Welcome to July guys! Anyone doing anything fun today? I just worked lol.Don't feel bad for me though as I find plenty of time for recreation both here at home and traveling during the winter months.I dunno where I'm heading this weekend.Looks like rain is coming for Friday oh yeah and I think the moon is going to be out of the way for Milky Way shooting again! I'll have to double check this and plan accordingly.
I'm kinda beat from working in the hot sun today.Nearly 100F and high humidity,holy cow! I love the heat as much as anyone (so long as your not a Mainer lol) but that was a bit much.I may recoup and go shoot some fireworks though,dunno.I haven't read up at all on camera settings for fireworks but I have time I guess.I'll probably just stay in though.I am pretty exhausted.

 

Good morning Maine.Gunna be another scorcher.Stay hydrated.

 

Good morning Maine.It's tourist season in vacationland.I hope they brought lots of money to spend.

Dark night skies start tonight around 11pm and the moon doesn't come up until around 1am so I have a couple hours of shooting the Milky Way tonight!
No clue which direction I'm heading yet but I would like to find something and head out by noon for a nice hike and or put the kayak in and do some fishing before sunset.


Oh check this out.I just bumped into this searching for a place to camp and shoot tonight.
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The state's many precious resources include the largest light-pollution-free swath in the eastern half of the U.S. A new effort is underway to protect it with 'dark sky' designations and promote it as an out-of-this-world attraction.Maine has many natural resources, but a new movement is focused on one that hardly ever gets talked about. Maybe that’s because it is something that can only be seen in the dark of night.Maine contains the largest light-pollution-free area in the eastern half of the United States. Measured on the Bortle scale (think Richter scale for astronomers) the darkest night skies in northern Maine place second on a scale of one to nine. The state’s quiet resource is a true night sky, one full of stars and planets, rather than the refracted light of civilization.


“You don’t get skies this dark – and contiguous – until you reach Kansas, or some parts of Texas,” said Andrew Bossie, the executive director of Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, where the darkest skies in the state were measured last year.


“We’ve got something special here,” Bossie said. “And we’re eager to invite others to share in it so we can put Maine skies and stars on the map.”


Let there be dark: Advocates push Maine as astrotourism destination

 

Good afternoon Maine,friends and visitors.Oh man was the Milky Way nice and bright last night! While driving,all I had to do,to find it was roll my window down and while driving,just look up and she stood right out.So vibrant there was no need for the eyes to adjust to darkness to see it.I got some good panorama's I think.Looks like I should of took more time adjusting focus on at least one of them but oh well,it should still make a good pic I think.
I went down the Blue Hill peninsula to the town of Sunset and shot a nice layered pano from the beach,then over to little deer isle and shot from the causeway.Went for a nice little hike and put the kayak in and did some fishing.Good weekend.I should have the pics done up this evening sometime.Just have some basic maintenance to do with a truck first.

 

Hey guess what I got in the mail today? My passport card! It's official them Canadians are crazy! They'll let anyone in!
I dunno why I waited so long to go get a card.I just hate the fact they want me to pay to go visit part of my ancestral homelands I guess.I dunno it's not much but it just doesn't seem right is all.Oh well,cry me a river.
Well anyway now I'm set for more National Parks within driving distance baby! That Kejimkujik is just rich in my tribes history.I'm so excited.A cool museum up there too full of my ancestors items. Millbrook Cultural & Heritage Centre..........Oh cool it looks like they have a statue of Glooscap out front.

Now I just need to manage the hard part.Figure out some time to go.

So I've got a story to write up,some pics of the Milky Way to process and stitch together then post for the Maine travel thread.I'm slacking here.I better get to work.I got some nice pics of the beaches and island and such.Last time I was down there I just had the little point and shoot so you guys will like these new pics with the upgraded DSLR.I got some great pano's to show ya so stay tuned.I'll be a couple hours probably though,I haven't even begun working on my night shots yet!

 

Holy crap! I got this new (new to me/refurb - its a HP Compaq Elite 8300 Microtower) pc running great now! I was having issues with lightroom,my post processing software with stitching together large multi row,Milky Way panorama's.The 3g I7 is nice and fast but the 12gig of ram was just not enough.I ordered and just received today,two 8 gig sticks of ram.My mother board will handle 4 slots of 8 for up to 32gigs.
So I took and installed the two 8 gig into my black slots for 16 there,then used two of my 4 gigs into the white slots for another 8 for now a total of 24 gigs.
When stitching pano's she would eat 11.7 of my 12 gigs and slow my pc down then hang for over an hour putting the pic together.
Well I just now stitched a 20 pic pano and watched the ram on task manager and lightroom ate up to 20 (but briefly) then hovered around 15ish and with always at least 4 gigs free,my youtube video I follow along with to process my Milky Way pics stilled played and I could scroll and use my web browser........AND! lol.....in just like 1 minute it was done!
I've got the perfect setup now.Now I'm gunna be tempted to keep panning extra wide and extra tall for my pano's now that I can handle them all with ease.

Anyway,I'll tweak this pic and toss it up soon.Good evening Maine.

 

Good evening Maine.Hope everyone is doing good.Fantastic weather out there now.Last weekend was a bust for Milky Way shooting.All overcast and not sunny during the daytime either so I stayed home.
I got a good one planned for this weekend though.It's gunna be clear skies but due to that dang moon in the way,it's gunna be late night shooting! Can't even start until the moon sets after midnight then it's dark skies again until 3am.I'll be coming home with some more incredible shots though.Nothing a pot or two of coffee can't mange lol.
Think I can do a 5 or 6 multi row panorama 12 images or so per row?.............I'm gunna try.


Here's another one I recently did up from Moosehead lake back along (same night I took the other ones recently.) Holy crap,that was over a month ago now.I gotta go back and shoot here again with my new tripod head and get like 5 times the sky in the shot.

 

It's finally coming! Another nighttime adventure visit with father sky! The weather looks fairly promising this weekend,the dark sky hours are increasing on both ends and the moon will be out the way long enough to get some more incredible shots of the Milky Way.
Now to figure out where I want to go.Good evening Maine.

 

Oh no.I'm so beat.I was up a pretty dang good size ash tree removing it from the top,lowering down sections beside a house yesterday.That heat wore me right out and now I'm so tuckered out I don't feel like driving for hours to go shoot the Milky Way lol.Oh man,I really want to though even if my body says no.I think I'll just keep recouping and see how I feel this evening.I'll just rest up,maybe even take a nap to gear up for shooting tonight.
Looks like I have from 10pm to midnight,then the moon rises,ruining from 12 to 3:30.There's a good solid 2 hours right there though.Lots of time to get some stunning pano's.Need to find a place with clear skies too though.Looks like cloudy skies in some places of Maine.
Whatever I find,I hope I can just camp right there.Pitch a tent by a pond or something.Then I can just crash after shooting without having to drive more.That was some dang high humidity the last couple days.

Oh and I guess this isn't July anymore either lol.

 

Nope.I couldn't do it last night guys.No new night shots from me this weekend I'm afraid.Man was I played out! I tried to take it easy,knowing it was so humid and though I worked slower than normal,I love working hard so it's not easy for me to slow down lol.I'm afraid I pushed myself just too hard the last couple hot days.I'm finally starting to feel back to normal.I think the moon is up in my way to try and go take anything tonight.I have to climb up and tackle the rest of that triple trunk tree I'm working on Monday,so I can't overdue it and stay out late anyway.Plenty of night sky capturing season left though.

 

Mainers are you still alive out there!? How you guys holding up? My good lord,this heat and humidity hey guys? Dangerous.It's almost as bad as being down in Florida! Well,ok that might be pushing it a little bit but probably not by much lol! Trying to work outside is like working in slow motion.You know things are warmed up when you hear even me complaining!
Stay safe guys.Drink lots and work slow.This is brutal.This is past the comfort zone for just about any of us,I'm sure.

This coming weekend is perfect for night photography! I dunno where I'll go yet,as I always fly by the seat of my pants but I will go! I will not miss another good weekend.I hope there will be clear skies.I haven't taken a nice multi mile hike in a while either.I've got to get back into the woods and or up a mountain or something.Been too long now and as you guys know,old man winter will be knocking before you know it and poof,summer is gone!

 

Hi there, I'm still hanging out. Have had medical issues since last fall so don't get much to comment about. At least I'm in the AC on days like today. Liking your new pictures.

 

Hey good to hear from ya! Hope you have a full recovery.The weather will be changing fast soon.Sure was a muggy summer.That's was a bit much.Way too much like Florida there,for a few days.

 

Thanks hopefully one more surgery next month or two and will be done. Looking like some nicer days coming soon.