Tag Archives: Solar

Let’s Try the Sun at a Different Time

After the solar eclipse was over and I had spent a couple of days reflecting on the experience, I had a thought that really should have occurred to me at any point in the last few years. A solar filter is just as handy when wanting to photograph the sun without an eclipse as with. I therefore decided to have a go at taking some sun shots. Of course, as soon as I thought of this, it got cloudy. That didn’t last too long, though, so I was able to experiment with varying exposure to get some images.

The first thing I liked was the clarity of the sunspots. They really had some definition to them. This was a nice quick win. Then I saw some texture in the other parts of the sun. Going with under and overexposure allowed me to see if this made a difference in how well things showed up. It might not be easy to see in these images but hopefully there is something you can make out.

Electric Vehicles

America’s Car Museum in Tacoma is a tribute to automobiles of all sorts.  While the internal combustion engine is dominant throughout the museum, they do have a section that is focused on electric vehicles.  This includes the sort of car you might expect to see and some that are a touch more exotic.  The research/competition cars are strange looking things.  Aerodynamics dominate in vehicles that are clearly aimed at maximizing efficiency while not worrying about things like handling or utility.  Having a whole roof section of solar panels is impressive.

Not all of the vehicles are that extreme though.  Others are the sort of thing you are used to seeing on the road.  Some of the original electric road cars (including those from the Victorian era) are there and also some concept demonstration vehicles that are likely to lead to something in production before too long.  These already look just like any other car on the road today.

Sunspots

It’s been a while since I posted my pictures from the eclipse.  This is a post of a sun picture taken on that day but I took this before the eclipse got started.  I was setting up the camera and the filters and I needed to get some shots to check everything was okay before things started to happen.  At the time, I noticed the sunspots on the shot but I was distracted by other things after them and forgot.  However, it was impressive to be able to see features on the surface of the sun as I was taking a shot.