Patrick

Aurora and clouds, Oct. 10–11, 2024

Posted on by Patrick
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, red and green

It was clear to the west, so I grabbed my cam­era and took a chance.

It was not clear to the north.

The aurora trying to peek through the clouds,a patch of very bright green
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, red and gree
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, red and green
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, a long shaft of green
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, a glimpse of a green curtain
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, a loop of green

Once I got home, the sky to the east was clear. I set up a cam­era in our spare room, aimed due east, and let it click until the bat­ter­ies died. Between 11:30pm and 2:30am it got these gems, plucked from almost 2000 frames.

Brilliant aurora: clouds of red and shafts of green above the trees
Brilliant aurora: curtains of brilliant green above the trees
Brilliant aurora: shafts of green above the trees

These pho­tos, I have to keep remind­ing myself, were tak­en inside the city. Nor­mal­ly I’m hap­py when I get light like this a few kilo­me­tres out of town, where it’s start­ing to get prop­er­ly dark. These auro­ra were com­pet­ing with street­lights, and winning.

Oh yeah, I also turned the 2000ish pho­tos from the spare room into a timelapse.

Aurora, Oct. 7, 2024

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Aurora Borealis as viewed from within the city, facing due east

This is not an every­day[1]Everynight. view from my back yard.

Aurora Borealis as seen from my back yard

…or my upstairs bedroom.

Aurora viewed through my upstairs window

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
↑1 Everynight.

Today’s Ride — Oct. 6, 2024

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A field under a blue prairie sky

I went 13km today with my cam­era. I snapped a 20-pho­to panora­ma of the field at the edge of town, I saw Ursu­la, and I was remind­ed of yes­ter­day’s wind­storm (gusts of up to 110km/h, apparently).

inflatable Ursula on someone's lawn
A tree with a pretty significant branch broken and lying on the ground

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus; Lilacs and coun­try roads; A pop of colour; Back lane flow­ers; More Breniz­ers; The riv­er is high; A bird and a reflec­tion; Rideau Park; Writ­ing Retreat 2020, Day 7; Writ­ing Retreat 2020: The Num­bers; Storm dam­age, sun­flow­ers; Eleanor Kidd gar­dens; Scenes from today’s ride; All right, autumn can be pret­ty; Bike ride, April 10, 2021; Bike ride wildlife; Bike ride, May 16, 2021; Some flow­ers for you; Lilacs; Under the bridge; A fence, a tree, and the sky; Tur­tle Cross­ing; Ceme­tery crit­ters; On Reflec­tion; Week­end rides; Upon Reflec­tion; Deer and paparazzi; Sep­tem­ber Bike Ride; Corn & Sun­set; On Reflec­tion: Oct. 1st; Autumn Trees; A bit of graf­fi­ti; Novem­ber bike ride; Geese; Day 30; Quack quack; Skin­ny deer; Mon­day bike ride; Sat­ur­day snaps; Deer + Flow­ers; Bike Ride — July 17, 2022; The mead­ow; It seems to be autumn; Por­tal fan­ta­sy; Sla­va Ukrai­ni; Writ­ing Retreat 2023: Thurs­day bike ride; Bike Ride, May 20, 2024; Shy; Cana­da Day ride; A long ride; Cook­ie Ride redux; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 6; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: The End; Bike Ride, Sep. 22, 2024; Today’s Ride — Oct. 6, 2024; Souris Val­ley; Bike Ride Pho­tos — May 19, 2025; Bike ride, May 24; Art in the trees.

Bike Ride, Sep. 22, 2024

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Row upon row of sunflowers at the community gardens

I took my cam­era on today’s ride and snapped a few pho­tos, all, appar­ent­ly, of plants.

A tree with yellow leaves at the top, green leaves below

This tree stands in for a 1,000-word sto­ry about how I’m not ready for autumn to be here, but it is implaca­bly here nonetheless.

Sunflowers against the sky

There were quite a few sun­flow­ers plant­ed at the com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens this year. This one was being par­tic­u­lar­ly pho­to­genic today. Some­one, though, has removed the Ukrain­ian flag that used to fly there, and I’m not sure why.

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus; Lilacs and coun­try roads; A pop of colour; Back lane flow­ers; More Breniz­ers; The riv­er is high; A bird and a reflec­tion; Rideau Park; Writ­ing Retreat 2020, Day 7; Writ­ing Retreat 2020: The Num­bers; Storm dam­age, sun­flow­ers; Eleanor Kidd gar­dens; Scenes from today’s ride; All right, autumn can be pret­ty; Bike ride, April 10, 2021; Bike ride wildlife; Bike ride, May 16, 2021; Some flow­ers for you; Lilacs; Under the bridge; A fence, a tree, and the sky; Tur­tle Cross­ing; Ceme­tery crit­ters; On Reflec­tion; Week­end rides; Upon Reflec­tion; Deer and paparazzi; Sep­tem­ber Bike Ride; Corn & Sun­set; On Reflec­tion: Oct. 1st; Autumn Trees; A bit of graf­fi­ti; Novem­ber bike ride; Geese; Day 30; Quack quack; Skin­ny deer; Mon­day bike ride; Sat­ur­day snaps; Deer + Flow­ers; Bike Ride — July 17, 2022; The mead­ow; It seems to be autumn; Por­tal fan­ta­sy; Sla­va Ukrai­ni; Writ­ing Retreat 2023: Thurs­day bike ride; Bike Ride, May 20, 2024; Shy; Cana­da Day ride; A long ride; Cook­ie Ride redux; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 6; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: The End; Bike Ride, Sep. 22, 2024; Today’s Ride — Oct. 6, 2024; Souris Val­ley; Bike Ride Pho­tos — May 19, 2025; Bike ride, May 24; Art in the trees.

Lightning — Sept. 18, 2024

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A lightning bolt above the trees

There was quite the light­ning show from a storm pass­ing through. I set up a tri­pod in the upstairs bed­room, and it was bright enough, sus­tained enough, that I was able to check my focus ring just by the light from the storm.

A lightning bolt above the trees
A lightning bolt above the trees
A lightning bolt above the trees
A lightning bolt above the trees
A lightning bolt above the trees
A lightning bolt above the trees

It was espe­cial­ly impres­sive to real­ize the heart of the storm actu­al­ly passed just to the east of us; we caught the very edge of it.

Partial partial lunar eclipse

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The full moon, with a shadow across its upper left side

Since our trees no longer block the sky[1]I see I haven’t blogged about that; long sto­ry short, one large branch fell, and the arborist rec­om­mend­ed we remove both maples. I still miss them., I was able to set up a cam­era on the deck to try and get a time­lapse of the moon being par­tial­ly dark­ened by Earth­’s shad­ow this evening. I went back out­side about 10 min­utes lat­er to see how it was going, and… Well, clouds had filled the sky. So I man­aged to get about 4 pho­tos, all told, and above you can see one of them.

Oh well. Like I said to my dar­ling wife, at least I did­n’t dri­ve twen­ty min­utes just to watch the clouds roll in.

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
↑1 I see I haven’t blogged about that; long sto­ry short, one large branch fell, and the arborist rec­om­mend­ed we remove both maples. I still miss them.