Shooting a Full Moon....

Yesterday's sunshine and early Spring like conditions have turned cloudy and cool....it seems each day brings something new weather wise, but the constant has been no brutal temperatures or large amount of snow at any one time this winter.  It appears things will get cold for the coming weekend, with highs not making it out of the twenties for either Saturday or Sunday.  Sunday is the day we will head for Hal and Lisa's place in Centerville, where the grandson, "The K-Man" will be presented to their church.  Many churches it seems no longer Baptize the young until they are able to participate in the ceremony fully...instead opting for this.  So this Sunday will be that day....with a gathering at the condo to follow to break some bread.

Shooting the Moon!

Late yesterday, before heading out to Dartball, where, while we won 2 of 3 games at a very good Hopewell Lutheran team, but where I had my worst night of the season, going just 2 of 13 with no RBIs, to drop to a .385 average{worst since my back issues in 2007-08}...I noticed a near full moon rising in the eastern sky above the nearby Mercer Landmark grain elevator...so I ran in,  got the camera, found a place to prop the small tripod I hooked it to, and began to shoot.

Taking moon photographs with a small digital camera, or any digital camera without a proper lens and steady hand is almost impossible it seems...some of this having to do with the rotation of the earth, as slow as it might be, and much to do with the "blow back" of the Moon's brightness.  The following link is a good example of what it takes...and as much as I enjoy shooting photographs on the lamb....I'm not about to invest in costly equipment, just to get a photo that I can just as easily grab {steal?} off the Internet:

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Estonia/West/Raplamaa/Marjamaa/photo255902.htm 

I do however enjoy trying to get clear moon photos with the small Nikon set a various settings...the ones pictured today were done with the Dusk/Dawn setting, and pointed directly into the moon...the amazing thing is, I never changed the setting, but within a matter of a minute, the camera stopped catching blue sky and instead was clicking a totally black one.  The end results, especially when in zoom mode were nothing to write home about, but I will continue to search for that elusive "Full Moon"

Tonight it's back to basketball, this time a girls Junior High double at Spencerville...tomorrow a reset appointment with Amy the Nurse Practitioner, who has taken the majority of Doc Bergman's clientele.  Basically a look at my blood pressure, so I can fill the prescription.  I am sure she will eventually want to draw more blood, to check my Cholestrol levels, which with ditching the Zocor and turning to Omega 3 and fish oil tablets should be interesting...but I have made that decision, and will stick it out.  I will not be one to be stuck taking a dozen different pills per day the rest of my life.  Especially with Obama care on the horizon...because let's face it...That Marxist Kenyan bastard is out to kill all of us old conservatives and Christians off anyway, or anybody else that smells a rat in the White House.

Tomorrow night with no basketball, I turn my attention to baseball...our first local rules meeting, and organizational get together is scheduled for 7pm in Van Wert. Thursday and Friday it's back to roundball, with the upcoming weekend free and clear, except for the trip to Centerville on Sunday.  In fact looking at my schedule, no weekend games at all until baseball season begins on March 24th...just three Friday night boys JV games left, along with four Junior High double headers over the next couple of weeks, then I can put away the roundball uniforms until next November....frankly, it cannot come soon enough.

back later>>>>

Photos-I took 8 or 9 shots of the coming full moon, about 6pm last night, before the skies had completely turned black....the dark blue sky in the east quickly turned black within a matter of a minute if not less...at least in the eye of the camera.  I also used the Lexmark Imaging Program on the computer to work in various shades of sepia and black and white tones.  Nothing great, but about all you can expect with a single lens point and shoot digital.