LASERS PEWPEWPEW

nobody@flickr.com (geekyrocketguy) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 02:22:21 -0700

As part of my grad student duties, I help out with an "astro lab" course which introduces students to backyard telescopes. The class drives to a park near Waikiki that is far less cloudy and somewhat less light-polluted than main campus. I took this photo while the students were occupied with their own activities.

I forgot my tripod this morning while running out of my apartment to catch the bus, so I had to improvise to take this photo. I set up one of the telescopes (an 8" Dobsonian), pointed it vertically, and left the front cap on. I rested the camera on this surface and used my lens cap to adjust the vertical angle of the camera. It was definitely less convenient than a tripod, but it was sufficiently steady to take decent photos.

I have a 5 mW green laser and have used it to point out objects in the night sky. However, the campus owns several 60 mW green lasers, which are awesomely brighter and basically look like light sabers at night. After tripping the shutter, I ran into the photo and sat on the grass, pointing the laser into the Milky Way.

Waikiki Fireworks

nobody@flickr.com (geekyrocketguy) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 03:45:57 -0700

geekyrocketguy posted a photo:

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There's a resort in Waikiki that launches fireworks every Friday evening. I managed to get onto the 25th floor of a friend's apartment building to shoot this.

Uploads from geekyrocketguy, tagged waikiki

LASERS PEWPEWPEW

Waikiki Fireworks