Old Memories
Posted by Way Siong | | Posted On Friday 31 August 2007 at 10:21 pm
As many have heard, a lunar eclipse was visible throughout Australia on the 28th of August. I didn't know about it at first, but I overheard of it from the radio when I was waiting for the bus early in the morning that day around 6.00 am. At around 7.30 pm, a few of us were already at a small field near International House. The moon was already 20% covered by the Earth at that time. Eagerly, I began to deploy my trusted tripod in hopes of landing a few shots of the special view that last came 7 years ago.. After 1 shot, the battery bar flashed red! For the first time in my life, I came unprepared and my camera's batt went dead.. Only managed to land 3 shots with the remaining batteries..
The lighting condition was suboptimal at best, as there was a severe light pollution coming from light sources around the vicinity and of course, the city itself..
Nevertheless, the product is still magnificent..
Luckily Zhong was also there and we ended up having some fun with his camera instead.. He took some great pictures, and he managed to compile everything into this,
The streak of orange at the bottom right of the picture is the result of a prolonged exposure over 5 minutes if i'm not mistaken. What we see, is the motion of the skies, and the moon for that matter within that time frame. At 8 pm, the awesome image of an orange moon was visible, in a phase called 'totality'.
The reason for the odd title here is because the event reminded me of the days when I was very interested in astronomy. Because my neighbor is an avid astronomer that even has his own observatory, he allowed me to cultivate my interest in astronomy. Years ago, back at 1999, I was at school looking at the solar eclipse, using a special set of glasses that filtered out the glare. I had also watched a meteor shower in my own lawn. However, perhaps the best experience I've had is the 1997 comet Hale-Bopp experience. That was a truly amazing sight, the comet was even visible to the naked eye then. Together with a large number of avid astronomers, we set out a huge event in our residential area to allow everyone to have a glimpse of the comet using telescopes and binoculars. That was one of my most memorable experience.. Probably the first and the last time I'd see a comet.
However, there's also disappointing moments, such as in 2003, where Mars was reported to have been in its closest proximity. I was in Taylors back then, and I organised a trip (sold out!) to the National Observatory in Kuala Lumpur. However, the skies were cloudy and we can't see anything that night.
Anyway, back to the lunar eclipse, we decided to play around with the long exposure functions of Zhong's camera, and we ended up with quite amusing products, hehe!
My name! A part of the X is missing though,
Edit: Apparently this technique is called 'light writing' and it's a new technique! I'm surprised noone else used this effect till now. This short clip is how this effect can be used to it's max!
Multi-hands!
Well, that's all for today's post I guess.. Tomorrow would be a full day of study and group project, hope we'll pull this through..
Found a nice song called 'Stories' sung by Hitomi for a great anime called Code Geass, somehow it really sooths the mind. Gonna get sick of it soon though, lol!
Thanks for reading! And Happy Merdeka for all Malaysians!
The lighting condition was suboptimal at best, as there was a severe light pollution coming from light sources around the vicinity and of course, the city itself..
Nevertheless, the product is still magnificent..
Luckily Zhong was also there and we ended up having some fun with his camera instead.. He took some great pictures, and he managed to compile everything into this,
The streak of orange at the bottom right of the picture is the result of a prolonged exposure over 5 minutes if i'm not mistaken. What we see, is the motion of the skies, and the moon for that matter within that time frame. At 8 pm, the awesome image of an orange moon was visible, in a phase called 'totality'.
The reason for the odd title here is because the event reminded me of the days when I was very interested in astronomy. Because my neighbor is an avid astronomer that even has his own observatory, he allowed me to cultivate my interest in astronomy. Years ago, back at 1999, I was at school looking at the solar eclipse, using a special set of glasses that filtered out the glare. I had also watched a meteor shower in my own lawn. However, perhaps the best experience I've had is the 1997 comet Hale-Bopp experience. That was a truly amazing sight, the comet was even visible to the naked eye then. Together with a large number of avid astronomers, we set out a huge event in our residential area to allow everyone to have a glimpse of the comet using telescopes and binoculars. That was one of my most memorable experience.. Probably the first and the last time I'd see a comet.
However, there's also disappointing moments, such as in 2003, where Mars was reported to have been in its closest proximity. I was in Taylors back then, and I organised a trip (sold out!) to the National Observatory in Kuala Lumpur. However, the skies were cloudy and we can't see anything that night.
Anyway, back to the lunar eclipse, we decided to play around with the long exposure functions of Zhong's camera, and we ended up with quite amusing products, hehe!
My name! A part of the X is missing though,
Edit: Apparently this technique is called 'light writing' and it's a new technique! I'm surprised noone else used this effect till now. This short clip is how this effect can be used to it's max!
Multi-hands!
Well, that's all for today's post I guess.. Tomorrow would be a full day of study and group project, hope we'll pull this through..
Found a nice song called 'Stories' sung by Hitomi for a great anime called Code Geass, somehow it really sooths the mind. Gonna get sick of it soon though, lol!
Thanks for reading! And Happy Merdeka for all Malaysians!
I RULE
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