Category Archives: Skywatch

Lunar Eclipse – The Blood Moon

Taking pics of the #LunarEclipse

This morning I dragged myself out of bed at 5:15 to take pics of the Lunar Eclipse. I don’t think that I have ever seen one before. It took over and hour and I took over 60 photos of the process. I kept myself occupied by facebooking with my Tea Partier friend Mel who highly disapproves of how the US is handling the Iran negotiations.

Lunar Eclipse Collage

Anyway it was kind of cool. My camera had trouble focusing on the moon especially as the earth occluded the light. Anyways I did the best I could.

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When the moon got behind some branches down the street the camera seemed happy to have something to lock onto and did a better job. By that time the red color was starting to show itself. The red is why it is called The Blood Moon. It showed up better live than in the pics. I didn’t try to put the color back in so these pics are “SOOC.”

And just to show that the spirit of P.T. Barnum and Capitalism is still alive here in the US, some internet preachers are prophesying that the Blood Moon is a sign that the end times are about to come. Another guy says that the Blood Moon means that Obama made a bad deal with Iran. Keep, those cards, letters, and checks rolling in folks.

And Me and Mel again didn’t change each other’s minds. We’ve been arguing for 38 years. I wish he was’t so hard headed;)

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Skywatch Friday – Spring Storm

Turkey Mountain Sunset

The first Spring storm clouds of the season were pretty spectacular Tuesday night. They didn’t get to Tulsa and I was glad that they were over there and I wasn’t. At the bottom right of the photo is the first redbud blooms of Spring that I have seen this year.

Wednesday night was a different story. Their were a series of storms that spun up in the Oklahoma City and Moore areas and came up the turnpike to Tulsa and hit right around quitting time. A trailer park in the suburb of Sand Springs got hit and caused many injuries and one fatality as well as extensive damage. Heather and Logan were at home and I decided to stay at work. Being on the road is the worst place to be during a tornado.

#Storm is causing problems at Holly Refinery #tornadowarning #oklahomaweather #MyOklahoma #Tulsa

My office is a beige box in the interior of the building so I stayed there instead of going out side and taking pictures. I did get this one grainy shot of a flare at one of the local refineries. I don’t think the refinery was damaged, most likely it was just a process upset. They will be filling out paperwork for a week for causing so much smoke though.

This could be another wild year for storms here in the heartland.

Linking with Skywatch Friday

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Skywatch Friday – March Showers

Lafortune Park Topaz Restyle

I ended up doing my Wednesday night run going around Lafortune Park instead of the Arkansas River Parks. Winter is finally letting go but grudgingly. Now that Spring is almost here I’m holding on to cold wintry weather also. Soon enough the summer heat and bugs will be here. So I didn’t mind too much running in the rain this evening. It wasn’t that cold and I don’t mind being wet.

Skywatch Friday

Tulsa’s Golden Driller

Tulsa Driller Impressions Van Gogh I

 

The Golden Driller is a statue at the State Fairgrounds and is a throwback to when Tulsa was the “Oil Capital of the World.” It has been at is present location since 1966. The oil derrick that he has hand on is a former working derrick from Seminole, Oklahoma.

I love it because it is a reminder of the heritage of Tulsa and it is one of the quirky things in Tulsa like Oral Roberts University’s praying hands.

Do you have any quirky attractions near where you live?

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Skywatch Friday – Zoi Trail

Zoi Trail Fall Woods Skywatch

Processed with Topaz Labs Impressions

 

I cheated a little bit today. I went back to last Fall to find my photograph for SWF. This is a scene on Turkey Mountain’s new Zoi trail. I am not cool enough to know what “Zoi” means but it is a nice trail that doesn’t get a whole lot of traffic mainly because you have to hunt a little bit to find it.  It is one of the few places on Turkey Mountain where I have seen deer in the last year or so.

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Skywatch Friday – Cold February Morning

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I took the photo with my Apple Ipod Touch and used its Splash App to make everything but the flag black and white.

 

We have had a warm spell lately but the mornings are pretty brisk. This is from one day last week as I was walking one morning last week on the River Parks trail. It was very chilly and there was a stiff breeze blowing. The bright morning sun made everything look a little magical. Still it felt more like March than February. It felt more like March than February though.

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Running under the Hunger Moon on Turkey Mountain

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Earlier this week a group of us met after work on Turkey Mountain under a full moon. It is supposed to be called the Snow Moon but there was no snow so I used the alternate name “The Hunger Moon.” So called because the hunting was pretty bad in February way back when.

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It got kind of dark but we turned on our headlights and ran for a little over three and a half miles. The group runs for a while and then stops every now and then to let everybody get back together before we head off again. Nobody wants to leave anybody stranded on the mountain at night. Night running can be quite disorienting especially if you are not familiar with the trails.

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A good time was had by all and we didn’t lose anybody. Especially the old guy who took the picture.

Linking with Skywatch Friday