GEMINIDS AND LIGHT POLLUTION

This is just an update to say I managed to capture, a solitary Meteor

on this Years Geminid Meteor shower night. It was taken on the 14th

of December 2013, I have updated my blog post, "LOOK OUT FOR THE GEMINIDS".

 single Geminid enters the Earths atmosphere

      They say it takes on average, 1200 photographic images to capture

just one with a fast moving Meteor, within your frame.

Over the Years I have made many attempts, to acquire these illusive

Meteor images, the British weather usually gets in the way, even this 

4:30 am capture was flooded by low, advancing cloud. not to 

mention the light pollution of nearby villages. 
Although the cloud did give the Trees, a scenic backdrop.
I normally don't over expose my images, but the above image was very
over exposed, the low resolution, the internet presents on a home 
monitor is to say the least, lacking, especially if the
 image is on the small size. This image is great, viewed at full resolution
and a VERY normal exposure. But we don't live in an ideal internet World.    -------------------------------------------------------------
If you click on the above image, and press hold your key board Ctrl key
while repeat press the + key   you should be able to view the image
larger, but it will be very low resolution.
To return your image to it's normal size, repeat the above but press
the 0 key that's  zero to you.

-------------------

AUTUMN AT HOWDEN DAM

After a few, "many" weeks of waiting for a tranquil , Autumn Day
 I cycled out on the last Autumn Day, before 
the official meteorological first Day of winter!. 
Destination, Howden Dam reservoir in the Derwent valley.

The Derwent Dam, between Ladybower and
 Howden Dam, made famous by 617 squadrons
 1943 practice bomb runs, in preparation

   

for operation "Chastise" the towers resembled the German
 Ruhr Dams,so made for an ideal substitute,
 for zero level flying. It must have been a very difficult task,
  low flying without instruments, in the dark!!. 

 

It was an ideal day for Landscape images, with the Gold

 and Russet colours of Autumn illuminating 

across the Howden reservoir, highlighted by

the late setting Sun, this next image, with it's

 grey sky making a neutral 

back drop to the Gold, Sunny hillside.   

To see the full Images click here.

You can also see an Image of Howden Dam HERE.

TOOLS FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Where do we start?, If you could see the possibilities of a location prior to travelling, precious  time would be saved. What follows here is my, and 

my fellow photographers Methods using on-line tools and
 applications, but by no means a complete list, I'm sure some one knows even more useful sources.

Wiki/file souce; Apollo 17

 First up and a great resource, GOOGLE EARTH;

http://www.google.com/earth/index.html

If you you don't know about Google Earth use the link above, you may also want to download the program from the link.

My main use with Google earth, is to narrow down a location, for parking
and marking my new found Image area, for a return visit.

I will not go into fine detail here, but one of the map features, i find
really useful, is the Map marker function always leave a marker on the Map, and make a note in the  information box. write down the Longitude and Latitude, for your sat nav etc, most places I travel to are in the middle of no-where.

The on the Google Earth-map, photo's sometimes give a great clue as to possible potential Image locations, if you see a photo/cluster, it usually indicates a special area that requires more exploration.

you will see photo's on the Google earth Map that will tap your

 imagination, there is always a new angle to view a potential photograph from, so after i examine users images, I usually follow up on a web search to gain even more information, a second

Image search in Google images, gives even more images, so

I can be more certain of a potential location.

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My next tool, The Photographer's Ephemeris

If you need to include our celestial bodies,Sun and Moon

within your Image then look no further than this great Photographers tool.
This next video gives a very visual use of this application, working.
Video tutorial by Matthew Gore can be viewed below;

 

The Photographer's Ephemeris, is also available for mobile devices, this makes
it a great tool on the move, or when away from your desktop (or laptop).
Example
This screen shot below, is of a location I used, to line up the setting Sun
with a Tree/hill. The intention was to block out the sun with the tree, and
so dropping the very over exposed blown sky. It never turned out as planned,
 I arrived late having cycled to pilsbury Hill fort, from Parsley hay.
The time/date was worked out to coincide with a setting Sun, along the valley
in front of the hill/tree. You can see from the screen shot below, the Orange line
represents Sun set on the 3rd of June/ time 20:42 GMT 

Pilsbury hill 53.1710°N, 1.8285°W

use the above Longitude/Latitude co-ordinates, in your TPE to see a clearer
rendition, of Pilsbury Hill Fort.

Please note; there is NO cycling allowed along the hill trail.

So the Sun was setting, and I was not prepared for the gas burner, in what was
a soundless valley (apart from sheep). The gas burner of a hot air balloon?, I was
diving into my camera bag, for what seemed an age, my tripod was already
set up on the hill, I locked the camera in position, no time to manually set the exposure
so it was put into auto. It captured a over and under exposed image, and is useless
to my Archive, but my timing in the second photo was spot on!!.   

 Sun and Tree and me, lined up, but will the balloon block the Sun?

Well, it did make a change to the foreground exposure, but no time to make a correctly
exposed image for the blown sky.

I settled for this Black and White image after re-positioning.

 

It  look's a lot better here/ www.amethystlandphoto.com

This  location will be better with some mist in the valley, so I will be using TPE
to plan a trip later in the year, when we start getting the mists rolling in!!

If you get The Photographer's Ephemeris you will discover, the red balloon
is used to position the land marker in the map positions.
It was pure chance that the balloon in my photo was also red, and also
chanced to appear out of no where.

Plans are great, but...............be prepared for the unexpected.

    

WINTER TREK

  A Winter walk, before the big thaw. Six inches had fallen near my home, but I 

wanted to see how Winter had effected the Birds in our countryside.

I packed a thermos flask and my trusty alpha 900, and hitched a ride into

Monyash, the side Roads were a little tricky so we opted wisely for

the B 5055, as we drove through Monyash, I observed the roof gutters had overflowed, forming long Icicles as did my own back home.

My trusty trek-pole with a removable beech top for camera mount

I set out along the Lathkill dale trail heading towards Rucklow Quarry
6 Inches of snow required my viewfinder walking pole.

The first Birds I encountered were calling Jackdaws high above
  the Quarry's tree canopies.
The next feature on the walk was the Lathkill head cave, where the River Lathkill emerges. This cave is only safe to explore deep

 if you are an experienced caver.

Just a little further down you will come across "FOX TOR" but

from 1776 the name changed to "PARSONS TOR". Due to the 

tragic accident of the Rev Robert Lomas rector of Monyash,

who on his horse, fell to his death one stormy night. He was

 returning back to Monyash from Bakewell.

See here a photo of Parsons Tor; http://www.amethystlandphoto.com
 

Parsons Tor to the right

Walking away from the tor I came across smaller Birds
 (Robins,wrens,firecrest ) on the numerous boundary posts across from
 the mossy, River Lathkill. Crossing over the River Lathkill via
the footbridge I headed through the wooded path towards
Cales Dale. Somewhere on my route I stopped to
Photograph a chambered Mossy nest, who's snowy topped
residence may have been Firecrest.

As the light was falling away, I headed towards One Ash Grange farm.
But not before one last snowy photo.

                               One Ash way back        J R Arrowsuch

After leaving the One ash Grange farm, Rooks were gathering in the
chilly winter bows, they are larger birds than the small robins/wrens
and tree creepers/firecrest that feed in the bottom of the
 Lathkill Dale, for that reason more probably survive the harsh winter months.
 I do have sympathy for our feathered friends, it's tough out
 in the countryside.

Take care on the Roads, and if you visit Lathkill Dale keep to the trails
there are deep mines strewn throughout this area.

TANGERINE REFLECTIONS

Traveling out from the Craig Goch Dam, I chanced on this River running like a ribbon of mercury, interrupted by the reflections of a setting Sun. I normally never have this kind of fly by, back light Image, from the side of a Road!.
More information here ; Photo

LOOKOUT FOR THE GEMINIDS

  The Geminids Meteor shower December 13th/14th a Date every year, you can see just one possible way "life", arrived on this planet, Meteorites. 
 Those innocent Meteors we see each Year, were
 much larger in the early bombardment, 
When the Earth was being formed. 

The above Image was taken on December 14th 2013, you can see on the top left of the picture, a solo Geminid meteor. 

  An over exposed enlargement of a different meteor, But.............what is the visible line shooting off the Meteor?(almost probably a plane or satellite). 
 
As i write this the rain is coming down, but that rain would not be

here but for Icy Asteroids and Meteors delivering it to the planet, Billions of years ago.

The Iron core of our Earth that gives us Gravity, was delivered to us

from across the Universe, and what's even more remarkable,

the Iron in your Blood (which we cannot live without) originated
 from the Iron within Meteorites!!

So next time your out in the dark ( if you can find any dark? ), look

up, and watch out for those Meteors, and think of our Origin and

our ultimate destiny. 
You can find a dark sky map of the UK here;
 http://www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk/images/darksky01.jpg 
The Welsh Marches are very dark. As are parts of Scotland. 
In the south there is always North Exmoor.
 
 As i posted HERE in January this year.
this year most of the meteor showers have the Moon out of the way,
so its much easier to see Meteors in the night sky.
you can see the Geminids in the UK, on December 13th into the early hours 
of next day (14th). on the evening of the 13th Meteors should start to
appear after 9:00pm, so not too late, but if you stay up till after midnight
you should see the peek of the shower at around 2:00am. no one can
predict the weather for the 13th and 14th but the Geminids, if the sky's
 are clear will be the best Meteor shower of 2012.
Predictions are for 60 to 70 Meteors per hour at it's peek.
The Geminids Meteors radiate from the constellation of Gemini,
the diagram below is facing North 10;00pm December 13th
 Find Orion the Hunter in the South West, Gemini is above,
you will need to look anywhere else but Gemini, if you
see a Meteor trace it back, if it shot from Gemini,you
have seen a Geminid Meteor, my camera will be set
on Bulb and Iso 400, Manual/Infinity, on a sturdy tripod
with remote release, exposure; my preference is for
9 seconds or less, using a 20 mm lens, any longer and you will get
 the Stars-trailing, unless that's what you want?. All makes of camera
require variants on the above set-up, experiment, and don't forget 
to release the shutter when your satisfied you've
 seen a Meteor in your frame.

The arrows show GEMINIDS

If i manage to capture an Image of the Geminids, I will be sure to 
update this page with a Geminid Image,
watch this space. 
For More on Meteors & Meteorites see here   http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.co.uk/
Wrap up warm, two of everything and Good luck
with the weather. 

Acknowledgements; Thanks to;
http://www.timeanddate.com/     for the count down timer.

AUTUMN START

 Autumn, as I promised a return visit to Waylands Smithy,
it turned out to be a real gem of a Autumnal day.
Excellent  conditions, light wind and good light, with
a bright Azure sky.
The Avenue of Beech trees, which have had a selective prune of their " widow makers", still looked good with their Copper coloured leaves.

Have to add a caveat though, the Summers wet and windy 
weather, has made the early leaves fall !!.
But don't let this put you off going out to see the remainder
 of the Autumn season.

The Images left and right are of the forest path, that brings you to
Waylands, keeping you off the deep muddy road.

the full Image is seen below, looking more like a Autumn
cathedral than a forest.




You can see the full Image "Here"
or below.

 
This next image is the about face of "Cathedral Fall"
facing the Sun, a desaturated rendering giving my Sony 20mm a chance to show the effect of working with a high aperture f16, the result is subtle floor light and a nice star effect around the Sun!.
The full Image can be seen " Here "

The final Image was the goal of the trip. The Autumn Avenue
of Beech trees at Waylands Smithy.
The full Image can be seen " Here "

Although some selective pruning had taken place
all the main trees were still in tact, and the Autumn colour
was superb, well worth the trip down to Oxfordshire.
Now all I need now is a snowy winter trip.