More Sky

I haven't done a blog post for a while. I was birdwatching the other day and noticed that the vapour trails left by aircraft were persisting. So why not. The trails are either going away from the camera in a NNW to NW direction, or across from left to right in an easterly direction.

The second photo was one of the first I took with the new Fuji back in October.

Eclipses

I expect all of us remember the total solar eclipse of 1999. If only I had my Nikon DSLR then! However on March 3rd 2007 there was a total eclipse of the Moon and I took my telescope and Sony Cybershot over to my sister's so that my nephew and mum could also look. My sister was at work that night. As with the photos further below, the camera was just held at the eyepiece of the telescope and I had to hope that everything settled down shaking when the timer ran out.

Taken at 10:27 PM showing the Earth's shadow across the Moon.

This is the same picture but I've messed with the brightness so you can see the Moon in the shadow.

Total. Taken at 10:45 PM only a few minutes after totality started. The bright edge never disappeared, only moving to different positions.

On August 1st 2008 there was a partial solar eclipse visible from the UK. It's maximum was at 10:15 AM and unfortunately I don't have a break until 10:30. It was a cloudy day and very difficult to get a decent photo. Sometimes I held a welding shield lens over the camera, sometimes I did without and hoped I had the exposure right. Automatic exposure never works well with astronomy.