back to the future

NCC-1701-D at warp speed

Header Challenge: Back to the Future

November 28, 2012

This is my third of three promised installments as one of the Headbangers.  Please visit fellow Headbangers to see their take on this theme. Fishing Guy, Katney, Imac, Sandy and Lew.  They have been very gracious to welcome me into their circle, and if you think you would like to try it out, talk to Imac or Fishing Guy... tell them Craver sent you.

The Headbangers gave me the honor of selecting this week's theme, which is "Back to the Future."  I decided to post some futuristic space ships from an old television show that holds a special place in my heart.  Hopefully, I worded the theme in such a way as to provide some interpretive flexibility for my artistic photography pals.

I remember watching the original Star Trek series with my dad, wishing I could be like Spock and admiring Kirk.  It was so cool how he could beat the bad guys with Judo and steal a kiss from the pretty girls.  When Star Trek: The Next Generation aired, I was slow to get on board, but eventually, I got caught up in that series as well.

Has it already been two decades since that series went off the air?!  Well, since I found the whole franchise so intriguing, I collected some of the Micro Machines versions of these starships, and put them in a shadow box.  When I got my first digital camera, I was looking for something interesting to use as a subject for photography, so I dug up those starship models and created a few images.  These pics are all double exposures.

The NCC 1701 was laid upside down on a black shirt, so I could shoot the underbelly of the ship as if it were suspended in air.  The Klingon Battle Cruiser's star field was Christmas lights.  You may need to enlarge the photo in order to see the cloaked ship.  The selection for this week's header is the NCC 1701-D traveling at warp speed.  The blurring of the stars was made by panning Christmas lights.  When I created the composite, I blackened some of the "stars," otherwise the ship would look transparent.

NCC-1701 in orbit under the moon

cloaked Klingon Battle Cruiser

care for a dip?

I hope you can see this alright, despite it being so dark.  A late drive with a clear night sky took me far enough away from the city lights, that I pulled over and took pics of the stars from a corn field.  I used a tripod and a wireless remote control.  The manual focus was preset to infinity.  Exif data: 20mm, 30.0s, f/4.5, ISO 400.

This part of the sky was the big dipper, which is one of the easiest constellations to find.  No telescope required!  I hope to learn more about classic astronomy, but we all have to start somewhere, right?

First, I'll tell you about the picture, and then I want to point out a couple of things.

These stars were the brightest, but there were many others that showed up, even though they were not as bright.  I found that distracting, so to minimize the clutter, I copied the photograph, and on the second image, I blacked out most of the stars, and then made a composite of the two.

After that, I searched online to find the names of these stars and voila! I discovered that what I always assumed was one star in the handle was actually two!  The second spot from the end of the big dipper's handle is a binary cluster of stars that is difficult to discern from any area where we do not have enough darkness in the night sky.  Did you already know about those two stars?  Their names are Mizar and Alcor, but sometimes they're called the Horse and Rider.  It is said that ancient Romans used Alcor to test a warrior's eyesight.  (For me, this "Horse and Rider" was the single most exciting thing about this pic.)

On the opposite of the Big Dipper's handle, we can use the last two points, Merak and Dubhe to point us in the direction of the North star (Polaris).  The distance from the constellation is approximately five times the distance between the optical space between these two stars.  Here's another easy way to find it: stretch yout your arm and open your hand wide; the distance between your thumb and pinkie is about the space between the lip of the Big Dipper and the North star.

For more about Sky Watch Friday, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/ .

nite lite

No post editing manipulation here. This is straight how I got it from the camera.

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While most of us were roasting marshmallows, D2 walked by with a flashlight and a water bottle, and I got an idea. I asked to borrow them for a picture. Setting the camera on a picnic table, I lit the tilted bottle from underneath and braced the subject at the side of the table. No flash. The macro setting and spot meter took care of the rest.

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I like how dark the background was in this photo. I like how dark the night while we were camping. After we put everybody down to sleep, I took one last walk outside by myself. There is always a sense of awe and wonder that I feel when looking at so many stars in a clear, dark sky.

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If I could have my way, we would use special, directional light fixtures, even in the cities, that would be sufficient for navigating, but that would not excessively light up the night sky. I heard one person refer to that unneccessary saturation as "light pollution." Our streets and parking lots are so brightly illuminated, that we cannot properly enjoy the celestial lights.

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I get a neat kind of satisfaction every time I find a constellation that I can identify. (sigh) We never had that, growing up in Chicago.

Rocky Bal-butterfly

This must be the Rocky Balboa of butterflies. Ouch... It looks like a bird tried to have it for breakfast. There will be no modeling contracts or beauty pageants in its future, but I think it will survive to the ripe old age of whatever it is that they usually live to be.

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The butterfly remained stoic during the portrait sitting, acting as if it didn't even notice me. I said something about how it is a brave little survivor, and then, as I began humming the Rocky theme song, it cracked a smile and flew away.

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No, I don't have any witnesses that saw it smile. You'll just have to trust me on that.

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Here below is another attempt at photographing the stars. It was a small cluster that I zoomed into. I have no idea what constellation it is a part of. (I misplaced my star chart.) Look closely, and you will see the oblong effect from the earth's rotation. They make a device that attaches to a tripod to match the earth's spin for taking clearer photos... I don't have one yet. (sigh) Maybe some day.

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Addendum: Thanks Shoe and Fishing Guy! You're right. That star cluster is known as the Pleiades, a.k.a. Seven Sisters.

Sky Watch Friday!

Saturdays are for sleeping in

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sometimes.

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The guys called a meeting, and we chose 7AM, because it is less likely to interfere with all of our schedules... except when that schedule involves sleeping in.

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On the way to the meeting, I passed the field where we hold our soccer practices. There was an eerie mist hovering low on the pitch. The sky displayed soft, subtle, dreamy pastels, so I pulled over and snapped away a few "frames." (Can we still call them frames with digital photography?)

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Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining about getting up for a 7AM meeting. I like the idea, even though I didn't get to sleep in. In fact, I had already been up and about that morning. My son, the barista had an opening shift that day. That means that I was up at 3:30 to wake him up and then drop him off for a 4:15 start time. Trying not to waste the starry opportunity, I set my camera lens-up on the asphalt at its longest exposure, and used the timer to attempt a photograph of the stars. (Sorry; I was too tired an lazy to identify any constellations.) In post-editing, I tried to make the image lighter, but it gets grainy and weird if I mess with it too much. I hope you can see it alright. [click on photos to enlarge]

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(yawn) Would you care to divulge any experiences with astronomical photography at zero-dark-hundred?

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Check out Sky Watch Friday by clicking on the badge.

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http://skyley.blogspot.com/

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stellar doppelgänger

In my last post, I issued a challenge to figure out how I produced a picture. The wording was carefully chosen to suggest it was an enhanced view of the night sky. If my scheme worked, I misled you; I'm a fraud! That's not what it was at all! You see, I was taking pictures of a Christmas tree at a mall in Kentucky, and the first shot was underexposed. It looked to me like a night sky, especially after enhancing the contrast and making the picture darker. Voilà! The secret has been revealed!

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Today's picture is the one I snapped after adjusting the exposure. Incidentally, this is the third post in a row, using a picture from that same tree.

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Say, is anybody doing Advent messages?

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Advent links:

Charity's Entering the Season of Expectation

Spaghettipie pointed out Reflections on Advent 2007

Ted Gossard's Season of Hope and Advent and Winter, etc.

Andrew's Bonhoeffer on Waiting

Christmas stars

It's remarkable how these beacons of light vividly pierce the darkness plus how the colors stand out so bold and strong. I have wanted to take pictures of constellations, but my shutter speed on the digital camera only goes as high as eight seconds and I really need to double that for the night sky. I snapped a picture of Orion this week, but it's nowhere near as spectacular. So how did I do it?

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Let me issue a challenge: Can you guess the secret of how to capture such a picture? (My family may comment, but they are not allowed to guess, because they probably already know the answer.)