dragonsblog

Thanks to Tom for getting me out with my telescope last night for some nice planetary and moon viewing at his place. We got a few decent digital images. This image of the moon I took through the eyepiece of my 4-1/2" newt with a Canon S330 using a custom mount made by Tom. I also took the other image of Jupiter and the (faint) 4 Galilean moons using the same setup. Tom shot both eyepiece projection and prime focus with his Canon digital SLR using both a Canon image-stabilized lens and his 8" schmitt-cat. Tom's images were obviously much better, but none of the images compared with the views we had through the 'scopes ourselves. The crescent Moon, crescent Venus, Saturn and Jupiter were all gorgeous through the lens, as well as naked eye. We were able to see banding on Jupiter and ring shadows on Saturn. The pleasant weather, good company, and awesome sights made for a wonderful evening.

The trees in the courtyard are in full bloom and it smells heavenly! Claudia snapped this shot out our window before leaving for work today. The whole city is coming alive with color now, with tulips coming up, trees blooming, and the beginnings of annual plantings in parks and yards everywhere!

We've attended three of our niece, Margaret's, gymanstics meets in the last two months, including a regional meet today. She was the only one to qualify from her team. This first image is of some younger gymnasts warming up at a meet at Navy Pier.



I like this image for the juxtaposition of the stillness of the observers in the foreground and the motion of the gymnast tumbling through an inverted position in her floor exercise beyond them. The strength and power of these girls is really phenomenal, even more impressive than their gracefulness.


Here is an image of Margaret competing on balance beam while her teammates look on. She's great on all events; it's hard to believe balance beam is her weakest event!




The happy gymnast with her proud parents and sister.


The proud aunt with her niece.


This is the scary part of gymnastics--when one of the gymnasts gets injured. This was one of Margaret's teammates who slipped off the uneven parallel bars while competing and landed hard on the mats. She laid there motionless for a long time until the paramedics arrived to carry her off to the hospital on a back board. She was fortunate to only have a concussion.


Meanwhile, Margaret had to wait patiently for her turn to compete on the uneven parallel bars. This image shows her great form and tough competitive spirit even after seeing a teammate go down and having to wait so long and think about it. What a competitor!

Brilliant Venus was next to the Pleiades the night of April 2, complementing the beautiful asterism. It was a beautiful sight through binoculars out the living room window, but I was too lazy to get my telescope out of storage and set it up for an even better view. This image is the best I could do using handheld binos and the Canon S330. The moon was near Jupiter for another great combo, but no chance of a decent image of either.