As several of you know I spent this past weekend up in Ely, Minnesota, a town that bears a sign on its outskirts that reads, "All International Citizens entering the U.S. must report to the U.S. Customs office in Ely." You should know that there are no roads (as in, asphalt or gravel) that lead from Canada to Ely. Just lakes and rivers. In fact, a whole linked network of them called the Boundary Waters, of which this is only one.
When I decided to come up here I was hoping to read some books, write some stories, and see lots and lots of stars. Which I did. All three. It was overcast when I first got up here, but then the sky cleared and there was nothing but sun and blue skies till Tuesday. It was beautiful. So Saturday night I took the ol' camera outside with the intention of taking some star pictures. I forgot to bring my tripod, but I just set the camera on its back on top of my car and turned the timer on. I took three pictures, of which only one seemed to have anything on it (other than a dead pixel, that is). Here's the shot that "turned out."As you can tell, nary a star showed up on the ol' CCD. If you enlarge the picture and look in the bottom left corner, you might just make out the hazy shape of Canes Venatici. Actually, I have no idea what it is. I just know it's not a dead pixel (unlike that other perfidious white dot near the center).
So the lesson here, fellow photography buffs, is to find a camera that allows long exposure shots before you spend the weekend in the middle of nowhere. And if you do find that camera, try to keep it away from one of these creatures (I like to call them "David's Little Friends").
9 comments:
does anyone see this?
yep
I'm almost positve that in the second picture you drew in those two whit pixels with MS Paint.
That wolf looks like he is saying "How many miles to Wheaton?" "I'm hungry and I hear David is there"
You know, Dad, I think that's what he was saying. Or something like it. I couldn't quite understand him because he was scarfing down a neon-clad five-year-old while saying it.
And Daniel, I'll admit they look like MS Point pixels, but I present for you the fact that I do not in fact own MS Paint. I can't, because I have a mac. So there you have it: incontrovertible proof that at least one of those dots is a fer-real star.
I would like to alert you all to the fact that this wolf just showed up at my doorstep last night with a tattered rugby shirt in his mouth, which I immediately recognized as part of David's vintage 4th grade uniform. Fortunately, I was so intelligent as to tell him David was currently visiting Victoria in the UK (since neither David nor Vicki are there) and even drove him to O'Hare and got him all settled First Class on his international flight. David, I'm afraid it's only a matter of time. And meanwhile, you owe me about $450. (What, you think the wolf paid for his own flight?!)
I hear there is a new airline called Wolf Air exclusively for wolfs seeking out tender victims. The rates are much lower because they don't feed them on board. The wolves just wait until they get to the terminals to eat someone. Are you listening David?
Sorry to change the subject, but I think Ben has a Mac version of MS paint and that is why that picture of sky and water has such beautiful blue colors. We all know that a lake full of acid rain has a brownish tint to it. and a smog filled sky is much more grayish then that. I'm with Daniel on this one. Someone is trying to pull a fast one over on us.
Actually Ben, I think that you used the Mac equivalent of MS Paint, shown here:
http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/Seashore-Download-6554.html
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