Archive 7. June 2013

Blackbird Nest #9


From this afternoon – it’s a jumble of proto-feathers, beaks and claws in there. No headcount possible anymore, but they’re definitively growing like they want to leave the nest tomorrow :-).

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ATV-4 Flyover #1


The only photo I got yesterday of ESA’s ATV-4 Albert Einstein space transporter, which has launched on Wednesday and is on its way to the ISS. I totally botched this one – I didn’t expect it to be so dim and I forgot to turn on RAW saving, so the result looks horrible… but the trail is visible. I’m going to try again later tonight – the ATV is now on the same orbit as the ISS and comes just about 15 minutes after the space station. Check your location on Heavens-Above.com, you can watch yourself!

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Strawberry Spider


I found this tiny little spider lounging on a strawberry blossom recently :-).

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Blackbird Nest #8


I haven’t processed the photos from today, so here’s another one from yesterday – beak alert! :-)

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ISS Flyover #5


I wanted to do something different for the second ISS pass yesterday, so I turned the camera sideways and did a 128-second exposure to get a really long view of the pass. Again, I didn’t even attempt to filter out the noise, only a little colour correction and contrast/brightness balancing. The sensor glow is still there, but not so distracting because it’s at the bottom in the tree – the glow on the horizon is, however, real light pollution from the city around us.

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Springflowers #62


Some more lilac. And I’ve had it with the roman numerals… I’m switching to real numbers now :-).

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ISS Flyover IV


Okay, I think I’m getting the hang of the new camera now. This is the ISS pass from about 0:33 to 0:40 a short while ago – travel direction is right to left in this 64-second exposure. I brightened it up a bit to bring the startrails out, but I left the noise in because filtering would just result in a blurry mess. I got the ATV transporter in a seperate image too, but I somewhat botched the first attempt – I’m going to post the second attempt tomorrow, or rather later today :-).

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