Night Sky Part II

Because my last attempt at night sky photography was such a disaster, I let less than a week go by before I tried again.

On Friday the skies were clear, the moon was starting to make its presence felt, only 6 days away from a full moon.  Unfortunately it was almost as cold, around 0 by the time I went out at 9PM.

Did a lot of things differently than I did last time and it was helpful.  One of the things I did was take 40 consecutive 6 second exposures.

One of each looked like this:

But when you take some free software and stack all the photos up, you get trails like this:

Now I need to go back to a wider angle lens to this will seem even more dramatic.  Longer times I can actually get some full circles as the earth moves on its rotation. Also some milky way type photos I hope.  After reviewing all the pictures this weekend I did notice one neat thing.  Look for it in this next picture.  This particular picture was 88 seconds long and you can see some of the star streaking on it's own without stacking photos.  Click to get the larger view when looking for it.

If you look in the upper left hand corner you will see it.  If you can't I cropped it for you in the next picture

See the line?  Red light alternating with a green light.  An airplane went photobombed me!  

Can't wait until next month to try again with more ideas and hopefully more cool photos.  At least it should be warmer!

More day dreaming

As the weather gets colder...Wait isn't it supposed to get warmer?  I keep thinking of more outdoor activities to do.   The more I read the more I realize that having a job is really going to get in the way of some othis stuff I want to do.  Who has time for both right?

Anyway, going back a long tine ago at one of the Boy Scout jamboree camps we went to.  There was this young man who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail.  I mean this had to be 30 years ago if not more.  But his slide show and story always stuck with me.

A few days ago I get an email from REI adventures.  Incredible 'Adventurcations' that they run and guide.  Some really neat stuff.  However, what caught my eye was a brand new mini adventure they were offering.  3 Days on the Pacific Crest Trail.  Basically a guide, some equipment and food is included. You provide transportation and need to have some of the gear.  Boots, pack, sleeping bag.
Check it out here: Pacific Crest Trail

That would be fun.  I would need to gear up, I don't have a pack nor hiking boots and  I probably need to do a few overnighters in the Kettle Moraine Unit here first. It falls under the 3 category for difficulty:

• (3) Moderate: For outdoor novices and above.
• Activity: 4-6 hours most days
• Distances: Hike up to 10 miles most days, cycle 20-40 miles most days
• Surfaces: rolling or mountainous terrain with some steep ascents/descents and uneven trails
• Elevation change: up to 3,000 ft/day
• Altitude: up to 10,000 ft

Should be easy for me with a few local weekends in.  That and as long as I keep my current training regimen up.  Right?  Any takers to come with?  Anyone?  Cmon.  That August 28-30 date is a ways off....

Night Sky

I tried my first attempt at night sky photography on Sunday night.  The nice thing about digital is no burning film, sending it for developing and maybe 2-3 days later see your results. Even so, with digital you need to take some time to review the results.

That being said the results were underwhelming and somewhat disappointing.

I thought I had read enough, had enough notes, to start and get some decent beginner pictures. I had no idea how wrong I would be.

What did I get right? It was -5° F at 9:00 PM when I went out.  I was dressed warm enough.  It was only 3 days past a new moon.  Sky clear as a bell.  I did my research on the stars that were out the placement of the milky way (wasn't I overachieving?). Living in a rural area the light pollution would be less than if I was in the city.  There was still plenty of light bleed from the south and west.  Plus neighbors that have outside lighting doesn't help either.

Gear was good to go.  Camera, fresh battery, tripod, cable release, headlamp with red LED light, bag for all my stuff, notebook and pen....

For my first shots I was going to try a simple stack of pictures.  Set the cameras internal timer to take a 10 second exposure every 11 seconds for 20 pictures. I attempted to focus on Polaris, aka the North Star. Manual focus, because auto focus does not work real well in this situation.  My eyes were getting adjusted to the dark.  Hmm having a hard time seeing anything.  Hey lets try using live view.  Using the cameras monitor to focus.  Oh Jesus is that thing bright! Shit, off, off, turn it off!  Made a new note to turn down the brightness on the monitor when I do that again.  So much for adjusted eyes.  Back to manual focusing.  I can't see shit.  A combination of these contacts that are no good for close up and that its so cold my body heat is fogging the eyepiece when I get near it.  The lens I am using (35mm 1.8G) has no focus scale like older or newer more expensive ones. So I guess.  And I guess poorly.  Not knowing this I click the shutter and it goes to town. The program ends and I look at the results.   Damn, that screen is still way too bright!   Looks like a lot of nothing but I can't tell because my eyes just had gotten used to the dark again.

Next on the list is a long exposure of the same sky.  My notes say start at ISO 3200, 1.8 for 30 seconds or so.  The results?  A white out sepia toned image of nothing.  Wow.

Lets try the Southwest sky.  Orion is right overhead that direction.  My tripod won't aim as high as I need to, so I have to reverse the camera.  First shot ISO 3200, F1.8, 25 seconds. Manually focused. Near washout, but I can actually make out some blurry stars.  Second shot: ISO 3200 F1.8, 8.1 seconds.  Well this is better, still very warm and terribly blurry. Third shot: My 'Keeper' ISO800, F1.8 and 9 seconds.  Less washed out but of focus none the less.

I am getting closer but its getting cold.  Lets try another long exposure.  ISO 800 F1.8 4 minutes 30 seconds.  A blurry wash out.  Lets try one more for research purposes.   Super long for some cool star trails right?  I went back to center on Polaris, tried to focus poorly.  ISO 800, F1.8 10 minutes an 36 seconds.

What does one do for over ten minutes in the cold temps, go in the house?  No, I go traipsing off in the woods. Walk the deer trails, looks for antler sheds with my red LED headlamp lighting the way.  I found nothing but deer beds and poop, seems par for the night.

I go back to the camera in the middle of the yard.  Pack it up, go into the house.  It's 10 minutes to 10.  I was out there almost an hour in subzero temps and lesser windchills.  I undress and let my gear warm up.  Pull the memory card and take a closer look at my results.  As I had seen.  One after another of overexposed, blurry crap.

I already have a ton of things to fix:
1. Turn the monitor brightness all the way down BEFORE  I go ou
2. Drop The ISO (sensitivity)
3. Increase the F stop (aperture)
4. Work on focusing or use one of my lenses that has a scale on it
5. Wear glasses instead?
6. Turn off my headlamp BEFORE I trip the shutter
7. Adjust the white balance prior to shooting so to no be so warm in color
8. Use the eyepiece cover to stop any stray light to come in.
9. Read more
10. Use what I have as a bench mark of which way to go with my next shots.

Am I disappointed, sure.  Discouraged?  No.  I will be out there next month, near a new moon and try again.

My Orion Constellation Keeper.

Not a lot new going on here.  I was in Florida for work last week.

It was a 'cold front' - meaning highs of 65.  Oh well,  I guess I will have to deal with that.

From my rooms balcony

Its tough sometimes.

And this week is setting up for some stupid cold weather.  Yet no real snow.  We bailed on the Pike Lake Hike due to the cold and Tracy getting a cold.  I had to fix my car Saturday morning.  Coming home from the airport last week, I must have just hit something o the highway just right.  I snapped 3 clips underneath and that allowed the plastic fairing to pull away at high speed and basically grind the fender liner into my tire and ground.  I had to pull off the highway to see what was going on then go buy some duct tape to make it home.  I was in shorts on the ground doing the duct tape fix.  Good times.  So, yesterday I pulled the tape out and did some zip tie fixes and figured out what I needed for parts.  Hopefully it will hold until the parts come and it gets a bit warmer.Thankfully I have a garage heater, except it was almost out of kerosene.  Enough to warm it up to get it done.    

Speaking of getting it done.  This will be the last week for high school basketball.  Last week of practice an one more game. We had parents night last Thursday and all of the sudden it felt like yesterday walking on the court being announced as parents, this time for Mackenzie and not Joel.  I asked Kiki how she felt about being almost over.  Both a bit happy and sad.  It's over 3 months of grind for practices and games and travel, which equates into some long school nights when the away game is over an hour drive. On the other hand it's fun and camaraderie.  The season its self has been very hard, only 2 wins total with the last chance for that elusive 3rd win on Thursday.  Lots of ups and downs and I have a feeling quite a few people on the team won't be back.  Seasons like this can do that.  I think it is pushing Mackenzie to try harder and be better prepared for next year.  Life lesson right there.

Well it's February already.  Already?  Maybe spring not coming fast enough for some people.

I know that the lack of snow (up until Sunday) has been disappointing for some.  I have not been able to get out the cross country skis even once this year.  Last year I was skiing in December.  Looks like the trails got a bit more snow and maybe some extra in the next few days.

Bitten with this cabin fever I have taken to planning more activities as well that won't have to wait until the ice is off the water.

One such activity is on the National Ice Age Trail.  Did you know that there is a designated national hiking trail in Wisconsin?  Over 1000 miles of connected trail.  Exactly like the 2200 mile Appalachian Trail, the 2600 mile Pacific Crest Trail, or the 800 mile Arizona Trail  (to name a few).  Pretty cool.  Even cooler is there is over 45 miles of this trail in Washington County.  Not to mention what's available in a few other counties nearby.  That's our backyard.  Infact, I have used or been near part of the trail when cross country skiing, mountain biking and hiking from Pike lake and Holy Hill all the way up into the Northern Kettle Moraine Forest.  Why not do more.  It's outside, its exercise, its pretty and it's even educational.  The trail is based on the geology from the last...wait for it... Ice Age.  Kames, drumlins, eskers, moraines, erratics and glacial lakes, oh my.

I picked up the guide book and started building some maps for near future adventures. Who's with me?  Who wants to quit their job and through hike it?  (doing it all at once, over 2-4 months).  Ok a little extreme.  Unless I win a lottery.

Speaking of extreme, started working out again.  With the crazy people doing CrossFit.  It's class type activity so its pre built daily workouts and constantly mixed up.  Add in a trainer to watch and help and encourage.  I am only doing 101 level activities and it's kicking my butt.  Eventually I will move to 201 and I cannot imagine how sore I will be after that.  Strangely I have been looking forward to it.

Happy Birthday!!

To my darling daughter Mackenzie aka Kiki!

15 already.  Growing up fast.

Monday was a holiday for many people.  Including myself.  So for the 4th MLK Day in a row I went snowboarding as Cascade Mountain.

I got up there as they opened at 9:30AM, got my 8 hour lift ticket and off I went.  

When you only do this one time a year, you never really get any good at it.  So the day goes on and I have some good runs and some not so good ones.  

It's a busy day, although not as busy as some weekends according to some of the people that work there.  I am just not used to waiting that long in a lift line and to get anything to eat? forget about it.

Still it was a nice time in the fresh air and I got to knock the dust off my gear.

They have only been open 10 minutes here

Picture from the top, although the snow and fog did not make for the best shot

Lunch time break

Puzzle!

Last year for Christmas I picked up a 1000 pc jigsaw puzzle as a family gift.  Inexpensize and we get to spend some time together working on it.

I published a time lapse video for that here.

Well that went over so well I did the same thing this Christmas.  However,  this was only a 500 pc puzzle.  I did not realize last years was so big.

Sunday we set to making it.  A bit less than 2 hours later we had finished it!

On a related note, Kiki and I went to see the final Hobbit movie last Tuesday.  We had fun and made a day of it at Bayshore. In Bayshore they have a dedicated game store that carries many jigsaw puzzles.  They carry GIANT puzzles.  32,000 pc puzzles!  Finished size of 17 ft by 6 ft!  Not sure how you even work on such a huge puzzle? Thats bigger than a normal size piece of plywood.  Don't think I will get that for next year.  

Ok so I am a little excited about getting outside.  Some real snow would be good for skiing would be nice and maybe a warm up too.  

I mean I have had my 2015 vehicle and trail passes for a few weeks now!

Not only that I also used my REI gift card (Thanks Jenna!) to get a little camp pan for my stove.  I even tried it out after I got it.  Worked great!

What a dork, right?  Whats next?  

Start off New Years Day right.

Baby Back Ribs on the grill.  Have a happy and prosperous 2015

Yappy Hew Near!

Well another year gone by and as far as they go it was up and down.

Some of the awesome things that happened:

I got back into cross country skiing. Not a ton, 11 miles total.  It’s a lot more workout than you would think and the winter was super cold.  Excuses, excuses… 

I fulfilled a longtime want.  I finally got that canoe, (what I originally wanted 25 years go) well actually Tracy and I got kayaks.  At the Canoe show.  Then finally brought them home.  I got 80 miles worth of paddling under them too.  I also busted out the bike into road mode.  Almost 200 miles on the mountain bike.  Most of that in one ride – the Trek 100.  Thanks to all of you who sponsored me for that ride.

 

Then Kiki graduated grade school.  That led to a Road Trip! Another awesome trip with my kids.  7 days of bonding with my daughter. Such a great experience.  I can truly say it is so worth it.  Especially since Joel turned 21. Yea you don’t get to go back once they get older.  I have hopefully created some memories for both of them with these trips.

Yea, Joel is 21 and in his third year at the University of Arizona. That means we also get a back to school trip in.  Tracy’s favorite trip of the year.

The Mackenzie started high school.  Going through a lot of those déjà vu moments as we traverse the high schools hallways.

Now onto some of the not so great things that happened in the year:

I had to paint the house.  Yea, it’s done. Took a long time to do and man it’s a lot of work.  Scraping, and repairing and caulking and getting on ladders and sky lifts.  It also ate a lot of good weather for doing fun stuff like boating and biking.

Kiki broke her elbow in gym class, playing dodgeball on roller blades. What the hell?  Something I expect kids to do in the driveway because it seemed like fun.  Not by an adult in an organized way indoors.  It set her back quite a bit in the basketball season missing over 1/3^rd of her inaugural high school season.

Tracy developed an issue with her hip and ultimately ended up having surgery in November.  Finally off her crutches and cleared to drive.  It prevented her from doing a lot this summer too.  Like helping paint! Ha Ha.

So what is in store for 2015? More Kayaking trips! Overnight camping paddle trips. More bike riding and if I can’t do that, hiking.  Doing a lot of research on the Ice Age Trail, 45 miles of which are in my back yard.  Go fishing more.  Got my first fishing license in over 10 years last year and forgot how much I enjoy it. Take more pictures.  Getting my first DSLR for the road trip, I forgot how much I like getting behind the lens and how poor my composition skills are. Lastly, I think we are shooting for a family vacation in Mexico!

These are all the things I want to do outside of regular day to day activities. Ambitious? Maybe. Doable? absolutely!  Cheers!

-Jeff

Merry Christmas!

Gracie loves the tree

Oakley is tired