(no subject)
Homemade telescope at a gathering of a local astronomy club at the foot of the Seal Beach Pier. The science reporter for the OC Register has an invite to friend him on Facebook on his column, and he'd made a post about this event, so the fry and I went on a Friday evening to check it out. We went kind of late and were afraid it would be already over, but everyone stayed chatting and looking through viewfinders until an hour past when the event was supposed to end.
Astronomy
Seal Beach Pier CA
Canon EOS 1000D
28 March 2009
Waiting in line to get a glimpse of Saturn's rings.
Avalon giving Slick, the sea lion mascot at the foot of the pier, a hug. Obviously I have the white balance on the wrong setting - I like to do it manually and then I forget to change it. I'm still figuring this camera out.
And my own little bit of astronomy. Taken from when we walked out of the pier - I took a risk and just propped the camera on the railing and set the timer to get this (really need to get a tripod). Cropped from the original. The setting new moon was gracious enough to appear from behind the clouds (not visible), over the Long Beach skyline. The two "buildings" on the left are actually disguised oil derricks on islands. There's an old tale about the city regularly getting phone calls about how much the rent was in those buildings on the islands off the beach...
Then I came home and went to message Sciencedude to thank him for pointing this out, and found he'd unfriended me. :( Or maybe I did it by accident.