Tag Archives: photography

Comet Lovejoy

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Can you spot the comet?  (Hint: it’s green!)CometLovejoy20150107-1

Zooming in … how about now?

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It’s been a long time since there’s been a comet that I could successfully see and photograph! Comet Lovejoy is a star hop from Rigel (Orion’s foot) into Eridanus, where it can easily be seen (at least in the suburbs in the northern hemisphere) with binoculars, a telephoto lens, or a telescope.  It looked gray through the binoculars, but in the pictures it is a beautiful green.

I am glad that our winter clouds cleared away and I got a clear night last night to spot it. I was hoping for a second clear night in a row so I could show that the comet is moving relative to the stars. Alas, the weather did not cooperate, and it looks like it’s going to be cloudy for a while. But I’ll keep looking up!

Tri-Color Moon

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On October 8, I got up early to observe and photograph the lunar eclipse. These two shots were my favorites.

The blue glow effect in this first shot is the result of a mistake – I wasn’t using a lens hood to prevent internal reflection. So it’s wrong, but I think it looks kinda cool, like a rocket has taken off from the lunar surface and left a trail behind, or the moon is sporting a tail like a comet, or a lunar volcano is venting … my imagination smiles at all the possible explanations. What do you think it looks like?

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This second shot shows a tri-color moon – the red “blood” eclipsed moon, a central gray band, and the still-sunlit white moon. So different from the normal, stark black and white moon. What would it be like to have a multicolored satellite?

LunarEclipse2-20141008

What Catches Your Attention

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IceRim20140115

Icicle201102

Here along the Gulf Coast, it doesn’t freeze very often, so when it does, we all run outside with our cameras to document the rare event. I’ve discovered that icicles make a really nice subject. The last time we had icicles, what caught my attention was the reflection of the trees inside the drops at the ends of the icicles. This time, finding the reflections didn’t interest me. What caught my attention instead was the rim of ice along the roofline.

To some extent, I think that writing is the same way. Even if two writers (or one writer at different times) started with the same story plot, characters, and theme, what catches their attention would be different, and they’d produce two different stories.

What caught your attention today?