The Lunar Eclipse, 3/14/2925 2 am Central Standard time

I am always amazed when I see a total Eclipse of the Moon. How can some people think that the earth is flat when you can see the curve of the earth’s shadow as the moon enters the penumbra and then the umbra, (the Earth’s shadow). It’s just one of the many ways that flat earth believers deny that the earth is a sphere and make fools of themselves. last night I got up early and Renita and I attemped to view and photograph the Lunar Eclipe alongside of our fifth wheel.Fog had moved on and tin clouds gave us brief and short glimpses of the Eclipse

I changed the iso and the shutter speed trying to get the best image. The cloud cover finally became totally overcast and at three am we gave up and called it a night. I actually feel pretty good about the images as we were fighting the weather conditions. Clear skies

Looking for the Green Comet and Our first Art and Crafts Show of the year

The weather here has been about as bad as it can get. Luckily we did stay above freezing, (barely), but the clouds, rain, and fog has kept us from viewing the Green Comet. To keep ourselves occupied we have been making jewelry, buying rocks, and Renita had been braiding kumihimo necklaces. The day before our Blue Lagoons Arts and Craft show, the sun appeared, the temperature warmed up, and the day turned out to be one of our craziest day of the winter. Friday night we play a card game called Jokers and Pegs but instead of calling it a night we headed across Copano Bay to try to see the Green Comet. Dodging the herds of deer, we reached the Coast and found a dark sky. Our first place has changed so much that the lights from the bridge and a convenience store had destroyed any hope of spotting much of anything. There was a sight about fifteen miles north but instead we decided to try a new place and luckily we found a dark sky.

The moon was near full, and we doubted we would see the faint comet. Ever the optimists we got out the binoculars and scanned the sky. It was so bright that not much was visible, only the brightest stars of the Big and little Dippers. We spent quite a bit of time looking, Renita claimed to have spotted it, but I could not confirm her sighting. It was so bright that I did not set up my camera settling for a few pictures using my Galaxy S23 Ultra phone. The pictures adjusted for the darkness, were much brighter than it really was. We had also brought our best DSLR Canon camera and a tripod, but we never tried to take any exposures.

Returning home, we put stuff away and went to bed. It was after midnight, and we were getting up at five thirty so we could set up for the show. Still, we made it up in time to set up and welcome the other artists. People started arriving before opening, and we got so busy that I didn’t take any more pictures.

Our rv park is a small one, so we never got crowded but we were still busy showing all of our work. Pam and Roy, Renita's sister and her husband also showed their jewelry. Other’s included Zita, who makes decorated cups, t-shirts and hats. She took orders including ones that Pam and I placed for cups with our schools name and mascot, “Go University of Northern Iowa Panthers”! It was a short show, only three hours long but we were tired. We had good sales as did many others. We also bought some card holders from our friend Diana, maple syrup made by our friend Alan, and a Wyoming Jade slab from our friend Jim. It was a good show and now we are working to get ready for the Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral Show! Its always the first weekend in March, and this year’s show is the sixtieth one. Clear skies

The Christmas Star

Just about everyone has seen a picture during Christmas, in which the Christmas star is pictured as a bright star shaped object, and so with the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn the excitement was high! We had checked out a place to view the conjunction of the two planets, as getting away from the city lights of Rockport, Texas was a priority.

Crossing Copano Bay we turned left and were surprised to see that our spot was crowded with cars. We barely were able to park and people already had their lawn chairs and cameras out. Finding a narrow opening and were able to set up near the water’s edge.

The sun had already set, so we set up our camera and took some pictures of the red sunset. Clouds were threatening and we hoped it would stay clear enough for some decent shots. A ring was trying to form around the moon, a sign of an approaching front and I took several images with our camera in the manual setting.

Everyone was waiting for the moment, but as I looked up, I could see Jupiter and Saturn were already visible. I told our neighbors it was visible, and after a few seconds one of them asked me if that all the better it will be? Telling them it would be brighter when the sky reached full night darkness.

Word spread through the crowd, people were social distancing, and people got back in their cars and left. In no time at all only two cars were left, but we did not care as we wanted to try some new camera settings.

Forty-eight images later we decided it was time to go and as we took down our tripod the last car started up and left. Most of my images did not work but it was ok, as I did get a few good photos and some idea as what worked and what did not.

Clear skies and Merry Christmas

Seeing Comet Neowise

Last night we went out to see Comet Neowise. We set up our cameras, got ready with our binoculars

and sure enough after sunset we saw what we thought was the comet. However the location of the supposed comet was not correct and so I doubted myself. I wondered if I had been confused, (not the first time), after all the comet should look like a fuzzy ball when first spotted. As ones eyes adjust the tail should appear and it would disappear in the west as the earth rotates.

A great horned owl flew up and landed near us as if to say this is my hunting ground so please leave. It finally flew away and later we saw it land on an porty-potty out on the golf course. It got darker and the stars appeared, Jupiter and Saturn rose over the Salt Range and we waited until we could see all the stars of the Big Dipper.

Renita kept scanning the sky with her binoculars and suddenly she said ," I see the fuzzy ball of the comet's nucleus"! It got darker still and sure enough even I could see it along with it's spectacular tail.

I started to take image after image and finally got my first ever image of Comet Neowise. The reason we hadn't seen it before is because it was way past my bedtime.

After taking quite a few images with our Cannon dslr camera, (any dslr camera should work), I put our camera away and sat down simply enjoying the sight of such beauty. Renita was nice and snug but I had to get out a blanket as I had dressed in just shorts and a tee shirt, (you would think someone who had lived in Wyoming for forty plus years would know better,, (our humidity here is about ten percent and as soon as the sun goes down it gets cold).

Later we returned home and our skies are so dark that we could see the comet from our patio. We also can see the Milky Way. Tonight we will go back out and take more images. How often do you get to see a bright comet? Clear skies

If you want to try imaging the Comet there are lots of good web pages, but this is what worked for us.

Put your camera on a tripod. Change from landscape, after you take a picture of the sunset, to the manual setting change the exposure to four seconds, and change the iso to 3200 and you are set. Change the focus from auto focus to manual!You can select these settings during the day and it ill not affect your taking normal pictures during the day or at sunset. Be sure to change the focus autofocus to manual and watching the screen focus, on the stars and snap away.

I actually got my first image at an iso of 1600 but you can change the iso, (iso is like the old asa when you used film), easily in the dark when you get the hang of it, (I practiced in the day time). Good luck!