Annular Solar Eclipse. 30 May 1984, 1/500 sec,
Kodachrome 25, Questar 3.5

David Cortner's Eclectic Stash

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Where I sell photographs and photographic services, web pages, Flash jewels, and other things of that ilk.

The Old Home Page

Take a virtual trip to Scotland, Wales, Mexico, Canada, or Australia, go kayaking, watch the seasons change in the southern Appalachians. (Links and "back" links found on the old page may be a little hinky. Sorry.)

One strange duck in Perseus...

A never-ending project to get better at putting cameras behind telescopes. I try (more or less systematically) to relearn everything I once knew or thought I knew about this sport of mine.

In which I build a dulcimer and do my damnedest to learn to play it. In contrast to that other team sisyphus page, in this case I know perfectly well that I am clueless, hapless, and otherwise out of my element in so many ways.

2007, March 3: The Moon rose in total eclipse and we were at the Catawba River overlook to see it. Come along...

Total Lunar Eclipse at Moonset

2007, August 28: The Moon sets in total eclipse...

2004, June 8: on a cloudy morning in western North Carolina, the fog lifted and the clouds parted just long enough to see the transit of Venus. Links from this page will take you to another transit of Mercury and to an upcoming double transit. How can you resist?

A Cooled CCD Finally Finds a Home Here

2004, June 5. I finally bought an astronomical CCD camera -- if I can't have dark skies, I can at least have a device to see through the glowing murk. The masters of the field have a ten year start on me. I have the background, the experience, and all that great software they developed. Let's see about closing some ground.

2004 May. This Phoenix Isere kayak last saw service during a road trip to Alaska by way of Montana in 1989. I need a way to see the beavers at work at the foot of our wetlands overlook home in North Carolina and a way to enjoy the new Upper Catawba Canoe and Kayak Trail... nothing some sanding and paint won't fix...

2003, November 8: the weather forecast for cloudy skies was wrong. I made hasty plans to photograph the lunar eclipse that evening, carried some gear to the top of the driveway, and came down with my first NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day.

2003, August 26-27: Mars and the Earth were as close as they have been in 60,000 years and as close as they will be for a couple of hundred more. Cloudy weather this summer has kept me from practicing -- this is only the second night. I've put glass on Mars.

It was no 1966 storm, but it was a good show just the same. Rates were on the order of a thousand meteors per hour, and most of them were bright.

It was no 2001 shower, but it was a good show just the same. Rates were low, owing to moonlight and variable weather, but a few burst through.

I keep rebuilding this telescope...

2001, November 30: the Moon slid in front of Saturn. Harry Powell and Jack Higgs moongazing at ETSU's Harry Powell Observatory.

A webcam and some nifty software make the most of the unstill air...

Sometimes business plans are just a flash in the pan. Iridium's was a flash in the sky.

2000, January 20 - 21: a total lunar eclipse gave me a chance to try out some techniques of celestial navigation used by Lewis and Clark during a total lunar eclipse on January 14 - 15, 1805. It also gave me a chance to make a hell of a photo.

1999, November 15: the planet Mercury passed in front of the Sun. Here are some unusual observations made before first contact.

Amateur astronomers gather to search for a faint asteroid named for one of their own.

A Visit to another Small Planet

Astronomer Edward "Ted" Bowell named an asteroid for Birdwoman of the Shoshone, the third most famous member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition across Thomas Jefferson's big back yard, 1803-1806. 200 years on, Sacajawea sat for a portrait in my back yard.

The Great Comet of 1997. A collection of photographs of Comet Hale-Bopp spanning a few years.

The Great Comet of 1996. A collection of photographs of Comet Hyakutake made on just one night.

In the lull between two solar maxima, I finally added a Hydrogen-alpha filter to my observing kit, the better to watch the Sun come alive. Here's how it's going.


 

If Bookbeat Ever Calls...

These are some photographs that didn't make it into the book accompanied by text and commentary.

Henry David Thoreau did this rather more simply, but we moved in on the same day (July 4), more than a century and a half apart. His 'blog can be found in Walden. Ours is here.

Sydney, Katoomba, Coonabarabran... a few of the 2,600 frames I exposed in the northern spring, austral autumn of 1999. This is work very much in progress.

The Shining Rock Wilderness and the Mount Pisgah area. August 1998.

Come along for a vicarious trip to Wyoming "when snow was on the ground." Photographs made during one week in October 1997.

Photographs from Scotland. This is really a link back to the business site. Check out the "Portfolios" links for images from other northern places including Alaska, Scotland, and Wales -- all northern places where the light is so good that the only rule of photography seems to be, "F8 and be there.&quot

In 1984 I rode a BMW K100 in Connecticut. If it were a 750, had antilock brakes, and were a little smoother, I said I would buy it in a heartbeat. BMW soon obliged, but sometimes heartbeats last 13 years. In 1997 I made good my part of the deal.

These musicians, that's what.

Softball teams representing the oldest and youngest of the Protestant leagues meet in Lenoir, North Carolina. And South Atlantic League farm teams for the Pittsburg Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles meet at Hickory. No astronomy here -- fast film meets fast glass at the old ball game.

Chasing solar eclipses in cyberspace using (mostly) a slide rule.

Eclectic links to others' stuff.