The Stars and The Moon

[lady-o-leisure]

L-O-L your pic ain't bad... I can't even get near to any of you.

BTW, did you realise that the moon looks like a water melon?

Chang... that is really funny.. coz when i looked at my moon photo, i freaked out at how bad the quality looked.. then i asked, "Why does my moon pic look like a watermelon??"
hahahha

[FineTuned]

.. then i asked, "Why does my moon pic look like a watermelon??"
hahahha

I was fighting with my nephew on Sunday evening over the telescope looking at the Supermoon....and he said it looked like a watermelon! All the great minds think alike.
Anyways the only successful shot, but my nephew was shaking the telescope by the barrel and yelling `I wanna see, I wanna see!'


This morning, while jogging at the MPSJ track, I noticed the nice-but-no-longer Super moon still high in the West, so rushed back to try to grab some shots. It was fast disappearing down the western horizon by the time I set things up....

[lady-o-leisure]

Wow! very nice pics, FT I like the soft blue faded moon.

Yesterday hubby and i went to out 1st astronomer's club meeting. A smallish group of really big time enthusiasts. There was a guest speaker also, Robert Stephens, and he gave a very interesting talk about how he started in 1974, built his own telescope etc, and how does some work on researching data on asteroids. Very nice. I wish i had know, so i could record the whole talk and share with you. Very amazing information. It seems he has an asteroid named after him, called Bobstephens. One of the members is also with the Palomar Observatory. Wah! Quite intimidating to be among such learned people when i cant even figure out the Orion's belt without u pointing it out to me. hahaha. so Paiseh, but at least Hubby has more knowledge about this topic. Hope to join them for outings soon. Next event will be looking at the solar eclipse on May20th 4.45pm California time. One of the member is buying a pack of 100 'solar viewing glasses' for 50cts each, instead of $2 each if not in bulk. So we will get a few pairs. Looking forward to that.

[FineTuned]

Thanks for the compliments, lady. I took that shot of the morning moon with an el-cheapo made-in-China refractor mounted on a shaky camera tripod. But the fast f/5 400mm lens allowed me to take quick snaps at 1/500 secs before the moon went down within minutes. Only problem was the sky was getting brighter with the rising sun, and I was losing contrast with each passing second. In the end, I had to underexpose by 1 stop to get some surface details out of the moon. I'm actually very fond of looking at the moon in the morning...when the shades go from grey to ethereal blue minute by minute, and then the moon disappears like a `cowboy' to the west.

California seems to be full of astronomy enthusiasts like Bob who pioneered a lot of amateur telescope designs and actually contributed to the discovery of new asteriods and comets. It's always an honour to get to meet them...I wish I could be there. Back in the eighties, we did attempt a few DIY telescope making adventures as a group...basically polishing our own mirrors. But soon found out that it was easier to just buy an off the shelf mirror - the hundreds of ringgits saved by going DIY took too long, lots of effort and still performed miserably compared to a commercial product.

I've personally observed just about every type of solar eclipse...except an annular one. I hope to save enough money to go for one before I croak! Of all the sky events, the view of the Moon moving pass the face of the Sun is, in my opinion, the Most awe inspiring one. You can really sense the incomprehensible mass of these two heavenly bodies up there crawling to pass each other.... Count yourself amongst a few very privileged humans with a front seat on the 20th May, lady! Enjoy!

[mick123]

tonight's moon

[FineTuned]

Amazing. I'm speechless, mick!
But when did you say this was taken?

[mick123]

hehehehe last night lor.........even wifey asked when i took that and i said i sneaked out at 11pm

[FineTuned]

We must learn to be sneaky as you too to grab shots like that in the middle of the night...where do we sign up?

BTW, the event I was talking about earlier.....check it out here: http://www.largeststarparty.com/
Anybody with a telescope (or can beg borrow steal one) please register and join in. See if we can set a new Malaysian Record? Remember the date is: Saturday, 26th May, 2012.

It's gonna be within walking distance (less than 3 km) of where you took part of that amazing late night shot, mick.

[mick123]

i oso flew to the moon this morning

[kwchang]

...and I thought "uncle" choopy was the magician with photoshop

[lady-o-leisure]

Mick's getting really skilled at ps. That brings me to wonder... where is unca choopy? Long time no see here??

[mick123]

Mick's getting really skilled at ps. That brings me to wonder... where is unca choopy? Long time no see here??

he got gassed and will be out for some time

[mick123]

...and I thought "uncle" choopy was the magician with photoshop

he still is THE magician me curi makan only

[lady-o-leisure]

he got gassed and will be out for some time

Wah.. i thought the cops said the gas is 'harmless'? no meh?

BTW.. love those craters in the moon pic

[FineTuned]

Aiyoh....must use photoshop ah? Like that very susah....can't even afford my first DSLR yet.