Narrow Vision

Ever use a long telephoto lens? I mean a LOOOOOONG telephoto? Like - around 22,000 mm? Well that's about the focal lenght of a 2.3 Meter F/9 telescope. Here are a couple of snapshots taken through the BOK 90" Telescope on Monday night of M1 and Hubble's variable nebula. FOV is about 4 arcminutes.

A Canon 5D Mark II was used set at ISO 3200. Exposure times were 28 minutes at F/9. Processed using ImagePlus and PS5. Seeing was about 2.0 arcseconds.

Starlight

Spent the last two nights on Mt. Graham at the VATT Telescope training the new observer and making sure the science instrument was operational. While I was working, I put my Canon 5D Mark II to work watching the Earth Rotate under the dark skies of the mountain. (Actually I was hoping to catch a few Quadrantid meteors - which I did - but the meager showing of this shower from our location was less than impressive). Here is a one hour long effective exposure looking east toward the SMT and LBT Observatories.

Solstice Eclipse

Fighting a head cold and clouds - I managed to get a few shots of last night's lunar eclipse. Taken through a Questar 3.5 with a Canon 5D Mark II. Exposure times were between 3.2 seconds and 8 seconds.








Below - a collage of images taken through a 400mm lens with a Canon 5D Mark II showing the progression of the eclipse throughout the 3 and a half hour long event.

Ducks, I hate Ducks . . .

Frank wanted to practice wildlife photography this weekend. Not surprising after he captured a great image of a duck at Sweetwater last weekend while working on his own. So, I thought I would indulge him. Back to Sweetwater sewage treatment plant we went.

I HATE Ducks. Noisy, foul smelling, ugly birds, with clumbsy flight characteristics (IMO). And, like most wildlife, completely uncooperative photographically and difficult to capture in any real interesting pose. After four hours at this foul smelling watering hole for these creatures, I was only able to snap a couple of passable images.









Frank demonstrates the proper way to complete a self portrait.

And - oh yah - Frank's favorite - yellow headed black birds. Baah!

Geminids!

My 15 seconds of fame . . .

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And an APOD!