Rentner am Friday

Für Ute und Christa, Jörg and Volker, für Jutta, Christian, Renate und Manni,Claudia,Tom, Anne, Ann, Anne., Reinhold,Werner, Helga, Reiner,  Andrea, Heide, Daria, Marianne, Peter und Angela, Angelica und Peter, Marie und Peter, Veronica and Brian, Susan and Gordon, Norrie, Paula , Mike and Adrian, Kim and Jens, Maike and Rory, Kathleen, Mary, Jean, Vicki, Anne, Ann, Lorena, Ali, Jessica,(3 times a good person!), Carla, Rob, George and Nora, Tony, Rob, Sonja, Harald, Margot, Margret,Mirco, Jessica - another! Karl, Helga Annelisa, Herbert,Suzanne,Michael,Mike, Maik,Jan,Jens,Sarah,
Gisela und Ferdi, Rosie und Armin, Jitke und Paul, Alok, Al, another Rob, Dave, Alex, Katrina, Adrian,
Andreas, and Michael,Walter, Kazuko, Silvia, Annita, Matheus,Yuri,Janice,Janet, Ernst, Helena, Jenny, et co, and co again. Who did I miss - several Daves, Bills, Adas, Peters, Hagi, Mary, Jean, Elizabeth, Gail,Sandy,Ian,Shirley,Linda,Barry,George,Stewart,Catherine,RonMarne,Waren,Kathy,D'Arcy,Johannas, Valerie, Katje, Jean-Francois,Fabio, Nadira,Timothy,Kay,Hans-Peter,Jens-Peter, Sarah and Sarah!,Kelly,Mathew,Brenda,Pierre,Trevor,Hilary,Liz,Lindsay,Gundula,Walter,Peter, Frank,Leonid,Vera,Manfred,Renate,Gisela,Ferdi,Marianne,
Silvia, Bella, Ryan,Sophia, Joan, George and Ken,

Those who have to work and those who have worked. cats and dogs, horses, runners Too much oxygen
forced in at high speeds and velocities; too much sun, snow comets, dust, ice, and wind

-20C

It is always colder with the moon:

Snow maybe 10cm deep on crystal snow - beautiful   ----    wob

Bracebridge

It was sunny after lunch so I took some impressions from near the tourist office.

Monday: sunny and cold

The sparkling crystals of snow and ice have attracted my attention over the years. And today I heard that Art Garfunkel is giving a couple of concerts and I though of his partner's song about diamonds on the soles of her shoes. So here are 2 images from yesterday with a different furry feel. The sun is low and shining from left to right in each:

Monday

I feel after the last 2 posts you deserve some honest images. I went for a short ski near sunset and made some impressions.

Have a good week - wob

Photobombing

I have heard that one can do all kinds of wonderous things in the computer. Jens raised the question of what I am capable(?) of doing. So I looked up photobombing and I think I can plead guilty, doubly so because the photos below were taken in all due ignorance on my part!

The above were all taken on Wednesday, November 12 2014.
The ones below were taken yesterday but have been cropped slightly:

So, Jens, see what a monster I am - wob

Trail ways on and off the ice

I have had a bad cough - +6 on the cough scale - shakes me out of bed. Tried my legs around the front of the condo, east to Tudhope Park and then back actoss the frozen lake. I was still a little green from the cold.

The path free of snow on the left is the "Trails for Life"/Ganaraska trail system; to the right is the snowmibile trail and further over is the road for cars

The lake really becomes a second highway in winter. Nevertheless, the real highway is never far away:

Safe journey to all - wob

Wednesday in deep snow behind a log block house

Confession is good for the soul - but so are excuses! I did a focus test toward the moon in the Autumn. Where is "infinitity" for my camera when I do not have any filter over the lens and I set the focus manually. (Also since I am working with the camera, a Pentax K10, on a tripod, I turn the anti-shake function off, when I remember. I did last night but not for any of the previous Lovejoy sessions.) Wed and Tues nights were very cold, -17C and -24C respectively - the camera and battery worked very well - but the images are badly out of focus and I will need to redo the focus test if I continue to work at these cold temperatures. For my European friends, I found last night warm. I was in running shoes and knee-deep in snow, no solid footing for the tracking but the problems below are mine, and not the equipment.

I saw the comet through binoculars and think I may also have seen it unaided - not as bright as M31.
All exposures are 30seconds long. The wide-angle are at 18mm FL. The following shows Taurus and Lovejoy:

The next shoot is recentred and includes the 3 stars in the belt of Orion at lower left, Capella at top centre, the "Vee" of Taurus and the Pleiades, unmarked and comet Lovejoy which really shows some extreme colour, green and blue:

I zoomed in on the Pleiades - and checked the focus -

However, the images are just a little like "donuts" - and a hot coffee to go, please.
More of the same problem with the sword below Orion's belt, M42:

Again, I am fairly certain that I checked the focus and set it at my "October" +15C setting. The shot is better than on Tuesday and similarly cropped as well as zoomed.

For those of you interested in the tracker, here is a link to
iOptron’s SkyTracker Since the review gives a guided image of Orion, I include an unguided exposure, uncorrected, no photoshop or resizing taken under light polution on Jan 8:

Lovejoy from Torrance Barrens at -24C

Tried again tonight. Took nearly an hour to get there - all the time the car themometer kept sinking - is this mercury leaking from the car? Ought I to have stayed home?

Used a tracking system for the first time coupled with 3 multiple 30sec exposures:

Here is another single 30 second exposure:

I next tried  zooming in but the reading appears to be wrong. 18mm wide angle, 200mm max zoom
(Pleiades):

And then I tried the sword/M42 in Orion:

I think the correct FL for these last 2 was 200mm and for the first 3 18mm.. However, the text file says 113mm for all of them and that is not true. Camera frozen? M42 was cropped and resized so you cannot go by its appearance here. Or the value remains fixed when I switch to manual focus  - have not noticed this before and will look into that. wob