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
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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, 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!
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.
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.
Lake Erie on the Ides of March
Today we made a little exploratory tour along the south shore of Lake Erie between Bay Village and Vermilion. Most of the trip was pleasant enough but started out under gray, featureless skies. By the time we reached Vermilion, however, the clouds had mostly dissipated allowing warm and cheering sunshine to bathe us. On the lake, off Vermilion, the icy cover had begun to break up; gulls sat and screed on thin ice and open water. Winter is losing its grip on our lake and land and spring is coming on the wings of gulls.
Sunday’s was the latest in a string of frigid nights. Sometime during the night, fog rolled over the area. Fog-enshrouded trees and shrubs, standing in below-zero Fahrenheit air, emerged in the morning’s light bearing beautiful white coats. I was happy I had a camera tucked away in my coat pocket when out on an errand. It was beauty not to be missed, and a pleasure to share.
Pileated Woodpecker – Male (Hylatomus pileatus)
Since wicked winter weather was expected to develop later this day, we headed out early to run a couple of important errands. Returning in the heavy snow, I spotted a big bird on my suet feeder. Wow! It was a Pileated Woodpecker (Hylatomus pileatus) the first I’d ever seen! Fortunately, I had a compact snapshot camera in my coat pocket. Rolling down the car window I made a bunch of shots and, though most were poor due to the camera’s slow action, bird’s fast motions, or blinding snowfall, I got three acceptable images. Except for forays out to clear snow from the walks, we’ll be staying in for the rest of the day but I’m certainly glad we went out this morning… if we hadn’t gone out, we wouldn’t have returned, and I’d have missed an exciting sight. Exciting, if you like birds!
Photo Details: Samsung Galaxy Camera 2: ISO 100, f/5.5, 1/10 sec., 310 mm equiv.
Snow coats trees, rocks, and river on February 1.
Groundhog Day – Between batches of heavy snow I ventured out to see what decoration Mother Nature had added to the landscape. Coatings of fluff clung to bare tree branches and evergreens. Massive, brooding rocks in the gorge were covered with soft, white blankets. Dark water was visible through a few openings in the river ice. Yes, Mother Nature had outdone herself again. By the way… while I believed it was Groundhog Day, the date stamp in my image files says 02/01/2015 — the day before Groundhog Day. Close enough, say I.
Winter Walk
“Ha! Look What I Got!” – Cropped Image of Feeding Jays at Maximum Zoom
I find it very frustrating, seeing an interesting photo possibility but not having a camera. Some years ago I bought a Canon PowerShot G11 — a compact, rangefinder-like camera — and it has been a terrific little machine. The G11, however, is bulky and not really “pocketable.” Lately, I’ve been carrying an Apple iPod Touch which I acquired mostly for use as a PDA — a safe repository for personal data — but which was also useful as a communication device, when in a Wi-Fi hotspot, and as a snapshot camera. It is remarkable just how good the images from the Touch can be! Still, the iPod is really limited for a person as demanding as am I plus its internal battery isn’t holding a charge well these days. So I’ve been shopping.
I hadn’t really considered Samsung products due to my admiration and investment in Apple tablets. I’d forgotten they made a nice little camera-tablet hybrid… until Saturday!
Uncropped Image of Blue Jays Feeding
Exploring Best Buy and looking at little cameras, I came across the Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 and was amazed at its features. The Galaxy was a camera, alright, with an excellent zoom range, nice big (for its overall size) lens, and a lot of good features and built-in capabilities — some not unlike those of the Camera app on my iPod. The Galaxy Camera is about the same length and width of the iPod but several times thicker and heavier but would fit into the pockets of my winter coat. The huge bonus, however, came with the tablet features built into the Galaxy: Wi-Fi connectivity with full-featured browser(s), GPS with image-tagging and map location functions, and a huge family of apps including my favorite tablet image processor (Snapseed), astronomy map (SkySafari 4), and Twitter. I bought it.
First Light/First Night – Handheld Nighttime Image
At home I learned even more about the new camera/tablet: An Android device put the Galaxy Camera in the “Googlesphere” which meant that, once I signed into Google, my contacts and calendar were automatically! With a replaceable battery, I can carry a spare and will not have to replace the entire device simply because a battery finally fails.
Testing the imaging has shown me (unsurprisingly) that the Galaxy will easily replace my iPod for a carry-everywhere camera. With its superior optical capabilities I don’t have to worry if a subject isn’t best treated with a wide-angle lens (as in the Touch) or if the scene is a bit dark; the Galaxy’s big zoom range and larger sensor cover a wide range of situations. I’ve yet to compare finished images with those of the G11 but, since I’ve not been carrying the little Canon with me, that comparison may not be important! Two issues, also not surprising, with the Galaxy that will be frustrating sometimes are the noticeable shutter lag and the system’s full reliance upon its huge touch screen for camera controls in advanced shooting modes.
I’ve much to learn about the new camera/tablet but I already like it very much. Having a fully-functioning camera combined with a small, powerful Wi-Fi tablet opens up some exciting possibilities.
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