Picture(s) of the day....

[myglaren]

Or possibly one of Neil's coincidences.
Youngest daughter asked for photo's of her mother, said her boss looked like her mother.
I have two 2TB drives and a couple of smaller ones, all the backups and photo's go on these.
Began a search, there should be loads, scans of prints and copies of slides. Found nothing but the photo of Paul (citroenXM).

Painting the fence yesterday I used some cardboard to prevent paint splashes on the brickwork and saw this on it:-

Not particularly remarkable.

This morning I dragged out one of the many boxes of prints cluttering the place up and the first prints I pulled out were these:-

Which is Charlie, a former girlfriend.
She hated her name and adopted 'Charlie' due to her liking of Charleberg brandy.
He real name was Hilda. Hilda Idle. She wasn't fond of her surname either.
Nor her married surname (she was divorced).

[bobins]

Taken a few minutes ago. I know it's not brilliant, but it's the first time I've seen the Northern Lights and we're not exactly 'north' down here

A Northern Light tonight - own work

[Armidillo]

Nothing to apologise for - I'd be stoked to get a photo like that! Was it visible to the naked eye?

Looks fantastic with the green and purple. I did see the Aurora Australis back in the '80s when we lived in Canberra, but from memory the only visible colour was green.

[RichardW]

Very strong here last night, easily visible in colour by eye even in the town, and covering most of the southern sky, which is very odd! There was a moment later when it was basically covering the whole sky. We managed to catch the space station transiting across the aurora - got a pic, but it's a bit shaky.... Rather liked this one, as it caught the reflection on the car roof! Moon a little blurry as it's about 4s exposure hand held on the phone supported off the roof rail of the car.

Space station in motion centre left of the frame, very shaky!

[RichardW]

This is all coming from a massive sunspot, which is so big you can see it by eye ( with eclipse glasses of course...) - bottom right of the disc if you have a look.

[bobins]

This is all coming from a massive sunspot, which is so big you can see it by eye ( with eclipse glasses of course...) - bottom right of the disc if you have a look.

It's Mrs Bobins' birthday today and I told her I'd aranged the Aurora specially for her last night..... so don't spoil the surprise, Richard

[bobins]

Nothing to apologise for - I'd be stoked to get a photo like that! Was it visible to the naked eye?

It was quite visible from my front door, but the colours were a lot more subdued to the naked eye - the camera phone and its several second exposure really brought out the colours. Initially it looked like silver-white sunrays across all the sky but with no discernible start point - and obviously no sun and barely any moon to create any 'sunrays' ! If I'd been more awake and I'd had my trusty old camera kit up and running I'd have been parked up on The Downs taking some marvellous photos

[myglaren]

Not a glimmer of it here, overcast after about 8 p.m. as usual.

[Armidillo]

This is all coming from a massive sunspot, which is so big you can see it by eye ( with eclipse glasses of course...) - bottom right of the disc if you have a look.

I have not been able to see the Aurora, but I'm closer to the equator than you lot (and the last 2 nights have been cloudy). However I just took this photo of the sun with hand held camera with a neutral density filter:

Most obvious sunspot is not where you saw it Richard, but
a) the sun rotates on it's own axis
b) 22 hours have passed since you posted
c) it's afternoon and I'm in the southern hemisphere

A note on camera settings:
ISO 100
f-stop 38
Shutter speed 1/8000
400 mm Telephoto lens with 10 stop neutral density filter fitted

The 10 stop ND filter is a minimum for this project - even with the filter, every setting of the camera is maxed out!

[myglaren]

Be nice if we could see the sun, never mind the spots.

[Armidillo]

Not a very original subject - but a clear sky gives hope for an Aurora sighting (although it's cloudy to the south, so probably a vain hope).

Photo taken (with a camera - no telescope involved) about half an hour ago - at the time the moon was approximately where the sun had been when I photographed it earlier today.

[myglaren]

From big round things to small round things:-

Chucked my clothes on the bed and as I put them on saw these. Seeds falling from my pocketses.
I don't know how they get there but most of my pockets seem to be full of seeds lately.

[mickthemaverick]

Obviously your lifestyle has become too seedy lately Steve!

[Armidillo]

Poppy seeds? Question is what will you do with them?

[myglaren]

Poppy seeds? Question is what will you do with them?

I have been planting them. Have several kilo's from last year. They don't seem to be doing too well this year though.
A neighbour drew may attention to the fact that they were opium poppies mainly, Tasmanian purple, Afghan Blue and various other iterations of Papaver Somniferum.
He said that his wife had planted similar at the front if their house, on the main road through the village, and the police had rolled up one day and taken the lot, along with some Aconitum she had planted - deadly poison!
Mine are mainly out the back on land 'reclaimed' from the council.

Should be photo's of swathes of them, anyone's guess where they are though.