Skip to main content

Geminids

December 13-14 marked the annual Gemini meteor shower so there I was out looking for dark sky in a major metro area.  My first stop was an area right off Gandy Avenue in St. Petersburg that is known around here as the Redneck Riviera.  In the summer this is a place where people and families park right along the water's edge with their grills, picnic gear, dogs and inflatable rafts for the day.  

 In the winter, I'm not so sure.  It was kind of creepy, but more on that later.  I thought this might be a good place to find darkness for some meteor shooting.  It is certainly dark over the Bay, and I thought there might be minimal light around here, but I was wrong.   There are street lights all along Gandy so that was that.  But, worse, was the light to the left (Tampa) and to the right (St. Petersburg).    



So I moved over to the Vinoy park, which is around 3 or 4 miles to the south on 4th Avenue.  The creepy part about the Redneck Riviera area was that there were cars interspersed here and there between the hillocks of bushes.  When I got out I could hear a couple guys talking.  And then as I was leaving a police cruiser was driving up and down the area like maybe it was a place where people go to do things best done in the privacy of home. 



There I experimented, again with my new Tokina.  I never got any shooting stars although I saw a few.  



I decided to play with the camera a bit. I sat down at one of the benches and shined my flashlight up into the palm tree.  This is called "light painting" and helps to illuminate pictures or provide a nice background if shooting the sky.  





No meteors tonight but there are several showers each year headed this way so I'll try to do better next time.  The December Geminid's are usually not very plentiful but there are some that are spectacular.  Wish I could have captured one for you.  I'll be out there trying again next time, but probably not at the Redneck Riviera spot.  Gee, I can't even use cold as an excuse.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Philippe Park and The Tocobaga Indian Mound

About ten miles or so north of Bedlam is a place called Safety Harbor.  Its the place that has the 300-500 year old oak that the city tried to kill I featured a couple weeks ago on BFE .  They have a pretty nice park that has some interesting history, too.  Count  Philippe landed here and introduced the pineapple and cigar making to the Tampa Bay area. Today, however, I want to mention something else about this area, besides the really nice scenery.  Phillipe Park was also the home of the Tocobaga Indians.  The Tocobaga occupied the Tampa Bay area from around 600 A.D. to the 1600's.   This is a fairly common view of old stately moss-laden oaks down here.   This shot was taken atop the only Tocobaga Indian mound in the area.  This exact spot is home not only to the Tocobaga until they died out, but then to Count Phillipi who settled the area after the Tocobaga died out.   The place is full of oak and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...
Post a Comment
Read more