Hey! It's Mars! And Lightning!

"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg) 05/31/2016 at 00:50 • Filed to: Mars

3

11

Tonight, Mars is a mere 46.8 million miles away, the closest it’s been since 2005. Go outside and look up, it’s the bright red dot.

I went out to shoot this storm tonight that was lingering over Apollo Beach, FL (just south of Tampa). It had some wicked lightning shooting out of it. By the time I got down the street with my camera to St. Petersburg side of Tampa Bay, the best lightning was all but done. I did get this one decent ground strike while getting Mars in the frame, too (bright streak in the upper right). It was a 30 second exposure, so Mars is more streaky than defined.

I got a few other cool shots, but this was the only one I processed so far. Enjoy. And go outside and look up every once and while.

HammerheadFistpunch > sonicgabe 05/31/2016 at 01:09

1

I got to see it last Monday over pork kabobs, loved it

I wish I didn’t shuck at Astral photography. You can still see it in this one but the moon kinda drowns it out

Sam > sonicgabe 05/31/2016 at 01:10

0

Just looked outside and jeez, it’s amazing how bright and red it is.

HammerheadFistpunch > sonicgabe 05/31/2016 at 01:12

0

Nice shot btw

sonicgabe > HammerheadFistpunch 05/31/2016 at 01:17

0

The moon ruins everything.

HammerheadFistpunch > sonicgabe 05/31/2016 at 01:20

1

Cept moonshine

sonicgabe > HammerheadFistpunch 05/31/2016 at 01:20

0

Thanks. I got a series of 10 second exposures with a large plane that just took off from the Tampa airport flying from the lower left of the frame to the center and going right overhead. Really great light streaks. Need to stack them together tomorrow and see if I can make it work.

sonicgabe > HammerheadFistpunch 05/31/2016 at 01:33

0

I took some last weekend when the moon was full, but I haven’t really worked on them yet. I might have a a decent one in there, but probably not. I just shot from the back yard and driveway. Lots of ambient light. I’ll look at them tomorrow.

nafsucof > HammerheadFistpunch 05/31/2016 at 09:40

0

Is pork kabobs a state park? 

Racin'Jason001 > sonicgabe 06/02/2016 at 17:10

0

Nice timeing! It’s hard to get a shot of a bolt like that!

sonicgabe > Racin'Jason001 06/02/2016 at 18:02

1

Just minutes before I got set up to shoot, bolts were shooting out of the cloud in all directions. I could see it while driving to where I could get a clear view to photograph. A crowd of people were lined up on the sea wall watch when I got there. But as soon as I rolled up, the show started to wind down. It was still really great to watch.

Racin'Jason001 > sonicgabe 06/02/2016 at 18:08

0

That happened near me once! It was cool. I wish I got more T-Storms where I live.