Richards Rambles

Category: Astronomy

  • Floodlit Table Mountain

    On special occasions, the Council switches on huge spot lights and lights the front face of Table mountain. Tonight is one of those nights.

    Table mountain is shown in the bottom third of the photo. I havent fiddled the white balance so the mountain is a green colour which is quite nice. The rest of the image has stars in a black background The top cable car station is visible on the flat top of the mountain
    Table mountain is shown in the bottom third of the photo. I havent fiddled the white balance so the mountain is a green colour which is quite nice. The rest of the image has stars in a black background The top cable car station is visible on the flat top of the mountain

  • Scorpio Setting

    I went out to try out a new lens for my camera and got this image of Lion’s Head with Scorpio setting head first.
    Click the image for best viewing.

    The photo is a night image Lions head and high peak is in the centre of the image. The peak has bare rock on top of vegetation covered slopes City lights are visible in the bottom half of the image. Stars surround the peak with Scorpio nearly set to the left of the peak

  • Full Moon

    We had a disturbance at 4 am which hurled me out of bed. Of course the camera went along. Just in case. There was a full moon just setting over Lions Head. Not a brilliant image, but fun anyway.

  • Portfolio

    Recently I found that most creative people have a portfolio so I decided it was time I created a brag page so here we go.
    I am a generalist or less politely a jack of all trades. Whichever title you want to use it means I am curious about practically anything so to save you from browsing through the entire website, I will provide a short summary. So here goes

    Painting – oil, acrylics and pastels. Acrylic first

    Oil

    Pastels

    Charcoal

    Photography – photograph anything that takes my fancy, flowers, sunsets, stars, landscapes and birds.

    A glacial pavement just outside Nieuwoudtville when we were part of Pangea.

    And then there are the other things

    Baking

    Croissants

    Bee keeping. Bees Bearding a hive to keep it cool

    Hiking

    Renovating a house in Riviersonderend

  • Atmospheric Images

    I found this folder with all sorts of great storm and astrophotography pictures so I decided to add them. Just for fun.

    And some more

  • Whipstock Farm Astrophotography

    High up above McGregor in the Breede River Winelands is a dark sky site par excellence – Whipstop Farm. The skies are dark and the horizons are low enough not to become intrusive.

    Orion setting into the light pollution of Worcestor

    The only down side of the site is the light pollution from Worcester but it is far enough away to be minimally intrusive. The rest of the horizons are pretty much clear of light pollution. Even Cape Town doesn’t really feature.

    Facing south. The Milky Way dominates

    The light in the trees is from a nearby chalet. There are areas away from the chalets, but the management were happy to kill the lights for me.

    Satellite photo bomb
    Scorpio rising with the Milky Way in attendance.

    I liked the effect of the lights on the trees so I left the lights of my chalet on for effect.

    The famous alignment with Jupiter and Venus very close together

    I was fortunate enough to be there during the great alignment with Jupiter and Venus almost touching. Such a beautiful sight.

    Venus and Jupiter, plus Jovian moons

    Separated by a long telephoto lens accompanied by much swearing. The two planets were incredibly bright in the morning sky.

    If you fancy some good dark skies, this is the place Whipstock Farm

  • Jupiter and Venus

    On 1st February 2008 Jupiter and Venus were very closely aligned to one another. These pictures, taken with a digital camera show that event. And some other stars as a bonus.

    The Moon in Scorpio

  • Partial Solar Eclipse 2020

    I have never photographed a solar eclipse for so when the December 2020 eclipse happened I was thoroughly unprepared. Despite this, I managed to get some sensible picture. Not crisp and clear cut, but the eclipse is visible. Note that these pictures were taken as and when the sun popped out from behind clouds. The sun had set before total which was a disappointment though not unexpected.

  • Moon Jupiter Conjunction

    Recently there was a moon Jupiter conjunction. A wonderful sight.
    It gave me a chance to brush up on my astro-photography

  • Moon Venus Conjunction – June 2020

    The Moon and Venus were extremely close on 19 June, 2020 and I was lucky to capture some images.