This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Out of this World.’ See more responses here.
Having managed to miss all the recent big astronomical events, such as the green comet and the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, I’ve dipped into my archive for a few other worldly photos.
The first two are of the moon, first rising, then setting. The third is a view of the night sky with distant stars peeping through a typically cloudy North Kohala night.
A couple of days ago, I saw this sliver of a moon rising over Mauna Kea. I didn’t have my tripod, so wedged myself as still as possible against a van. The close up shows that technique isn’t perfect, but still kind of interesting.
A couple of photos of the last full moon, rising (top) and then setting the next morning.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘2021 in Your Rear-View Mirror.’ See more responses here. I’ve gone with a favorite photo from each month of 2021, with a caption and link to the post the photo first appeared in.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Light the Night.’ See more responses here.
A lot of people, myself included, don’t bother with lights here, but there are always some displays. Here’s one I quite like.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Christmas Song Lyrics.’ See more responses here.
I’m one of those people who sings, hums, and whistles Christmas songs year-round, often to the annoyance of those in earshot. Spoiled for choice, I decided to go with Silent Night with the intention of taking photos of Hawaii’s star-spangled night sky. However, by the time I got around to taking photos, the stars had been blanketed by clouds. These came from a weather system that prompted warnings of blizzard conditions and 100 mph winds!
Such conditions weren’t expected where I live – that would represent climate change of biblical proportions – but the weather system generated clouds and rain island-wide. In addition, it seemed to swirl back and forth and around the Big Island maintaining these conditions for a week and counting.
This photo looks down on the lights of Kawaihae and I think the heavy clouds add a muffled feeling that’s quite in keeping with the song.
Yesterday was Guy Fawkes Day in Britain and to celebrate I finally got to see some fireworks, albeit of a very different kind and in the wee hours of the morning instead of the traditional Bonfire Night.
I got up just after 1 a.m., left the house around 2 a.m. and drove over to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. I mostly had a beautiful starlit night for the drive except for about 15 minutes over the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa when I was driving through cloud and not entirely sure whether there was any other traffic despite barreling along at 60 mph.
I made good time, arriving at the park around 4:30 a.m. and the viewing point about 15 minutes later. There were around 20 people already there, but a prime viewing spot was open so I set up my tripod and camera and began taking photos.
The viewing area was a place I’d stopped by during the previous eruption in December 2020. That spot only allowed a view of the glow of the eruption, which was lower in the crater. This time the eruption was higher up and the trail had been extended so that a good view could be had of both the eruption site and the crater floor the lava was flowing onto.
The eruption began on September 29, 2021 through a series of vents, but by October 4 this had settled down to two vents and by October 6 to the single vent in the west wall of Halemaʻumaʻu crater seen in these photos.
The eruption has added about 184 feet of lava to the previous lava lake level and though it appears to have slowed a tad lately, it still put on a good show with a good deal of spattering and some smaller fountains of lava. The active vent has formed its own cone with lava spilling into the lake through a gap in the cone. Recently, a bridge formed over that cone so that the lava spills out though a short tunnel as can be seen in these photos.
I stuck around until the sun rose high enough to illuminate the slopes of Mauna Loa and then headed back to the car. After a spot of hiking, the return drive and some shopping in Waimea. I got home around 2:30 p.m.. A long day, but well worth it in my book.
I took these photos one early morning at Kawaihae Harbor. I was experimenting with settings and came up with a couple of different looks of the same scene. Not sure which I like best. Any thoughts?
Posted in response to Becky’s October Squares challenge theme of ‘Past Squares – Light.’ See more responses here.
Graham's Island 