Mary, that light atop the rock outcrop is magnificent! And the red one looks like something Grant Wood would paint - American Gothic Lighthouse. Thanks for sharing.
Eric in Atlanta
I really like the grosbeak and hawk! Hope that's a pigeon the hawk had for dinner.
Eric in Atlanta
BIF - Birds in Flight. Those lovely, graceful images of some of natures' most beautiful creatures soaring in the sky.
Of, if you're anything like me, you end up with tons of images of bird butts, wing tips, beaks, blurry things that might be birda and blank frames showing blue sky.
Not sure how many thousand BIF images I've taken that ended up in the Recycle Bin, but it represents a fair portion of all my shots. Here's some of the few that ended up worth keeping.
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/bif_1.jpg
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/bif_2.jpg
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/bif_3.jpg
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/bif_4.jpg
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/bif_5.jpg
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/bif_7.jpg
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/bif_10.jpg
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/bif_11.jpg
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/bif_12.jpg
Ah! I know there are a lot of lights in Ohio and I thought it might have been there. Nice shot.
Eric in Atlanta
Some nice shots, everyone, and thanks for posting 'em.
Erv, where in Ohio is that lighthouse?
Eric in Atlanta
A turtle gets no respect...
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/gbh_2.jpg
Nice additions to the thread, y'all!
Eric in Atlanta
One more. The Phare Du Haut-Fond-Prince light in the St. Lawrence River off Tadoussac.
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/phare.jpg
One can never have too many lighthouse photos! Please feel free to add your own.
Portland Head Light - Portland, Maine
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/portland_head_2.jpg
Jupiter Inlet - Jupiter, Florida
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/jupiter.jpg
Brant Light - Nantucket, Mass.
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/brant.jpg
Destruction Island, Washington
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/destruction.jpg
Cape Disappointment, Washington
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/disappointment.jpg
North Head Light, Washington
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/north_head.jpg
Westport Light, Washington
http://ericpix.net/Online/Hog/westport.jpg
sinatraman wrote:
hey atlanta "wudda ya have? wudda ya have?"
Sounds like someone spent too much time at The Varsity!
Other than being jealous because of your wonderful shot? I still haven't gotten to within 100 yards of a spoonbill...
Life just ain't fair.
Oh yeah, they are lovely images!
Eric in Atlanta
brucew29 wrote:
I think the SCT, because of their closed-tube-design, holds up better than the open-tubed Newtonian scopes... I have a 10" f/6 mirror stored in a closed plastic storage carton and you can see the oxidizing deterioration on the mirror's front surfacing (pin holes and black dust appearance on the surface).
I expect you are correct. Just picked up my 16" mirror from Spectrum Coating on the trip down to the Winter Star Party a couple weeks ago and nothing looks as good as a fresh surface!
Eric in Atlanta
Not bad for the old Dynamax! I have a Celestron C-8 that I bought more than 35 years ago and have yet to have the mirrors realuminized. They don't look too bad after all those years.
Eric in Atlanta
They are such magnificent birds! Nice capture.
Eric in Atlanta
LDM5 wrote:
Wow! I don't know what a cat system is and I'm damb sure I can't afford a 2000mm len's but,Wow, those are very impressive photos.
Here's one I took a while ago with a sigma 150-500mm lens on my canon 40D.
That's a most respectable image for a 500mm zoom. A cat is a catadioptric optical system - a mirror/lens system like the inexpensive 500mm f/8 telephotos you can find. The scope is an old Celestron 8" f/10 system and can be bought pretty inexpensively these days including a fork mount and drive system that will follow the moon, planets and stars. The scope looks like this (not my image):
http://images.ookaboo.com/photo/m/C8_smaller_m.jpg
You can buy one these days for less than half the price of your 150-500mm Sigma, but it's a lot bigger and harder to carry than the Sigma and suffers from the characteristic lack of contrast when used in daylight.
When combined with a web cam and image stacking software, the results of these things on the moon and planets is amazing - far better than what professional observatories were doing not too many years ago. If you would like to get an idea of what can be done with less than a thousand dollars worth of equipment, check out the image of Saturn posted here:
http://www.licha.de/astro_photo_121.php