Drive out toward Ann arbor

I went out toward Ann Arbor Sunday night and the sunset was spectacular. I stopped and took sine photos. I was out a little to late to get earlier, brighter sunset photos.

I tested my iPhone 4's ability to shoot low light sunsets with the HDR mode. HDR takes more than one photograph very quickly one after another and combines them to increase the contrast or perhaps I should say flatten the contrast. It's difficult to say what it's doing, but basically it's trying to show more detail in bright and shadow areas where detail would be fully lost. Either blown out and too white and bright or just black because the photo is to dark. HDR takes different exposures and then tries to combine them with to show more detail. Sometimes it works, sometimes it makes the photo look worse. I thought HDR might improve handheld photos through a telescope eyepiece, but it usually makes the resulting still look worse.

Here is a photo of the dark skies as the sunset turned toward twilight.

This at ford lake.

When I returned the sky was finally clearing, but I was tired from a long weekend and it was after midnight. So u didn't out out a post and open up the observatory Sunday, but I took a quick look through a telescope at home and then put it away after only five minutes of observing.

Hopefully we cab start observing soon. Clouds are supposed to be in the skies tonight so I wont be announcing an opening tonight.

(photo below is an HDR photo if ford lake, Ypsilanti Michigan.)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone