Trash takes out the trash!

Cross Eye

Parallel

 

I joined the club

I'm having sinus issues and its too hot but all is in balance because this came in the mail today. I joined the stereo world club and this is part of the member ship -:]

It smelled like dead fish outside

When we left our apartment to go get lunch it smelled like dead fish. It was trash day so the first thought was maybe just an open trash can. Walked out and didn't see any open. Then started walking down the block and the smell didn't get any better. When we hit the cross street and the sea breeze hit us fully it got even worse. In our hood that usually means there's something dead on the beach so we went down to see what was up. And it was a mass stranding of "By the Wind Sailor" jellyfish! Well they aren't really jellyfish and have some scientific name I think you can find on this blog somewhere. They are one of our favorite things that washes up on our beach.

Just look at them all! Lucky for Linda she wore a matching outfit -:]

This one is disolving Linda's face away -:\

So many dead By the Wind Sailors. There were miles of them and they smelled like dead fish. We were walking by the water most of they way and the wind was on shore (hence the mass stranding) and it didn't smell at all.

It seems the wind also washed up a giant tub covered in sea things. Maybe they are clams or mussels of some kind?

The tub was pretty big, probably 5'x8' and 2-3' deep. Probably a fish tub that fell off a fishing boat. Was thinking of dragging it home and cleaning it off and using it for something but decided that would be way to much work.

I really liked the way the side looked all blue and covered in sea stuff.

And it's me so here's some in 3D!

I really like the side in 3D.

And a close up of the sea stuff on the tub.

YAY!

We came across this fine patch of grass and thank you note on our normal walk yesterday.

In case you couldn't read it +

And what we found the next day.

And here we go again but in 3D! So get those red/blue glasses out.

Mobile Astrophotography kit v1.0

I've been trying to put together a compact yet very usable astrophotography rig for a while now. I think I have finally put together a version I am finally pretty happy and excited about.

 It all fits in this medium size camera bag.

 And here it all is. It consists of:
- Canon EOSM
- Canon 55-250mm zoom
- Bower 8mm
- Canon EOSM 22mm f2 lens
- Canon Infrared remote
- Vixen Polari Star Tracker
- Manfrotto Table Tripod
- Celestron StarPointer finder scope
- 3d printed hot shoe mount for the finder scope

 Here it is all setup with the 55-250mm zoom.

 And in 3D just because -:]

 

 And another view.

 And another 3D image -:[]

 I managed to test the new setup just before clouds and rain hit. I had about 20min on our roof to setup, adjust and take some pictures.

Here is a crop of the image. Not to bad for a quick test on a windy roof in a bright city. I'm excited to take this setup all  over the place in the coming months to see if I can get better at using it.

Space Shuttle Fly By Friday

The Space Shuttle was flown by work today. It was about 1500 feet up and almost directly over our office.

Since I knew it was going to happen I took my camera to work and shot some pictures as you can see here.  

And well since I took the pictures here it is in 3D! I shot a bit of video and managed to use a few frames to create a stereo image. Seems like it worked out okay.

I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat

Who's driving that backhoe?!


He's watching us in the rear view mirrors.




It's Tweety. Sylvester better watch out!


Hee hee hee.

From Planets to Nebulas

10-28-2011, Tonight Jupiter is in opposition (closest point) with earth this year so I went out to take a few more pictures.

Not to bad. You can see the Big (aka Great) Red spot just about to disappear around the left side there.


Here is Jupiter's other side. I think this might be the most detail I have managed to get of Jupiter yet.


As usually here is a 3D image so get out those red/blue glasses!


And here is a short little animation I put together with some of the images I took. This probably spans about 10 minutes. Jupiter spins really fast making a complete rotation in just a little less than 10 hours. Maybe one long winter night I will see if I can capture a full rotation.


In between shots of Jupiter I did a little looking around and took a few other images. Here is the Ring Nebula or M57. It is a planetary nebula because some of these look a bit like planets through the telescope.


Next on the planetary nebula list I took a look at the Little Dumbbell Nebula or M76. This picture didn't come out to good but you can make out the core section and just a tiny bit of the fainter outer ring. I'll have to try this one again.


And then I turned the scope to the first planetary nebula I tried to image, the Eskimo Nebula or NGC 2390. This came out a little better than my previous attempts but I'm sure I can do better.


Finally I turned to one of the easiest targets the Orion Nebula or M42. I think this is my best nebula image so far. The thumbnail is a bit blurry because I scaled it up a bit but if you click on it you can see a nicer large version.


Here is a self portrait of me at about 1:30am imaging the Orion Nebula. If you know your constellations you should be able to make out Orion. The 3 stars of his belt are almost right above my head and I'm kind of looking at his sword which are the 3 stars just to the lower right of his belt. The Orion Nebula is the middle star of his sword. If you click on the image to see the larger version you might even notice that middle star glowing which is the nebula. Oh, and how the hell do I fit in my tiny little car?! It's clearly half as big as me or at least that's what the wide angle lens on the ground does. Lucky or unlucky as it was the last people to leave before me happened to turn on their car lights just as I took this picture causing the nice glow and probably screwing up an image or two. But it was all good since the Orion Nebula came out just fine.

The Big (aka Great) Red Spot

I managed to find/process a better image of Jupiter from the other week.


And now it's time to get those red/blue 3d glasses out for 3D Jupiter!


And here is a 3d version of Jupiter and it's moons.


And finally here are all the images I took the other night processed, set to the same scale and made into a ping-ponging time lapse animation.