Super Moon

Did you see the Super Moon last night? Or even the one in October? I missed October's because it was cloudy, so last night with perfectly clear skies, I was ready. I wasn't sure exactly what time it was going to appear or where, but I took my camera along when I went out to feed cats, and lucky for me that was the perfect time. The perfect place for these shots happened to be from the hog barn where I feed the last ones, too. So here are my favorite shots, in the order I took them, completely unedited. (Click on any to enlarge.)

A little size perspective here:

Look closely on this next one. Below the moon and slightly to the right stood a deer. I didn't even notice it until I was looking at the pics on the computer. You might have to click on the photo to enlarge it to see better.

I managed to catch my neighbor going by on the road, too, on his 4-wheeler.

This last one I took a bit later from our driveway. The moon still looked huge over our neighbor's yard.

I hope you got to see the moon for yourself, since it's been about 70 years since it's been this close to the earth and looked so huge. If not, I hope you enjoyed these photos. Some year I'm going to get a nicer zoom lens for even better pics. Maybe. ;)

I've been sewing again, and I have a couple of new things to show you. So check back later this week.....

Evening sky

After feeding the cats last night, I couldn't help but go back for the camera and capture the evening views.

To the east, there was a beautiful full moon over the neighbors' place.

I liked how it reflected off the grain bin.

To the west, there was a lovely colorful sky.

You can see in the photo above that there were only little strips of snow left... only in shaded areas. Our current 40° is taking care of that pretty well, too.

Did you notice the baltimore oriole nest in the tree on the right above? That's the one that was decorated in ribbons over a year ago. Still hanging tight!

It was a beautiful evening. Peaceful.

In case I don't get back before Thanksgiving... here's wishing all you fellow Americans a joyous one filled with lots of good food and especially with thankful hearts!

Moonshine... or rather, lack thereof

Did you see it last night? The blood moon eclipse? It was so nice that it was at a reasonable hour for watching and taking photos, rather than in the middle of the night, although I have been known to be up taking pics at that ridiculous time, too. 

I almost didn't get to see it, due to clouds coming and going. Here are a couple of practice shots that I took before the eclipse started, just to get the feel for camera settings.

Then as the eclipse was starting, it got cloudy, so I missed the beginning of it, but thankfully the clouds left long enough for me to get the rest of these shots. I didn't bother with the tripod, so I was kneeling on the deck with the camera braced on the railing to hold it still enough for the long exposure time. I'll just say my knees were a little stiff when I got back up again. ;)

That was all I got before it got covered over with clouds again. It was fun while it lasted. Sometime I'd like to invest in a really good zoom lens for even better shots! Maybe.

Miscellany

One evening during the "golden hour", it was so lovely outside (in other words, not windy) that I wandered around snapping photos. Here are some of the things that caught my eye.

A robin's egg that didn't make it to the nest:

A maple leaf that was full of gall mite nodules:

A closer look at some more of them (kinda creepy, huh?):

An old empty milkweed pod, contrasted against the new spring growth:

Wild phlox Update: A very observant reader discovered that these are not wild phlox but "Dame's Rocket" growing in the ditch (thanks, Jenny!). In my reading, I found that they're an invasive species that crowd out natural wildflowers and should be removed. Hmm... I think I'll leave them there... I enjoy them. ;)

Half a moon:

Rolling hills of new crops:

And I didn't have to walk more than 50 feet for any of them.

Moonshine

A few nights ago, we had a full moon. It was so pretty that I decided to run out and test to see what kind of a picture I could get with my iPad, since it seems to take some really great ones. Well, I'm not even going to show you that photo. I deleted it immediately, because it was very grainy. No surprise, really, as there's no way to control the lighting.

So back into the house I went for the trusty DSLR, just because the moon was so lovely. Here are the shots I got.

The moon ended up perfectly round in these, unlike some oval and otherwise-funny shots I've gotten previous times. Maybe I'm getting steadier in my old age? Doubtful - ha. It's probably because it wasn't terribly dark out yet.

Try as I might, though, I just can't capture the "face" in the moon. I guess I don't have the right kind of lens for that.

Here's a pretty view of it behind the birdbath, with a little extra lighting added via camera settings.

It was a most beautiful evening!

Moon shots

Last night:

Bet you thought today was going to be the usual kitten update, didn't you? Well, I shall not disappoint you! Here's a shot of the furball pile on their latest chosen sleeping spot, which is, incidentally, right next to the box that contains their real bed. :)

Did you notice Bert, on the far right? Have a closer look:

Soooo comfy!

Soooooooooooo CUTE!!!! :)

Blood moon

I can't believe I did this. Surely you've heard about the "blood moon" by now, with all the hype it's had. It was the total eclipse of the moon in the wee hours of the morning yesterday. I didn't intend to take pictures of it. I thought it would've been nice, but I value my sleep. ;) 

My thought process went like this:

• As I was heading to bed at nearly midnight, I noticed how bright the full moon was.
• I wondered if I should set my alarm and get up and try to capture the predicted "blood moon" with my camera.
• I decided not to. I knew how tired I'd be the next day.
• I wondered if I should get my camera settings ready 'just in case' I happened to wake up at that hour (2:00 a.m.) for some reason.
• I decided not to. I knew I'd sleep through it.
• I went to bed, fully expecting to miss the whole thing.
• I woke up at about 1:30 a.m. Hmm... not nearly as bright outside as it had been earlier. Interesting. Tempting. But too early to get up... I'm going back to sleep.
• I woke up again at 1:56 a.m. Hmm... it's about the right time. I'm too tired. I do NOT want to get up. I knew if I did I'd lose not only the sleep time of taking pictures, but also considerable time after I went back to bed wide awake.
• But it's such a rare thing. And would be very cool to see. Oh... so tired.
• Maybe since oddly I'm awake, I'm supposed to get up and watch it for some reason.
• Against my body's protest, I got up.

Sooo... I didn't turn on any lights... didn't want to lose my night vision. We have a yard light, so there was still a little light, despite the moon darkening. I dug my camera out of its case and switched to the zoom lens, feeling my way as I did. I went to a south bedroom window from which I could get a good view, and the moon was indeed mostly dark.

I couldn't see the camera buttons, so I was again feeling my way around. At least I could see the settings on the screen, and I experimented a bit. I found what worked best, and I took a bunch of shots. Ideally, I would've been outside using a tripod... BUT it was only 20° (on its way down to a record low in the low teens!), and I was not about to go outside to shoot! I braced myself against the window frame, held my breath, and snapped the best shots I could get. And here they are in the order I took them, not the best shots ever, but the best I could do:

The little dot is a star called "Spica".

I didn't think the moon looked all that red, but when I zoomed out a bit (below), it did appear just a bit redder.

If you noticed the white dot in the upper right corner above... that's Mars, which happens to be unusually bright right now.

Here's the last one. As you can see by "Spica", there was a wee bit of camera shake, but it's still better than I expected to get, considering the darkness.

I gave up at that point. It was changing excruciatingly slowly, and I was satisfied to get the shots I did. It was a very cool experience, and I'm glad I did it, despite the loss of sleep. It took me a while to get back to sleep, but not terribly long. I'd do it all again.

Winter full moon

I took these pics Monday evening. I was disappointed, though, because the moon didn't really look like this at all. It was actually quite yellow. And it was darker out than it appears in the photos. But it was also too cold to stand out there and experiment with camera settings!

I edited this next one to try and get the moon a little more yellow, but it still doesn't look right.

At least the moon looks round, which means I must've held the camera pretty steady. I wasn't using a tripod this time.

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

It still made for some pretty photos, even though not very realistic.

Moonshine

There was a full moon last week. Did you notice? I decided to see what kind of pics I could get with my "new" camera. It definitely did a better job than my old one, but it was still challenging to get the exposure just right. Here are some of my shots.

Too much exposure... it really was much darker out than this:

Better, but not enough exposure:

This is my best shot, although there really was no reddish haze around the moon:

Then I zoomed in farther:

Looks good, but the "face" was missing from the moon. I never could get that. I guess I need a better lens of some sort.

I didn't use my tripod. For the above pics, I held the camera on the deck railing, which stabilized it pretty well. Below are a couple of shots I took just holding it in my hands. It doesn't take much movement to make the picture "off", considering the slow shutter speed:

I'm not sure what happened with this next one, but it's interesting! Ha! I must've moved the camera before the shutter was closed:

So much for my experimenting in the moonshine. :)