My part of the planet had clear skies over the weekend... here are some shots:

- dawn Saturday 03/25 (venus on the left, moon on the right)
- crescent moon Saturday 3/25
- Jupiter (go ahead, have a giggle, it looks like an amoeba dividing, but it's my first attempt to photograph Jupiter)
- dawn Monday 3/27

Question for the group... what photo editing software do you use?

Attached Images

	Dawn-320.jpg (86.5 KB, 35 views)
	P278-800.jpg (27.0 KB, 35 views)
	Double-3.jpg (24.6 KB, 41 views)
	P502-350.jpg (133.3 KB, 32 views)

Nice pics! I really like the moon crescent. BTW, did anyone get Saturday morning's crescent from the southern US? Wouldn't you know Saturday night was clear and crisp and I was driving at 4 a.m. At my destination I could see so many more stars (out in the Katy flatlands) and the moon at 5 a.m. was an orange sliver that was just beautiful. All I had with me was my little cheap Nikon, so it will just look like an orange ant, or something.

Very nice, Isis, it looks like you're in a pretty location. Ya gotta start somewhere with Jupiter. People here will be able to tell you how to prevent that.

__________________
Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.

I saw that Saturday night/Sunday morning moon...rose about 4:30 my time... and it was an orange crescent in my area, too. Absolutely beautiful! I shot several -- okay, many -- pix... but most look like cheddar cheese. Will see if I can find a good one.

BTW... I'm in the Caribbean... minimal pollution which makes for good star gazing.

So that's where you are - I was wondering if it was Hawaii or India. Didn't think about the Caribbean. Hey, cheddar cheese is OK, it'll be better than my orange ant. I was hoping Wolverine would be up and about and catch it, too--he takes great crescent shots, and he's just 3 hours away. Thanks.

__________________
Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.

I really liked to picture myself where you are just for the temperature difference. Jupiter shot is excellent as the shake coincided so well with its bans. (=)=(=) Cool!

Excellent, especially the crescent moon, did you just point your camera's lens at the eyepiece of a scope? I've done that once awhile back and was blown away by the results.

Here's one of my cheddar cheese shots from Sunday morning. No retouching except to resize.

Yes, I'm doing handheld photography - holding the camera to the telescope eyepiece, trying to center the image in the lcd. I've been experimenting with various camera settings -- I'm using a Panasonic DMC-LZ2 -- and I've learned that images distort when taking several shots back to back, due to heat buildup in the camera. Live and learn.

I am truly inspired by the great pictures posted here in the forum. Thank you all for sharing the details of your photographs and your telescopes and cameras.

Will anyone here be in viewing range for the 3/29 solar eclipse?

Attached Images

P1010364.jpg (61.5 KB, 8 views)

I like it...I saved it and rotated it, so it would look like the view I had (its horns trying to "grab" the west). Very nice.

No total eclipse for me. If I had thought about it and timed it, I could have seen it from Greece via Rome, but it wasn't in the cards this year.

__________________
Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.

Okay, Melusine... where's your ant pix?

I would love to see the solar eclipse... closest I ever got was an 80% we had here a few years ago.

It's in my camera--didn't finish the roll of film. It's not digital (will buy one soon), so I have to have it developed and put on a CD first...a pain. I brought my cheap camera with me because it was a bike ride/event that I was volunteering at and didn't want to lose/abuse it or have it stolen since I was so busy. Even with my Pentax 320 mm lens, it still wouldn't have looked that great without my tripod, etc.

You see, y'all take pictures for me.


PS. I could go scrounge up my first sun halo picture which is somewhere on BAUT, at the very least.

__________________
Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.

lucky you...
am in montreal seems to be cloudy all the time .,..lol

__________________
SK MAK102EQ2
SKP2001HEQ5
legitech pro 4000
dimage g600
ozzmozizz web page

Very pretty shots.

Photoshop is an outstanding tool, with a high price to go with it. The GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) is almost as full featured and it's free.

I will admit that I mostly use Photoshop and primarly use the GIMP for batch processing (making thumbnails, etc.). This is mostly a learning curve issue as I came across the GIMP after making my investment in Photoshop.

HTH,

--Andy
http://www.obsballona.org/

Wow thoose are really cool

__________________
If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

Andy, thanks for the GIMP recommendation! Photoshop is completely out of my ballpark price-wise <g>... but I've been playing with Corel Paintshop Pro X and liking it along with it's more reasonable pricetag! <g> I started with Paintshop Pro back at version 2 and it's like an old friend.

For those contemplating digital cameras, I'd like to recommend the Foveon chip cameras. There are only two on the market and I'm sure it has had an effect on the CCD makers to lower the price of all the megapixel-rated cameras.

I've got both of them. They are the Sigma SD-10 digital SLR with the kit of zooms (18-50 & 55-200) for under a $1,000 (I can tell you how I did it so you can possibly avoid retail price which is $1,500) and the Polaroid x530 (I bought it for $300, but when my brother saw its superiority of color in relation to his, we found that the price had dropped $100, Aaarrrrr!).

Anyway, they are BOTH rated at, in reality, 10+ megapixels (they show 4, but that is for one color and it captures all 3 colors!). They function on a new technology that will probably be the closest to film as we're ever going to get to.

If you want shutter lagless photography with the full color panoply (CCD pixels only choose the majority, RGB color and throws away the rest) in RAW (Hi res JPEGS in the Polaroid and video clip possibilities, too), then buy these babies. I'd suggest Amazon.com for the x530 because they don't charge sales tax and shipping unlike Polaroid themselves! Go figure!

So, that's my advice and I do not work for these companies nor profit from the sales of these either (I do hope that Polaroid will get their act together in order to get themselves out of their managerial mess!)!

I live in Morocco and plan to get out into the desert in a week. Gonna bring my tripod and Sigma SD-10 SLR. Unfortunately, I think I got a slightly blemish lens kit because all my images tend to be soft. So, the upshot, I sent my big zoom to have it looked at and if I have to, I'll send my small zoom in, too. So, I'll only be able to shoot with my short zoom (I don't have a telescope because of travel limitations).

When you take your context images (your backyard with the pool - envious!), include your telescope to tell what you're going to be doing. Tell the story by including your main character. Just a suggestion...

I just downloaded Photoshop Elements 4 for Mac (Windows folks had this much earlier than we did) for $60 as an upgrade and download (6 hours for 450 MB's!!). I'm excited about what is on it. Check it out in light with what you've got:

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/main.html

You can go to the Windows version their, too.