More Moon Madness

August 14, 2022August 14, 2022 Timothy Price49 Comments

A clear dawn

The Rio Grande and Sandias at sunset last night.

The Rio Grande reflecting

Odd flower out. Echinacea in Brown-Eyed Susans

The moon on the left was taken with my iPhone through a telescope* at 11:00 pm last night. The moon on the right was taken with the Bazooka at 6:00 am this morning. Click on the photos to see the details.

An attempt to get Jupiter and its moons through a telescope with the iPhone*. It came out nicely abstract.

On the left are Jupiter and its moons taken at 11:30 pm last night. On the right are Jupiter and its moons taken at 6:00 am this morning. Both photos were taken with the Bazooka.

Jupiter taken with the Bazooka at 11:30 pm last night. You can almost see the patterns in Jupiter’s clouds.

Jupiter and the moon at 6:00 am this morning.

Saturn is at its peak opposition to the sun tonight. However, a storm rolled in, and the sky is overcast, so I am going to have to strike photographing Saturn tonight.

*I held my iPhone lenses to the eyepiece on the telescope. It’s difficult to align the correct lens and get a really good photo with three lenses on the iPhone. The moon came out pretty well. Jupiter was another matter.

Venus in Purple Sky

October 14, 2021October 15, 2021 Timothy Price50 Comments

Venus in focus through blurry tree (Bazooka). Mia’s Tree with Venus (iPhone 13 Pro). Tree in focus with Venus in the background (Bazooka).

Jupiter with three moons shot with the Bazooka. Moon shot with iPhone 13 Pro. Moon blasted by the Bazooka.

I traded in my iPhone 12 Mini for an iPhone 13 Pro. I decided I wanted the camera with the LiDAR scanner†. As you can see from the two moonshots, the iPhone has a long way to go before it can compete with the Bazooka, but I’m really impressed that I was able to control the exposure well enough to get as much detail as I did shooting a bright moon at 15x zoom†† on the iPhone. I had to lock the focus on the moon while I adjusted the exposure because the moon was jumping all over the screen with the slightest movement at 15x zoom.

Here’s the kicker, since I got a decent discount on the iPhone 12 Mini when I bought it, between Apple’s trade in allowance and T-moble’s trade in allowance, I got $75 more in trade-in value than I paid for the iPhone 12 Mini. The iPhone 13 Pro is larger than the iPhone 12 Mini, but I think it will be worth the larger size for the camera upgrade.

†The Wiki article on LiDAR states LiDAR scanners are available on the iPhone 12. That is not true. It’s only available on the iPhone 13 Pro, currently.

††15x Zoom on the iPhone Pro 13 Pro is equivalent to 390 mm. The Bazooka on the Canon 7D Mark II body is equivalent to 640 mm.

Bazooka’s First Bats

April 27, 2021 Timothy Price53 Comments

As the dusk turned to darkness, bats fluttered around, buzzing by me with their quick, erratic flight patterns. I tried my best to focus on their silhouettes and capture their erratic movements. These are the results of Bazooka’s (my large 400mm lens) first bats.