ZapperZ's Great Outdoors Photo Contest

[Andy Resnick]

Fantastic!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Thanks to the PF astrophotography experts who helped me out recently- here's first light (1:1 crop) of the Ring Nebula:

http://imageshack.us/a/img820/2650/dsc003531.jpg

30 second exposure @ ISO 800, 800/5.6 lens. This is a single frame straight off the camera.

 

[Borek]

Wow.

 

[Andy Resnick]

This time of year, Andromeda is directly overhead- this is a 20 min total exposure (30s individual images) taken over a couple of evenings (800/5.6, ISO 800):

http://imageshack.us/a/img441/4605/20mintifrgb.jpg

The secondary bright blob is M32, and M110 is faintly visible in the upper left.

 

[drizzle]

So I went hiking today for the first time since I came to the US. It wasn't that tough- it took us about three hours. Despite a small knee injury and the tiring path, I enjoyed it. :)
Here's some pics I took.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1565/hiking3.jpg


http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6189/hiking2.jpg


http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/817/hiking1.jpg

 

[turbo]

Great pix, Gad! You are in a spectacularly scenic place. The mountains in Maine are all worn-down and rounded. Still pretty, but not stunning.

 

[drizzle]

Thanks turbo! And yes, I'm in love with this place already, you can always have a good beautiful view of the mountains anywhere you go.

 

[OmCheeto]

So I went hiking today for the first time since I came to the US. It wasn't that tough- it took us about three hours. Despite a small knee injury and the tiring path, I enjoyed it. :)
Here's some pics I took.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1565/hiking3.jpg


http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6189/hiking2.jpg


http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/817/hiking1.jpg

Welcome to the far side.

 

[Andy Resnick]

So I went hiking today for the first time since I came to the US. It wasn't that tough- it took us about three hours. Despite a small knee injury and the tiring path, I enjoyed it. :)
Here's some pics I took.

Nice! Where is this mystical land of sun and scenic beauty? Not Cleve-town, that's fer sure.

 

[Andre]

So I went hiking today for the first time since I came to the US. It wasn't that tough- it took us about three hours. Despite a small knee injury and the tiring path, I enjoyed it. :)
...

Great, nice pix Careful with the knees, they hate descending when you get older.

 

[turbo]

Great, nice pix Careful with the knees, they hate descending when you get older.

Yep! Eventually, I had to give up scaling mountains. Actually, I could climb Katahdin a couple of times a day, but coming back down was too painful to do even once. The last time, my knees were so swollen that I had trouble getting my pants off so I could shower. Not good.

 

[Andre]

Right, I know all about it. Climbing is great. Descending sucks.

But I did the Mount Valier the other year

 

[turbo]

Very scenic, Pooh!

 

[dlgoff]

Something has been lurking in my garden. It was getting dark and the glare from the flash off the measuring scale washed out the toe nails.

http://imageshack.us/a/img10/9973/img0053yjp.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img577/8971/img0051mq.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img26/3746/img0057ga.jpg

 

[sas3]

You left this one out, I did a search on bear tracks and found it.

 

[dlgoff]

If I see a bear in my garden here in Kansas, I'm moving.

 

[turbo]

We have bears. They are shy and secretive, and they are more interested in avoiding confrontation than you are. One morning I went out to find a heavy welded-wire suet cage torn apart and bent. That suet feeder was hanging high up under the eaves right in front of my desk (I like to watch birds) so that bear was pretty darned tall. I knew he was living on the back side of my property anyway, since he had front paw-tracks that I couldn't cover with my hands.

 

[dlgoff]

We have bears. They are shy and secretive, and they are more interested in avoiding confrontation than you are. One morning I went out to find a heavy welded-wire suet cage torn apart and bent. That suet feeder was hanging high up under the eaves right in front of my desk (I like to watch birds) so that bear was pretty darned tall. I knew he was living on the back side of my property anyway, since he had front paw-tracks that I couldn't cover with my hands.

Now I know I'm not coming to Maine.

Just kidding. I'd love to come to Maine.

 

[Astronuc]

Places around the Pacific - http://travel.yahoo.com/ideas/10-amazing-exotic-vacations.html

 

[Andre]

Right, I know all about it. Climbing is great. Descending sucks.

But I did the Mount Valier the other year

Very scenic, Pooh!

I was cleaning out my harddisk and stumbled upon the proof of that.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/IMG_1332.jpg

 

[drizzle]

Nice Andre :)

 

[Andre]

Thanks Gad, you are kind. The reason why I look so ugly is not only because I am, but also because I press my lips together to force normal breathing, avoiding hyperventilating during that long climb.

 

[drizzle]

Ugly?.. Trust me, you don't want to see me while hiking.

Hyperventilating is a problem for me, I just keep taking short breaks to avoid it.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Finally, a few clear nights in a row- here's andromeda (now up to 1 hr integration time)

http://imageshack.us/a/img525/3553/1hrtifrgb.jpg

and the Orion nebula (2 minutes or so)

http://imageshack.us/a/img692/3126/orionzi.jpg

The tracking mount, while extremely user-friendly, is definitely a big step up. First, the total weight of everything is now about 100kg- I have to let the system 'settle' into the damp ground for a minute or so to stabilize, and moving it around ain't trivial. Second, while the polar alignment step really couldn't be much simpler- a newbie like me mastered it after 2 or 3 nights- my backyard has a lot of mature trees, severely restricting the number of places I can set up and directions I can look after alignment. Lastly, because it's cold out, I have a problem with focus drift as the lens cools down. It's not a problem *if* there are bright stars in the field of view, but for Andromeda, I have to rotate the lens, re-focus, and then use the setting circles to get me back to where I was.

However, the biggest difficulty I struggled with (and still struggle with) is weight balancing- it appears that the declination axis (analogous to longitude), which holds the mounting dovetail is asymmetric: there is a front/back orientation that must be used, otherwise the declination axis will experience a fairly large torque when looking toward zenith. I didn't find any mention of this in the manual, and I spent quite a few nights cursing fairly loudly before I figured it out.

With Orion, I played around with different acquisition times- 30s is a little too long, leading to frames lost due to 'wobble'- here's a tight crop of 9 successive frames:

http://imageshack.us/a/img7/8118/montagecgo.jpg

Of the 9, maybe 3 are acceptable. This is *not* due to atmospheric seeing problems. Seen as an animation, the stars undergo sinusoidal oscillations in one axis (right ascension, I think), and a slow drift in the other. I think this is 'periodic error correction' and 'declination drift', neither of which I can easily correct. So instead, I just use shorter exposures- 10s seems to give me a >80% acceptable image rate, and is still long enough that I don't have to worry about burning out another shutter anytime soon.

 

[drizzle]

Beautiful pictures Andy!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Beautiful pictures Andy!

Thanks!

 

[Astronuc]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr..._picture_of_the_milky_way_from_a_volcano.html

An amazing view
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8022/7684967220_f0ea46b2e1_b.jpg

 

[Astronuc]

Lava flows from Hawaii into the ocean at night
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/lava-flows-ocean-off-coast-honolulu-night-video-004448562.html

 

[Astronuc]

Ten places to add to one's bucket list -

http://travel.yahoo.com/ideas/10-out-of-this-world-places.html


Add this one - the Mt. Hua pilgrimage:
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/46043/snow+and+ice+make+chinas+mount+hua+pilgrimage+especially+dangerous/

 

[Abstr7ct]

A cocktail of of outdoor pictures taken by someoe I know during a journey.

 

[turbo]

Some very nice pictures, including the carcass of a PBY Catalina.

 

[drizzle]

Very nice pictures Abstr7ct! :)

 

[nsaspook]

Mt Hood in Dec. Timberline: http://flic.kr/p/dEXk9Y

 

[Astronuc]

On a ridge - http://screen.yahoo.com/motorcycle-ridge-riding-084000429.html

 

[Andy Resnick]

Last night, moon's closest approach to Jupiter (85mm focal length):

http://imageshack.us/a/img138/2082/dsc029311.jpg

Jupiter is the bright blue dot above the moon, and the Pleiades are visible to the right as well. A well-defined half-moon shaped glare spot is visible. 'Zooming out' to 15mm reveals Orion off to the left:

http://imageshack.us/a/img109/4415/resultofdsc02939.jpg

 

[Astronuc]

An unusual superpod of dolphins -

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sidesho...ted-dolphin-super-pod-sighting-163519590.html

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Amazing!

 

[Andre]

This was certainly outdoors, shot last week, a panorama of 7 pictures sewed together.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/Panorama_f-tn.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/Panorama_f.jpg

The weather gives a complete wrong image of how the holiday has been, because we also have seen this:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/waterspout.jpg

 

[Borek]

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/Panorama_f-tn.jpg

Great view. Where is it?

 

[Andre]

Ah, I wondered if there were enough clues to have a landmark solve. But I guess not.

It's in south east Spain, the village in front is probably Orba

 

[Borek]

Ah, I wondered if there were enough clues to have a landmark solve. But I guess not.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/59514378

It's in south east Spain, the village in front is probably Orba

More like Parcent

Let's face it - it was a sheer luck. But its is exactly kind of the road I would take being in the area.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Couldn't see the comet, but these were a nice alternative:

http://imageshack.us/a/img841/9532/dsc03497bu.jpg
(downsized 50%)

http://imageshack.us/a/img62/5378/dsc035061filtered1.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img341/2730/dsc03529we.jpg

 

[Borg]

Not the greatest quality but I caught it. Dulles Airport is about 15 miles due west of here - hence the aircraft flybys.
Yay, my first comet!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Not the greatest quality but I caught it. Dulles Airport is about 15 miles due west of here - hence the aircraft flybys.
Yay, my first comet!

Nice job!

 

[Astronuc]

Some Strange Things Are Happening To Astronauts Returning To EarthWho would have thought traveling to outer space could be such a profound experience? OK, probably everybody, but these former astronauts really articulate it in a way that was just a little mind-blowing.

http://www.upworthy.com/some-strange-things-are-happening-to-astronauts-returning-to-earth?g=6

Looking down upon earth.

 

[Andy Resnick]

The weather is getting nicer- here's the result of a few days observing M51 during 'below average' seeing conditions:

http://imageshack.us/a/img189/3634/1h48mintifrgbfiltered1.jpg

Total integration time = 1.75 hours, each frame was typically 20 s ISO 3200.

 

[Borek]

 

[Andy Resnick]

I was able to image 5 moons of Saturn- these images were taken 24 hours apart:





(one moon gets hidden by Saturn's glare in pic#2)

 

[Abstr7ct]

The photo is big, so the link is posted.

http://gethanh.com/mlffat/files/2127.jpg

Location: A village in Al Baha Province located at the south of the Arabian Peninsula.

 

[Andy Resnick]

I almost threw this one out, but it's actually a lucky shot:



Both the windmill blade and support post are parallel with walkways, which helps lead the eye around the whole image.