It was cold and my camera skills suck. Oh, yeah, I can point and shoot and Bev from Burning Silo helped me learn the macro feature. During his Christmas vacation my son tried to give me some pointers on other features of my year old camera. In one ear and out the other.
So I stood in the 13' frigid air spinning that dial wishing I could call him, but too proud to let him remind me that I'd been distracted by a Raymond rerun during his tutorial.
I got lucky. The wheel stopped on the ISO setting (Insomniac Sleep Over?) and I got it! My very own eclipse. Well - I guess I shared it with many thousands of other glitter seekers. Kind of nice to think we were all looking at the same glowing orb at the same time.
Jody tells me that our forays under night skies steered him into astrophysics. He has mixed feelings about his career choice, but he's sifted some mighty fine light from the ends of telescopes and with serendipity and hard work discovered the sodium tail of our moon and defined and modeled the sodium taurus cloud of Jupiter's moon Io. He now is working on Mercury and our moon, trying to tease apart the mystery of the why-fores and where-fores of sodium emanations from their surfaces.
I'M SO PROUD OF HIM. Here is some of the media coverage of his and his team's findings. CNN. Discover Magazine. BBC.
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20 comments:
Your efforts were very worthwhile. The beauty of this eclipse could not be completely captured on a camera, but it is gratifying to have a digital reminder. In our area, the northern lights were in the sky too. Spectacular!!!
Ruth! No way . . . you had northern lights in addition?! That's as good as Nina's owl (at Nature Remains) hooting away during her observation.
Cathy, How wonderful to capture those photos and I think it is great you both have things to be proud of each other!
With my double vision, I saw two shaded moons. :)
We were also enchanted that moonlight rested on our pillows at bedtime. Encore, please, encore...
Tom,
Thank you. I am so pleased to have learned how to use that feature on my camera. Yeah . . . I'm nuts about my kid.
Oh Bonita,
I'm so glad you dropped by. So you had double the delight and moonlight on your pillow.
You are the poet.
Great job! Congratulations and thanks for sharing.
Nice shots, Cathy! You are SUCH a talented photographer. If it's not your technical skills, then it must be your eyes! I am looking forward to having time to learn how to use my own camera (2 more weeks of work, then off into the wild blue yonder!) I can only hope to be able to capture the kind of shots that you do.
It's not easy. You did well.
Oh wow, right on...your pics are way better than mine. You are the woman!
Hugs,
Laurie
Patrice,
Thank you and thank you for for dropping by. I'll be over to check in when things settle here a bit in the next few days. I'll bet your getting some spring already.
Laura!
Two weeks! Alright! As you know - this world is so rich with wonder it's hard to point a camera and not record something interesting.
I'll be checking your blog and hoping you'll wander this way :0)
Hey AC !
Thanks. Actually the camera with the aid of my clematis trellis as tripod - did most of the work :0)
Laurie -
There you are! Have you posted your eclipse pixes? I know I've seen pixes of yours of the moon through branches. I'll check you out. Hugs back at ya :0)
Cathy--hurray for you. I tried, but got one weenie little shot wherein the moon was not wheeling around in a light circle. Oh, I know--it's me; it's the camera, not the moon. But it sure looked like the moon decided to do cartwheels in the sky.
Wonderful shot.
And aren't we lucky to have SUCH talented sons?
Hi Donna -
Thank you! I was getting the same cartwheel effect til I leaned through the old clematis vine to use its trellis as platform for my camera. Things settled down considerably:0)
You bet we've got great kids!
Spectacular photos! Special son...and I love your bird pictures too.
Good shot, Cathy!
You haven't lost your touch for wonderful photos--your son needn't know you were only listening with one ear!
You must be so proud to know he's enjoying something he remembers as having started with you years earlier.
Dear Cathy, I don't want to disagree with you but I must. Your camera skills do not suck. Those are wonderful photos of the moon on a special night! Even if your photos are out of focus (never seen one), you have the eye and words to delight us.
You must be so proud of your son. I'm certain he is smiling for you.
I'm so glad you're here again :o)
Hugs,
Mary
Three Collie,
Thank you! My bird pictures aren't as sweet a baby calf pictures, though:0)
Nina,
Thank you . . . I'll never approach muskrat breath suspended in crystal, but I'll keep seining for mystery.
Yep. Wonderful memories of his childhood and great pride in the man he's become.
Dear Mare,
OK. Thank you. Maybe I don't completely suck;0) I admit I was pretty pleased these came out and my son agrees that I did a good job.
And yes. I'm fairly certain the glacier recedes and I'm back from the shadow lands.
Big Hug
"Kind of nice to think we were all looking at the same glowing orb at the same time." Yes, that was my favorite part. It was marvelous to go online the next day and see photos from as far away as Iran, and feel that for a couple hours, we were all sort of united.
Dave,
I'm so glad you dropped by. I've always remembered my mother saying how looking at the moon connected her to my father during WWII.
Powerful stuff.
I love the shot of the moon and eclipse. Nice work! I am just starting to take some basic pictures of nature in Iowa. I have posted several pictures from a recent trip to a botanical center nearby. I would love to hear any comments or suggestions you could provide.
Travis -
Thank you. Welcome to Blog Land. I hope you have a wonderful journey of creative discovery.
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