Another Storm Casualty

I had to cut these down as they were into the road and blocking the side walk.  Somewhere under there is our Saturn.

Storm Carnage

The last snow storm while only about 5 inches was very wet and heavy.  Our gazebo was destroyed in a catastrophic collapse.  Fortunately it was due for replacement this spring.  It survived two hurricanes and a tropical storm.

RIP!

2010 Silverbrook 5th Grade Chorus

Tonight the girls had a chorus concert. Enjoy the video!

Sunset Over Glaciers in Alaska

I'm still digging through a lot of the pictures from our Alaska trip. These two recently came across our digital picture frame and I had to go back and see them again. Now I can share them with you as well. I dont know the names of these glaciers if they even have names. We were fortunate to have such beautiful sunsets and they dont get much better than this. Well worth the money spent on the cruise!!!

This one I may have to have blown up into a mural or something. So many good things here when you zoom in. Note the HUGE waterfall below the melting glacier. The trees at the bottom are in the foreground!

My Fox Face Lo and Friends

Cleaned the salt water tank today and cut up some corals for a coworker. Here is my Fox Face Lo. It is poisonous. However its purely defensive! :). Also shown are three of my clown fish and a bubble coral. The grey colored coral covering the rocks has been growing out of control.

Processed Color Image of Jupiter

Here is a true color image of Jupiter enhanced by overlaying 30 images and smoothing a bit. Learning as I go, I know now how to manipulate multiple AVI files and combine images from multiple files.

More images when I have time. I have some excellent prime focus images which look pretty good at first glance. Don't know how well they will hold up to enlargement.

Another night of Image Processing

Here is a black and white image processed a bit by using about 27 images overlayed and a little smoothing.

Pictures of Jupiter Tonight

Here are two pictures I grabbed quickly tonight. The first is a black and white and the second is in color. They were taken with my 8" F/8 Newtonian Telescope at prime focus using a 2X barlow lens.

The images have not been processed much and you should click on the images to see them in full resolution.

I had some technical issues with the telescope tracking but was able to make it work.

On the upper left hand side of the planet near the edge you can just barely see the great red spot.

I will look through more of the images for clearer ones and maybe sharpen them up a bit with some processing.

My Goshiki

Picture of my Ogata Goshiki

New Fish Added Recently

I attended the ZNA Koi Show this past weekend at the Meadowlark Gardens in Vienna, VA. I got there early and landed a deal on 3 baby Sanke from Eastern Koi. The show was fantastic. Many LARGE fish were entered...30" plus in length. Taro Kodama was there from the Kodama Koi farm and I bought his fathers new book. Here is a picture of the sanke and few from the show that I found exciting:

My Walt Hamler 8" F8 Telescope

Beautiful dark skies made me get out my telescope last night.  Jupiter rises in the east and the milky way is directly overhead.  Tonight I tackle Cygnus. Lots of nebulae and galaxies to keep us busy.

Buddy fixing our driveway

4 new Koi for my Pond

I bought 4 new koi from a coworker who shows koi and wins medals. He has MANY babies and offered these for a good price. 3 are about 14" long and one is about 6" long.

Today I got some late season water lillies from a local nursery as well as a japanese maple for the pond.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Baby Lizards Everywhere!

Alaska 2010 Return to Seattle, Woodland Park Zoo and Alki Beach

After leaving Skagway, AK our cruise ship headed back to Seattle, WA. We arrived at the port at 7:30am. Since our flight didn't leave until 11pm, we decided to rent a car and go to the Woodland Park Zoo. This is the best zoo that I have been to. I haven't been to many but they really made an effort to make you feel like you are walking in a rain forest or African safari. The containment's are barely noticeable except where they want you to see them. The kids had a great time. We had dinner and killed more time at Alki Beach on the west side of Seattle. Alki Beach is about as close to LA as you can get. We made the red eye back to Dulles Airport and arrived early the next morning. It was a fantastic trip and I encourage everyone to take one of the Alaska cruises if they have the time and money. For those who are not cruise people, the scenery will take your breath away and may change your opinion about cruises. However, I may never enjoy another cruise again. The bar has been set.