When going to SFO becomes a vacation

After being in stay at home mode for six months, we (read San) really wanted to go somewhere for a drive. So two weekends ago we decided to drive towards Santa Cruz on Labor day Sunday to at least wet our feet in the beach. What we didn't know was that the beaches were open only on Saturday and they closed it for Sunday and Monday. So after a 45 minute drive towards Santa Cruz, we drove back without ever getting out of the car. 

There were fires burning then but it was clear that morning. Still no chance to realize the get out of the car and walk around goal.

This weekend we decided to go visit Stow lake in Golden Gate Park as one of our friends posted some amazing pictures. We have visited this park many times in the past, mostly to go to California Academy of sciences. The first time was in 2002 when San was pregnant with Jr. It was the first place we took my MIL to visit. At that time we walked near this place and went to a Japanese tea garden.. but missed the lake and boating area!

By the time we went there the boat rental was closed, but we did go for a nice walk around the lake and enjoyed some fresh air. The lawns were extremely crowded with families sitting on blankets and kids walking the dogs, but the walking paths were relatively people free. 90% of the folks wore masks with the exception being a few runners. We stayed clear of them. We removed our masks only to take a few selfies when no one was around. 

The selfie camera in iPHone is not as capable as the actual camera as you can tell from the rest of the photos..

The colors in this place are so vibrant the photos came out great..on the iPhone. Was editing the photos on snapseed and fell in love with this frame that seems to work for nature photos.. 

Loved this frame..and the bridge that was erected in 1893! 

then the birds in the lake gave us a few more chances to take a break and take pictures..

an evening well spent.. now that we have had one visit, we plan to start going to other places on short drives where we don't have to step out anywhere, use public restrooms or come in contact with strangers.. 

The daily walks around the neighborhood and stay at home / Parking lot yoga is still on.. The air has also cleared up nicely so far. It almost feels like life came back closer to normal.

Trying to get the focus right

One of the biggest challenges I had trying to get photos of the comet was to try and focus on the stars. It is tricky business when you are fumbling in the dark trying to see how infinity is infinity focus..when the lens ring just keeps spinning. 

when you are taking shots with 10 second to 30 second exposures, it is all the more painful.. you don't know how it will turn out after what seems to be an eternal wait time. Then you have to zoom into the pic on the display to see if the stars looks like sharp points or blurred bokeh's.

It took me 70 tries to get the hang of it.. to the point where we were at Skyline ridge for 20 minutes and I got zero shots.. then we go to a friends backyard and got better shots.. 

even had a few airplanes fly by to give the comet some context. 

I should practice more.. start clicking pictures in dark conditions from my own backyard and then try it on things like comets.. 

The practice has begun.. somewhere in this cosmic mess, Neowise is there as seen from our backyard..

or maybe it is just blocked by that tree..one more day to practice "finding the comet" today. Apparently it stops being visible starting tomorrow night. 

This thing was fun. Got pictures of it on three different nights. 

The best part ?

For a guy who gets lost in his own house or work or local roads, the abilty to use the big dipper and precisely point to the comet even though it is not visible to the naked eye...

that was something! Family was impressed. now they might expect me to "not get lost" when we start driving again.. that is a tough ask. 

Comet sighting

The Neowise comet is the "star of the show" ironic as it may be.. 

We have a neighbor who has a decent telescope. So for starters he helped me find the general direction of the comet. Given the clouds and the fact that we are not at some skyline on a hill top viewing this, the general strategy was to zoom out , set a 4 second aquisition time and see if the comet is in the frame..

Then zero in on it and play with settings.

Finally have someone show an iphone flash on you for a split second to illuminate foreground during a 4 second shot where you hold your breath as much as possible.. That is where the yoga helps. 

as an added bonus got Jupiter from the front yard.. they are almost in exactly opposite directions.. you can clearly see at least 4 moons of Jupiter (used the 70-200 mm lens with a 2x extender set to 400mm.. the trick I learned was that if you set the focus ring at infinity it doesnt work.. you have to focus on Jupiter.. easier to do than a dull comet which you really have to hunt in cloudy conditions). 

Hoping to find a view point just post sunset locally here to get a decent shot of this in next two or three days.