Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #43: Stars

This week it's all about stars. Carly wants us to photograph stars of some kind. I found a few to shoot. Nothing all that exciting though.

The first one is from the stars on my son's ceiling. You can see that the fan was spinning, which gives it kind of a cool look.

This second one is also from my son's bedroom. It's a close-up of a nightlight he has. I believe it's a Buzz Lightyear light, so it's filled with stars.

Extra credit: The first shot was hard to get the right shutter speed and stability. I ended up laying the camera on the floor. It worked out best. The second shot was tough because of the light the thing put out. I played with the settings until I got the best shot I could.

Go check out the rest of the shots on Carly's site.

Weekend Assignment #220 : Beautiful

Yes, I know it is Wednesday, but I can still do my Weekend Assignment today. Karen said so. So, with out further delay; this weekend assignment.


Weekend Assignment #220: Tell us about one person, place, concept or thing you find particularly beautiful, and why it affects you in this way. If you can demonstrate its beauty with photos, great, but as always, the primary emphasis for the Weekend Assignment is words. Extra Credit:Does something threaten to disturb or destroy that beauty?

I'm going to skip over the easy answer, my wife, besides, she doesn't want me plastering pictures of her all over here.

Instead I will talk about something inanimate, outer space. Yes, it is kind of general, but it is beautiful! Even our planet looks better from space. From the rocky, inhabitable Mercury to the giant Jupiter, our own solar system is an amazing bunch of rock and gasses that came together to circle our sun.



If one of those planets were not there, would the solar system by the same? Would Earth be what it is toady? I don't know, but it's possible it could be very different.

Beyond our solar system you have out galaxy, the Milky Way, with billions of stars circling a densely packed center of stars, dark matter, and a giant black hole. Looking at a galaxy from far away can make your worries feel small and insignificant.


Can't it? It makes me wish we could get out there, see what lies beyond our solar system. It won't happen for a very long time, if ever, but it would be great if humans could really get to other star systems. Maybe, if we are extremely lucky, find some other intelligent life.


When you see clusters of galaxies like this, it makes you think it is possible. Unfortunately, these are so far away we could never reach them. Still, it is fun to look at these images and just wonder, what is out there that we don't know about yet?

Extra credit: I don't think anything is threatening the universe. I think things will be fine for several billion years. Earth only has about 4 billion, based on the sun's life cycle, unless we mess it up first.

All images from hubblesite.org go check it out!