Tag Archives: Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Super/Blood/Eclipsing/Harvest Mooon

IMG_1565Last weekend we had the the big Moon Mania. Comprising a Super Moon, the Harvest Moon , a full eclipse of the moon, and a Blood Moon.  We had a true multi-tasking moon. IMG_1570A Super Moon is just where the elliptical path of the moon takes it closest to earth.  An eclipse of a Super Moon is pretty rare. The next one is going to be in 2033. A Harvest Moon is the first full moon in the Fall.  IMG_1582

This total eclipse was the last eclipse of a lunar tetrad a series of four total eclipses about four months apart.

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The term Blood Moon is used for total eclipses because when the moon comes out of the eclipse it is exposed to light that has gone through the earth’s atmosphere.

It was fun to watch and photograph. We were working a project for Logan’s school so we would work on it for a while and go watch the moon. Fortunately, the world didn’t end. It was all fun and I was especially intrigued with the red color of the moon on the back side of the eclipse. It was very difficult to photograph.

I’m hoping that my fellow Skywatchers took lots of pics of the event. I’ll be checking them out.

Facts about the Eclipse

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Skywatch Friday – Urban Morning Skies

Urban Skywatch

I was heading to work Tuesday morning and I had to stop and take this pic with my free generic non Apple, non Samsung, smart phone cell phone camera. No filter, just a little cropping. Urban skies are like this, powerlines, light poles, buildings, cars and all that. Somehow, it all works, for me at least.

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Skywatch Friday

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This week’s Skywatch Friday shot is from my mother’s beloved Idaho. She grew up there and moved for a time and came back when she and my Dad retired. She’s been gone for some time and I think of her every day. Most of what I am today is because of her. DSC00043

She was a natural Forest Ranger’s wife. She loved the mountains and loved her family. She always told Dad that she would live anywhere but she had to be able to see mountains.

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We lived in some really out of the way places sometimes in Forest Service houses. I remember when we moved from Coyote, New Mexico to Payson, Arizona and you know what. The houses we lived in were exactly the same!!

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Coytote, New Mexico Ranger Station, brother Bob on her right on my on her left.

 

She loved her kids, her grandkids, and  her many nieces and nephews, and their kids too!!

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Here she is giving Logan a lift.

She had her health issues but she never let them slow her down.

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Rest in Peace Mom

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Skywatch Friday – Spider Island

Spider Island - Oxley Nature Center

I had a few hours to myself last week so I went to Oxley Nature Center north of Tulsa’s airport. I only found one cache but the enjoyment is mainly in the looking. I walked up to one of the lakes and too this shot. If it looks familiar it is because it is taken from near where my blog header shot is taken. I’ve probably got two dozen pics of the same scene over the years, summer, winter, fall, spring, cloudy, clear, cold, hot, with Heather and Logan, mostly without. If there is a law against repeat photographs then I’m in for a long sentence.

I’ll have plenty of company though if I’m sent off to blogger jail. The bloggers I regularly read do similar things. A pretty or attractive scene tends to stay that way. What about you, do you repeat yourself a lot? Going back to the same scene I mean.

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Skywatch Friday – Manual Mode Moon

#Moon #FullMoon #SturgeonMoon #SuperMoon #NoFilter #NikonD5300 #300mm

First shot I tried, then the clouds came in and out.

I have had my fancy schmancy Nikon D5300 for several months now and haven’t taken the time to really learn it. I bought a pretty good book and learn a few things but then life gets in the way and the thing is just so complex and it really does well on the Auto settting and blah, blah, blah. One thing that doesn’t work well on Auto though is taking shots of the moon. The results look like perfectly focused white disks. No color or detail or anything like that. Last Saturday we had a “Super Moon” or “Sturgeon Moon” anyway a really pretty full moon. So I got the old tripod out and then hit my good friend that knows everything Mr. Google and poked around there some.

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Same moon with some clouds moving in front

So I found out Auto isn’t going to work. Also, you have to have a pretty fast shutter speed at 1/125th seconds because the moon does move and most people recommended keeping the iso at about 100 to 200 and the f stop at about 8. Totally counter-intuitive to what I was thinking, max the iso, slow down the shutter speed, and open up the aperture as far as it will go. Well, the deal is that the moon is pretty bright so you have to tone things down. So I tried it and I got some decent results. (At least they are decent to me.) The main thing I couldn’t figure out was how the timer worked on the shutter. I know, I know, that is pretty lame but doing it manually very gently seemed to work out for now and I can read up on the shutter timer or use my cable release or my fancy schmancy wifi control of the camera from either my ipod or generic android cell phone.

Anyways, I learn best by doing rather than reading about how the menus work in a book. Give me a task and I will work with Mr. Google and consult a half dozen sources and then figure it out. So in addition to the timer thing, I have to figure out how to manually the focus the camera.

What is your best way of learning new things?

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