I just missed a photo of this baby standing at the bottom of this telescope looking up at the eclipse (with no one else in the frame). That photo was not to be as my camera was set to 1/8000, ISO 100, f/40, 340mm at the time (which worked great for the eclipse but would have yielded nothing but blackness for this view). By the time I got my D7000 to 1/100, f/2.8, 105mm a few seconds later for this photo op the scene had changed to this. Not bad, but not quite as cool.
It was a last second decision to go to ScienceWorks for the eclipse. There were many places in town I could have taken photos, and they would have all come out fairly similar of the eclipse itself. However, I decided seeing some of the people at the ScienceWorks eclipse viewing party, in addition to the eclipse, might make this a more lively evening. I also wanted to pick up some solar viewing glasses that ScienceWorks was handing out, but they were long gone (along with all of the nearby parking spaces) by the time I arrived at 6 p.m.
This woman did not move for at least 10 minutes. She appeared to be meditating. Visions of Heaven’s Gate passed through my mind.
May 20, 2012 solar eclipse as viewed from ScienceWorks in Ashland, Oregon
I had planned to head down to Weed, California to photograph yesterday’s eclipse (as that is where the eclipse was supposed to be closest to 100% in the area), but a number of factors caused me to stay in Ashland instead. Even though the sun was behind clouds, that didn’t seem to change the view of the eclipse. It looked great through proper instruments including my Nikon D7000. I didn’t look through the viewfinder. Instead I used sunglasses and live view.
For best results in photographing an eclipse, reduce your ISO to 100, increase your shutter speed to maximum (1/8000 for the above photo), and use your smallest aperture possible (f/40 for the above photo).
The above photo is as total as the eclipse got in Southern Oregon, better than expected with sun coming around all parts of the moon (annulus) even if the moon wasn’t perfectly centered.
Eclipse viewers at Ashland's ScienceWorks
A surprise appeared on the wall behind me as the tree’s shadow showed signs of the eclipse as the eclipse progressed. The crescent moon shadow pieces in the tree’s shadow were only there as the eclipse approached its annulus stage.
Roger Waters - The Wall Tour 2012 - AT&T Park - San Francisco, California
Roger Waters will be on 60 Minutes tonight (5/20/12) to talk about his current tour in which The Wall is performed in its entirety. I’m hoping they have some high quality footage from the San Francisco show at AT&T Park I went to last week.
May 20th, 2012 | Tags: roger waters | Category: outside of ashland, people | Comments Off on 60 Minutes featuring Roger Waters and The Wall tour
Six months ago today David Grubbs was brutally murdered on Ashland’s bike path, just before the sun set, while walking home from work at Shop’n Kart. The police haven’t been able to solve the crime. The reward is now over $20,000, but it doesn’t seem anyone has any information available to claim it.
Southern Oregon University student Chas Barnard performs Bach's "Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1" at SOAR 2012
This past week has been SOAR (Southern Oregon Arts & Research) week at Southern Oregon University. Today was the final day, and it included a two-hour performance in the SOU Music Recital Hall.
Some Oregon Ducks for you today… These ducks aren’t from the University of Oregon in Eugene. No, these ducks were enjoying the day in Lithia Park’s Upper Duck Pond which will be celebrating its 100 year anniversary in just three more years.
Brandon McCarthy held Miguel Cabrera hitless last Saturday evening in Oakland. It isn’t often that Cabrera goes without a hit and strikes out twice. This is a guy who got on base 45% of the time last season and has finished in the top five of the AL MVP voting each of the past three years. But McCarthy had Cabrera checking his swing on several occasions. Cabrera didn’t like the strike call on one of his check swings and let the umpire know it. We could hear Cabrera still cussing all the way from the stands while Cabrera was getting ready to play defense the next inning.
Things wrapped up a bit quicker than I expected at the previously mentioned Musichead show in Medford last week. I thought we were half done when two of the four bands had played, but it turned out that bands three and four were one and the same so no stage changeover time was required. A couple of band members merely left the stage after a few songs, the remaining two members switched instruments, and a few songs later I was on my way home.
Since seeing Roger Waters perform The Wall in San Jose back in 2010 I’ve been longing to experience it again. This time around the wall was twice as big, running nearly foul pole to foul pole. Some things had changed and things were bigger and better in nearly every way. This was Roger’s first massive outdoor stadium performance in North America on the tour. After hitting some smaller venues he will eventually be bringing it to places like Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Yankee Stadium. If you can get to any of those venues you will not be sorry.
