Instantaneous Instances

Auroras, Stars, and Meteors, oh my!

Ryan — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:49:16 +0000

It was an amazing evening here in Alaska. I was outside, setting up another star shot, and taking some test shots (making sure the horizon was straight, the focus was good, etc.) at a high ISO. I noticed a green glow in the test shots, and as I watched the horizon, an aurora blossomed! We’re also in the midst of the Quadrantid meteor shower, so small meteors were flashing all over the sky. It was amazing! I managed to get a few pictures, of course, so here they are.

These first couple are all at ISO 800 for about 15 seconds.

Then, I switched to ISO 200, and locked the shutter open for 10 minutes.

And then again for 20 minutes. I like!

By the time the 20 minute exposure was finished, the aurora had pretty much dissipated, though there is a good chance there will be more tonight. I think I’m going to go to bed, though, since it’s after 2am here, and we have to work tomorrow.

Fixing the past

Ryan — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:27:03 +0000

I’ve been going through my older posts, and updating the image links so the pictures I posted years ago will show up. I’ve moved the blog around a few times, changed DNS names, and generally haven’t made it easy on myself to keep a consistent blog presentation.

I also just found that I’m missing at least an entire year’s worth of images, probably accidentally deleted when I reinstalled Wordpress last year. Fixing that means tracking them down in iPhoto, re-uploading them, and editing each post. Dang.

Skippy and I decided to stay in for New Years, since it was hovering around 0°F, added to the need to drive 30 minutes to get anywhere, added to the cost of buying any food or drink item at Alaska prices. So, we watched some movies, and drank way too much champagne.

Happy New Year!

One more after waking up

Ryan — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:38:51 +0000

Well, why not? It’s still pretty dark for another hour after I wake up and take out the dogs!

I managed to catch Polaris with this one, though just barely.

One shot before bed

Ryan — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:55:48 +0000

It was so clear and cold tonight, I had to get in one shot of the horizon before going to sleep. I can almost get Polaris in with the trees, at 17mm. Anyone want to spring for the 10.5mm fisheye for me?? :-D

Tomorrow I’m going to start using my Flickr account more, so that picture over on the right should change almost daily.

New design testing

Ryan — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:12:31 +0000

I’m in the process of picking and customizing a new Wordpress theme for the blog. My current one is about 5 years old, and isn’t able to take advantage of some of the new features of Wordpress.

So if the site looks radically different or even butt-ugly when you visit, I’m just testing out designs.