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Posts Made By: Jerry Mason

April 14, 2008 01:46 AM Forum: Landscape Photography

Arizona in April

Posted By Jerry Mason
We found ourselves back in the beautiful state of Arizona last week and I thought I'd post a few pictures.

Here are some images of a place I have always wanted to visit -- Hasdestwazi (Lower Antelope Canyon) near Lake Powell. If you've never made the trip and crawled down into this slot canyon I highly recommend you do so someday. It's well worth the gas and entrance fee. Don't forget your tripod!

Clear skies!

Jerry

April 14, 2008 05:42 PM Forum: Wildlife Photography

Arizonan Lizard

Posted By Jerry Mason
My wife shot this colourful little guy while we were hiking in the Tonto National Forest last week. Anybody know what type of lizard he is?

Jerry

April 30, 2008 02:32 AM Forum: Solar System Observing

Shadow transits on Saturn

Posted By Jerry Mason
Hey everyone,

Last Friday, April 25th, I set up my 8" newt and 7" mak in the driveway hoping to decide which to take out to Joshua Tree the following weekend. Saturn was high in the sky so I made it my test target for the evening. In both scopes I noticed Rhea and Tethys very close to the planets north side. I wasn't sure which moons I was seeing so today I checked them out via my Starry Night software.

What I was surprised to see was that sometime that evening both Tethys and Janus had their shadows transit Saturn's northern hemisphere (Janus' shadow was probably hidden by Saturn's rings) and in fact shadow transits seem pretty common occurrences these last few weeks.

My question: Is anybody here watching these transits? Are they visible in medium sized telescopes? I had the 8" cranked to 400X with a 3mm Radian and the 7" had an 11mm T6 (242X) but did not notice any shadows. But then I wasn't looking for them either instead concentrating on ring features and cloud bands in the southern hemisphere.

Tomorrow morning at 5AM PDT both Enceladyus (magnitude 11.6) and its shadow begin a transit.

I just love this hobby!

Jerry


September 4, 2008 09:36 PM Forum: Landscape Photography

Lake Powell August 2008

Posted By Jerry Mason
We spent last week (Aug. 25th-30th) on lovely Lake Powell and I thought I'd post a few pictures for those of you that might be interested in visiting it someday.

Here's a shot of our house boat in one of the coves of Dry Rock Creak Canyon just around the corner from Dangling Rope Marina. We had a great time jet and water skiing, fishing, sight seeing and relaxing. The sunrises and sunsets were fantastic. I loved sleeping on top of the boat, under the stars, each night and watched Cygnus in the Milky Way cartwheel overhead. Talk about very dark skies!

February 19, 2009 05:19 PM Forum: Guns and Hunting Optics

South African Ammo

Posted By Jerry Mason
I'm looking for some "inexpensive" target/range ammo for casual shooting circumstances and noticed Herb has some South African .308 (7.62x51mm) ball on the Anacortes web site. $79 for 140 rounds (56¢ a round). Does anyone have experience with this stuff? Is it smokey, particularly dirty, does it jam or misfire often? Are the cases brass or zinc plated?

I'm not looking for 1" at 100 yard accuracy but it would be nice to be somewhere on the paper at that range and the price of this ammo makes it easier to justify an occasional 20 round burst -- just for fun. I would be running this through an M1/M14 (for fun only -- not for hunting or home defense). Any thoughts?

Jerry


August 7, 2009 04:05 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

New Scope Buggy assembly advice needed

Posted By Jerry Mason
Hey gang,

I'm a proud new Scope Buggy owner and I have a set up question for you all. I plan on calling Robert at Scope Buggy tomorrow morning but I thought some here might have some insight.

Tonight as I was assembling the unit I could not find any way of positively locking the rear axels into the T-Bar (no pre-drilled holes nor hardware). Are the rear wheels and axels held in place solely through the tension provided by the telescopes tripod? If so, should I assume that the Scope Buggy is not designed to be pulled without a tripod in place? (the rear wheels would pull out of the T-Bar if a turn was made). This seems counter intuitive to me, am I doing something wrong or is this "free/floating fitting" actually a design feature which allows the tripod more height adjustment flexibility?

Thanks for any help or insight you might have.

Jerry

November 25, 2009 09:01 PM Forum: Landscape Photography

Subterranean landscapes (Carlsbad Caverns)

Posted By Jerry Mason
Hello all,

We just got back home from a quick trip to Carlsbad Caverns and I thought I would post a few shots taken during our two days of exploring. This place is simply immense and amazing and it is hard to believe such a vast place can exist entirely underground.

This first shot is from a section of the trail about 3/4 the way down from the Natural Entrance and just before linking up to the Big Room.

Jerry

February 17, 2010 04:59 AM Forum: Landscape Photography

Grand Canyon a la mode

Posted By Jerry Mason
We just got back from yet another Grand Canyon trip and I thought I'd post a few of my favorite shots. On this trip we were graced with a powdering of the white stuff. I think the snow added a beautiful contrast to the rugged rocks and helped to soften the compositions. The cold weather on the other hand, 17¼ degrees at 6:30 in the morning, made it a challenge for this Southern Californian to stay warm and keep his camera battery alive while waiting for the sun to rise.

Sunsets on the other hand were a little easier and here is one captured at Hermit's Rest.

March 8, 2010 12:51 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Adam Gadahn captured in Pakistan

Posted By Jerry Mason
Waterboard or public defender?

"By ASHRAF KHAN
Associated Press Writer
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Two Pakistani officers and a government official said Sunday that an American charged with treason for working with al-Qaida had been captured, a development that could deliver another significant blow in the U.S.-led battle against the terror network."

March 21, 2010 11:54 PM Forum: Wildlife Photography

Mojave National Preserve Reptiles

Posted By Jerry Mason
Hello all,

We spent yesterday afternoon 4 wheeling and hiking over lava flows in the Mojave National Preserve looking for rock art and generally enjoying the beautiful warm weather.

My wife Andrea, muttering something about me hogging the camera last month at the Grand Canyon, confiscated our Nikon and wandered off by herself. Now in my defense I only made a mere 771 shutter actuations during the entire four days of our stay at the South Rim -- that's hardly abusive in my book.

Anyway, here is an interesting series showing a small snake guarding the rock art location. This is a huge petroglyph site with literally hundreds of images carved or scraped into the volcanic rocks and many of them described wiggly snakes (see the bottom of the first frame). While there was lots of speculation amongst our group as to what many of the images meant I was pretty sure someone from the past was definitely saying "Hey, check it out, there are snakes here!"

Anybody know what type of snake this little guy is?

Jerry

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