Saturday 31 October 2015

SUPER MOON CANADA GEESE


E very Year (almost;every one Year one month 18 days) there is a Super Moon, see future Years list below.

 It was a happy coincidence, one day in September I was able to capture an image combining Super Moon, River and Canada Geese.....but it was all about timing.

Perigee-Syzygy
A Super Moon (Perigee-Syzygy) will appear approximately every 14th full Moon, So they are not a rare event and with the extra illumination 30% and the Moon 14% larger, these additions
give a photographer a very small advantage to
 illuminate the land or water.
The Photographer's Ephemeris; Link here was my resource, it gave me the timing for the Super Moon directly over the River Trent at Yoxhall. See the screen shot below.


Click image to enlarge or use the link above

There was only a small window of opportunity with the Moon lined up vertically above the River Trent. 
The idea was to use the River
to reflect the Moon light, as it was a flowing River the moon light would appear as a flood of Moon light, so giving that classic moon lit scene. There was a foreground element that was not in the plan, Seven Canada Geese, but they made the night scene come to life. 

    MOON-RIVER-GEESE
  

© J R Arrowsuch.

See the the image at my web site; www.amethystlandphoto.com/photo

Future Perigee (Super Moon) Years;
September 28th 2015
November 14th 2016
No Perigee 2017
January 2nd 2018
January 21st 2019
February 19th 2019 


Thanks to"The Photographers Ephemeris"For the screen shot.

 


-------------------------------------------------

Friday 28 August 2015

METEORS - PIPISTRELLE BATS AND CATS


The Annual 13th of August Perseid Meteor shower took me off to the Llyn Clywedog reservoir
on the 12th of August, but due to a weather forecast for cloud, the next night I chose Lake Vyrnwy.

The first night on the 12th

 Llyn Clywedog reservoir was one of the darkest area of Wales I have visited
for a meteor event, a very clear bright starry view, with the milky way clearly viewed through
the upper most part of the sky, the most defined milky way I had ever seen!! (in the UK).
I had though there was a chance to capture a meteor burning through the milky way, but alas no luck this night, but..........to see the Milky way this clear, with no light pollution was reward enough.

See the image below with the Milky way stretching the length of the image, next time I will make a panoramic image, to capture even more of this celestial display. 


Sony A900..... ISO1600                  © J.R.Arrowsuch

As usual with a major meteor event, we saw some of the Perseid's but the camera set to expose via a digital intervalometer, no Meteors were imaged whilst the shutter was open?. 
The Sony A900 was set up in BULB mode ISO 1600 lens(20mm),15 seconds exposure at  f3.5 and dark frame subtraction on each image taken.

After an hour the fog moved in from the  Llyn Clywedog reservoir, the temperature tumbled, almost like it was Autumn, dew enveloped the camera and the car and that put pay to this night's
image gathering. You can see the moment the fog rolled in from this next image.
Fog rolls in


The second night on the 13th

The second night took me off further north (still in Wales) to Lake Vyrnwy, a much milder night with the local wild life very active, Owls hooting and Bats in flight not to mention the local cats on the prowl.
The Bats, (possibly pipistelle) where flying round our heads, the torch light attracting the insects and the insects attracting the Bats, I would have tried to photograph them
but my mission was the Meteor shower, so that was what I concentrated on, besides I was missing a flash.
Here is a image by; Barracuda1983

CC image by Barracuda1983


108 images 1 Meteor, with the timings set into the intervalometer, it's all about mother nature cooperating,
I did observe at least 6 Meteors within the lens area, but they were only visible on the mirror lockup timing or the dark frame subtraction timing, very frustrating, ideally another second camera, set up to take up the off sequence, would be a solution, but I only have one top brand DSLR.   
  PLOUGH & PERSEID                                © JOHN R ARROWSUCH



Lake  Vyrnwy as you can see from the above image, is not a perfect location for a Meteor event, due to the distant light pollution.
 My next night event is the full Moon (super Moon) over the River Trent.

-----------------------------------------------------

Sunday 17 May 2015

STANAGE EDGE AMPHITHEATRE

Stanage Edge, runs ribbon like, four Miles long, from the Cowper Stone to Stanage End.
I had planned to find the CROW CHIN rock, to shoot an image, but time and a
pulled hamstring made the trek shorter. 
Kato (my Brother) wanted me to get an image for his blog, a marsh or water scene.
We were fortunate to find such an image, on the track to the Redmires Reservoirs, a marshy pool
matched his request. See his WILL-O-THE-WISP search HERE.


With that image in the can, we set off back to the Edge, I had earlier caught sight of a scene 
through two gritstone upright boulders, that framed a view upon  the "Stanage plantation"
the sound emanating from the woods below, gave me a possible posh
 image title" STANAGE EDGE AMPHITHEATRE".


With the tree's in the centre forming a curtain for the spring evening show, a good mix of
changeable cloud, it all made for a fine image.

The gritstone in this part of the DARK PEAK has a multi sparkled quality, not unlike
a Star field on a moonless night, it may sound a poetic description, but on a Sunny Day, the gritstone
takes on the appearance of a Starry night sky. You will not see this in any on line photo, the resolution
is (deliberately) too low, remind me to shoot a macro shot.


Here are a few images from last Year's visit;











The image on the Left was a reject, Unpublished  test shot. unlike the image on the Right
which can be bought here; amethystlandphoto

Although I had intended to walk to HIGH NEB and the CROW CHIN rock, I chose to return
another day, but the " STANAGE EDGE AMPHITHEATER"  image was reward enough. 


------------------------------------------------