Night Sky

I had the most amazing opportunity the other night, the chance to hook my camera to a telescope.

One of the teachers at the local high school is a mad keen astrologist, after a lot of talk and promises to show me the stars it finally happened. When I thought about taking photos of the stars, I imagined that we would go somewhere out bush with plenty of dark, so when we started making firm plans to catch up I was very surprised to find he decided my backyard was the perfect spot.

Let me tell you is is much easier to set up a lens than it is to set up the telescope, there was weights and counter balance, motorised swivel heads, web cams and lots of other gadgets I had no idea what they could be and lots  and lots of cables.

I am a see it and shoot sort of photographer so it was fascinating to watch the set up procedure of the telescope using the webcam the telescope focused on 3 bright stars in the sky, these were used to set the tracking then using a 'star gazing' program coordinates were programed and the telescope moved and zoomed in to the stars/solar systems.

I felt like a bit of a fraud claiming I took these photos, as all I did was connect the camera and set the ISO and time  (they were all taken in bulb mode requiring the need to set a time) my camera did not recognise the telescope as a lens so the fstop was 00, however it was pointed out to me as a photographer this is what we do, I did get the telescope moved a few times to get a better composition. So I am owning this photos and the whole experience.

The lens getting set up in the backyard

The bright star in the middle of the bright area is Eta Carinae a binary star in the constellation Carina approximately 7500 light years away from the sun

M8 and M20 - the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulea, 2 famous nebulae in Sagittarius (I was actually able to see the scorpion in the sky) 

M 83 is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 15 million light years away in the constellation Hydra, it is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky

I am really looking forward to doing this again, it is not something I will be spending money on (phew says HWMBO) the best nights for star photography is clear dark nights and the best time for clear skies is winter....I am not a fan of the cold. This year is very cold at night.

Bird Shooting

There is nothing like getting up at 4:30am and going for a photo outing....and would you believe not even a sunrise shoot.
2 of the men from the Flickr group joined me for an outing hunting for birds - Kitfox is a keen bird photographer who knows the best spot so I asked him for help with the new lens - I am still very shaky (I found out you need to turn on the image stabilizer first ***a very good tip***)

While waiting for 41C, a kestrel was obligingly flying around for me to practice on, too far away for a really clear shot but good all the same

We started the morning at a private residence at Obi Obi, the owners have planted heaps of gravilla plants to encourage the honey eaters, of course because the expectation was high for a lot of birds this morning only produced a few. I know I can get better shots of the honey eaters, this is just a sample of what I got Tuesday morning.

Bell Bird Creek cafe is a favorite spot of mine, they serve great coffee, the best service and the bird life is incredible. I had asked Kitfox to find me some wrens to photograph as they are so small and fluffy and one of my favorite birds. I was really keen for a blue wren or variegated wren with the blue head and the orange collar - I did get one, from a long way away so this photo is very cropped.

I am happy with my red back wren and his female. Lots more practice is required - it is a shame the birds get up so bloody early.

Two more that I had forgotten about the kingfisher and the red brow finch, I love these little birds, they are so small, yet it is easy to get very close

Why do so many people like to dress up?

This weekend took me to the annual Abby Museum Medieval Festival, Caboolture. This festival is very popular, with people coming from all over Australia and if you believe the hype they come from all over the world....

Everything is supposed to represent how it was in Medieval times, the clothes the food, the tents, everything EXCEPT how they take your money....while they ask for gold coin as payment most of them are very happy to take YE OLDE CREDIT CARDS......

The food is amazing…yes I know that you can get the same food at most festivals…BUT I am sure it tastes so much better when the vans are covered in hessian and bunting. Diet be dammed I wanted to try everything, lucky I was there with #1, #3 and her +1 so between us we tried a lot the first day, day two HWMBO came with me so we tried the more. (I even bought cold venison pies to cook for dinner….yummy)

Dressing up….I get the re-enactment, this is an awesome part of the experience, I get that the stall holders and merchandise sellers need to follow the guide lines set out for the festival. I can even understand visitors dressing in medieval garb….but what I don’t understand - why people would come dressed as Captain America, teddy bears and characters from Assassin's Creed (I only know this coz +1 told me). Do people like to dress up so much that they use any excuse?

HWMBO likes me to dress up, but usually in private, so I was a bit surprised when he looked at prices and wanted to buy me a fur collared cloak.  Something like this will need to be worn in public..or to a Medieval Festival….(actually I think I would wear it when ever I could).

It was a fun weekend with sword fights, jousting, gypsies and birds of prey. We walked for hours and on both days when I finally had a chance to sit down and watch a show, the heavens opened and released freezing cold rain, as the crowd opened traditional medieval umbrellas, it was too much for me so home to my warm house with all the mod cons to heat up the venison pie and have a glass of wine.

I took a lot of photos and these are some of my favorites

This guy - I have named Fluffy... his name was Norm (doesn't that suit him?)
I stalked him for ages trying to get him to stand still - in the end I pushed in - the funnest thing happened after I took this shot...another lady wanted 'fluffy's' photo and asked him to stay put. HWMBO photo bombed her....he never does stuff like that and not to strangers!

The Turkish Second in Command - The Ottoman was giving a talk on weaponry... I didn't think it was right to interrupt when he had a sword in his hand... I love the peacock feather in this dudes hat

This little guy was watching the knight training school, it was like he was too young to play and had to watch from the sidelines

The Trebutchet...this is a 1/4 size of a medieval trevutchet used to win a war against so Barron...I listened to the story be only heard bits. I was more interested in watching it in action....much to my disapointment they were not allowed to shot the flaming balls (although he told me they had during the night) 

HWMBO was keen to see how the blacksmiths were set up, he has been slowly adding to his blacksmith supplies and collecting the charcol from the fire each night.

Beautiful Barn Owl, I got to hold and pat this beautiful girl, she was part of the bird of prey show.

Ladyhawke....Isabeau (HWMBO loves Michelle Pfiffer)

The Wedgetail eagle was very popular...such a beautiful bird, I felt sorry for him until I was told it was a rescued bird that will never fly. I could see the love the bird had for the 'Falconer' by the way he would bury his head in his shirt and wrap his wings around like a feathery hug.

This dude was a crack up...he was just a visitor the the festival and when I asked for his photo he said only  if he could take mine....sure but I am going first! I loved the blue eyes on the pelt.

Beautiful Gypsy Horse, the braiding in the mane was perfect. (This is a romany horse, first time at the festival)

Green lady in the crowd. She was watching the opening parade in the row in frount of me, she looked so beautiful I couldn't resist the opertunity