Random Photos

[DennisN]

Stripes

Very cool!
Particularly that the shadows are at different angles, that really caught my attention!

Distances...

A lovely view!

 

[gmax137]

Toadstools, Big Water Utah

 

[jack action]

Power line tower from my facebook today:

 

[morrobay]

Chinese new year decorations at the market

 

[collinsmark]

Before and after a corrector plate cleaning on my 10" scope:

When it comes to cleaning the corrector plate on a telescope (such as a Schmidt-Cassegrain, Maksutov-Cassegrain, or Rowe-Ackerman Schmidt Astrograph), the primary lens of a refractor, or the primary mirror if the telescope doesn't have a corrector plate (e.g., Newtonian, Ritchey–Chrétien, or [Modified] Dall-Kircham), the best advice regarding when it is time to clean is:

Procrastinate
Procrastinate
Procrastinate

It's the one thing in life where procrastination is usually a good thing.

A little dust on the objective doesn't help the contrast, but other than that doesn't negatively impact the image as much as you might think. The reason for the procrastination is to lessen the chance of scratching the sensitive anti-reflective (AR) coatings on the lens or mirror. Less frequent cleanings mean less chance of scratches.

And when you do clean, do it carefully. As in really, really carefully.

The before picture above represents about a year and a half to two years of successful procrastination.

(I plan to finish up a couple of targets with this scope and then take it down for some planned maintenance soon anyway, so I figured now would be a good time to clean the corrector plate.)

 

[berkeman]

I know @phinds will appreciate this from my Facebook feed today...

 

[phinds]

I had to think for a minute to figure out how you even DO that, and then I realized that it's not conceptually difficult, just VERY tedious and you have to love working with hand tools, which I am not good at (at least, not to this level).

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Similan_Islands

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

Remote , only camping. Had read that there are very strong tidal currents between the islands. So used a safety line. However did not experience any during several days visit. You would be long gone out there.

 

[DennisN]

View attachment 339786

Holy cr-p, that's such a cool photo!

 

[pinball1970]

Thought I had lost this.

 

[Borg]

It looks like something that I would have to hide so that my wife wouldn't try to throw it away.

 

[pinball1970]

It looks like something that I would have to hide so that my wife wouldn't try to throw it away.

It was a gift off my Ex, she did not like me talking about physics but she liked buying ties!

 

[Haborix]

It was a gift off my Ex, she did not like me talking about physics but she liked buying ties nooses!

She was laying the groundwork to handle the problem if you didn't tone it down...

 

[morrobay]

Around Jomtien. Fresh strawberries

 

[pinball1970]

I never knew the connection between Manchester and Abraham Lincoln.

https://acws.co.uk/archives-misc-lincoln_letter

 

[pinball1970]

The plaque.

 

[pinball1970]

Chinese New Year decorations outside central Library.

 

[pinball1970]

Also visited here

 

[pinball1970]

 

[pinball1970]

Stunning inside.

 

[pinball1970]

I was hoping to see this,
https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/rylands/visit/visitor-information/explore/st-john-fragment/

It was "having a rest," back on display 2025.

Still, the building itself is very impressive, 1900, Neo gothic.

 

[pinball1970]

A little help from @Astranut with editing!
A few things named after this guy in Manchester, John Dalton.

 

[pinball1970]

This is where I thought P52 would be, lower lighting. EDIT, but not facing that window!

 

[pinball1970]

I took this for the books, the ones on the bottom opposite the chair are the height of the case they are in, about three feet.

 

[Rive]

I never knew the connection between Manchester and Abraham Lincoln.

https://acws.co.uk/archives-misc-lincoln_letter

View attachment 340133

With that slight blur that statue sent me into a cognitive dissonance loop ...
... but after some googlework I found that there are plenty of other people out there who finds Lincoln and Sherlock Cumberbatch ( ) similar enough

 

[DennisN]

This is where I thought P52 would be, lower lighting. EDIT, but not facing that window!

Nice shot!

 

[DennisN]

"What do you mean it's your bed? We're resting here now."

(my two cats shot with smartphone a while ago)

@Rive, by the way, this was shot a while ago and in the evening, and here I directed an adjustable table lamp towards the cats before I took the shot. If I hadn't done that the photo would have become pretty dull and "greyish" since the ambient light in the room was pretty low in intensity.

 

[DennisN]

@Rive, by the way, this was shot a while ago and in the evening, and here I directed an adjustable table lamp towards the cats before I took the shot. If I hadn't done that the photo would have become pretty dull and "greyish" since the ambient light in the room was pretty low in intensity.

For comparison, here's another recent shot of one of the cats without using any supporting light (just ambient light)... and the photo becomes more washed out.

It also becomes more difficult to get a sharp shot in low light (due to the camera probably compensating for low light by increasing exposure time, and during longer exposure times tiny movements of my hand holding the smartphone become more apparent).

 

[Rive]

I directed an adjustable table lamp towards the cats before I took the shot.

I've tried that too, but does not work for black cats
It's the same what happens with flash. Everything is already overexposed, while the cat in the middle is still like a black hole...

I think it's about the difference in the dynamic ranges involved. To have the (black) cat proper on the photo, I need sufficient dynamic ranges both on the lower end (cat) and in the middle (background) of the brightness scale in the same time.

Most likely I'll try to explore the dark arts of postprocessing (as was suggested by @jtbell ), against my beliefs and inherent laziness

 

[jtbell]

I directed an adjustable table lamp towards the cats before I took the shot.

How would they have reacted if you had used the flashlamp?

 

[gmax137]

Most likely I'll try to explore the dark arts of postprocessing (as was suggested by @jtbell ), against my beliefs and inherent laziness

I don't have anything against post. In my wet darkroom days I would dodge and burn, use different contrast filters for different parts of the image, bleach with ferri, and on and on.

Another point: the unprocessed image coming straight out of your digital camera is the result of its software's decisions about how the image should look. In post, you can use your decisions.