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?

FogBow seen in my Past

 So the other day while working on moving my trillion and five image files from older external Hard Drives [eHDs] to smaller faster eHDs that fit within my folded hand, I've also been looking through some of the files for lost and great memories! Last night while Sheila was looking through her social media feed, she saw someone's post that displayed a rainbow, and that one rainbow post lead to another, so I searched online for how many types of rainbows exist and was shocked by the result! Soon enough my eyes stumbled upon the rare occurrence of a fogbow, which is a colorless bow usually seen during a foggy day. This got me thinking because I have seen a fogbow, and many times while in my foggy San Francisco, and waaay back in 2016 [below]while visiting friends in Norway! 

Have YOU seen a fogBow?  

Rain Showers means Rainbow Sightings!

We are tired and wanted to escape from moving and getting reorganized again. Whoever thinks moving is fun and reorganzing your Life possessions again is easy, is very welcome to join us! We escaped to Old Fort Niagara on the southern shores of Lake Ontario yesterday, and it turned out to be a good idea as we no sooner than arrive when we saw a rainbow. After that were the fabulous clouds - when aren't clouds fabulous? We look UP often - do you look too?

 

Clouds over the upper Niagara River of WNY

Not recent BUT am just STiLL looking back over the 10000s of image files I've been looking through lately, and it never ends. But one great thing about looking through these hard drives: reLiving the fabulous scenes, clouds, Nature and journeys, and it just never stops!

Icy but Populated Upper Niagara River

Yesterday we were blessed with a fairly decent day with even visible splashes of blue sky! BUT the clouds were gooorgeous! How were the clouds in your area? Just mouse-over with your cursor over the image to see which image was snapped with my phone or the camera!

Today the upper Niagara River of western New York was still whitish with a lot of ice passing through, along with those ice donuts I enjoy seeing! Lots of Canada Geese in the area above and below, along with Common Mergansers and more in the river during these cold winter months!

Do YOU Look UP?

It seems Sheila and I look up almost all the time. Of course we can't be looking ALL the time, or we'd be falling left and right, and bumping into things!! I know about that very much from places and years past.... 

BUT to see the treasures above, is more than often very worthwhile! 

Do YOU look up to admire the pleasures Natures gives us?

Just Another Upper Niagara River Sunset

Yup, it's just yet another sunset. We are used to this color of gold....  

I am just so lucky to always be in some fabulous locations with awesome clouds and sunsets!

Looking SKYward to NeoWise

The comet C/2020 F3 (NeoWise) has been on the news and online for weeks now, and it's the brightest comet seen so far this year! 

Over the Niagara Falls on 14 July (comet is at far right corner in the clouds)

Sheila and I have been snapping pixs of it for three days, not including last Wednesday when we had thunderstorms most of the day and night so it was impossible to see. We have also been trying to get the comet in different WNY locations, and so far succeeding! The last time I saw a comet at all, was in Rota, Spain back in the late 90s, and I remember seeing that comet even during the day hours, it was soooo bright!!! No pictures from that as it was still my film days, but how I remember the details so well!!

At Niawanda over the Radisson Hotel Niagara Falls-Grand Island

So do YOU look up to the sky at night? We do, and so should you!! The comet has been in the NW sky now, and "rising" each following day even higher than the night previous. We have even tried to see it, and with success, even on cloudy days when the forecast cloud cover was less 50%. Good luck!!

Both above pixs while at Old Fort Niagara last night

 

Lightning Strikes

Last night was a light show of sorts, and the very best type: Nature put on this show just for me (okay, not just for me but it felt like it since it seemed I was the only fool outside for an hour in the hail, wind, rain and coolness!).

I have tried almost all my life behind a viewfinder, trying to capture two subjects: meteors and lightning. In 2016 I succeeded in getting the meteors and now surprisingly, I catch them easily!

Lightning on the other hand, has been elusive still, till a night ago when a long line of severe thunderstorms began moving into western new York. We were watching the 11pm news as usual, and then began the weather forecast, and it was then when I thought it would be the best time ever for a lucky night of lightning! I hurried to dress, grabbed the camera and a bag to cover it with, and walked quickly to the riverside to set up and try my luck once again!

I've known since the last century that the wind picks up once rain falls somewhere. That started up as soon as I stepped outside. It hailed for a while, then continued on and off of pouring rain while I was busy exposing my virtual film!

There were also quite a few times I'd be blinded by a white flash! I figure a strong lightning had just hit somewhere, and sure enuff, when I looked at the images later, I had quite a few frames that were close to, or completely white! So sign of a bolt on film but I know it's probably in there hidden in the whiteness somewhere!

BUT my life-long goal in capturing one of those lightning flashes has finally succeeded, as I ended up with a few lucky images!

But I also enjoyed my time out in the darkness, as there wasn't a second when the sky was NOT lit up with bright flashes hidden by thick clouds, and later as the clouds seemed to thin out, I could finally see the fabulous lightning lighting up my sky for some time that night!

What a splendid light show!!!! Did you see it in your area?

Stay safe and masked on this Day 106 of the New York state pandemic!!

Looking west toward Grand Island, New York

The flashes of lightning was without end but gorgeous!

Always great to see Nature at work!!

Hunter's Moon in western Michigan

As in other climates and locations with crazy forecast weather conditions that never are accurate, we missed the full moon yesterday as it was almost overcast for most of the day. Last night it was still overcast, so we weren't really looking for it, but just before dawn, we woke early to see the Hunter's Moon in a partly cloudy sky about 15-degrees above the partly cloudy horizon. We both dashed around getting dressed quickly, and readying the cameras.

This is my uncropped and unedited full moon snap Monday morning before it disappeared slowly behind fast-moving clouds!! 

Did you see the Hunter's Moon? Post a picture!!

Scenes from Another Walk-About

After days of cloudy (or not) skies, we took off again in the van to go to a popular park to walk and stretch our legs. We encountered ROAD CLOSED signs on the roadway giving motorists access to the very popular Millennium Park in Kent County, Michigan. Days ago, we stopped to photograph the rising waters of the Grand River which borders this road. The river itself was at very high tide, and had flooded parts of a small unpaved park parking area and boat ramp. Two days later and the road to the boat ramp is closed and the flooding had extended to the other side of the road. It wasn't very deep but one can never tell. There are countless tales of motorists driving without caution into flooded roadways, only to be calling for assistance later as their vehicle has stopped in the flood waters. A vehicle should never be driven into floodwaters of ANY height simply because you can never tell how deep that water is.....

A beautifully reflective flood pond!

While photographing the scene, we watched as many vehicles simply drove past the caution signs and into the calm flood waters! One truck even went in fast and threw up huge and high waves of water. 

Nobody got stuck in the water but it could have been the case! A few bicyclists drove through the water, including one biker wearing an ESPAÑA jersey!! Really!! 

After a few more snaps, we walked finally on a paved trail to get to the other side of the flooded area. 

A mile and an hour later, we were on the other side, watching from where we were snapping earlier. Again, a few vehicles passed us to head to the flood waters which had receded a little. 

It was fun however, watching two guys at the other end where an hour ago WE were standing. They were filming themselves playing in the water and doing hand stands!

O M G It's Going to be Another Green Night for Some

It really looks like it may be great conditions for viewing the aurora for some lucky ones in North America when night arrives in a few hours. The aurora should be very bright and visible for many in the northern latitudes here, and in northern regions of Europe right now!!! We are hoping to be equally blessed and see and photograph some of this either tonight or tomorrow night! 

Good luck to all, and post some pictures of the aurora!

O M G It's a HUGGEEEE solar storm tonight!!!

Thinking of going out later tonight with cameras at the ready. I have never seen RED in the aurora activity maps ever before!!! Below are screen captures off my S5 of the app I use to determine whether we go/don't go to attempt "seeing" any auroras that might be floating around.

WE were in this area earlier this year!

It was here we watched the simmering night sky from a cabin

Upon arrival, this was my initial focusing image with light pillars at right

Second pix of the night with more light pillars

The smartphone app screen capture below shows the aurora map that we didn't see till we were nearly home at about 3am, Sunday morning (1 Sept). We had NO idea we had just departed our viewing area with another HOT red "excellent" (excellent being VERY dependent on your location!) zone of the aurora heading right to left and closer to where we were last night! Hours earlier, the red displayed below was even LARGER than pictured! Unfortunately, these areas most go to see/snap auroras are dead of data and/or phone service. While we were in the upper peninsular area of Michigan, we were basically without both data and cell reception within an hour of departing to the upper Peninsular, and within an hour and a half of returning to the greater Grand Rapids, Michigan from the upper Peninsular (UP), and it's a 3hour+ drive from where we were just to get to the bridge leading to the UP! 

I must say that in all of my few years of hunting the aurora and viewing such aurora data and pages displaying aurora maps like this below, I have NEVER seen RED at all! Really!

 

At least, we DID see the light pillars, which we have never seen previously! How was your luck if you are in a higher latitude area, and ventured out to try your luck?

Great Wellsville Hot-Air Balloon Rally

WE have finally had a chance to see hot-air balloons over the weekend!! Now we are back at home, but so delighted we were lucky to see the intense fast work balloon teams must accomplish in order to launch. Hard work, but with a gratifying launch to the sky where they look so easy soaring with the clouds, raptors and, to look down upon the glorious Earth and countryside. 

It wasn't anything even close to a "perfect" four-day hot-air ballooning weekend, but all teams made the best of it, explaining how things work, showing their equipment off, and in general, just answering a lot of questions of many who asked! Though the wind did not cooperate at all, there was a huge crowd out to see these big and colorful balloons once they were inflated!

Our thanks to all the balloonists and their teams who came out from everywhere, to make it an incredible and colorful event! Thanks also to quaint town of Wellsville for sponsoring such an event, and the great fireworks afterwards! Thanks to Mother Nature who ensured Saturday night offered  just enough wind for some of the balloonists to even launch! Friday was the first day of this rally, and it was so wet, rainy and windy that Saturday evening was practically the only launch opportunity some balloonists had, and that was after the projected launch time was pushed back as winds were still too high! Even Saturday during the night, it poured down heavily, to make it even more difficult for any launches Sunday morning! 

Here's a few pictures, and remember to click to see them larger!

BUT everyone did stay around for the fireworks which was a great noisy but colorful hit with the kids!!