A common sight here in Oklahoma out in the country, horse trailers and a big sky.
Category Archives: Skywatch Friday
Skywatch Friday – Sunset
A mysterious bright orangish yellowy globe appeared the other day on the eastern horizon and got higher and higher and dropped below the western horizon at the end of the day. Some of the old timers around recall something similar back in the day. You wouldn’t happen to know what is would you?
Skywatch Friday – Waning Crescent Moon
Last week I noticed one evening that the moon was setting down our street so I went and grabbed the “good” camera and a tripod and set it up for some delayed shutter action and took some shots. I think they are okay for what they are given the world’s brightest street light was lined up with the moon.
When I zoomed in my superzoom things got a little better but still kind of grainy. I think you call this a waning crescent moon because at the time the crescent was getting smaller every night. Then of course we get the new moon and then the crescent starts growing until we get a half moon and then when over half the moon is illuminated it is the gibbous moon. I have gone my whole life and not noticed the word “gibbous” until recently and now I see it everywhere. Stuff like that happens all the time to me. I see a word that I swear I have never seen before and after I look it up I see it everywhere. I guess it means that I’m either really slow or I’m still learning, or maybe both.
MoonConnection.com has some excellent material on the moon and moon phases. Check them out.
Skywatch Friday – Art Deco Sky Edition – Boston Avenue Church
This is Boston Avenue Church just south of downtown Tulsa. It is a national art deco landmark, built in the late 1920’s and designed by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Goff and Adah Robinson. At noon on Sunday they give tours to anybody that wants to take one. The interior is spectacular.
I have posted many photographs of this church. I never get tired of it.
Skywatch Friday – A Pinhole Sky
A view of the sky taken with a pinhole film camera, a Holga 135 PC. The camera has a 0.25 millimeter hole instead of a lens and uses 35 mm film. So it is really old school. I use an Ipod Touch App to tell me how long to hold the shutter open so there is some tech involved. I also have to use a tripod and cable release to get decent results. Which looks kind of funny overall because the camera is an inexpensive plastic contraption. But I have fun with it.
Skywatch Friday – Sunrise on the Greenbelt
When I take son to school we drive past our neighborhood greenbelt. The sun is starting to peak up right at the far end so I’ll be aggravating son a little bit so I can stop and grab a quick pic with my cell phone camera. Poor kid, it is a trial being a bloggerdad’s son.
Skywatch Friday – Walking the Dog
The weather is certainly up and down these days. This is from last weekend when things were still balmy. That is son Logan and his Dachsund mix Ginger enjoying a walk on a greenbelt close to our house.
Skywatch Friday – Mammatous Clouds over the Keystone Ancient Forest
New Year’s Day I roped Logan into going hiking with me at the Keystone Ancient Forest. The trees are old and gnarly, not very big, but tough as iron, mainly post oaks and cedars. Many of them are over 500 years old. The land is rocky and rough and all up and down with canyons cut through it. Not much good for anything besides just being a forest, and that is why it is still around and is now preserved and well loved.
The sky? We have a front coming in so it started out clear and brilliant and then cloudy, then clear, well you know…. I’ll be posting more about this remarkable forest later. For today, I have clouds.
Skywatch Friday – Pretty Blue Skies and then it gets Bad.
Here is a big ole artificial tree downtown next to a temporary ice rink. I wandered over there during lunch one day to check it out and decided to take a shot with my small Nikon point and shoot. Don’t ask my why I tilted it like that. I’d have to tell you that I felt like it and that may strike some people as being a little cheeky. So don’t ask. I do promise you that I hadn’t been drinking though. Note the shadow of the tree to the left. I’m telling you that for a reason, so take note of it, please.
So then I went to the other side of the tree and using one of my plastic film cameras, the Lomography La Sardina I took another pic. Note that the shadow of the tree is to the right. Got it?
So, then I thought, “What can I do with this tree?” So I went and stood in the shadow of the tree and took a picture of the tree with my film camera so that the sun was behind the tree. Then, without advancing the film, I turned turned the camera ninety degrees and took a pic of some ornamental grass nearby. So I got a double exposure of the grass on the tree.
Just what you always wanted right, a brown tree. Boy, I can tell you can’t wait until you see my next invention. You have to admit that the sky in the first pic was pretty.
Okay, well check the link below and check out some Skywatch Photographs posted by people who actually know what they are doing.
Skywatch Friday – Whining Away the Days Edition
This pic is from late November. Since then it has turned cold, really cold. At least what we here in Oklahoma consider to be cold. Plus it snowed. So I have been inside fighting off the kid and the dogs and cats for space in front of the hearth. So I have lots of pics of Christmas Trees and ornaments and such. Not much in the way of skies or anything like that.
(View from my old office, sniff)
(My new office, “Joy to the World” on beige)
Plus I went from a cubicle with a window to an inside office with lots of gas company beige. I am ashamed to say that I got so wrapped up in my napping work that I forget to look up and sunset time is over.
(Warmer times)
Generally, Wednesday night has been good Skywatch time for me because that is my weekly kitchen pass to go run. But with it getting dark at 5 pm and I don’t get off until 6 and don’t hit the river parks trail until 6:30 I am shuffling running in the dark now.
(However, last minute addition to the post. On my running last night, I did come across these Christmas trees on the river trails. They were a nice surprise.)
So sorry, I have no game this week, just a pic off my front porch as the sun was going down.
Skywatch Friday