Sunday, December 08, 2002|
Lately I've been having fun by putting my digital camera on a tripod, taking it outside at night, pointing it at the sky, cranking the aperature all the way open and then taking a picture with the slowest shutter speed I could get to (8 seconds, if I remember correctly). The results have been better than I expected. I live in a pretty badly light-polluted area (metro Seattle), and so what I normally get to see of the night sky is not much. But the camera is picking up stuff that I didn't expect. It's fun to start comparing the star fields I've photographed to charts (I'm using a color edition of Sky Atlas 2000.0). It feels almost as if I'm doing some sort of science.
The next step is to hook it all up to my telescope. I've got the hardware I need to that on order, it should be here by next week (my wife let me have it for xmas). I can't wait. Of course, this means that the sky will be constantly overcast for at least the next few weeks. Go ahead and blame me. |
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I've gotten addicted to listening to audio books with my iPod while riding the bus to work. Currently I'm listening to the unabridged version of "A Beautiful Mind" from audible.com -- which will now let you burn CD's, although that's probably old news. Audible needs more selection, but it's still got some really good stuff. I like that they have subscription available for almost all of my favorite NPR stuff.
I guess if I'm mentioning online audio stuff I like and use, I should also mention EMusic. Even less mainstream stuff than audible.com, but still good to browse. And at less than the cost of one CD a month, you can download all you want. |
Last update: 6/29/2005; 4:01:28 PM .
