Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
Let’s call it #MoonMonday. 😉
Taken this past Saturday, the sun was just starting to cast a glow on the horizon. I was patiently sitting at my photo destination, enjoying the quiet pre-dawn hours. As I sat there, I looked up at our only natural satellite and was quite taken by its beauty – which of course required a picture to be taken.
Let’s call it Moon Monday.
Much of yesterday morning was spent either waiting for a photo subject to do something or driving around just trying to find a photo subject. Getting bored waiting for an elk herd to decide if they were going to move closer or not, I pointed my camera up to the gorgeous moon hovering above.
I know the full moon gets all the press but it is the earlier / later stages that truly make it shine. The slightly offset light really help to bring out the depth of the craters and other features on the surface.
Taken in Boulder County, Colorado.
While out taking pictures of yesterday’s “Great Conjunction”, I also pointed my camera toward Earth’s only natural satellite. The waxing gibbous moon looked absolutely awesome high above.
As I have mentioned before, I much prefer taking pics of the moon at stages other than the full moon as the shadows from side-lighting really help bring out the detail.
I am the first to admit that I kinda suck at astrophotography. I just really struggle making things work and look the way I want and tonight wasn’t really any different.
My chosen location didn’t provide for any unique compositions and without going crazy in Photoshop (which I refuse to do), things pretty much looked like bright lights in the sky. Haha!
Having said that, it was pretty neat. I captured Jupiter and three of its moons and was able to get Saturn and its rings. At least that is somewhat different and something I haven’t done before.
Tonight’s celestial show – the crescent moon and #Jupiter and Saturn! Oh, and if you look close, you can see a couple of Jupiter’s moons too. All of this gearing up for next week’s “Christmas star” show when Jupiter and Saturn will be in conjunction. Be sure to click for the full view.
Thank you to my friend, David, providing a heads up to get outside with my camera right away.
I don’t usually take pics of the full moon as I find early and later stages provide for better pics. However, yesterday morning I was on my way to my photo destination as the sun was creeping up toward the horizon. A cloud near our only natural satellite was painted red and made for a nice scene requiring me to stop.
The Halloween full moon is actually a bit of a rarity with the last one having happened in 1944 and the next one not going to occur until 2039.
Taken early in the morning, the moon over the Denver, Colorado area was insanely red. The only time I have ever seen it this color with it this high in the sky is during a lunar eclipse. Sadly, that was not the reason this time. Instead, it was smoke from wildfires burning in Colorado and Wyoming causing the display – and the smell.
Kind of a cool, early morning scene from a few weeks ago. I wanted to do some astrophotography so was looking for a spot with a cool foreground and this old house in Logan County, Colorado fit the bill.
The problem was that there was only a brief, early morning window between the moon setting and the sun rising plus the city of Sterling was on the horizon. Nevertheless, the shot came out pretty well.
In addition to the view of our galaxy’s core are the four very bright “stars” that are seen. They really are noticeable but, not being much into astronomy, I had no idea what they were so I looked it up.
The brightest one to the bottom left is in fact Jupiter. Just above and to the left is Saturn. Moving above and to the right, the bright star there is Altair, the 12th brightest star in our sky whose name comes from the Arabic phrase, “the flying eagle.” Moving to the blue one further to the top right is the star Vega, also called “the swooping eagle.” Kind of fun and interesting I think, particularly given my fascination with eagles. 😉
I had hoped to spend time this past weekend photographing this interstellar visitor some more but Mother Nature had other plans.
Clouds each night were likely to block the view so I didn’t bother to try. Last night, conditions improved but due to my having to get up early for work, I didn’t want to go far. That meant shooting from the light-polluted suburbs of Denver limiting compositions and quality but I had no choice.
I headed out and managed some shots of the #comet in between the clouds. In this frame, a satellite decided to make an appearance as well. It was interesting how much dimmer it was this week versus last.
Last week I could pick it out with the naked eye pretty quick. Last night I had to take long exposures with my camera to spot it. Sadly this was likely the last time I get to photograph it, particularly since it won’t be back for 6,800 years or so. 😉
Okay, not really HD but the processing of the picture allowed me to create one of the most detailed moon pics I have ever taken.
This is in fact six separate moon shots taken one right after the other. They are then “stacked” using some specialized software to bring out crazy awesome detail, far more than I have ever gotten with a single shot.
I’ll definitely be playing with this technique more, throwing in even more images and seeing if it improves even further.
