Moods of the sky around our weather instruments 2015-16

[elagache]

Dear Bill, Steve, Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat shutterbugs, . . .

To get images such as the meteors, you actually don't need a telescope, but you do need to know a little physics and math.
. . . .
So, if you have a 50mm lens, and a full frame camera, you have 10 seconds of exposure before the stars will trail. For meteors,, wide is good, so I used a 14mm lens on a full frame camera and that gave me 35 seconds of exposure (and I used 30 on this one to be safe). I opened the shutter and got a meteor in that 30 second time frame.

Okay, I'm still a little confused.  So did you manually take picture after picture until you had one with a meteor on it - or were you just lucky?

I haven't done this sort of things since before digital.  In those situations it seemed better to mount the camera on an equatorial telescope so that you had more time to wait for the meteors to fly buy.  If you are using 35mm film, it wasn't so easy to take hundreds of photos in one night and development wasn't free.  When I went after meteors, I could typically expose at least an hour.  Alas, my setup wasn't as good, so usually the stars wouldn't be points, but that was sloppiness on my part.

I don't have a working telescope at the moment, but I would like to set myself up to do coaxial photography once more.  It is a easy way to take some breathtaking images.

Dark skies are a blessing and something to be preserved.
We live in an area designated as a "Dark Sky Reserve" - North America's first. I have been doing the photography for the project, and have been giving night lessons and so forth now for a couple of years. It is very rewarding, but does take some effort to get folks onboard.
The link below details our efforts - and almost all of the images on the pages are mine.

Thanks for sharing.  I had never heard of the phrase "Astro-tourism" but long before the phrase was coined, I was driving many miles to to seek dark skies.  It changed the sort of telescope I was trying to use and in a strange way saved my 50 year old Buick Special wagon.  My parents were afraid to drive the car any distance, but I had a friend with a 1967 Ford wagon driving hundreds of miles with it to find dark skies.  So I would lug my large telescope in the back of my wagon and she never let me down no matter how many miles I went in search of dark skies.

You are right - I didn't include my weather instruments, so it should be "illegal" ! LOL

Well at this point that prohibition seems out the window, but I do hope someone posts some weather instrument related photos to get this thread back on topic!

Cheers, Edouard 

[xairbusdriver]

No Bull (no pun intended, of course), it's DE-lighten-ment! 

[bcurry]

 elagache-
Yes, with digital equipment it is actually easier to simply take a couple of dozen images and see if you get a meteor in one. The Geminids and Perseids are particularly good because the meteors tend to radiate quite tightly, and there's the other advantage of a wide angle lens.
I have a piggy back mount on my telescope and yes, one could do that, however, noise becomes an issue with digital, after the shutter is open for more than 10 minutes or so. Digital cameras tend to suffer from a sort of burn in, so really 5 to 10 minutes frames are sufficient, and on a piggy back you'd still do frame after frame at 10 min.intervals and then combine the images. Of course, if you're after star trails, the noise isn't as apparent, and there is noise reduction software available as well.
The tourism part is fascinating - I did a class with 45 people in it this fall, and I've done a few shoots for local tourism operators here to get images of dark skies and their establishments. We had those 45 people taking a course to enable them to think about astro-tourism and what that could look like.
Cheers,
Bill

Bill Curry Photography
www.billcurry.ca

[Blicj11]

On the left side of the photo you can just see my ISS unit poking out above the snow atop the crossbar at the end of the driveway. Today is the first sunny day we've had in a week of snow storms.

[Bull Winkus]

Nice shot Blick! Lovely place, too! That's a lot of snow, though!

Bet it's nice and cozy inside.

 

[xairbusdriver]

Looks like a beautiful place to...

...visit!

[elagache]

Dear Blick, Herb, X-Air, and WeatherCat shutterbugs, . . .

On the left side of the photo you can just see my ISS unit poking out above the snow atop the crossbar at the end of the driveway. Today is the first sunny day we've had in a week of snow storms.

You've definitely got the white Christmas part covered!    . . .  Although maybe next time try a telephoto lens, your weather instruments are almost invisible! . . . . 

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat Shutterbugs, . . . .

The skies at dawn on Christmas morning were particularly colorful.  It started out like this:



Then a pillar-like formation developed:



Then the clouds close to the horizon started to light up like this:



The final display of color turned out like this:



Some kind of omen for the coming year?  I suppose we'll just have to wait for the fortune tellers to weigh in on this one! 

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. Okay, who's next?

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat shutterbugs, . . . .

The weather has been dreary in Northern California and worse still, no pretty sunrises to boot.  However, that losing streak finally broke this morning:



It was mostly fog and marine layer but it evolved rather unexpectedly:



A bit hard to believe that these pictures were taken only a few minutes apart.  Here is the last one of the sequence this morning:



Hope that brings everyone in the colder parts of the world a bit of good cheer! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[Bull Winkus]

Great pics, Edouard! 

Glad to hear the weather is pleasant again.

 

[elagache]

Dear Herb and WeatherCat drought watchers,

Great pics, Edouard! 

Awe shucks . . . . Thanks! 

Glad to hear the weather is pleasant again.

Well it isn't exactly pleasant by normal standards, but if you are suffering from a drought - yes things are just fine!

Cheers, Edouard 

[Blicj11]

Glad to hear the weather is pleasant again.

Well it isn't exactly pleasant by normal standards, but if you are suffering from a drought - yes things are just fine!

I've been checking CoCoRaHS and your website to make sure it is raining there.

[Bull Winkus]

Edouard, I noticed your banner hasn't been updated in a while. What's up?

[elagache]

Howdy Herb and WeatherCat banner fans,

Edouard, I noticed your banner hasn't been updated in a while. What's up?

I just looked it is okay now.  It had the correct time and rainfall amounts for now.  Not sure what was the problem when you looked at it.

Oh Well, . . . Edouard

[Randall75]

Hi Herb and Edouard
 For the banner sometime I have notice that it gets stuck in  cache and if I reload the page I'm on it will update to the correct data my 2 cents worth


cheers