And the wonders continue...

Did you ever have one of those practically perfect days, that seem to start well and just continue to get even better as the day continues into the night, a day that will not be forgotten in some time, well that day was Saturday, October 17, 2009 and it was an amazing day. I woke up to go to a class I am taking at CNM, that was a very good and productive class for me then, I then went to work for a few hours that were very productive making me wish I had more time to spend there but I needed to get ready to head out to the observatory for what I was hoping would continue to be a great evening.

I arrived at GNTO and began to set up my telescope and look over my sky maps to see what I was going to be looking for that evening as the sun set and the sky darkened more and more people began to arrive filling the observing field to capacity. The night did not disappoint, it turned out to be a wonderful evening with some very clear good skies for observing the wonders of the universe. I saw a couple of things that I had never seen before and some of my favorites I spent some time staring at through the eyepiece. M13, M57, M31 are all regulars for me when observing but 'WOW' this time observing they were all much more spectacular than I had ever seen them before, I think with a little more magnification on M57 I might have seen the central star. Jupiter was putting on quite a show this night looking spectacular even at low power and holding its own at higher powers, at about 10:30pm I looked at it again with a 6mm eyepiece and was very clearly able to see the 'Great Red Spot' and some detail in the edges of the bands around the planet. I also saw Neptune in Kevin's scope and was very impressed with the turquoise colored disk of the planet evident in his scope, I tried finding it in my scope but after spending only about 10 minutes looking went on to other things.

I also took a look at M27 and M15, both have been seen before but not as regularly as the others and they looked amazing last night the 'Dumbbell' very clearly showed the structure that gave it its name. I also saw the 'Saturn Nebula' NGC 7009 for the first time and it was spectacular, a very small object but it definitely looked like Saturn with its rings (in this case not rings) and the bluish color was amazing. Another first for me was Epsilon Lyra 'Double Double' I was not able to split the second double but was clearly able to see the 1st double and the bright (in the eyepiece) pair of blueish stars were quite spectacular against the background of stars.

All in all, it was quite a good day ending in a very good night. I look foreword to the next spectacular evening of observing and only hope that it will begin with a spectacular day to start.

The image above is a couple pages from my sketch and observing log, I actually took the time to sketch and note all that I saw this night.

The Road to GNTO...

I went out to GNTO last night to take advantage of the spectacular skies we seem to be having the last couple of nights, I decided to take the more scenic route driving through Isleta, Los Lunas and Belen and I am very glad that I did. The trees along the bosque are turning colors now and it is spectacular, what an amazing place we live in that we have this wonder of nature just outside our back doors. I have lived in New Mexico my entire life and it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful our little piece of the world is and how wonderful it is that we are blessed with the changing seasons and the cycles of life seen each season. I am not sure that the picture above gets even close to the amazing colors I was seeing on my drive out to GNTO, but what a wonderful way to begin an evening that would prove to be absolutely spectacular.

The Moon After...

Just kidding with the previous post, I really did not see anything either (NASA please do not start calling me and asking for my negatives or something).

This was an image I took early on in the evening (October 8th) as the moon was rising prior to the LCROSS mission, but trust me the moon looked the same when I put my telescope away at 6:00am on Friday. I was out at GNTO with 5 others and we had 3 telescopes equipped with video cameras, a 16" Dob with my camera attached to the eyepiece (5mm) set up in video mode recording and I was looking through the eyepiece of my 13" trying to see something with my own eyes, but to no avail. It may have been a somewhat disappointing event but I did have a lot of fun with the people there and look foreword to the next time we decide to throw something at the moon, I will be there with my scope to look again (I just hope the moon does not decide to throw something back).

Mushroom Moon...

As you may have heard, early Friday morning, NASA crashed a probe into the Moon to try and detect water on the moon. Several large telescopes and hundreds of small amateur telescopes were pointed at the Moon at 5:30am to try and catch a glimpse of something, hopefully the dust kicked up by the impact. While it was a lot of fun no one seemed to have seen anything, big sad, but what the heck, it was a chance we had to take.

As I was looking over some of the images I had taken during this event I found this one and what do you know I think I see some dust being kicked up, maybe I need to call NASA and let them know what I found, what do you think?

The Moon Before...

This is practice for the LCROSS mission this coming Friday. I am thinking that I am going to try and photograph the impact onto the moon. I am now trying to identify the area of the moon where the impact will take place. Once I have identified the location I will try and magnify the area as much as possible and will try and see how much of the event I can actually photograph. I am really hoping that this works because if I am photographing it I may not be able to see it so I will dependent on the camera catching the event for me to see afterwords.

Wish me luck, this is happening on Friday morning at 5:30am so it will hopefully be a good event, to make it worth getting up so early and standing in the chill to see something that may never happen again.

Nikon CoolPix S210, f5.9 1/17sec, ISO-400

Nikon CoolPix S210, f3.5 1/202 sec, ISO-64

Jumpin' Jupiter...

This image of Jupiter was taken at UNM Campus Observatory in my 13" Scope with the camera held (by adapter) at the eyepiece. It is slightly out of focus but you can easily see the banding on the planet but none of the moons showed up. This was the first time I have tried to take a picture of anything other than the Moon this way so I think it was a pretty cool picture.

Here is a photo taken a few moments later with Jupiter and 4 of its moons. The motion of the (earth) is evident when you zoom into the photo and you notice that none of the objects are circles they are all elongated because of the motion through the eyepiece.

Both images - Nikon CoolPix S210, f5.9, 1/2 sec, ISO-400

The UNM Campus Observatory is open to the public for viewing on Friday evenings and TAAS (The Albuquerque Astronomical Society) helps out by bringing some additional telescopes and setting them up for additional viewing options. I am the Coordinator for TAAS with UNM so I am usually there on Fridays with other TAAS members and we always make new Friends.

Shane is seen here with Sonya showing me were Jupiter is in the sky (or maybe it was just a star) but Sonya seen with her mom were visiting us from Oklahoma City, they were passing through on their way home from the Grand Canyon and we are glad to be able to call them friends now. We meet lots of new people at UNM on Friday nights and every now and then we meet some new friends and we are hoping to hear from Sonya and her family again soon.

Moonless Jupiter, but not earth!

Dancing Moon and Jupiter, trying to take pictures of the Moon and Jupiter in the night sky without a tripod is very difficult to do, this is the result of that effort.

Another post of the Moon taken using my Star Blaster Telescope 4.5" with the camera hand held up to the eyepiece. Both of these were taken on Wednesday evening when Jupiter lost its moons for a few hours (they were either in front of or behind the planet so you could not see them) it was a very impressive site and will not happen again for like 10 years or something, I had used the Moon as a finder when looking for Jupiter in my telescope. I did not take the time to attach the finder scope so I used the Bright Moon as a starting point to try and find Jupiter and it worked but I was a little distracted with how beautiful the moon was so I spent about 5 or 10 minutes looking at Jupiter and then spent the next 30 or 40 minutes looking at the Moon.

I really enjoy looking at the moon, and will start to learn some of the features of the moon by name.

Summer Camping Fun

The first weekend of August I met my sisters, my dad and my nephew up at the Jemez for a camping trip, something we had not done as a family in very long time. It was a lot of fun and I really do miss camping out, I am going to have to do it more often. Here are a couple of pictures of my Julian and one with him and my dad. It is amazing sometimes when you think about it that someplace as nice as this can be found so close to Albuquerque, what an amazing state this is.

HAPPY FORTH...

Happy 4th of July to everyone, I spent the 4th with my family and some friends at the Albuquerque Fireworks show where we watched a nice display of fireworks and enjoyed a good evening together. This photo taken before the fireworks started shows my nephew (Julian) with the ball of light staring at the camera and my cousins son (Ethan) with his light sward moving it around to form the pattern of lights next to Julian. Some of the fireworks shots will follow.

A Late San Francisco Photo...

I posted a photo of the exterior of the Cathedral of St. Mary's when I was in San Francisco, I tried to get inside that day to take a look at it but the cathedral was closed so I could not get in. I did go back on Sunday before I left San Francisco on my way back to Albuquerque to take some photos inside the cathedral and was very impressed with the interior as well, I am glad I went.

I was sick this day and by the time I got to the airport for my flight home was feeling absolutely horrible. I got back to Albuquerque late on Sunday and then got up early Monday to take my Structures exam for my ARE (licensing exam) and was very ill during the 4 1/2 hour exam but I pushed through and went to the urgent care immediately after to find out that I had a bad sinus infection that turned into bronchitis and basically knocked me out for the next two weeks. I have not taken my camera out or done little of anything during that time so I have nothing new to post yet but now that I am feeling better I will start to do some photography again and will have something to post soon.

And one more de Young...

The de Young museum as seen from the California Acadamy of Sciences.

de Young...fun

I was playing with some panorama type shots at the de Young and tryed to stitch this one tegether and got something that was not quite what I was expecting but it is kind of fun...

This is a little closer to what I was expecting but not quite exact but it is still cool...

Rust on the Flowers...at de Young

This was a flower in the sculpture garden at the de Young, it has been raining for two days now. This was the third time I have been to the de Young and toured the building, but this is the first time it was done and open for business. I have been on tours of it while it was under construction but this is the first time I have gone since it opened, it is amazing.

Structures is my B*@% (pardon the language)...

The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption designed by Pietro Belluschi, Pier Luigi Nervi and McSweeney, Ryan & Lee, this is a panorama taken on Wednesday after spending an entire day doing structures in preparing for my structural exam on Monday. I took an all day structures class that started at 8:30 and went until 5:30 with only a 1/2 hour for lunch, so I needed a break when we finished so I hopped on a bus and headed to St. Mary's to take a look at it and it was well worth it, I think this is now another of my favorite buildings in San Francisco, along with the De Young and the Trans America Tower (still my most favorite building in the US). It seems that every time I come to San Francisco I find a new favorite I may have to move here at some time. What a great place this is, amazing buildings, amazing food, amazing transportation it has it all...

Well, as you can probably see I am not in New Mexico right now... I am in San Francisco and enjoying some free time before the start of the AIA National Convention in the morning so today I went and picked up my registration material and wandered around Yurba Buena before jumping onto a trolley and riding it to Fisherman's Wharf where I hung out watching people watching the sea Lyons (and I also ate some clam chowder in the sour dough bowl, yumm). I took this picture as the sun was getting ready to set and I think it came out pretty cool. Tomorrow I will be spending the entire day in a structures seminar to prepare for my next exam on Monday. I will post some more images and maybe some of my sketches when I get a chance. I will be back in Albuquerque on Sunday evening.

A Daytime Moon...

This is a photo taken of the Moon sometime before sunset on Saturday, March 28th just prior to the beginning of the Messier Marathon at GNTO. It was taken using a new adapter I had just received for my camera that allows me to mount the camera directly in front of the eyepiece. It seems to work fairly well but will take some practice to get it just right.

Sorry, it has been sometime since I posted anything to the blog, I have not been extremely busy just a little bit lazy I think. I have not been out photographing as much as I would like to and have not been sketching much either, I have spent a lot of time studying for my next ARE exam and am kind of stressing a little about it because I am not sure I am really getting the material, I will keep on working at it though and eventually I think it will be fine.

So, I received the results from my last ARE exam (Architectural Registration Exam) Site Planning and Design and I FAILED, that sucks, but I was kind of wondering over the last few weeks about it. I was worried about one of the design vignettes and it was one of the areas I did not pass. I did not have any major errors, just some minor ones on two of the sections of the exam. I was a little sad but I decided not to let it get to me (too much) and I scheduled my next exam for May 4th. I need to keep going and keep on preparing for the other exams and then in 6 months I can take this one again and kick its butt this time (I hope).

I am determined now not to fail any more but who knows, it may happen again, and I will keep trying until I have finished them all.

Here is another GNTO sunset photo taken a couple weeks ago, it is the one I promised to post in the last post I made. How can you stay too sad when you see the wonders of the natural environment like this, sunsets in New Mexico and all the wonders in the heavens. It is inspiring me and I am ready for the next challenge.

Crescent Moon...

Another image of the Crescent Moon taken at GNTO on Saturday, February 28th, 2009. Taken with Nikon Coolpix S210 Camera mounted on Tri-pod through the eyepiece of my 13.1 Telescope. I think that I am getting better at this and am noticing more detail in the surface of the moon. I may consider trying to take a photo of the Moon this way each night for a month (or so) from the first sign of the Moon after New Moon to the last crescent of a moon after Full Moon. (No promises, that is a fairly large commitment and I am not sure I can do that yet, we will see.)

I also have a pretty terrific (in my opinion) panoramic sunset photo from GNTO that I will post soon.

Moon, Moon and again the Moon...

I am really enjoying taking pictures of the Moon through my telescope, as you can probably tell from this blog. This image was taken from the parking lot at the UNM Campus Observatory on Friday, February 6th and I think it is fairly amazing at how much clarity there is in the surface detail with a digital camera placed at the eyepiece. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I am, I am going to print a large one and try and identify some of the features visible.

Nikon CoolPix S210, F3.1, 1/152 sec., ISO-64

Don't Stir up the Dust...

It was a wonderful night for observing the crescent Moon, the air was still and the night was clear so the image through the eyepiece of my 13.1" scope was spectacular and unreal (as many said when they looked into the scope). I took a few moments in the crowds of people to take some photos through the eyepiece and am glad that I did, the lighted side of the Moon was well overexposed but the terminus is clear and crisp. The moon is still one of my favorite objects to observe in the telescope and especially at this phase so I am not surprised that others would be excited by it but I was surprised to have one of the people looking at it move away to wipe tears from her eyes as she said "it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." And as someone else said "I am afraid to sneeze because I do not want to stir up the dust" it was a good night for the moon and for me.

Friday, January 30, 2009
UNM Campus Observatory
Nikon CoolPix S210 Camera

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well, it has been some time since I posted anything to the blog, bad me. I do not have any new photos to post, I was planning on going to Old Town to photograph the Luminaries but was not feeling very well (getting over strep) so I decided to avoid the cold and stay indoors. I was also preparing for another exam (licensing) over the holidays and with preparing for that and the holidays did not do much else.

Now that the new year is here I am thinking more about photography and other things but will try and get something new to post soon. I am looking foreword to this year and am hopping to finish my licensing exams and internship so that by the end of 2009 I will have my license to practice architecture and will have some more free time to go out and photograph.

I wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.