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Post by bfhammer on Jan 7, 2024 23:57:35 GMT
After ending 2023 on a high-note, let's lower the expectations a bit for 2024.  Tried a new spot for eagle watching. This is a coal-fired electric power plant slated to be closed in 2025. I saw a pair of eagles flying as I drove on the nearby highway last week. I played a hunch that the warm water-discharge in the man-made lake could be an eagle roost. It is, sort of. The warm water is also constantly foggy. I had 1 bird in view briefly. So I just tried to get a landscape photo out of the fog. |
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Post by zeb on Jan 8, 2024 21:47:49 GMT
After ending 2023 on a high-note, let's lower the expectations a bit for 2024. Tried a new spot for eagle watching. This is a coal-fired electric power plant slated to be closed in 2025. I saw a pair of eagles flying as I drove on the nearby highway last week. I played a hunch that the warm water-discharge in the man-made lake could be an eagle roost. It is, sort of. The warm water is also constantly foggy. I had 1 bird in view briefly. So I just tried to get a landscape photo out of the fog. That landscape photo is pretty awesome. Creepy! You know there's something sinister lurking in the mist.  |
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Post by bfhammer on Jan 9, 2024 0:15:12 GMT
After ending 2023 on a high-note, let's lower the expectations a bit for 2024.
That landscape photo is pretty awesome. Creepy! You know there's something sinister lurking in the mist. It's the Lake Columbia puppy-eating, woman-groping, cat-lovin' (far too much), circus clown!  |
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Post by bfhammer on Mar 24, 2024 18:27:42 GMT
I got in another pre-eclipse rehearsal. I had a new solar filter and wanted to verify exposure settings. Little did I know there was a double solar flare that happened hours earlier. That is why all the sunspots front and center.  |
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Post by zeb on Mar 24, 2024 23:55:06 GMT
I got in another pre-eclipse rehearsal. I had a new solar filter and wanted to verify exposure settings. Little did I know there was a double solar flare that happened hours earlier. That is why all the sunspots front and center. I've decided to skip driving to WNY along with a million others on eclipse day. I'll enjoy my 98% view from home. My sister got me a pair of viewing glasses from her school system. It will probably be cloudy. 
Awesome sun picture! Is that big group in the center where the flares were?
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Post by bfhammer on Mar 25, 2024 0:39:52 GMT
I got in another pre-eclipse rehearsal. I had a new solar filter and wanted to verify exposure settings. Little did I know there was a double solar flare that happened hours earlier. That is why all the sunspots front and center. I've decided to skip driving to WNY along with a million others on eclipse day. I'll enjoy my 98% view from home. My sister got me a pair of viewing glasses from her school system. It will probably be cloudy.
Awesome sun picture! Is that big group in the center where the flares were?
You are so absurdly close to the totality zone Dan. It's a shame you wouldn't get at least to Toledo or a bit further south and just park somewhere. The total eclipse is the show! 98% is just a cloudy day. I'm traveling 400 miles south to do this.
Alternately there will be a total across Southern Wisconsin into Indiana in 2099. Stock up on Geritol.
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Post by zeb on Mar 25, 2024 3:40:52 GMT
I've decided to skip driving to WNY along with a million others on eclipse day. I'll enjoy my 98% view from home. My sister got me a pair of viewing glasses from her school system. It will probably be cloudy.
Awesome sun picture! Is that big group in the center where the flares were?
You are so absurdly close to the totality zone Dan. It's a shame you wouldn't get at least to Toledo or a bit further south and just park somewhere. The total eclipse is the show! 98% is just a cloudy day. I'm traveling 400 miles south to do this.
Alternately there will be a total across Southern Wisconsin into Indiana in 2099. Stock up on Geritol.
I've looked into what happens in the areas of totality during the eclipse. "Just park somewhere" wouldn't be as simple as it sounds. In Buffalo they're cancelling everything, and telling people to stock up on supplies, like for a blizzard. If I was spry, I'd go for it, but I'll just relax at home. |
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Post by bfhammer on Apr 9, 2024 22:43:15 GMT
Be prepared for an onslaught of eclipse photos. I am working on them and it may take a week or 2 to finish.
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Post by zeb on Apr 10, 2024 0:01:09 GMT
Be prepared for an onslaught of eclipse photos. I am working on them and it may take a week or 2 to finish. I am really excited by the prominences in the first image! It's so amazing that we live close to this swirling mass of plasma. Thanks for the pics! |
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Post by bfhammer on Apr 14, 2024 0:07:18 GMT
Some more eclipse photos. These are just some snapshots with a point-n-shoot camera, and I also used it for video.    
A video pan of the Benton, IL civic arena parking where I was located. Everybody but the guy with the dog, truck and trailer showed after I was setting up.
This is a video of totality happening. Just camera on a tripod, and I simply aimed it up during the main event. Conversations can be heard.
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Post by bfhammer on Apr 14, 2024 0:12:11 GMT
Some other eclipse photos.   "Bailey's Beads" here. Where sunlight is just catching valleys on the lunar surface.  "Diamond Ring" image. Where a tiny crescent of sunlight shines as the corona becomes visible around the lunar disk.  |
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Post by bfhammer on Apr 14, 2024 0:15:58 GMT
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Post by bfhammer on Apr 14, 2024 0:29:32 GMT
And my composite photos. Everybody makes the composite photos, but no reason I cannot be a bit different?   Basically, both of those photos were ruined by my mistakes. First one, I had forgotten to tighten the screws of my star-tracking camera mount after polar-aligning it. The software allows to use the sun instead of the north star. So with the movement axies loose, the camera drifted as it tracked the sun and took photos automatically. I did not notice, the sun moved partially off the top of the screen for a while. I caught this when I removed the solar filter just before totality and re-aimed things and tightened quickly. Rest of the series was fine. But I had to be creative to make the composite image and put together 2 images into one to get a full solar disk on top (3 times). That was the first bonehead thing I did. Second camera was using a wide-angle lens and fixed in place on tripod. It was also taking photos every 5 minutes automatically. But I aimed poorly. I felt like I was already aimed too far west, but I was wrong. I had to manually take photos after removing the solar filter for totality. I just needed a few, it was part of the plan. I had 4 minutes to work things. I was too dazzled to remember until the split second totality ended. So I had to paste in an out-of-scale image from the other camera for the total eclipse base image. At least it was a bit easier to fix. Now the infrared camera. I forgot it entirely during totality. It was sitting at ready.  |
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Post by zeb on Apr 14, 2024 0:37:11 GMT
Some more eclipse photos. These are just some snapshots with a point-n-shoot camera, and I also used it for video.
A video pan of the Benton, IL civic arena parking where I was located. Everybody but the guy with the dog, truck and trailer showed after I was setting up.
This is a video of totality happening. Just camera on a tripod, and I simply aimed it up during the main event. Conversations can be heard.
See, I knew I could count on you to make me virtually there for totality! Thanks, Chris. |
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Post by bfhammer on Apr 18, 2024 1:20:14 GMT
After a break to refresh the mind, here's a couple of new photos.   |
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