Mt. Palomar Observatory

I got a last-minute call from a friend on Sunday asking if I wanted to join his family at the Mt. Palomar Observatory. It was a perfect day for a Sunday drive, so I grabbed my camera and took off in the Xterra. 


The Observatory is owned by California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The dome housing the 200-inch telescope was built in 1936. It took several years just to fabricate the 200-inch mirror. We were able to get on a tour that took us inside the dome, and also allowed us to walk around the catwalk you can see on the outside about 35 feet up, right below the start of the dome portion of the structure.

Once inside we got a good look at the 200-inch Hale Telescope. The actual telescope is the part that is pointed straight up. The rest is the supporting mechanism.

The views from the little open-grate steel walkway were pretty good, especially with the fluffy clouds.

The view straight down was interesting as well.

We finished up our afternoon in the San Diego County backcountry with some fresh pie at the Julian Pie Company bakery in Santa Ysabel.


Click here to see more images from my visit to the Mt. Palomar Observatory.
   

Recent Trip to Las Vegas

I spent a couple of nights recently in Las Vegas, attending a mortgage bankers conference at Wynn's newest hotel, the Encore. Like all Wynn hotels, it's a pretty nice place, with lots of good food and amusing things to look at. On Thursday night after my associates had called it a night, I got out my new Olympus Pen E-P2 with 17mm lens and went for a walk. Here's the entrance to Wazuzu Restaurant. We had a great sushi dinner there.

The walkway connecting the Encore Hotel to the Wynn Hotel is a long shopping promenade.

There are some great window displays, some of them quite creative.

There is a water and light show outside of the Parasol Down bar in the Wynn.

I ended the walk at the Lobby Bar in the Encore, and just sat for bit and watched all the people walk by. In Las Vegas that sort of people watching can be every bit as entertaining as going to a show. (No pictures of the people - for 2 reasons: (1) all I had was a wide-angle lens, and (2) that's something you really have to experience for yourself.)

Click here to see more images from the Wynn and Encore Hotels in Las Vegas, 29 September to 1 October, 2010.
  

Harvest Moon Rising Over San Diego - Sep 23, 2010

There must have been close to 30 photographers lined up on the end of Shelter Island on Thursday night, all waiting for the Harvest Moon to come up over downtown San Diego. As we expected, it rose almost directly over the Ford Building (now the Aerospace Museum) in Balboa Park, which is just visible on the bluff above and behind downtown from where we were standing. As it rose it tracked a bit south as it moved over the center of downtown.


As the sun set behind us it lit the glass buildings downtown such that they appeared to be on fire. 

At 6:40PM, just as the moon was rising off to the left of this view, a Navy helicopter came in for a landing at North Island Naval Air Station.

13 minutes later the moon was starting to really show up in the sky.

As the moon moved higher in the sky it left a reflection on the water that eventually widened and centered in front of the downtown skyline.

Click here to see a few more images from Thursday night.
  

Labor Day Walk Around the San Diego Zoo

Here are a few images from a short late-afternoon walk around the San Diego Zoo on Monday, Sep 6th.

I've spent a lot of time at the Tiger River enclosure, enough to notice that the average Zoo visitor stays no more than a few minutes, even when the tigers are out and visible. If the tigers are not out they'll generally mumble something and wander off. I just back myself into a corner with a good view and wait - it generally is worth it. On Monday, after waiting well over 15-20 minutes this was still all I saw.

After another 8 or so minutes there was finally some movement.

Another 7 minutes or so and she's finally up for a walk, but she did have to stop and smell the flowers.

Finally.

This one was hanging out just over the hippo pool.

It's hard to believe this is a comfortable way to nap.

The meerkats are always fun to hang out with.

Late afternoon seems to be a good time to check out the koalas, they're actually awake.

Click here for more images from a late afternoon walk around the San Diego Zoo.
  

Point Loma Lighthouse / Cabrillo National Monument

Here's another version of the view from the top of the spiral staircase in the tower of the Point Loma Lighthouse, this time with a bunch of people in it.  It was quite crowded out there on Saturday afternoon.

Click here to see more images from the Point Loma Lighthouse and the Cabrillo National Monument.

  

Gaslamp Quarter - San Diego DSLR September Group Shoot

The San Diego DSLR Photo Group got together for its monthly group shoot this morning, this time in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown San Diego. It was foggy until about 11:00AM, so I tried to concentrate on details and other ways of keeping the bright but grey sky out of the shots. Here's an old railing in front of the Horton Grand Hotel.

Whenever you get a group of photographers together they invariably wind up taking pictures of each other taking pictures of  . . . 

The Gaslamp has lots of old and interesting buildings. There are little plaques on many of them telling the history.

No shortage of new architecture either.

A few of us toured the William Heath Davis House, which is the site of the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Society's museum. The house, built in 1850, is the oldest wooden structure in downtown San Diego.

There are many in San Diego who believe that these old buildings are haunted. I'm not so sure, but I think I may have caught some sort of ghost or apparition here in this next shot. It sure does look like there is something, or somebody, there.

Here's an interesting bit of public art, painted on the side of the Horton Plaza parking garage.

Click here to see more images from this morning in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown San Diego.
  

Experimenting with Night Photography in San Diego

Last Saturday night, while Heather and I were waiting for a play to start at the Old Globe complex in San Diego's Balboa Park, we spent some time sitting in the Alcazar Garden. From the little tile bench we were on there was a fountain directly in front of us, then a large bed of flowers, behind which was an arcade, and then the Museum of Man tower was visible in the background. As I sat there I was thinking that with about a 15mm lens I should be able to get all of that view in, and all I needed to do was to find a way to light up the little fountain that would be down low in the foreground. A small but powerful flashlight came to mind. There were a lot of clouds in the sky the first few nights of this week, so I waited until we had what looked like a blue sky on Thursday night, tossed my tripod in the car and headed down after work.

I wound up with several variations of the amount of light on the fountain - I think this is the one I like the most. 

Here it is from a different angle (sort of).

It was still early, so I wandered around the Park for a bit before heading over to the Fish Market for dinner.

I managed a few shots after dinner, looking over towards the Hyatt and the fishing boats parked next to the Fish Market Restaurant on Harbor Drive.

  
Click here for a few more evening shots in San Diego. The ones from Thursday night start with number 34.