Astroblog: I have the best family ever.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

I have the best family ever.

It was Father's day here in Australia, and my family surprised me with a fantastic set of running shorts (they made me feel as if I was running faster just wearing them) that will be of great help when I run the city to bay (I'm trying to raise money for the Brain Foundation with my run).

And they got me a new digital camera. Gobsmacked, surprised, astounded and deeply loved is how I could describe myself (okay, so a camera is a very materialistic thing, but the fact that they decied to support my photography habit, when they could have bought other things instead shows they really care. EldestOne now has to curb his refexive "Not MORE photos dad!").

Also, the hand-painted mug and the laboriously made cards (MiddleOne did an origami card, and SmallestOne made a figure out of nuts and bolts) were pretty good too.

Anyway the camera is a Canon IXUS 90IS, with digital macro and zoom, so I can pursue my quest for small things and large. There is a bweildering variety of setting, and I spent a large chunk of this evening playing with them (this afternoon MiddleOne and I were assembling a pop-up Starwars walker).

This image of Crux was taken at ISO 200 with a 6 second exposure. Click to enlarge and you can see the Jewel Box cluster, on the original you can also see Omega Centauri. The little dots near the brightest stars are artefacts, possibly due to wobble in the tripod. This was more pronounced at ISO 400. I have to see if I can eliminate this through longer exposure delay.

The image below is the Line up, Mars, Mercury, Venus and gamma Virginis at ISO 80 and 6 seconds exposure (click to enlarge). This camera is so cool! I'm going to have lots of fun with it!