Skywatch No. 39

It looks like I've skipped a week. A great number of things have happened recently, about which precisely none I could dredge up the energy or motivation to write. I'm not sure that last sentence even made sense.

Anyhow, it appears that moody clouds have been the fashion of late.

Other Things That Happened Recently:

• Obama spoke at University of Michigan's commencement last Saturday, which I had been unduly excited about until realizing that because timing was bad, it might involve having nowhere to stay, bumming rides off of people, and other assorted inconveniences. Fortunately, you can watch it here.

• This is strangely addicting.

Angell Hall Observatory

The Angell Hall Observatory sits on the rooftop of a five-storey building in the middle of a light-polluted city. But it still has credentials/is awesome.

I didn't have the time/equipment/conditions for any extensive photo-taking last night (so no, there's no astrophotography in this post), but it was still well worth the time. It's the first time I've been able to see stars from this city, or the sky properly at all, there was a crescent moon hanging low in the sky, and the air was for once cool without being cold.

A Silent Night

Full moon recently. For a while the scene resembled the standard full moon surrounded by ragged, drifting clouds, framed by a tracery of skeletal branches. Was rather excited for a moment, until I remembered I didn't have enough zoom for that.

Curses.

Other than that, not much is new. Vacation lasts for a few days longer, then it's back to school with Andunie. Though there was a rather splendid adventure a few weeks back involving floors and floors of dead silent library stacks and empty cavernous stairwells covered in graffiti... but that's a story for another time. I'll be taking a camera in there when I get back, and there'll be an update with that sometime in the near future.

But until then, happy Skywatching.

To Blow Hot and Cold

Another nighttime shot from campus. State St, which is always swarming with activity. Lots of traffic even by night, and a line of architecturally impressive university buildings all in a row.

Looks like another meme...

Skywatch No. 27

The days are shorter, the branches barer, the air colder. On one of the warmer nights I went out to wander campus with a camera and found the iconic belltower lit against a jewel-toned sky.

Nice change from having no inspiration at all for the past few months.

Skywatch No. 25

Taipei, Taiwan nightscape. Technically, the roof I climbed onto for this was off-limits. There would have been a higher vantage point, but I wasn't about to climb up a ladder with a SLR swinging around my neck. Or one-handedly, clutching a camera in the other.

Well. I'll get back to you when I'm done paper-writing.

Skywatch No. 16

We drove through Ontario on our way to New York last month, and stopped at Niagara Falls. This is the second time I've been there at night- their nighttime display is quite exciting, but a little over-dramatic. Personally, I still think it's more impressive by day.

Strobe lights illuminating the mist over the falls: 

The photo is actually from my previous visit a couple of years ago- this year's was a cold, wet, and rather miserable fifteen-minute excursion. But hey.

Skywatch No. 10

Still experimenting with night shots. Maybe it's just the inexperience of an amateur speaking, but I find it extraordinarily difficult to focus on a dark sky. Either way...

I still prefer my last night sky photo though.

The night is bitterly cold, but clear, which is what counts. I went out with the intention of shooting the stars; there's something to be said for the less-oft-photographed night sky. Instead, I became distracted with the moon. The moonlight is surprisingly bright- enough to light landscapes under longer exposures- but that's a project for next time.

Star-Spangled

First attempt at photographing the night sky:

30-second exposure, using a Nikon D40 and tripod. Now that is cool.

It was 11:30 and the temperature hovering barely above freezing, but the sky was clear. This was the best shot out of the two or three taken. (Focusing in the dark can be difficult.) Trying longer exposures would be amazing, but at the moment I haven't been able to set any past 30 seconds, not to mention the amount of noise involved...

[It was] the 4th

Fireworks- you knew this was coming. Late, but coming.
After shooting 250+ pictures and some sustaining several frozen fingers, I end up with under ten decent shots. Drat that uncompromising shutter speed.