When will we ever sleep?

I love newer technology. Better. Modern. Hopefully cheaper. The wife and I have debated for years on buying a telescope. Then it needs this to look through via a camera to snap pixs. Need a laptop and apps/programs to find stars galaxies and stuff, but now you need a gyro to make it turn.... the list and needed additions go on and on. We've been reading in recent months of the See Star s50. It's a "smart telescope". Sure, I'll bite: does it do tricks and serve tea? Then online, I've been seeing mentions of it with images in recent months and weeks. Nice images but nothing to brag about. Then a few days ago, the wife saw a post by someone online with images that were supposedly created using this SeeStar. These were better, MUCH better than the images I've been seeing. These were like images, really nice images!! We commented on the images and the person who posted explained that yes, it was created using the seeStar and other than using it, it was easy to obtain! A week later, we both now have a SeeStar, plus images!! The first two days of having it, it was cloudy and cold... freezing and windchill below freezing. No problem... we practiced indoors and used it to death so we knew how to do what we needed to do and hopefully have it do and find what we wanted it to seek and display. The next day after shopping, Sheila noticed it was partly cloudy and the moon was visible, though clouds were passing in front. We quickly got out our SeeStars and began setting up. Within minutes, we had our first images of the waxing crescent Moon. Turning around, we noticed the Sun was visible too. Ran inside the house to get the provided sun filter and got it turned around quickly, and started snapping the Sun. It hadn't been a full 24 hours yet since it arrived, and we now had our images of the Moon and the Sun! A few days later we imaged M42, the Orion Nebula. I sent a copy of the Orion Nebula to a friend, and he quickly replied stating he was surprised and shocked to see such great results already but only after a few days of its receipt, and having no real prior experience with telescopes at all, we got such great results! I felt exactly the same way: I was and remain so shocked that with NO prior training in telescopes, and not even reading a manual, I basically got these pixs which were - to us - so fantastic, nobody would believe we got them within days of its receipt! Now as Winter slowly crawls to bed with us, and Spring finally arrives, then summer, my only huge worry and question: when will we ever find time to sleep?

Moonbow over Horseshoe Falls, Canada

Usually I wouldn't post such a fuzzy grainy image, but as it was snapped very late at night with my SSG S5 without support or tripod, while on the Canadian-side of the Falls for the first time in many many months, and getting rained on by the heavy mist of the Falls, I'd say it looks quite good! 

We had just watched the 10pm fireworks and instead of heading straight home to the American-side, we decided to take advantage of the time (night) and our location (on the other side of the Falls) to snap some night illumination scenes of the waterfalls. The newer LED illumination can be very awesome to watch, and if you were here in the past when the illumination used was NOT the newer LEDs now used, it's a huge difference. I've seen both versions and it's now much better, plus the colors are crisp and vivid!

So we were there walking slowly around the Horseshoe Falls, being all us wet, and the cameras are wet too due to the mist falling all around us; when WE noticed the rainbow. Typically, the mist of the Horseshoe Falls is much intense and can be seen for miles, while the American Falls there is a mist, but it isn't as heavy and disappears quickly. If closer to the Horseshoe Falls, one can expect to see a rainbow anytime!!

Well, we were at the Horseshoe Falls during the night, and I wondered about this rainbow, when I realized it was a full moon night, and the Moon (and Jupiter) were out and above the horizon! 

This wasn't a rainbow BUT a Moonbow!!! Instead of light of the sun during daylight hours creating a rainbow, we were surprised by the quite unexpected moonbow creating such a lovely colored arch!

Still NO pot o'Gold at the other side though! Remember you can click on this snapshot to see it bigger ~ Enjoy!!

An incredible UNedited Moonbow SSG S5 pano over the Horseshoe Falls!

ooooh, how embarrassing!!!

I was driving back to get my sister and her grandson who I had dropped off in the Marina earlier. I then drove downtown to a gallery to see an exhibition - afterwards I dashed back to the Marina to get my droppees (iz dat a word?) when after parking, I spotted the glorious view of the crescent moon and a bright planet not too far separated. I thought this is even better than the Jupiter, Moon and Mercury of last summer! So after having everyone in the car, I dashed home and after dropping them off, got the camera, tripod and my newly-acquired remote camera timer (never used) and went downstairs to the street below to capture the rare scene! If you've ever been to my part of North Beach ~ or any part of this City for that matter ~ it's shewn with telephone cables and wires all over the place! I thought Europe was bad at obstructing what would normally be a gorgeous view with those awful ugly useless cables and wires! Well, I discovered after returning here that SF is even much more worst! grrrrr

It's so disgusting to think that while on that sidewalk, many people walked past me, not looking at where my camera pointed, or even a bit interested in the rare performance above their heads! What a sorry state of our society where we think the iPod attachment to our "minds", the texting on the cell.... or even the stress of a workday is much more important that the heavenly and visually beautiful things we avoid/miss in a day, week or during our lives... simply because we don't take a split second to look around us or even take an interest of what's going on around us on the street and look up.

sigh......

After testing out my timer - how cool - I thought what an useless foto to just show the Moon and lovely Venus ~ why not get a picture of both with some City landmark? So I looked around... I could only see Coit Tower as a possible point of interest that I could even possibly think of finding it together with these heavenly stars right now. So jump in the car, dash yet again to the Embarcadero and drive slowly and all the way looking to the right to see whenever I even had a view of the moon and Venus. Eventually finding a spot when I could see the two players, I parked, got the tripod then set about looking for a place where I could SEE Coit Tower and the performers behind the lit tower. At one time, I was on a street - or thought I was on a public street when a car stopped not 10 feet away, and with the window glass lowering, the driver stated that I was on private property and if I could step OUT to the sidewalk.... I pointed I wasn't photographing the buildings but the moon, and he insisted still I move out to the sidewalk to which I obliged..... how stupid... and also the sentiment of several people who saw and heard the exchange of words.Getting off a few snaps but as the moon and planet were sinking lower into the skyline, I moved across the street where there was a uniformed privated security guard standing, hands in pockets. how unprofessional!! I went about setting up the tripod again to snap some shots and when I moved into an adjoining green area which again I thought was public property, this guard jumped up and stated in a clear voice that I should stay on the sidewalk! I looked at him and stated I was leaving the area and walking through the green area to the other sidewalk... and left that stupid area and its guards. How paranoid can a society get as to not even allow a photographer snap pixs of something beyond its property... what a sick society this is beginning to develop into.

On the other side, I could see that I was going to have problems... the moon and its companion were too low, there were too many trees and lamp-posts and other obstructions, so I had to get farther away... so with extended tripod and mounted camera, I cross two major and busy thoroughways to look... and after a few monutes I found a place where I could see not only Coit Tower and its two dancers, but a good portion of all three not blocked by things. Having the long 170-500 Sigma lens, I would get only a very tight closeup view of the scene before my eyes. A lot of people passing by commented on the scene we observed and I replied between snaps - I was happier that here on the Embarcadero the people were much more human and I felt better.... happier that I was again among people who took the time to observe and therefore... to live! sigh..... I just cannot wait till I am back in my spanish apartment to live permanently!

Another photographer showed up eventually, his tripod-mounted camera at the ready. At one point he set up about 30 feet away from me, and though he had nodded his head at me and waved as he passed, later whn I attempted conversing with him, he never replied and within a few minutes, he left in the dark without even a wave.... still many people here spoke to me and even stopped to snap pixs with their own cameras, as if I were their inspiration.

sigh....

Then when I uploaded these pixs to my photo website, I mislabeled the images as being the crescent Moon with Mercury when it was actually Venus! I wasn't going to change the pictures but I hate being wrong, and displaying inaccurate information, so I deleted them and uploaded corrected versions of the images that you enjoy now....