Luna's Sisters

Tonight the cresent Moon and the Pleiades were in conjunction - a beautful sight for sure. I haven't seen this since the seventies. Here are a few shots taken from the backyard. Strong afternoon winds kicked up a lot of dust into the atmosphere - combined with the low altitude of the event - the overexposed sunlit limb of the 12% illuminated moon made for an impressive halo.






Exposure data: Canon 400mm F/2.8L IS lens @ F/5.6 | Canon EOS 1D MKIIN | ISO 200 | shutter - 8.5 to 14 seconds | Takahashi EM200 Mount

Fun with Fisheyes

Well - I'm up at the Vatican Telescope again - just in time to see the STS-123/ISS/ATV evening passes over Mt. Graham. I had the opportunity to photograph the spectacule with my 8mm circular fisheye and the Canon 5D.



All three spacecraft are visible as shown in the detail crop from the original 6 minute and 30 second exposure at f/3.5 and ISO 1600.



A simple polar to rectangular conversion of the fisheye image produces a bizarre 360 degree panorama of the scene.



Here are a few more pans for your entertainment.

Hummer

Needing to exercise my photographic wings this evening, I decided to try and get some shots of the hummingbirds that frequent our backyard feeder. Using the bright twilit sky of sunset as a background, an ISO of 1250 a shutter speed of 1/6400th of a second, f/4.0 aperture and my 400mm F/2.8 L lens with 12.5mm extension tube on it - I was able to capture this little scene.

Sanders in the House

Another week on top of Mt. Graham working on the VATT Telescope TCS - finally got the NG network interface to the control system working (yeah). While we were there - Arizona Daily Star Reporter Dan Sorenson and photographer Dave Sanders (one of my photojournalism idols) happened to be doing a story on the LBT which resides "across the street" from the VATT. Got to spend some time talking to Dave and Dan while sharing the warm environs of the VATT. Here is a pic of Dave at work captured from the top of the VATT building looking at the LBT.

A Day in the Desert

My nephew from North Carolina is visiting - Spring Break away from his graduate studies in biology. Thought it would be nice to show him some of the Sonoran Desert attactions. Spent the day at the World renowned Desert Museum. Here are some snapshots from the day in the desert . . .