Birds along the bike path

We were out biking along the Rillito and Santa Cruz bike paths on Sunday afternoon.  The Santa Cruz bike path on the east bank takes you right past the Sweetwater Wetlands Park.  The wetlands include some small lakes where birds really love to hang out.

This shot shows the abundance of birds hanging out at the Wetlands.  This shot was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/3000 seconds at f/11, ISO 800.

Catching birds in flight was surprisingly difficult considering how often the birds would take off - usually just out of frame.  This image was taken at 1/1500 seconds at f/11, ISO 800 at 300mm focal length.

A flock flies past the area in this frame.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/4000 seconds at f/11, ISO 800.

A few miles down the bike path heading towards Speedway, we came upon this hawk who watched us carefully as we stopped to admire him.  Of course, while I was adjusting my camera, he actually flew off.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/11, ISO 800.

Kitt Peak sunset silhouette

I was thinking it would be fun to get the sun setting right behind Kitt Peak, but the location west of Tucson along Kinney Road in Tucson Mountain Park was a bit too far north so that the Sun set on the northern flank of the Coyote Mountains that lie just east of Kitt Peak, near the right edge of this image.  With the harsh sunset lighting, I used some HDR combines of a set of 5 images to get the best range in the image.

This first HDR combine uses the Ashikhmin operator and displays the colors in the sky nearly as I saw them.  The 5 exposures that went into the combine range from 1/3000 sec at f/16, ISO 800 with my 75-300mm telephoto lens at 250mm focal length to 1/180 seconds at f/16, ISO 800.

This HDR combine using the same 5 images mutes the colors with a Mantiuk 06 operator but shows detail in the mountain rainge that is not visible in the more saturated version.

HDR Sunset

I was out playing with my new camera again at sunset tonight.  Here are a couple HDR combines (using auto exposure bracketing in the camera and a sequence of 5 shots and Luminance HDR on my Linux box for the combine)  of the desert landscape looking west into the sunset.  It's amazing how different the combines can be.

 I liked this shot because it has a lot of color saturation.  Most of the foreground detail are only visible in the longest exposure so I was very pleased at how it appears here.  With the bright sun, the shortest exposures that show the halo of sunlight show very little else.  This view is not too far from what my eye saw while composing the shot - the human eye and brain is excellent at being able to see this type of scene.  The shortest exposure was 1/8000 seconds at f/8, ISO 100 using my 24mm f/1.8 lens on my 70D.  The mid exposure was 1/2000 seconds at f/8, ISO 200.  The longest exposure was 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 200.  The HDR combine was a fattal operator.

This HDR combine is a Mantiuk '06 combine of the same 5 images as the previous image.  The low saturation almost gives the appearance of there being snow on the ground.

Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope portrait

The Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope sits for a portrait in the early evening twilight as I opened the telescope for observing tonight.  I was planning to set up for a timelapse. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye on my 70D with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 6400.  The lighting was mostly by my waving an LED flashlight over the scene fairly quickly.

This image was taken shortly after the last one.  In this case, I flashed on the dome lights for less than a second to provide the lighting for the telescope.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye and an exposure of 20 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 6400.  I stopped the shot down to improve the depth of field and to help get a better exposure with the dome lights which overexposed an earlier attempt with similarly quick on/off of the lights.

Looking for Santa

I was observing on Kitt Peak the night before x-mas and setup a timelapse outside my dome.  Here the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope dome is front and center with the winter Milky Way looking like smoke rising from its chimney.  Orion is prominent above and right of the dome as is Taurus near the top of the frame above Orion.  Jupiter is the bright object above and left of the dome.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens on my Canon 70D with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 3200.

Mt. Graham and the LBT from Kitt Peak

Tucson is known as the Astronomy Capital of the World because it has attracted so many observatories to its dry climate with more than 200 clear nights a year.  I happen to observe mostly on Kitt Peak, though I have also spent nights at nearly all the major observatories, including Mt. Bigelow in the Catalinas just north of town, Mt. Hopkins south of town, and Mt. Graham east of Tucson near Safford.  Mt. Graham houses the largest telescope in Arizona in the Large Binocular Telescope which combines the light of two 8-meter mirrors.  The LBT as it is called is huge and its building dwarfs most other buildings.  I have posted pictures on this blog in years past of the LBT as it is seen from the VATT (Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope) that is a short hike away from the LBT on Mt. Graham and is a great place to take pictures of the giant LBT.  It so happens that you can see the LBT from Kitt Peak which is a mere 112 miles away.  You can see it pretty easily when it is backlit in the morning sunrise with a pair of binoculars.

 This first image was taken this morning just after sunrise with my 75-300mm telephoto at 300mm with an exposure of 1/350 seconds at f/8, ISO 800.  You can see the LBT building on the distant Mt. Graham a bit left of center.  The mountains in front of Mt. Graham are the eastern end of the Santa Catalina's and in the middle foreground are the Tucson Mountains with the most prominent at the right edge being Cat Mountain.

In the mid-day sun, you can see lots of mountains, but you won't see the LBT very easily.  In the foreground are the Coyote Mountains that are part of the Quinlan mountain range that Kitt Peak is part of.  In the distance is Tucson surrounded by the Tucson Mountains to the west, the Santa Catalinas to the north and the Rincons to the East (at the right edge of the frame).  In the saddle between the Catalinas and Rincons you can see the distant Pineleno mountains that Mt. Graham is the tallest point of and is where the LBT is located.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm telephoto at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/3000 sec at f/16, ISO 800.

Taken around the same time, here is the view of Mt. Graham with my 75-300mm telephoto at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/2000 sec at f/11, ISO 400.

This last image was taken just before sunset with the shadow of Kitt Peak just below the frame.  What is cool is that the LBT is a bright white object that was plainly visible with my unaided eye and is an easy thing to see in this image.  Compare this to the earlier ones to see where the LBT is in those images.  Today was the 2nd time that I've seen the LBT without any visual aid from Kitt Peak and it requires the sun to be just in the right place and I presume the LBT dome has to be rotated so that it reflects light right back to us.  This image was taken at 300mm with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/11, ISO 400.

Pretty sunset clouds

The weather on Friday was rainy and cloudy, but it partially cleared around sunset with these spectacular clouds to the north of the UofA campus.  The white building at center is the National Optical Astronomy Observatories headquarters and this area is the center of the Astronomical capital of the world with the Lunar and Planetary Lab where I work on the right edge of this fisheye view and Steward Observatory on the left edge.  Behind me is the Flandrau Science Center and planetarium. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens on my 70D with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/5, ISO 400.

Wildlife on the Golf Course

While out golfing at Del Urich golf course at Randolph Park yesterday, we got to see this Coyote enjoying his own quest for birdies.  These images were taken with my Canon SX260.

The coyote headed down an embankment next to the 17th hole, towards a like that fronts the 17th green.

 I thought he was after the ducks, but it looks like he was just thirsty as he stops here for some water.

As we finished playing the 17th and were about to head to the 18th tee, I found the Coyote relaxing in the sunshine on an adjacent tee box.  He appears to be watching the rest of my foursome as they left the green off to the right.

Earlier in the round, this was the closest thing I had to a birdie on the course.

This hawk stood there looking around for a few moments - long enough for me to get my SX260 out and take his picture.  I did come closer to a birdie during my round, missing a 20 foot birdie putt by about 18 inches on the 2nd hole.

Moonrise over Tucson

I went up to A Mountain to watch a later moonrise over downtown Tucson tonight.  The clouds made for interesting skies.  In this first image, you can see the bright moon through the clouds and to its left is the planet Jupiter.  Downtown is at the left edge of the image.  This image was taken with my 50mm f/1.8 lens and an exposure of 6 seconds at f/11, ISO 1600.

This second image was taken with my 24mm f/1.8 lens and an exposure of 6 seconds at f/11, ISO 1600.

Zooming in on the downtown area shows the tallest buildings in Tucson.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm telephoto lens at 130mm focal length with an exposure of 3 seconds at f/11, ISO 1600.

Old Main in HDR

I went for a hike around the University of Arizona campus around sunset and took some HDR exposures of Old Main, the oldest building on campus.  I bracketed 5 exposures from 1/350 seconds at f/8, ISO 400 with my 24mm lens to 1/20 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.  Here is the first exposure, the shortest:

 And here is the last, longest exposure:

Using Luminance HDR under Linux, Here are some of my favorite combines:

This used a Reinhard '05 operator.

This was the most colorful with a Fattal operator.

This final one gave perhaps the best contrast in the sky but was a bit low contrast in the foreground scene using a Mantiuk 06 operator.

Desert HDR experiments

During my hike in the desert along the Encinas trail, I took some images bracketing the nominal exposure.  The following set were done along with a set of shots through an IR filter (see my earlier blog post: IR in the Desert)  I took 5 images centered on the nominal exposure with 1 stop steps for each exposure.  The first image was the nominal exposure which I thought was a little over-exposed.

The first image was exposed with my 50mm f/1.8 lens at 1/90 seconds and f/8, ISO 400.  Exposure times for the other 4 images were 1/350, 1/180, 1/45 and 1/20 seconds.

This HDR image combine used an Ashikhmin operator in Luminance HDR on my Linux box with equation 2 and a levels adjust before saving the image.

This HDR image combine used a Reinhard '05 operator in Luminance HDR with a levels adjust before saving the image.

Desert hike photography

I took my new Canon 70D out on its first desert hike along the Encinas trail in the Saguaro National Park West on Saturday.  The trail hooks up with a wash and an old dirt road which was active in 1935 when several NGS markers were placed along its length - I used one of them as a location for a Geocache called "Surveying the Desert" that is still active as a virtual - that location was a goal since I haven't been out to that site in quite a few years, but the desert hike always presents lots of plant and sometimes animal life and this time of year is a good time to visit when the desert isn't so hot. Yesterday's blog posts IR in the Desert and Saguaro Moonrise has some more shots from later in this hike.

This multi-armed Saguaro cactus was nicely displayed against the shadowed hills in the distance.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm telephoto at 150mm focal length and an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/6, ISO 100.  I used the Landscape scene mode while trying to figure out different parts of my new camera.

Did I mention that there are lots of Saguaro cacti and other plant life along this trail?  Not to mention lots of hills and mountains to serve as backdrops for the nearby scenery.  This area is in the northern parts of the Tucson Mountains west of Tucson.  This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/350 seconds at f/11, ISO 200.

I mentioned that this desert area is a great place to see wildlife or at least the evidence of it.  Here is a deer hoof print in the sandy wash along the trail with the toe of my shoe for scale.  The exposure was 1/90 seconds at f/11 and ISO 200 with my telephoto lens at 75mm focal length.

The "bones" of a dead Saguaro are surprisingly photogenic.  Sad to see the remains of one of these magestic and long-lived desert plants but with at least a few arms, it must have lived a fairly long life, almost certainly more than 100 years.  This image was taken at 135mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 200.

Saguaro Forest

At the visitors center of the Saguaro National Park West, you can see one of the most dense "forests" of Saguaro Cacti there is.

 With a little bit of telephoto compression it really makes it seem like there's no room for anything but Saguaro Cacti in the desert.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 150mm focal length and an exposure of 1/6000 seconds at f/5, ISO 200.

There aren't just lots of cacti in this area, but many beautiful multi-armed cacti as well like this one, taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/4000 seconds at f/5, ISO 200.

Saguaro Moonrise

With the sun setting behind me, I watched the Moon over the hills to the east and couldn't resist a shot of it behind this well armed saguaro cactus as I hiked back to the trailhead.  This image was taken with my 50mm f/1.8 lens with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

IR in the desert

I took my new Canon 70D out for a little day hike in the desert and decided to see how it does with an infrared filter (a Hoya R72).  Here are some samples:

 This is a white light image showing the Moon rising over the hills nearby.  This exposure was made with my 75-300mm zoom at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/11, ISO 200.

This is the same composition with the Hoya R72 IR filter in place.  The exposure was 2 seconds at f/4, ISO 200.  I converted the original to B&W with the GIMP and a simple desaturate followed by a little curve stretching.

This is the original frame before desaturating the image.  The exposure was 2 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400 with my 50mm f/1.8 lens on my 70D.

This is the same frame, desaturated and stretched a little with the curves tool in the GIMP.

This is the white light version of the above.  The exposure was 1/350 seconds at f/8, ISO 400 with my 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Meep, meep!

This roadrunner was loitering along the Santa Cruz river path.  He was quite leery of the photographer with a camera and long lens approaching him.  I got pretty close though and with my 75-300 zoom set at 300mm focal length on my 70D, I managed to get a good closeup.  This image was taken at 1/1000 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.  I'm still learning how to use my new camera and it did a great job of focusing on this subject.

Tucson in Twilight from Kitt Peak

A beautiful morning with some haze and clouds and the lights of Tucson as viewed from Kitt Peak.  The Coyote Mountains are silhouetted against the brighter valley behind them and a hint of some stars are still visible in the sky overhead.  This image was taken with my Canon 70D with my 50mm f/1.8 lens set to 6 seconds at f/8, ISO 3200.

Comet Lovejoy

Comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy is still visible in the morning sky, slowly moving into conjunction with the sun and slowly fading as well.  The image above was taken from Kitt Peak with my Canon 70D and my 50mm lens at f/1.8 with an exposure of 10 seconds at ISO 3200.  The image below is the same image with some curves adjusting - you can see the comet a little better near the center of the image.  If you know where to look, you can even find the globular cluster M-13 - the western half of the constellation is near the bottom just left of center.

Lunar Halos on Kitt Peak

In case anyone is wondering why I'm not doing any observing early this evening, the sky over Kitt Peak is covered by a thin haze and the first quarter moon is producing a very bright halo in the sky. This image includes the Spacewatch 36 inch telescope dome in an image with my 10mm fisheye lens on my 70D with an exposure of 8 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400.  The 22 degree halo is quite prominent in this image.

I took a little hike over past the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok Telescope and got this heavenly picture of the lunar halo around the dome.  You can see that they were open, though I can't imagine they are getting any useful data....  The exposure was 20 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600 with my 10mm fisheye lens on my 70D.  Not only is the 22 degree halo prominent, but I think you can also make out the 46 degree halo faintly, especially in the preview image.

And finally at the top of Kitt Peak, here is the 4-meter Mayall telescope under the moonlit sky.  This exposure with my 10mm lens on my 70D was 20 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600.  It almost looks like daylight in this image, but I can assure you, it was just a long exposure in the moonlight.  The 4-meter was also open despite the cirrus all over the sky.  The faint 46 degree halo appears to visible in this image as well which convinces me that it really was visible.