Category Archives: Photography

November 7, 2022 · 13:00

Tonight’s Full Lunar Eclipse

Posting a bit earlier in the day to give everyone who might need it a heads up. There’s a full lunar eclipse tonight.

If you’re in the US midwest or on the east coast you can see the beginning of it just before dawn. If you’re on the North American west coast (about from the Rockies west, map here) you can see most or all of it in the middle of the night. If you’re on the Asian east coast you can see most or all of it just after sunset. If you’re in Hawaii, you’re golden, you can see it all overhead at a relatively comfortable hour!

Assuming your sky is clear. Here in SoCal…

Light rain started around midnight and is supposed to go through Wednesday morning. While we’re grateful for the rain (the first measurable rain since March and we’re entering the third? fourth? fifth? year of a critical drought) the timing is less than optimal.

This is the last total lunar eclipse in about three years, so if you get a chance, take a peek!

Start times for different events:

UTC EST PST
First contact with umbra
(the deep part of the Earth’s shadow)		 09:09 04:09 01:09
50% partial 09:44 04:44 01:44
Start of totality 10:17 05:17 02:17
Mid eclipse 10:59 05:59 02:59
End of totality 11:42 06:42 03:42
50% partial 12:14 07:14 04:14
Final contact with umbra 12:49 07:49 04:49

Remember, all you need to see a lunar eclipse (other than a clear sky or a hole in the clouds) is ye olde Mark I human eyeball. Binoculars or a small telescope might let you see more color or detail, but the naked eye works just fine. (It’s a solar eclipse that you never, EVER want to look at without protection.)

How dark will this eclipse be? How colorful? Will the moon look red, orange, brown? Who knows, they’re all different. That’s the great part of it! If you snap a picture, feel free to share it!

And that whole “signs & portents” thing where the full moon starts to turn dark and then blood red in the sky on the eve of the US midterm elections. It’s strictly a coincidence. Totally by chance. It means nothing. At all. No danger being foretold. None.

Just make sure you go out tomorrow and vote anyway, just to make sure. Seriously!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space, Weather

November 6, 2022 · 23:46

Maples

I am a transplant from Vermont to Southern California. I’m not the only one.

Okay, maybe these maples on the other side of the canyon didn’t come from Vermont. Given transportation costs and other logistics, they probably came from Washington, Oregon, Colorado, or someplace a couple thousand miles closer. Still, they’re kindred spirits and until they tell me that they’re not from Vermont or elsewhere in New England, then I’ll go on believing that they are.

Their fall colors prove it.

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Filed under Photography

November 5, 2022 · 23:45

Winglet

We’ve had the two flights to and from Chicago in September for Worldcon, but that’s it for the past three years. And it’s been way, Way, WAY, WAY too long since I’ve had a flight in the left seat at the pointy end.

Looking back through the photos, there were years that had more than a dozen trips to cons, to see relatives, to weddings, to Chiefs games…

Getting back to that would be excellent.

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Filed under Flying, Photography, Travel

November 4, 2022 · 23:42

Scat

Big city, no wildlife, the paved over urban jungle. Right?

Yeah, if you’ve perused this site you’ve seen pictures of deer and raccoons and opossums and rabbits and squirrels and skunks and a few dozen bird species and god knows how many lizards and…

But me? I’m just an old Boy Scout from Vermont. I know that there are critters out there. So earlier this week, in the back yard, when I saw a couple odd looking piles of scat, it piqued my interest. (For those who weren’t Boy Scouts, “scat” is a fancy, semi-polite term for “animal shit.” It often has “things” embedded in it which will tell you what the critter has been eating.

Grizzly Bear Warning Sign Bells

So these small piles of dark scat have berries and nuts as well as fur, so probably something omniverous-ish. Smaller than a bear (probably), and there really are bears around, although more likely to be seen near the bigger mountains in places like Pasadena and Glendale, bigger than a feral cat. Yes, a curiosity. Also curious how it’s found in the back yard, which is surrounded on all sides by at least a 5′ chain link fence. So either something that’s coming from tree to tree or a jumper.

This morning, I found this on the front yard, well away from the sidewalk, which is where the rude folks walking their dogs let them leave a pile for me to clean up.

That most certainly wasn’t there last night – and it’s right where I should be able to see it on the front porch security camera. So let’s see what motion there was last night other than cars driving by…

(Click on any image to enlarge it. If you save all five temporarily, you can flip between them quickly and it’s pretty clear who our visitor is.)

Rabbits are a known issue in both the front and the back yard, so my suspicion is that this dude spooked a rabbit into the bushes and then came looking for him. Unsuccessfully, as far as I can tell.

I hear these coyotes a couple times a week, but they usually don’t come all the way to the top of the hill, preferring to stay down in the canyons. Of course, this also explains all of the shipping crates left around the yard for Acme equipment.

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Filed under Castle Willett, Critters, Photography

November 3, 2022 · 23:19

Dome

Montreal, from the 1967 World’s Fair. Designed by R. Buckminster Fuller, now used for the Biosphere Museum.

Name and personal information on the seagull wasn’t available. It didn’t stop to sign a waiver.

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Filed under Photography, Travel

November 2, 2022 · 23:56

Danny Elfman At The Bowl

You might recall that on Saturday I and most of the family were at the Hollywood Bowl for the Danny Elfman concert. I posted at the beginning, then enjoyed the show.

It might have been absolutely amazing!

Excellent graphics to go along with the music, usually very bizarre.

“Only A Lad” – there were several classic Oingo Boingo songs, along with a lot of his other pretty hardcore rock and punk tunes. For starters.

The wide angle view, with the two big screens on each side, and then two more out even further to the side and closer to us. There might have been another set up behind us, but we were in a good location so I didn’t worry about what was behind us.

“The Nightmare Before Christmas” – mixed in with the Oingo Boingo and punk were selections from his dozens and dozens and dozens of movie scores and television theme songs.

This whole slection was done live with the primary singers, a full orchestra, and a choir. NOT a subtle or small production.

Amazing work to see done live, coordinated with the video from the movie on the big screen behind them.

The entire production was almost too much, just overwhelming. It’s so rare that he performs live these days, just one Coachella set a couple weeks ago and these two nights at the Bowl (plus an odd short show at the Bowl once or twice) since 1995. Twenty-seven years and you can count on one hand the number of his live concerts – and we were there!

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Filed under Los Angeles, Music, Photography

November 1, 2022 · 22:17

Return Of The Juncos

It was actually Saturday the 22nd, but I haven’t had a chance to get a picture of them yet. They’re small and zippy!

Even these pictures sort of suck since they’re just cell phone zoom photos shot from 15-20 feet away through a double sliding glass door. It’s the best I could do today – these little clowns spook easily.

As I’ve reported in the past, we have two who seem to live here year around. (“Uno Junco” and “Dos Junco” because creativity isn’t my strong suit?) The others all vanish overnight in the spring, then come back in late October.

I think there were between 15 and 18 out there tonight, but again, “small and zippy.” They’re in those bushes along the fence on either side, up in the trees, on the gutter, in the bushes beside the patio, munching on bird seed, flitting, flying, fighting…

I was never able to get more than six in a picture at one time (like this one) but there was a crowd of them. They’re cute little clown birds and it will be fun to watch them every day for the next few months!

 

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography

October 31, 2022 · 21:55

And Then The Halloween Sunset Came

There were a few clouds moving in this afternoon, a tiny chance of rain for the next day or so (and by “tiny” I mean non-zero, but so close to non-existant it’s not really funny), and when I went out I saw this quarter moon floating up there through a thin layer. “That’s a nice photo for my blog post today!” I thought. And it was.

An hour or so later, just before dinner, I saw a glow and decided to check it out.

The Halloween sunset had come and it was loaded for bear!

These rows of low hanging virga were lit up like nothing I had ever seen before.

And where the sun had gone down, it was shades of orange and red that looked like they came straight from Armageddon.

No editing on any of these. No filters. No fiddling with the hue or saturation. All straight out of the camera.

WOW! Perfect for Halloween!

And then, because of the huge hill we live at the top of, for the fourth year in a row, not a single trick-or-treater came by.

Tomorrow… November.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets, Weather

October 29, 2022 · 18:45

More Excellent Noise Tonight

Yesterday I noted that my watch warned me on Thursday about the noise levels at the Kings game.

There will be slightly fewer folks here than at the Crypt on Thursday. Capacity here is 17,500 vs 20,000 at Crypto.com Arena – but our band tonight will be a LOT louder.

It’s night #2 at the Hollywood Bowl for Danny Elfman’s Halloween 🎃 concert.

The moon was setting as we climbed the hill.

The crowd is packed – this is a hot ticket. The use of legal recreational pot is widespread, “No Smoking” signs be damned, and those of us not partaking are in danger of a contact high.

The opening act was loud and okay, but I didn’t catch their names and I have no urgent need to track them down.

Now, the full orchestra is assembled and momentarily it will be a Dead Man’s Party – literally!

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Filed under Los Angeles, Music, Photography, Uncategorized

October 28, 2022 · 23:35

More Where That Came From

Last night at the hockey game, my watch tried to warn me…

As they say, “No shit, Sherlock!”

There will be more of that tomorrow night. LOTS more. (That’s a good thing!)

Later, walking to the subway station (did you know that LA has a subway/light rail system, and actually a pretty good one that’s growing every year?) I could see that downtown LA at night can be spectacular and beautiful.

It’s also a very urban environment, with all that brings. Keep safe.

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Filed under Los Angeles, Photography