Sliver moon watches
Venus surf dark clouds at dusk
Over black laced trees
Like dark crescent moons
Black leaves dangle mockingly
Sliver moon shines bright
Naked from north winds
Branches stretching towards sky
Mimics clouds at dusk
My birthday cake. Costco didn’t have any cakes with Happy Birthday!
This is a display along Corrales Road. I’m happy I got it early. The skeleton disappeared after the high winds last week.
All the cats got to try on the bat wings. Loki in photos 12 and 13 was the best batwing model. Glenda (3rd photo) and Gwendolyn (last photo) were pretty good, also. Black cats know they look good in bat wings. Spunk, on the other hand, told me exactly what he thought about wearing bat wings after I took them off him (7th photo).
At dusk looking south with Venus overhead.
Jupiter only had two moons tonight. The bazooka is such a blast as it got a tiny Saturn with its rings.
The Hunter’s Moon making its way over the Sandias. Sandhill Cranes in the moonlight.
The Hunter’s Moon rising.
Moon tunnel. Moon glow through the trees.
Mia’s Tree under Venus.
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.
The moon, Venus and binary star Spica were aligned tonight. I got the Moon and Venus from the office parking lot. I never saw Spica. I believe Mercury was in the alignment, also, but it was below the horizon by the time I could see Venus.
Loki had a bad case of Cator Mortis this morning.
Spunk was worn out from keeping us safe from monsters and evil spirits during the night.
Silver was chilling. In the chilly morning temps.
Lizard at Laurie’s parent’s house.
The dilemma was that one of the motors on one our HVAC units at the office stopped working. I needed to send a photo of one fan running and the other fan not running to the maintenance person. The photo on the left was taken in regular iPhone mode, which had a shutter speed fast enough to stop the fan that was running. I used an app called Slow Shutter to take the photo on the right, which shows one fan running and the other not running. I had installed Slow Shutter in hopes of photographing lightning on my iPhone. No lightning so far, but it came in handy to solve the dilemma of showing one fan running and the other one not running.
Mama Owl. January 11, 2021
Sandhill Crane. January 11, 2021.
6:00 am. Venus rising in the dark at dawn.
Glenda looking cool on top of an armario at noon.
Sasha napping at noon in the new hammock that replaced one of the worn-out burlap hammocks.
6:00 pm Saturn and Jupiter closing in on each other.
A closer view of Saturn and Jupiter at 6:00 pm. The lights coming off at an angle from Jupiter might be a few of its 79 moons.
Moon & Venus rising at 6:00 am.
I woke up at 5:45 am this morning to a sliver moon peeking through the window and Venus hanging out in the trees. I got up, put on shoes, checked the temp, 18º F outside, grabbed my camera, and headed out into the cold and dark. I took a series of photos of the moon and Venus rising over the next hour.
6:22 am
6:23 am
6:25 am using a different exposure.
6:25 am
6:40 am
6:41 am
6:44 am
7:00 am
Venus had disappeared and the moon was just barely a sliver as the sun was getting ready to rise at 7:03 am.
The moon had faded to a tiny sliver by 7:04 am.
Off Center & Not Even 