Jupiter, Crescent Moon, and Venus in a bent line. Saturn’s between Jupiter and the Moon, but it’s not bright enough to show up in the wide-angle photo.
Moon over the Rio Grande at dusk.
Moon over cranes in the Rio Grande at dusk.
Moon in the Tangle Heart Tree.
Jupiter with moons and stars.
Cranes: What’s the big deal? We could fly up to the moon if we wanted to!
Tristan texted Laurie last night that she could see Neowise in the western sky. We went out to look, but we could not see it. I got the binoculars, and Laurie finally found it. It showed up very well in the binoculars. Tristan said it was directly below the bottom star in the big dipper. The comet makes up the apex on an equilateral triangle with two stars from Ursula Major, I believe. You can read more about how to see Neowise at https://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-to-see-comet-neowise/
I dragged out a tripod, got focused on the Big Dipper, turned off autofocus, pointed my leans in the general direction of the comet, and check shots until I saw it on the screen. There were clouds in the eastern skies that were reflecting the city’s light making it so we could not see the comet with our naked eyes. After we found where the comet was, focusing on it was a real challenge. I can’t simply set the lens on infinity and shoot like I could with the old manual focus lenses. These photos give you a decent idea of what it looked like.
As Suzette was leaving after having black eyed peas for new year’s, she texted me that the clouds looked really cool behind the trees. I ran out and took photos. A third moon was hanging in the western sky.
They scavenge the foliage
Laid waste by old Jack Frost…
A lot more gnats and smoke can be seen at http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2016/6/smoke-n-gnats
Two o’clock in the morning and not a skunk, porcupine or raccoon in sight, so after turning in the irrigation water, I turned my camera toward the night sky. Photo stats — Camera: Fujifilm X-Pro 1. Support: hand held. Film speed: ISO 3200. Lens and aperture: 35mm at ƒ/1.4. Exposure: 1/4 second.
I woke up at 1:50 am, stumbled out of bed and checked the moon, which was bloody red. I grabbed my camera, ran outside into the sub-freezing, 20º F temperature, and took a few shots at the moon. The reflections off the filter on my lens, together with my state of being at 1:55 am produced some pretty funky photos of the full lunar eclipse in the wee hours of the morning. Earlier in the evening I had gone out and photographed the moonrise and got a decently clear closeup of the full moon.
I got home late last night from photographing Q~Lesque, and the moon was beautiful, peeking through the clouds.
With an almost full moon and light cloud cover, there was a nice ring around the moon with the brighter stars visible through the clouds. Jupiter is shining bright at 1 o’clock, and Orion’s belt is barely visible between 3 and 4 o’clock. This series has three exposures take 3 minutes apart with a 17mm lens at ISO 400.
The first photo was taken at 7:27 pm MST (Mountain Standard Time) at ƒ/5.6 for 15 seconds. The clouds are slightly soft from their moving during the 15 second exposure.
The second photo was taken at 7:30 pm MST at ƒ/11 for 30 seconds. The clouds are softer, the moon appears smaller with a slight starburst.
The third photo was taken at 7:33 pm MST at ƒ/16 for 30 seconds. The moon appears to be even smaller, with a better defined starburst. More of the night sky comes through the clouds and if you look carefully, you will see the ghost of a contrail from a jet that flew below Jupiter and over the top of the moon during the exposure.
Off Center & Not Even 