Sun Dog

This photo was quickly taken while I was mowing my lawn. This is a sun dog. 

I often look for these and find them to be more common than I once thought.  Typically you'd spot a sun dog as the sun is close to the horizon, but I have seen them higher in the sky.  Notice the cirrus clouds; this is key for the creation of a sun dog.  The sunlight is refracted through the high altitude ice crystals within the cirrus clouds, and bright 'mock suns' are created 22° on either side of the sun.

Here I've circled the sun dog for easy identification..

Sun dogs are beautiful atmospheric phenomenon, and fun to spot.  Start looking out and I'm sure you'll see one soon.

A New Year

Ah, a new year is here.  It's time to be re-inspired.  Take on new goals and chart new adventures.  Most of the time, and especially with cold nights, I'm content with a few minutes outside.  I'll check the cloudiness, spot a few constellations and other naked eye visible objects; M31, planets, satellites, etc.  Lately taking the time to set up and take down my observing equipment has been a bit off-putting.  The solution to this is going to be better organization.  I'm consolidating accessories into a single box, I've purchased a new finder scope (the Orion 9x50 RACI) for easier spotting and a green laser (which I may or may not mount, but will be great for pointing with others present), I also plan to put together a new observing chair.

Tonight's sky was pretty clear, so I got myself excited to head out.  I decided I'd take another stab at shooting the Orion Nebula with my DSLR.  I set the camera on a tripod with a 210 mm lens and connected it to my laptop via USB in order to use a remote shutter program called SM Tether.  This software allows me to do a much better job at adjusting the focus and shutter speed since I can preview each image on the laptop immediately after taking the photo.  So here's my official first shot: 1:48 exposure time from 54 frames.