Night Concert

Here's a photo I took with my cell phone at last Friday's concert at Red Rocks.

Skywatch Friday

Moon Rock

Skywatch Friday

Sunday's Moon

Here's a photo I took specifically for Skywatch Friday on a hike on Sunday morning. I hope you like it!

I have several more photos from this hike whenever I can get to them.

Moon Behind Palm Tree

I just got back from a nice warm place (the Palm Springs area), so here's a shot of last week's full moon behind a palm tree for Skywatch Friday.

This was a hard shot to get handheld with my Nikon D40X, which isn't a great camera for low-light photography (and it's old so it's starting to develop too many hot pixels). It's occasions like this that make me wish I had a D7000, which is much better at capturing images like this. But I'll work with what I've got!

Moontree

When I was taking Socks for a walk on Sunday in the Red Rock Canyon open space (on the edge of Colorado Springs), this juxtaposition of a lone tree on top of the rocks, and the moon in that lovely blue sky, caught my attention.

For more skyward photos, visit the fantastic Skywatch Friday meme.

Window Moon

Sometimes I like to experiment with photography - even if the results aren't great, I can learn and become a better photographer. I liked yesterday's Moon as it faded between clouds, and decided to get a photo of it looking through one of my house windows.

I found it very difficult to illuminate the window (which is high and dark) without completely washing out the bright Moon and its surrounding clouds. This might be an example where multiple exposures and HDR processing could help, although I'm not normally a fan of HDR. I don't think this is a particularly successful photo, but it's how I learn, and it's my Skywatch Friday entry for the week.

Skywatch Friday - Moonrise Over Yellowstone Lake

If I haven't visited your blog in the last week after you've left a comment on mine, I apologize. I've been at Yellowstone, where there's no Internet and usually no cell phone service. But I've come back with a ton of photos for the blog, which I'll be posting over the next few weeks or months - Yellowstone is beyond description. I'll get back to blog visits this weekend after I've recovered from all the driving.

First up is a Skywatch post from our first night there, at Yellowstone Lake. The moonrise was simply stunning, as a full moon came up over distant mountains.

For more skies of the world, visit the Skywatch Friday page.

After Sunset

It's at times like this that I really wish I had a super-telephoto lens. We had a great moonrise, but I don't have the equipment to capture it properly. In any case, the first picture today is right after sunset, looking towards the road that runs near our house (15 second exposure). The squiggle in the upper right is an airplane.

 The second picture is the moonrise just as it topped the trees, but the best I could do was trim a wider picture, and I'm not happy with the result.

Lunar Eclipse

We had a total lunar eclipse tonight. This is where I wish I had a great telephoto lens, something like a high quality 500mm, but that's not in the budget for the foreseeable future. So I'll just have to make do with what I have and crop it.