Photos you‘ve taken

Nothing beats film.

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I just had a go. It took a while - largely due to trying to shield my eyes from various street lights, car headlights etc - but I managed to find Uranus with my 8x40 bino’s . Take a line from Mars through the Pleiades to the moon, it’s slightly above this line and a little closer to the Mars end than the Moon end. The Rho Arietis stars provide good markers. Assuming my star app is accurate of course, as there wasnt really anything remarkable about “Uranus” through the bino’s to say that I was looking at a planet.

Neptune I couldn’t find, despite Jupiter being an obvious reference point. Try as I might, I couldn’t get my eyes to adjust enough, I think it’s swallowed up by Melbourne’s light pollution as from my place it’s almost due West. Western suburb Blitzers might find it though

Similarly, Saturn is too low on the horizon for me to see from here, and even with more elevation I suspect the city lights would obliterate it.

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But I had a crack at a handheld (couldn’t be bothered setting up the tripod) 1 second shot of Mars.

This is a crop of an 800mm equivalent field of view.

The stars to the left are 62 Tauri (726 Light year distance) and below that is HD27731 (HIP20491) at 166 light years away.

It certainly ain’t much of a pic, but I’m hopeful that one day, before I’ve gone, I’ll look up at Mars and know that there are humans there, and they may be searching the sky in return for a glimpse of this pale blue dot. To quote Carl Sagan.

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Pale blue dot is the ultimate photo.

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:face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

(someone had to)

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That it took so long is the only surprise.

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Nothing but super models.

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Only about my favourite place in the world there @theDJR
Walked that coast a few times.
My guess is that would be between Loutro and Marmara, slightly closer to the latter?

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Correct! It’s immediately east of Marmara Beach, just around the corner on the right below. Was afternoon so the goats were dodging the sun by being there.

Walking (at times scrambling) up Aradena Gorge, the start of which can be seen on the left, was soooo much better than walking down the better-known Samaria.

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My thoughts exactly! There are over 200 gorges on (in?) Crete, so there are a few to choose from.

You can stay at that Taverna at Marmara BTW (which was featured in the Guardian’s ‘best 10 beach bars in the world’ thing they do a few years ago). Crystal clear water. Good food. Great pre-swim loukamades & raki.
Unfortunately last time I was there, after humping over the boulders and the dodgy corroded metal ladders of Aradena, we found that there was a full-on wasp infestation. So the Albanian guys running the place were burning what smelt like nescafe in saucers… still hundreds of euro wasps crawling over everything. Had to GTFO.

Yes, they had a zillion bottle traps around the place and still more buzzing around. They pretty much left us alone – though one lady behind us seemed like a honeypot to them, and she was freaking out till they brought out a little smoke pot to clear access to her plate. Funny if it’s not you!

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Dunno what you’re worried about :sunglasses:

We took the boring route around that.

I did not put any of my weight on that handrail!

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Goat wondering what the hell we were doing there.

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Griffon vulture waiting for someone to make a mistake… this gorge was very much central Australia colours.

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Last dregs of sunset blended with the sheen of a full moon last night. Was quite a strange effect. Need 1.5 second exposure.

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And I had to crawl in under a bush to get the light patch I was after on this guy. Luckily, he/she was focused on getting it’s meal and hung around for a while. A smaller insect met a gruesome end soon after.

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‘Stairway to heaven’ we called that. I can’t believe you guys actually used the handrail!

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My favourite chomping-on-little-guys photo:

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Just taken with the iPhone in the backyard, but I think both the spider and myself were just happy for the beautiful light.


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