Comet Lovejoy
Comet Lovejoy, originally uploaded by Photography by Odille.
I have been going out every morning trying to capture this comet and finally we had a cloudless eastern sky! A bit fainter than I would like, but the H2 does not handle low ISOs well, and the only usable shots are from the Lumix.
26 Dec 2011; 0442, Terranora looking east, NSW far north coast, Australia Lumix FZ35, f2.8, 30 secs, ISO 200 (P1080495)
Tomorrow I will try from somewhere down nearer the water. There is a spot on the Tweed River outlet opposite the end of Dry Dock Rd where I think the comet and southern cross might be reflected in the water, I won’t know until I get there in the morning. If that doesn’t work I’ll go to Snapper Rocks and shoot over the ocean. If any of the togs I was speaking to today would like to join me, love to see you. You can tell where I am by looking for the big yellow Kia Pregio van!
Planetary conjunction 1st May 2011
Planetary conjunction #2, originally uploaded by Photography by Odille.
I woke up at my usual early worm time of 4.30am, ambled out to the computer, played about for a bit, then for some reason had a look at my Stellarium program, which showed me THIS conjunction of 4 planets and the moon. From the top Venus and Mercury with the waning moon to the left, and below Mars (faint) and Jupiter (brighter and slightly lower).
You never saw anyone scramble for the camera and tripod so fast in your whole life!
See, night owls, getting up early IS worth it.
H2 / P20 / HC50-110 zoom @ 85mm / f8 / 6secs / ISO 100
Star Crossed Birman
Star Crossed Birman, originally uploaded by Photography by Odille.
A friend’s lovely Birman, Pippin, turned into star cat art. I decided to do the background black for this one
Stars in her Eyes
Stars in her Eyes, originally uploaded by Photography by Odille.
I was inspired by this site (http://kitsunenoir.com/2010/09/24/zippora-lux/) I found through my Cat World forum to try a new technique
Honey and NGC6934
Partial Lunar eclipse, 26 June 2010
Well, I had been looking forward to this for weeks. We had some scudding clouds about during the event, but I am quite pleased with these two images.
1. Taken from Terranora, north coast NSW. Canon 1DsMKII, 100-400L f4, 2 sec, f8, ISO200 – time 20:51 I like the effect of the racing clouds, the moon looks very surreal. The clouds shut down after this so I don’t have any of the maximum eclipse.
2. A montage shot of the partial lunar eclipse of 26 June 2010 taken with the Panasonic Lumix FZ35 ( a ‘mere’ point and shoot!). The moon in the cloud shot was burnt out to a white disc, so I layered in a moon from a shot taken about 3 mins later through a break in the clouds. (P1030950)
Lunar Eclipse tomorrow morning (16/06/2011)
I am going to try a time lapse shoot of the eclipse in the morning to see if I can do one of those Time lapse videos.
I will go just up the road where there are nice mountain silhouettes for a backdrop. I can take the van and sit in comfort with thermos of hot coffee and laptop. If anyone wants to join me email me BEFORE 6pm tonight – it will be early dinner and bed.
And another total lunar eclipse – visible from all of Australia – happens on 10-11 Sept – article on IceinSpace forum @ http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-619-0-0-1-0.html will give you all the info you need.
The H2 lets you set it up for interval timing with up to 255 exposures. I’m going to do a ‘test run’ at moonrise tonight (I can set it up on my verandah facing east). I thought I would make it Aperture priority on f8, ISO will be 100 or 200 (it’s a noisy bugger), and manual focus of course. I can choose Number of exposures, from 2 – 255; and Interval duration, from 1 second – 24 hours. 30 secs was suggested on IceinSpace which probably sounds about right.
Hopefully I will have beautiful results to display for you tomorrow – my fingers and toes are firmly crossed!
The shot below is from the 26 June 2010 partial eclipse shot with the Lumix FZ35
15 June 2011 | Categories: After dark, Commentary, Equipment (including for sale) | 1 Comment »