Part-time prevaricator
Forty-some minutes worth of Earth’s rotation. In the lower-left corner, you can watch the crescent moon and Venus setting; the moon is reflected, a bit, in the water that was on the field.
Nerd stuff: 153 light frames, 5 dark frames; each frame is 15 seconds, f/2.8, 11mm, ISO 800.
I’m not sure who put up a billboard with an oil painting of a moose in the woods, or why, but I know I appreciated seeing it on my bike ride yesterday.
Half an hour’s rotation of the earth sure does look interesting.
And here’s Orion, next to a power pole, with the bright lights of Souris, MB, on the horizon.
In related good news, my camera and lens appear to have survived last week’s tumble unscathed.
It was clear and reasonably warm last night, and there was a reasonable chance of getting some aurora Borealis, so I headed to my usual spot about fifteen minutes out of town. I got my tripod set up, and retired to the warmth of the car—the temperature was only ‑10°C or so, but the windchill was significant, a south wind howling along at what felt like about 40–50 km/h—and listened to music for a while.
After about ten or fifteen minutes, I noticed that I couldn’t see the little red light on my camera anymore. I briefly wondered if maybe the battery had died, but then I realized that I also couldn’t see the thin dark lines of the tripod.
Sure enough, the wind had tipped it over into the snow. See the photo below, which is the ten-second window when it actually fell.
I cleaned the lens off as best I could, then packed it all up and headed home, where I gave the lens a more thorough cleaning and then set it aside to dry. This morning it looks OK, so I think I got away lucky.
There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.
—Jo Walton
On the morning of Dec. 31st, there was quite a bit of hoarfrost. I grabbed my camera and went north of the river to take some photos.
Continue reading “Hoarfrost around town”
To whoever left this on the sidewalk in front of Hairistocracy, thank you for brightening my morning.
Jo Walton said: “There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.”
I took this photo just outside Headingley on my way home from Winnipeg. I’m not sure if the ones lying down were felled in the Thanksgiving storm, or if they’re meant to replace weakened pylons (though I lean toward the former).
[Update, 8 Jan. 2020] They’re replacing the pylons, or supplementing them. The last time we went into Winnipeg, on Boxing Day, the pylons were now standing, though not yet strung with wires.
I pulled up at Chez Angela not long after a car accident. As I was preparing to leave, the ambulance pulled up and parked next to me, boxing me in, so I went back into the bakery and had a coffee to wait them out.
The cars involved are on the other side of the fire truck in the photo. I felt it would be bad form to wander around the site taking photos. Plus it was way warmer inside, sipping my coffee, than out in the street.
When I left, about ten minutes later, the police were still there, and two tow trucks had showed up.
As far as I could tell, no one was seriously hurt, but at least one of the vehicles was not in great shape.