To go order from Señor Café

Posted by barrystock on December 28th 2006 to Uncategorized

I returned home with our evening victuals from Señor Café when…

I returned from picking up dinner immediately after sunset this evening and noticed low in the western sky an illuminated object which I initially suspected was a planet or a satellite reflecting light from the sun. To the naked eye the object was approximately as bright as Venus would be. I noticed that no other stars were visible yet, and that the object was slightly to the south of where the sun had set (in other words WSW). I thought it was odd that it would reflect light toward me if it were between me and the sun. I went and got my camera, a Panasonic FZ5. I shot some shots with a normal exposure:

http://205.244.202.158/P1090293.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090294.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090295.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090296.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090297.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090298.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090299.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090300.jpg

I then shot 2:41 of 320×240 video on the camera with the same exposure setting:

http://205.244.202.158/P1090301.MOV

Pardon the size (72mb), I did not further compress the video from the original. I did notice the red and green flashing while shooting the video, but attributed it to the low pixel res of the viewfinder.

I then began stopping down to capture more detail in the object if possible and reduce glare. The first few were too dark, but at

http://205.244.202.158/P1090308.jpg

I hit the right exposure (F3.2, 1/40 sec. exposure) and shot some shots in burst mode. Some are clear, some are blurred:

http://205.244.202.158/P1090309.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090310.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090311.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090312.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090313.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090314.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090315.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090316.jpg
http://205.244.202.158/P1090317.jpg

All shots are cropped to 1280×1024 from 2560×1920 with the object centered in the frame, but they are not resized.

(Throughout the white balance was set on the “sunlight” setting.)

I then went inside and ate dinner with the family. My wife watched the video after dinner and confirmed that it was “strange”.

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