Friday, March 5, 2010

SKYWATCH FRIDAY =My moon and...?

Well, when I uploaded this photo, it came as a surprise to me. First of all, the moon was photographed with my new 70-300mm VR lens that I was trying out. It is a hand-held shot, obviously taken at night. Instead of making minor adjustments with Photoshop on my big computer, I was using my little ASUS computer using GIMP, an image manipulation that my Linux-operating ASUS uses. All this while watching a bit of TV. I hardly ever use GIMP, so I think what happened is that when I adjusted one of the filters for light or dark, somehow that mysterious 'spaceship' light got thrown in. I must have inadvertently clicked on something else, too. I only saw it when I uploaded the photo to my blog, but I left it, since I kind of like it, even if it isn't natural....unless it really IS a spaceship.

See if anyone else has accidentally goofed their post for SKYWATCH FRIDAY.

33 comments:

Daryl said...

I think Google/Blogger is having issues .. sites and links 'time out' the word verifications dont show anything in them ... and Mr Linky over at SkyWatch isnt working!!!!!

Daryl said...

Oh and I do think that's a black hole where someone turned on the light! LOL

Wayne said...

'They' are trying to communicate with us Bibi.

Jim said...

A close encounter?
Sydney - City and Suburbs

Yvi said...

Hi!

It looks great...

Greetings
Yvi

Irene said...

Looks fine to me too ... great image of the moon!

Anonymous said...

wow, this photo means something else!
there are many possibilities for what that misterious light is!
and good shot of the moon
have a nice weekend!

Tash said...

That's a handheld moon shot?? You have one steady hand. The added blue sparke is lovely. Way to go.

Light and Voices said...

Thumbs up!
Joyce USA

Alexa said...

I was going to say what Tash said. Also, I don't care what you did—the image is fantastic! (I don't know what any of that software is; some day I may install PhotoShop and figure out how to use it, though.)

Laura said...

very cool...gives us all something mysterious to wonder about!

Lowell said...

That is absolutely amazing for being hand-held! Wow! You must have nerves like steel!

And the "star" - actually, yes, it's a UFO. I have lots of little green friends who have confirmed that but they refuse to be identified and will not testify.

Kim said...

Mars has been pretty visible near the moon lately (supposedly, cuz cloud cover has obstructed the view from here). Maybe this is a Martian flashing you a code message with his intergalactic mirror signaler. He's probably saying, "Send Mushroom Soup recipi, please." :-)
Super shot, and keep having fun with that new lens.
-Kim

Bob Crowe said...

However you got it, it's fabulous. That must be a heck of a lens. Can you tell us what your shutter speed and f-stop were?

Amanda said...

wow!! What a breathtaking shot of the moon, and I love that "spaceship" light that mysteriously got thrown in there...it adds are really awesome effect! Happy SkyWatch =)

Vagabonde said...

I saw your name in The Road is Mine blog and came to say hi. I went to Belgrade once, many years ago. Your moon shot is outstanding. Don’t understand what your explained though. I just bought Photoshop Elements 8 but I am kind of scared to use it.

James said...

First of all that's a fantastic hand held night time shot. Secondly I need to try gimp.

dianasfaria.com said...

Bibi, I love this! That must have been quite a thrill discovering your "mistake".

Chuck Pefley said...

The real question is "can you repeat" this. That point source flare is quite nice in the image. Obviously it must be identified as an illustration, but artists do that all the time. In any case, I like your results!

Pat said...

Hi, Chuck! I went back to my GIMP program on my small computer and saw that (I think) this star is called Supernova. The screen on my little computer is only 8 inches, so when it previewed the shot, I didn't see the star, especially since I had zoomed in on the moon.

I don't usually 'fiddle' with photos, other than brightness/contrast and sharpening, and still don't know how to do layers. In ways, I kind of want to stay like Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot), who never really wanted to learn French well, in order to remain 'pure'! Ha!

Kcalpesh said...

Wow, what a mystery! I always told my friends I wish to capture a UFO some day :-p The moon looks absolutely stunning and kudos for the hand held shot... this is simply amazing!

Pixellicious Photos

Hierodeacon Panteleimon said...

Thanks for all the great pics and information Bibi. I am an American currently learning Serbian in Montenegro. When I saw the title of this post I smiled when I thought about the english 'my moon' and the serbian 'мајмун'.

Hilda said...

I think your moon shot is fantastic, whatever you say. ;) And I love the flare effect, whatever it is. A wonderful image!

Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

Leif Hagen said...

Very, very cool Bibi! I hope I can take a good moon photo one of these months!

syel said...

i love the moon, it's really really clear. added bonus was the star! stunning and interesting! :)

B SQUARED said...

Your technical prowess far exceeds mine.

Owlfarmer said...

This is a great shot, Bibi, and an inspiration to space/moon junkies. Guess I'm going to have to get busy with a little help from GIMP or something similar when I re-start my project of recording each named full moon for a year. The "spaceship" looks like another bright heavenly body that might not show up without "help." I often notice that I've included stars, planets, and/or ISS flybys when I pull images into PhotoShop for optimizing. Thanks for this lovely photo; I look forward to coming back.

Mo said...

Makes the picture rahter special

Mrsjobee said...

Excellant

Suburban Girl said...

Glad you saved it, I think it is really cool and I couldn't wait to read what was going on. I'm impressed that you could handhold that shot. Does your new lens have image stabilization?

At first I thought you had a really small aperture and that was what made the star effect.

Victoria Tsavdaridou said...

Just gorgeous

Ruth said...

Even without that mysterious light, your moon is simple beautiful. Looks like a perfect round ball of ice.

Pat Thacker said...

Oh what a beautiful shot!!!! Gorgeous! I'm not good at taking photo's so I love bouncing around to enjoy others work. :)

SPRING FLOWERS YEAR-ROUND

  My 93-year-old former colleague and travel buddy loves flowers. In her garden in the soring and summer, flowers burst with color. Results ...