Do not want.

I liked "NASA's Wallops Flight Facility" on FB so I could get detailed information on their launches.

Turns out the launches are visible for hundreds of miles, even in the daytime. From the comments on their page of who just saw the launch 30 minutes ago, it was visible in Collegville, PA, for example.

Anyway, this was the view from my building's dining room.
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This is an unmanned ISS supply rocket.

From Orbital Sciences, I believe. A previously scheduled launch that had been delayed due to the cold weather.

Yep. I've been putting each new launch time into my calendar.

I was skeptical I'd be able to see anything in the daytime. It's 111 miles from the launch pad to my office building. So after bringing my good camera into work for two days, I said "screw it" this morning and left it at home. But the cell phone took a decent enough picture when it finally did launch today.

Now I need to scour Google Earth for a good night time viewing location near my house. There's a tree in the way from all our windows at home.

I didn't take this picture, but this shows where the launch could theoretically be seen, and how long after liftoff it would take to see anything.
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Dan Snyder could get that tree removed for you. :rolleyes:

One of the last shots from my Istanbul adventure taken on the Sea of Marmara near the Istanbul airport.

gorgeous!

Great picture, and your titles are so exotic. :haha:

I shot this one about 10 minutes later when the sun was just below the horizon. We had a 5am flight the next morning that we had to get up ar 2AM for! Took us 23 hours to get home after that!

Did you sleep on the plane at all?

I can sometimes get as much as 30 minutes of sleep at a time on a plane.

Our first flight was on a very uncomfortable Lufthansa A320 with hard seats so I maybe dozed a bit but not much. Landed in Frankfurt and had a 5 hour layover which really increased the effect of sleep deprivation. Then flew a direct flight back to Houston that was about 11 hours. We were in Business Class so the lie flat seats were nice and we actually both slept 4-5 hours or so. We landed at about 7pm so when we got home and unpacked a bit we went to bed and actually slept about 8 hours and pretty much were readjusted after that. I always do better flying west than east with the time change.

Super envious of the lay flat seats.

Only time I've not flown coach was for a 1 hour flight down to Atlanta. Business class was really nice, but I didn't need it for such a short flight.

United's new seats are really nice and you actually get some comfort. They served lunch when we took off and we did what they call the business style where it all comes out at once and not in courses so we could eat and relax and then sleep. The food was ok but nothing special. I've seen a real drop in food quality since the merger. Not sure when we will fly first or business this year as I dropped from Platinum to Silver and my wife went from 1K to Gold. Oh well.

Always fun to walk the back streets of cities we visit and photograph odd things. These manikins were in front of a store in an old section of Istanbul with lots of clothing including little Sultan costumes for boys to wear for their circumcision party which in Turkey usually happens when the boy is 8-14 years old. OUCH!

I assume the smart jackets and tie ensembles are for after the boy becomes a man!

That part of the adventure doesn't sound all that exciting. I've done it many times but it's not fun

So the staff isn't constantly waking you up for the peanuts and Coke that you refused the last time they woke you up?

You're got some great photos here. Sounds like a fascinating trip.

Went out on a little photo safari the other day. Saw some turkeys. Took a picture out the window of GrandCherokeeOne.

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Meh, turkeys.

Aaand then, as I was about to pull away, I looked about 50 feet in front of the Jeep, and sitting there on a survey stake, was this fella:

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I guess he had been sitting there when I pulled up, and, just didn't see a reason to leave. I almost didn't see him, wouldn't have, if it hadn't been for the fluttering survey tape.

That, friends and neighbors, is ye olde American Kestrel, which, Wikipedia tells me, is not a 'true' kestrel. Whatever, it's a kind of falcon, and, I find that cool as hell, as I've never laid my personal eyes on a falcon, or a kestrel, for that matter.

I believe this one is probably a juvenile.

*If anyone can back-up, or, refute, my ID of this bird, please do so.

TIA:D

I'd say you're right.

I don't know what you see/saw (see what I did thar?) that makes you think it's a juvenile, but it does seem to be female. What a great shot. Kudos!

These two pics from Wikipedia:

Wiki IDs this as a female adult:

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Notice the breast pattern is more akin to stripes, than to spots, like on my boid.

And a Wiki-ID'd young 'un:

Attachment 47151

Notice the spots on the breast.

My bird's feathers look a bit on the down-y side. He's fluffy. Also, it looks like the malar (or 'cheek') stripes look darker on the younger birds, and paler, or faded, on the older ones. Might just be me, or the particular pics I looked at.

Thanks, V.

Looks young to me too. Clean.

The malar stripes are definitely there. I'd say you have a positive ID, grav. Nice pic!

I like the turkeys as well, but this one was special.

I back your ID using my Merlin Bird ID app! Cornell Ornithology put the thing out. It has good pics, a systematized approach, and bird songs for each critter. Fun to prank kids with as well.

Thanks!

Smoked with what? :bolt:

Made behind the library few years ago. Plant was the one with berries, maybe
Lantana?

What a splendid photo. Absolutely beautiful!

I'd hazard a guess that the bush is Buddleia (Buddleja), sometimes known as the 'Butterfly Bush', at least on this side of the Atlantic.

Nice.

Seconded.

Cool pic, Buster!

Mashed redskins, and green beans?

A frame from a GoPro movie I took last week. The underwater housing is awesome.

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Popdigr has just about talked himself into selling one of his metal detectors to get a GoPro.

I'm an inch away from buying one for this trip. the canyoning videos I've seen on YouTube are all obviously taken using such gear.

Do it. I don't think you'll regret it.

Mine was a gift, so I didn't have the shock of spending that money, but it is simply awesome. I highly recommend it. I have about an hour of footage playing with it in mountain lakes and streams in Yosemite.

If you do get one, my only complaint/tip is that there is a parasitic drain on the battery that will kill the battery in about two days if you leave it in the camera, even turned off. So you need to leave it charging, or take the battery out and reset the clock when you put it back in next time you plan to use the camera.

Also if you use the camera in wifi mode and control it from your phone with the app, it's really cool, but the battery only lasts like 20 minutes doing that intensive shit. With the wifi off, the battery lasts for a few hours of continuous use. You can also buy extra batteries, which is probably what the pros do. I should do that.

And you want a 32 GB card. You'll also want to spend the $5 at monoprice for the special HDMI cable to connect it to your high definition TV. Well worth the investment. And pack that cable for your trip so you can watch the day's videos on the TV in your hostel. Don't forget the USB charger, but you probably have extra ones kicking around from old phones.

If you buy one, get it at least two weeks before you go so you can play with it and see how it works before you go on your trip. You'll find that you want to buy some accessories for mounting the thing. Lots of aftermarket stuff on ebay for cheap that will work with their proprietary mounting system.

Just a reminder, most of the flatscreens in motel/hotel/hostels have a USB outlet on the back. Charge! ;)

this is appealing. but the guy is 2 hours away, and I'll be on a plane in three hours.

Oh well, Bon Voyage.

Look, up in the sky!

It's a bird! It's a plane!

It's BigV's plane!

Hi Bye, BigV (waves at the sky)!

Cool.

Dirty slush while holding the camera upside down. :haha:

Foggy today.
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My goodness that's a BIIIIG picture. I don't know how to resize pics on my phone, *sorry*!

That's Seattle just ahead of the deckhand.

Uh - yeah...

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WTF kind of steampunk/renfaire crossover was this?

The PA ren fair. I was taking pictures of the audience while we waited for the jousting to begin. I guess they got bored of just jousting, because they only did 3 passes, and then the bad guy got killed...
Only to be re animated by those 4 witches.... And then the real mele ensued. Flash bang fireworks, and zombies galore. Corny, but fun.

I too love my GoPro.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3870/...59dc6032_b.jpggopro go up punta cana2014 by bigw00dy, on Flickr

8 of us went on a trip this past summer.

After I reviewed all the pictures, this one was the best. Unfortunately, no one had enough patience to wait it out while I threw up the GoPro 50x.

Sounds like it's pretty indestructible, Woody. :vikingsmi

I have to admit, the camera can take a good beating. Im pretty impressed so far!

waiting for the launch that was scrubbed.
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Not too many other people there.
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Today I was looking through some of my shots from my Istanbul trip and I found one I had overlooked and thought I would post the before and after here. It was a neat Catholic church, the St. Antoine Cathedral. It's just off of the main thoroughfare near Taksim square, İstiklâl Caddesi.

Anyway, when I looked at the slightly crooked RAW file I saw some potential so I played with it in Adobe Lightroom and then took it into another plugin called Topaz Clarity.

So far I like it but may tweak it a bit more. We were in Istanbul just after the New Year and they still had the Christmas decorations up.

Impressive manipulation.

I like it! The colors and intricate details are great.

Hey Woody, check out this GoPro... fell in the ocean, lay on the bottom in 30 ft of water for 1.5 hours, taking video of fish and the SCUBA diver coming to the rescue.

that's cool!

Well, I accept that it isn't that 'neat', but I thought I'd have a go anyway.

Taken this morning, BTW.

http://s27.postimg.org/ul5gwpk1f/DSC00703.jpg

Neat!

I like it a lot. "Tree tunnels" are neat.

Run Forrest, Run!