28 September 2015

Eclipse viewing

I enjoyed watching the lunar eclipse last night, particularly through binoculars. Photography was challenging, but I couldn't resist trying. First, at moonrise, as our loyal satellite prepared for its, er, starring role later in the evening:
A few minutes into the partial phase, having found that -3 stops of exposure compensation yielded some appealing detail of the lunar surface:
Approaching totality, with one of the nicer examples I can recall of (what I believe to be) lens flare decorating the image. Around this time, I also thought I saw a halo around the moon, but it didn't show up in the collected photos.
And, a very faint moon (too faint for my camera's autofocus to lock: exposure 1 second at f/5.6 and ISO 1600) in the total phase:
Quite a sight, well worth binocular-gazing on the fortunately clear night.

26 September 2015

12 September 2015

The computer must be right. What's wrong with me today?

When I ride my bike, it's most usually on one of a few rail trails with which I'm quite familiar. I have a cyclocomputer (are they still called that?), a watch-sized device which connects to a magnetic sensor to observe how quickly the front wheel is spinning and over how long a time, and hence to determine how fast I'm moving and how far I've traveled. I like being able to use it to track my progress. Earlier this year, though, I found myself pedaling at what seemed like a usual pace, but watching numbers indicating that I was going noticeably slower than usual. The display had to be right, though - didn't it? - so had I fallen suddenly and unexpectedly away from shape?  Why had it become harder to maintain a normal speed? I found it concerning, until I finished my ride and saw that what I'd always thought of as 18 miles (and which a smartphone GPS and topo map still did) was shown instead as about 16.3 miles, and that my elapsed time for the route wasn't abnormal for me. Further investigation showed that the cyclocomputer's setting for tire circumference had somehow gotten reset to its default, which was smaller than that of my actual tire. Once I readjusted that, simple division raised my indicated speed by about 10% the next time I rode. I felt better about both my pace and my device once the accidental bias was gone. I wasn't actually traveling faster, but a more reassuring measurement made it feel that way.