern lights, and much to my delight I was able to take many shots. While I was setting up a coyote started yipping in the field just the west of me, and a group of coyotes just down to the south of the big field joined in the chorus. Sounded like about 5 of them, hard to tell exactly how many when they're all yipping and yowling. When their song ended I could hear one of them prowling along the fencerow about 100 feet away, it found something of interest and was scratching and digging in the snow and ice. As I was taking long exposures of the auroras it must have heard me cursing (ballhead doesn't hold tight, keeps slipping, too many lights on buildings nearby) and came closer to investigate. The field next to me has been unmowed and is covered in tall dead weeds, I could the rustling as it prowled back and forth. I wanted to shine a light on it but the stupid batteries in the flashlight were failing. Note to self: carry some backup lights!

Moonset pillar

The BigWetNose had me out of bed at 6:20 a.m. this fine morning, and while outside I noticed that the setting moon in the clouds was throwing up a pillar. I got bundled up, grabbed the camera and tripod, and trotted out to the cemetary field to try to get some shots. I am definitely NOT a "morning person", had quite the time trying to focus the lens, and not entirely successfully. Nonetheless I managed a few shots, a couple of them here.

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.