Red and Yellow

I am relieved - I wrote about how the Japanese maple tree didn't appear to be turning the traditional colors I expected. Instead the leaves turned a deep purple from green. I was worried that the leaves were not going to turn to the red and yellow that I have come to expect. I stepped off the front porch this morning and saw this. It poured rain last night something fierce, and here was a beautiful carpet of the red and yellow leaves in the driveway. Oh happy day! PLEASE click on this to see brilliant color.

Chairs and Kitties

The kitties are so funny. They keep to themselves most of the time, either sleeping or running around acting nuts or just hanging out. But every once in a while, I find them just looking at me. Like here. I was sitting in my easy chair in the living room reading, and just happened to look up to see this. They sat there for a while, just looking at me. I hoped they wouldn't move when I reached to get my camera which was at my elbow. They didn't move for 30 seconds, and I got the shot. The funny kitties. Oh, and the one sitting on the dining room table? That is NOT allowed!

Beautiful Mistake

I went out to look at the trees in the back yard because there was some nice fall color. I saw this scene, composed it carefully and snapped. I took a look at what I shot in the LCD screen on the back of the camera and was completely surprised by the color - instead of red and orange it was all blue. That was because I had the camera's color balance set for tungsten light - like lightbulbs indoors. I immediately changed the color balance back to "daylight" and proceeded to take normal looking photos. But when I went to edit the pictures, there was something about this one that was wonderful. I just loved the blue color. So here is my mistake!

Orion Rising

I drove out to Sunken Meadow State Park, on the North Shore of Long Island tonight, to do some observing with friends from the astronomy club. Man, it was COLD! Well, not in the beginning, but after a couple of hours sitting at the eyepiece, without moving much, the cold starts to soak in. It was really nice to observe with friends, because someone will say "I have the galaxies M81 & M82 in the eyepiece" and then we will come over to look through each others' telescopes, or find the same objects in our own scopes. And there were some visitors who don't know the skies at all, so it is really fun to show newcomers some of the more interesting objects in the sky at the moment. After I packed up my scopes, I wandered over to a nearby tree, and did this photograph of Orion rising in the east. It was a long exposure - 16 seconds at an ISO of 1600. The only thing is, I was unable to determine correct focus in the dark, and as a result, this image is slightly out of focus... :-(

In Church

We went to a seminar at a church in a nearby town, and the meeting was held in the sanctuary of the church. When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was the aroma of incense, then I spotted these "crepuscular rays," the result of the sunlight coming through the overhead windows. We can see the rays, because they illuminate the microscopic particles of the smoke from the incense suspended in the air. It was nice that the priest happened to be sitting in the foreground, as a point of interest.

Will I Look Like This When I Get Old?

This is my Jack-O-Lantern and he is on his last legs, as you can see. He is still kind of cute. Makes me laugh when I look at him. But then I had this thought when I saw him today - will I look like this when I get really old? :-)

Working On My New Telescope

I am finally doing some serious work on my new telescope with the 18" mirror. I decided that I needed some detailed drawings of what size everything needs to be to fit properly. I am building a "standard" design, but I am making it as small and as light as I can. So it is important that I have the sizes just right. These are full-size drawings, so they are too large for my drawing board downstairs. So the answer is to work on a piece of plywood on the living room floor. And the kitty is enjoying watching me work too.