Space

Took a little vacation and tried an experiment.

International Space Station

On December 28th, the International Space Station passed almost directly overhead.  Lights on the clouds were from nearby light pollution.  Cassiopeia is to the right.

Starry Night with a Near Full Moon.

Dim satellite to the left of center.

The satellite would flare in the sun or moonlight.

Our Previously Unknown Neighbor

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Falling Stars and City Lights

This last weekend was the return of the annual Perseid meteor shower.  Some rates included seeing up to 100 meteors per hour.  Unfortunately a small system moved in Saturday night causing cloud cover.  The site that I thought would have been light free apparently went through a mighty makeover and there was light pollution everywhere.

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 Heading back I took an HDR shot of Hillsboro's mean streets.

Dust on the lens, not a ghost.

The next night, I went a little closer to home and ended up in a fairly good spot.  A couple local grain elevators and cities caused some light pollution, but I could make out the Milky Way's faint arm.  A strange orange colored thunderstorm (I'm guessing heat lightning) pulled my attention to the North.  In the photo below, you can see it between the three trees.

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OZ?

One of the clearer space shots I've done.

 The last shot of space came out the best.  No shooting stars but lots of stars and a galaxy to boot.  I'm still playing with settings and thing I need to lower the ISO.  I also wish there was a great dark spot close to home so I could go out and wonder more often.

Billions and Billions of Stars

I went out to a nice location in the middle of nowhere last night and tried some more galactic photography.  Something odd was happening with the fisheye lens and I couldn't focus well.  These shots were taken near Marion Lake in Kansas.  These shots were taken looking to the north (hopefully glimpsing a little auroral activity.  You might see some streaks of light in the photos, these were satellites passing overhead.

The white haze in the photograph was the spiral arm of the milky way.

Train coming, not sure what city that was to the east of my location.  Maybe Peabody.

Train, may crop this, love how it lights up the trees.

strange effect with the fisheye lens.

Super Moon 05042012 & 05052012

Late Lament by Graeme Edge

Almost full just a slight hint of shadow on the left

Breathe deep the gathering gloom

Watch lights fade from every room

Bed sitter people look back and lament

Another day's useless energy is spent

Impassioned lovers wrestle as one

Lonely man cries for love and has none

New mother picks up and suckles her son

Senior citizens wish they were young

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night

Removes the colors from our sight

Red is grey and yellow white

But we decide which is right

And which is an illusion

Long exposure of faint jet contrail overhead

Being artistic, wife and I, standing on the deck lit by moon and a distant porchlight

Venus through the trees.

Supermoon

New Camera

New camera is in my hands and a handy dandy lightning detector arrived as well.

Last night with after a week of nearly continuous rain, we had clear sky.  Just after sundown I went out and shot this off the deck.  I'm still a little too close to the city, but this gave me an idea what I can do.

There are several issues I realized.  I need a shutter release or timed release, I'm too close to city lights, out of focus but as stated, these are some of my first shots.  More to come on clear nights and when storms hit the area.

The bright spot on the picture is Venus, below in the tree is Jupiter.  Looking due west at 9:00pm.