PhotonStopper

Moonshot experiments continue

Posted by Photonstopper on April 24, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: astronomy, astrophotography, canon, moon, photograph, photography. Leave a comment

The Waxing Gibbous Moon

The sky was beautiful tonight with the Moon, planets, and stars shining brightly. Continuing my experiments with telephoto astrophotography, tonight I attached my Canon 2X III Adapter to my 400mm lens, and EOS 7D Mark II body; the combination gives approximately 1,200mm of telephoto goodness! At that focal length camera vibration becomes a real issue if the system isn’t attached to a very heavy tripod. My tripod isn’t heavy. But the Moon was bright and with ISO 800 and a shutter speed of 1/400 I got decent, though not vividly sharp results. Next milestone will be to mount the camera and telephoto to the telescope’s heavy tripod and motorized mount. Why not use the telescope directly? Well, that works pretty well, but the optics of my telephoto lens are actually superior in quality to those in my telescope!

Spring warmth awakens pond residents

Posted by Photonstopper on April 20, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: bullfrog, dragonfly, Holden Arboretum, nature, northeastern ohio, photograph, photography, spring, turtles, weather. Leave a comment

American Bullfrog – Lithobates catesbeianus

Saturday, April 18 presented us with beautiful spring weather so we took off to see how the gardens, ponds, and woodlands at the Holden Arboretum were doing. Some garden paths remained closed for the season but we happily set off for higher ground and pools.

Photo: Dregonfly in flight. Photo by James Guilford.

Dragonfly In Flight

Bird songs filled the air as we enjoyed early blooms and emerging animals including: a water snake warming itself on a tree branch, clusters of turtles also catching some sun, a couple of bullfrogs, and three ( 3 ) dragonflies! We will visit there again, likely in May when sustained warmth entices more life into view.

Photo: Group of turtles, sunning in spring weather. Photo by James Guilford.

Sun Worshiping Turtles

From Perseus to darkness

Posted by Photonstopper on April 17, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: astronomy, iss, photograph, photography, space station. 3 Comments

Photo: International Space Station. Photo by James Guilford.

ISS: From Perseus to Darkness

That’s no meteor! It’s a partial trace of the trail the International Space Station took tonight as it traveled upward, through constellation Perseus, and faded into Earth’s shadow. The exposure, and thus the trace, was shortened to avoid overexposure due to heavy light pollution in the Cleveland (Ohio) area.

Oh snap!

Posted by Photonstopper on April 12, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: nature, ohio, photograph, photography, snapping turtle, spring, turtle. Leave a comment

Photo: Woman photographing large snapping turtle. Photo by James Guilford.

Woman Moves In for a Close-Up using her Smartphone’s Camera

Visitors were amazed as they watched a large snapping turtle slowly make its way across the paved path at the Sheldon Marsh State Nature Preserve on Lake Erie. The turtle was likely a female on an egg-laying mission. The reptile, watched by several people every step of her way, eventually made it across the path, and into some low brush before tumbling, end-over-end, into an area of shallow water below. Shown here, an unidentified woman moves in for a close-up using her smartphone’s camera. I used a 200mm lens.

Photo: Snapping turtle crossing pavement. Photo by James Guilford.

Crossing the Road

One clear night for Venus and stars

Posted by Photonstopper on April 11, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: astronomy, hyades, photograph, photography, pleiades, venus. Leave a comment

Photo: Planet Venus between the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. Photo by James Guilford.

Hyades-Venus-Pleiades Together

April 11 presented a rare clear night just in time to see Venus draw very close to the Pleiades star cluster; nights lately have been cloudy and wet! Timing also put the Hyades cluster within the same camera field-of-view as Venus nightly progresses higher in the sky, relative to the stars. As the grouping sank into the trees to my west, I made several single-exposure images of the sight. This one using Canon EOS 7D Mark II: ISO 2000, f/5.6, 1.6 sec., 70mm, at 9:58 EDT.

Sky-dancing heron

Posted by Photonstopper on April 4, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: birds, everyday miracles, great blue heron, nature, northeastern ohio, ohio, photograph, spring, wonders of nature. Leave a comment

Photo: Great Blue Heron fills wings with air and floats to a gentle landing. Photo by James Guilford.

Sky Dancer

This breezy day, a Great Blue Heron approached its nest. Spreading its broad wings, the bird caught the air, hovered, and floated gently to a treetop landing – graceful as a dancer in the sky!

In Flight

Few show for glorious view

Posted by Photonstopper on March 29, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: astronomy, astrophoto, moon, photograph, photography, stephens memorial observatory. Leave a comment

The Moon: Mare Tranquillitatis (left) and Mare Iridium (right). Photo by James Guilford.

The Moon: Mare Serenitatis (left) and Mare Iridium (right)

I can’t say as I blame them, the people who didn’t show for our observatory open night Saturday. After all, the temperature was about 19 degrees (F), damned cold! But the sky was clear and the waxing Moon was high in the sky. Both Moon and Jupiter were sharing constellation Cancer with The Beehive star cluster (M44). Still, those sensible people who stayed home and warm missed a glorious view of old Luna, especially half-lit Mare Iridium — the Sea of Rainbows. In my idle time waiting for visitors, I tried out a little afocal astrophotography using the observatory’s 9-inch Warner and Swasey telescope (ca. 1901) and my little Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 all-in-one. Most shots were a little shy of sharp, and all had some degree of chromatic aberration, and all had a big chunk of image missing where our century-old star diagonal is missing a bit of glass. One shot, however, did work out well, especially after a little fix-up including conversion to monochrome to eliminate color fringing. Not long after our seven brave visitors left, I caught sight of the indistinct reappearance of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and that was it… time to close up and go home. My toes needed to be thawed.

Moon-Venus conjunction; better this time!

Posted by Photonstopper on March 22, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: astronomy, canon, moon, photograph, photography, venus. Leave a comment

Photo: Moon and Venus in conjunction over city lights. Photo by James Guilford.

Moon, Venus, City Lights

I was disappointed with my previous efforts at recording an earlier close passage of our Moon and Venus. The Moon’s orbit, however, gave me a second chance on a night when the sky was pretty clear. Pretty cold, too, at an unseasonable 23F.

Moon and Venus in Twilight

But I braved the temperatures and, using two different Canon camera bodies, got shots of the combo first in twilight, later in a dark sky. Well, the sky here isn’t really all that dark, but it was pretty good.

Crescent Moon

Some shots I exposed to get some detail in the lighted portion of the thin, waxing crescent Moon; others I exposed to record the Earthshine portion of Luna’s disk. The late shots I took from a vantage point that overlooked the lights of a nearby city whose glow put power lines and their towers into silhouette.

Crescent Moon and Stars

All-in-all, I’m pleased with the night’s efforts. Especially now that my fingers aren’t red from the cold air!

Kitty model

Posted by Photonstopper on March 19, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: canon, cat, cats, EOS 7 Mark II, photograph, photography. 3 Comments

Photo: Cat curled up as if to play. Photo by James Guilford.

Test Subject Annie

Working on the Canon EOS 7D Mark II autofocus system settings last evening, I sought out a willing model. Annie, our huge gray domestic shorthair cat, poses beautifully … until you point a camera at her. Once she sees a big camera lens or even an iPad pointed at her, Annie starts acting like a supermodel hopped up on caffeine: she rolls around, stretches her legs, grabs at the camera, and in general just gets crazy with it! During our brief session Annie did a bit of rolling but, having been stirred from contemplating the view from a nearby window, she was a bit mellow. The kitty rolled half over, curled up in a big furry ball — all legs and tail — and moved slowly through several head positions. I got a good test subject for my new camera settings and some decent photos of our feline beauty. Oh, and I think I finally got the settings I was looking for.

Camera test and nest-building

Posted by Photonstopper on March 19, 2015

Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: birds, canon, EOS 7 Mark II, great blue heron, Great Blue Herons, heron rookery, nature, northeastern ohio, photograph, photography. Leave a comment

Photo: Great Blue Heron on stick nest. Photo by James Guilford.

Great Blue Heron working on Its Nest

Testing out the new Canon EOS 7D Mark II camera at the heron rookery. On Tuesday, the birds were pretty quiet, standing or sitting upon their stick nests, occasionally working twigs into better positions. The winds were strong so the Great Blue Herons were all oriented windward, “facing” us, with decent lighting. I have much to learn on the new camera, especially regarding its focussing system, but got some very good results today.