A Spot of Astrophotography

I saw an advert in the paper this week for tips on astrophotography brought to you by Cannon. So I took my Nikon (ha! take that advertising) out into the evening chill and snapped a few shots of the sky. The darkness wasn't incredible and the haze was building, but it was good enough. Actually what first got me outside was the terrific sound of some military jets flying around. I thought for a moment it was the Avro Vulcan which I once saw fly over Southampton, this had the same gravity, but by the time I was outside the lights were on the horizon. But looking up I noticed the Pleiades glowing attractively in the early darkness so I popped back to get my camera for a few test shots.
Some experimentations this time - high ISO, shooting RAW and Kelvin rated white balance. The high ISO ~1250 was recommended in the advert, but having read some astro photo websites such as Deep Sky Stacker [thanks to @cawhitworth] their conclusion is that high ISO doesn't help more light enter the lens so it a false economy. However, this time I wasn't going to be taking multiple identical shots to superimpose - might try that at the New Moon this weekend. The Kelvin white-balance was a discovery I made in Croatia this September and is a much more sturdy way to get the colours closer to what you see than any of the pre-sets with their +/- offsets. I have found that working around the 6000K level gives the best night-time recreation of the colour. As for shooting RAW - my aging 4-year-old MacBook Air can't really handle such mega files. To be fair it does do rather well, especially since the replacement of the SSD with a higher speed and capacity one shipped from OWC. But I can't afford 0.5 GB per mini shoot of only 20 files.

wide view East towards the Pleiades : 18 mm | f5.6 | ISO 140 | 30 sec

Pleiades comparison : 70 mm | f7.1 | ISO 1250 | [L:5 R:2.5] sec

Pleiades comparison : 70 mm | f7.1 | ISO 1250 | [L:10 R:5] sec

Pleiades comparison : 70 mm | f5.6 | ISO [L:1250 R:100] | 30 sec

Pleiades comparison : 29 mm | f7.1 | ISO [L:1250 R:500] | 10 sec

Capella with shorter exposure and low ISO : 70 mm | f7.1 | ISO 100 | 10 sec

Capella with longer exposure and high ISO : 70 mm | f5.6 | ISO 1250 | 30 sec
2014-11-17

I'm Fine for Ducks

Ducks are one animal I think I have enough photographs of now. I've been browsing back through my photo catalog recently, now that all 14 years of digital photography are on my one MacBook Air, and at various times I've photographed ducks in varying surroundings but not with varying degrees of success. None of the photos of ducks looks anything special. I think I might be fed up of trying to make ducks look interesting in photographs. So I'm done with ducks. Sheep and swans also.

an example disappointing duck photo
2014-11-15

Chesterton Tower Cherry Tree Blossom, Cambridge

Part of my recent photographic exploration I found this set of images from spring a few of years ago. We watched this cherry tree explode into a riot of shocking pink like I've never seen. One evening the light was just right after a Sunday of rain and so I popped out to shoot these. The photograph of the bike leaning against Chesterton Tower is my favorite and very Cambridge.

cherry blossom explosion

shocking hot pink

the low light beautifully illuminated the fresh green leaves

background lit blossom

a classic Cambridge sight
2014-11-16

5-Day Proved Bread, Tastes Like a French Baguette @realbread

This was utter magic. A mix of error, indolence and forgetfulness on my part resulted in a half kneaded dough sitting in the fridge since last Tuesday. I knocked it up after having cooked a rather delicious lasagna (actually, make that two, something deep within me is unable to cook in small amounts). My aim was to make the most of the oven while it was on but it got late and I couldn't be bothered. So it was popped in the fridge over night.
Finally, today, Dr K took it upon herself to sort out my mess. Adding a little more flour and giving it a rise in the warmth, it began to look a little more like a workable dough, if a little loose. A single rise the a prove on the tray before being popped in the oven along with a water tray at ~220 degrees. We sat down to watch Transcendence on the recommendation of the other Dr K and rather enjoyed it. Afterwards we checked on the cooling loaves which had a good squeeze to them. Slicing in with the knife revealed a surprising holey texture surrounded by a tough but stretchy shell. We tasted. A look of shock was apparently visible on my face - we had not only rescued a loaf from the brink of failure, but created something quite special and the closest to our Valhalla - a French baguette - than ever before. Literally delicious with a crunch chewy texture.
't really do recipes.

• 1 kg flour mixed 7 to 3 white to brown (all strong from Daily Bread and Arjuna)
• 600ish ml water (slightly warm I recall)
• <20ish g sea salt
• >10 g yeast fresh from Arjuna
• mixed & left, then half kneaded and left in the fridge
• leave for 5 days
• add in a bit more flour
• rise
• shape and prove
• bake for ~10 mins at ~220 degrees then lower for longer

bread

bread

glorious bread
2014-11-15

Trees on the Roman Road at Wandlebury, Cambridge

I too the opportunity of a warm sunny evening to explore somewhere that I had been alerted to on Twitter. The prospect of finding actual trees in Cambridgeshire was too strong to resist. Plus in the ludicrous Autumn warmth we're experiencing I would have been silly not to. I was pleasantly surprised by the Roman Road along the back edge of the Wandlebury manor (which itself looked worth a look had the sun not set). I nipped home via Waitrose, so good times all round.

tree lined avenue with delicious hints of autumn

as you might expect, it's quite a straight path

certainly one of the more attractive parts of Cambridgeshire

Wandlebury at sunset
2014-10-31