Scotts Landing TimeLapse

Scotts Landing TimeLapse a video by Astronomr on Flickr.

Ok, so here's 4 seconds of Scotts landing when the moon was insanely bright last week. I like how there's fish ... sloooow fish ...

A tale of two lenses

Well after tonight's world cup win for the ABs, I felt buoyant enough to attempt the climb up to the proposed new observing/photo site on Conical Hill.  Well drive up there at any rate.  It wasn't until I got up there that I realised that I had lent Bill the 18-55mm Lens :).

However.  It's nice and dark up there, with the worst noise pollution visible in the two shots above.  That's the glow from Warkworth/Snells Beach.

The shot on the left is taken with the EF 28-80mm Lens, aperture 3.4, the shot on the right Sigma Super-Wide FD 24mm, aperture 2.8.

Trouble with the fast lens is how fungal it is (the stars are actually in sharp focus.

So a small success, a nice dark place to shoot, and to transport scopes up to.  Also gained a burning desire to procure a faster lens, as the 18-55 is nice, but could be a lot nicer.  When I get more $$$ I think a fast 50 might be the order of the day.

Unless of course y'all want to donate something? :)

Ok, just asking!

Here's a pic of the hunter to leave you with.

Back on the Rails (somewhat)

Ok.  Tonight I went down to the domain, armed with Jacqui's 20D, some fairly well remembered instruction, some mints and faithful AstroTorch.  Determined I was to get me some dSLR pics, and well, I did :)  You can see them over at Jacqui's and my Flickr Page or of course on the Picasa Web Albums .. here.

Phew!  I can see how people can lose themselves in this camera thing, sometimes to the expense of their photographs!  My mind was spinning after my last post. Well to be honest I was weeping like a spoiled 3-year old who can't have anymore lollies.

First off, I need a job, then, when I have a job, I need a new scope, with nice motorised mount and a good dSLR mount and .. oh crap, oh well.  I guess I will just have to keep to the spirit of this blog and do it myself.

Coming soon!  Jason attempts astromount III - this time with the length to fit the 25mm! And one of these!

Meanwhile, as you chuckle at the thought of me messing about with tools, here's some VERY pretty pictures for you to look at.

First off, NASA has this and a bit of this, oh and a whole heap of these. Then the charming, witty and terribly attractive Dr Plait has this to feast upon! Or for the full mind-intercourse .. click here. So back to NASA, or more precisely HiRISE is offering you the chance to pick the next photograph of Mars, which by the way is at closest approach on Friday if anyone's interested! Oh you will need to open an account with HiRISE if you go there.

Okies, well that about wraps it up for this post - I am happy that I got some results from the 20D .. this is a good thing, so all I need now is some time, and motivation for the IXUS mount and Scotch Mount!

And to all, a good night.

Well away to Te Awamutu tomorrow for the holiday, lent Bill my rig earlier this evening, so I think I made his Holiday :)  Happy Christmas Bill!

Of course, once I lent my rig out, the skies cleared and all was a beautiful night for observing.  Murphy sits on my shoulder I tells ya, making snide comments in his Irish accent.

So I got some nice shots anyways to spite the bastard!  Was trying to get my camera to pull off time-lapse, which it does as part of it's video settings, but bugger that, I want 8 mega-pixel time-lapse dammit! So I will be working on that soonish too :)

So postings may be a little scarce for a while my friends.  But I do plan on taking some shots in TA - they have beautiful skies there, so keep watching.

Oh and Happy Solstice everyone! ;)