Comet PanSTARRS - March 12, 2013

 I got to see Comet PanSTARRS this evening! It was an hour after sunset that the group I was with finally spotted it.

 These pictures range from 9:11pm to 9:29pm. Once we knew where it was, I could slightly see it with the naked eye, but it is tiny! I couldn't locate it with binoculars at all, but the camera found it easily once I knew where to look.

 I plan to go out tomorrow night, since we are supposed to have clear skies again, so hopefully I can find it when the moon is in a different location!

Night Shots and the Lights

March 6, I went out aurora shooting, and I had the not so brilliant idea to go to the harbor to go shooting. TOO MUCH LIGHT!! I took some photos there for kicks and turned around and went elsewhere before the show got better.

I had a lot of people exclaiming that the aurora photos I took that evening looked like it was daytime. The moon was pretty much full that night and lit up everything. Here's the harbor parking lot under the moon.

Test shot of the gazebo.

The starry sky, March 9

A little bit of lights, before the clouds came.

The moon was rising as I was out there. I was kicking myself because I did not bring my telephoto lens, because the moon rise was incredible. This was taken a little while after, showing the clouds covering the moon and how bright it still was out there.

Cloud cover....time to go home.

Looks like sunrise, doesn't it? :)

Anniversary Getaway Photos

As promised, here are some more nature oriented photos of our stay last week. Right after we got to our room, I was looking out the window when I saw this in the Bay. It went under several times, but I am pretty sure it is a sea lion. I've never seen one in the wild before, so I'd love some confirmation :)

It was huge!! I don't know how to convey just how big it was, but I took these photos from our room, which is quite a ways from the beach.

We were blessed with gorgeous blue skies!

End of the Spit :)

I love patterns in the sand by the waves!

This was the first time I had seen the memorial bench dedicated to Jean Keene "The Eagle Lady". Two articles in the local papers give more details :)

Detail on the plaque on the front.

At dinner, C made some comments about wanting a photo of the water glass because he could see the reflection of the mountains in the water....he tried, and I tried, and nothing turned out like we wanted....but I like this one anyway :P

It was a beautiful day for sailing on the Bay!

The moon that afternoon.

Sea otter from our balcony

Taken at 10:30 pm from our balcony :) The moon was so bright that night! I was attempting to take some star photos, but the moon was too bright on the side of the sky we were facing, so I settled for a moon shot!

It was a lovely time!

Snow Just Keeps Coming!

I had an excellent birthday! I haven't edited the photos yet, but it was great! When I finally get to them, I'll give a recap....hopefully it won't be too long from now!

Life has been busy in my neck of the woods. Seemed like last week was a whirlwind of appointments, and small stressors. I hung out with a friend for a scrapbooking date, and it was wonderful. She and I both had not scrapbooked since the last time we got together....around a year ago *wince*.

Winter continues to hang on here. The rest of the country seems to be having a wonderful spring, and temperatures way above normal, but we are having a typical winter here. I have not seen any official numbers for snowfall for the winter yet, but the local paper has gotten us a bit closer, and it is insane! My favorite part is the description of how the tallest snow berms may stick around until the end of JULY. We have had several nice, teasing days here, and the next day we get several more inches of snow. I'm tired of it, but not getting worked up over it like some locals. It is, of course, snowing today :)

The next couple weeks are set to be busy as well. We've got the local high school play to attend, a dinner with friends, C's little brother coming for a visit, and our 4th anniversary. And that's just what I am aware of today!

I hope you weekend is wonderful!

Super Moon!

I know I am almost a month late, but here it is! I went out for the Supermoon (March 19) and waited for it to rise after dark. I was astounded by what I saw. It lit up the sky like a really bizarre sunrise.

Still lighting up the sky...

I stayed out almost an hour, just in awe of how cool it was.

It became cloudy as the evening wore on, but you can sort of see here how big the moon is in relation to the tree branches.

Glorious Reflections

The last shot I took of the moon's incredible reflection on Kachemak Bay.

Reflection from the Moon

The almost full moon created an incredible reflection on Kachemak Bay last week. I was fortunate to be able to capture it for almost an hour.

Twilight

The almost full moon last week brought about some incredible scenes, which I will share in the coming days. Not the least was the fireweed.