Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Nikon Df| Nikkor 105mm f/2.8| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.1.2
more to come…
Category: Photography
Whatever Weds. The Milky Way
Copyright © 2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I woke up really early last week and the sky was cloudless so I thought I’d go out back and photograph the Milky Way. The light-pollution is worse than I remember! This was at 3:49 A M!
Jupiter and Saturn are still shining brightly over the Pinenut Mountains. Mars has marched so far East it’s out of the frame.
What do you do when you wake up in the wee hours of the mornin?
Nikon D810|Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G| SunDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.1.1
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Friday’s Feathered Friends-Nesting
Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I’ve been doing a lot of birding lately and I’ve come across some nesting birds.
The first one is a Great Horned Owl nesting in a broken branch of a big tree near the river. I call her Sleepy Eyes.
Not too far from her is a nesting goose. She too is nesting on a broken branch. I worry about her because I never see the mate nearby and I wonder if she’s eating? I sure hope so! She’s usually tucked into the wood there so if you didn’t know to look you’d miss her. On this day she felt like sunning her face.
This next nest has been empty all winter and the other day while driving to my birding location I spotted the top of a head and pulled over to see who moved in. A Hawk!
I don’t know what kind of a hawk, but guess a Red-tail since they’re most populous of the hawks here.
I’ll be keeping an eye on them hoping for chicks soon!
We’re supposed to hit 80 degrees on Saturday! I think Winter may have let go here.
I hope you’re all doing well, and have a nice week-end!
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.1.1
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Whatever Weds. Conjunctions
Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I’ve still got my head in the clouds or tilted upward toward the sky. This week there is a 3 planet and Moon conjunction going on in the wee hours before dawn and I’ve been up to see it two of the three mornings it’s visible.
Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars are all lined up beside or above the Moon.
Here’s how it appeared in my frame on April 14th, 2020. All three planets were rising behind the Last Quarter Moon. I caught a shooting star and a couple of satellites in my image too. They did look a bit bigger with my eyes but look smaller when photographed.
Here’s how it looked this morning with all three planets rising above the Waning Crescent Moon (44%). Jupiter is the brightest planet above and to the right of Saturn which is above the Moon, and Mars is following behind. It looks like I caught a satellite just left and lower than the Moon again this morning.
It’s supposed to start raining tomorrow and cloud up, but if by chance it’s clear tomorrow morning I’ll be up to photograph it. Tomorrow is the last day to observe them when they’re lined up so nicely then Mars will begin marching further eastward and be pulling further away from the other planets.
If you’re up an hour before sunrise on the 16th look southwest or look for the rising moon you can see the conjunction with your eyes no special gear required. Mars will be above and slightly right of the Moon with Saturn and Jupiter above Mars.
By the time first light appears in the morning sky before 6AM for me- dim Saturn and Mars are lost in the light and only Jupiter still burns bright above the moon.
I hope you’re all having a good week, and your spirits are up and you’re busy and well!
Nikon D810| Nikkor 35mm| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 21.1.1
more to come…
UPDATE! April 16, 2020 -It was clear this morning and the moon’s light shining in my bedroom window woke me up so I got up and photographed this line up too. As you see Mars is moving further away from the other two planets. I won’t be getting up and photographing this one again this month. There are other things I have planned this month though. 😀
Nikon D810| Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G| PS CC 21.1.1
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Whatever Weds. Looking up
Copyright © 2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The end of March and through yesterday has been for me, a time of looking up to the night sky. Starting at the end of March I was looking up to see the Moon, Venus and the elusive star cluster called the Pleiades in conjunction. This was a practice shot because the night I was hoping to see Venus and the Pleiades closer together on April 3rd we had rain and snow so the sky was too cloudy to see them. That was a once-in-an-eight year event! I’m just glad I practiced so I saw this conjunction.
Nikon D810| Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G|f/2.8|2.8s|ISO 400| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3
Last night was the Supermoon. It appears just a bit larger than normal because the Moon comes the closest to Earth in its elliptic orbit called perigee.
We’ve been having light rain and snow and it was overcast all day but, we got lucky last night and the sky to the east was clear! I went down to the golf course with my next-door neighbor to photograph the Supermoon rise over the Pinenut Mountains.
Nikon D810| 24-120mm at 70mm|f/10|1/6s|ISO 250| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3
Then I switched cameras and made an image of just the Moon. Our moon looked more golden than pink, but the Belt of Venus wasn’t very deep in color around us either so…golden.
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm LM OIS at 386mm| f/11| 1/100s| ISO 250| SunDisk Digital Film|PS CC 21.0.3
More things that are looking up is that we’ve had 8 people who had the Covid-19 virus move to the recovered side of life! There are still 17 active cases in our Quad county region. There have been no deaths yet. Knocking on wood that continues and that all move to the recovered column soon!
I hope you’re doing well and keeping busy.
I’ll leave you this thought today.
““Bad stuff does happen sometimes, always remember that but remember that you have to move on somehow. You just pick your head up and stare at something beautiful like the sky or the ocean and you move the hell on.”
― Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas
more to come…
Wordless Weds. Reflections
Copyright © 2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Nikon Df| Nikkor 24-120mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3
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Friday’s Feathered Friends-Scaups
Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
When it was snowing last week my neighbor and I took our cameras for a walk and had a lovely couple of hours birding our own neighborhood. We’ve been keeping 6 feet apart and she’s in my very small group of contacts that I am seeing as we get through this pandemic.
These are Lesser Scaups that migrate and winter here. There are currently several pairs staying in a couple of the ponds at the golf course that meander through our community.
They are in the dipping/diving duck family and are the most abundant diving duck in North America.
I have no idea how much longer they’re going to be here, but I’ve enjoyed seeing them here.
This is a group of both males and females that got skittish as we got closer to their end of the pond.
Going for walks when I can have been great for my mind and spirit. I hope you’re all finding ways to keep your spirits up during this self-distancing and quarantine time.
We’ll get through this! 🥰
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm LM OIS| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3
more to come…
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