Mercury Over The Fair Barn

Most people have never seen the planet Mercury. Most of the time it is too close to the Sun because, well, it’s the closest planet to the Sun. But now and then the Earth, Mercury and the Sun align just right and you can see Mercury as a bright red dot low on the horizon just after sunset.

Mercury over the Pinehurst, NC Fair Barn

Tonight, 09-Feb-2013 at 6:36 pm I was at the Pinehurst, NC Harness Track short track, and took this image of planet Mercury hovering over the Pinehurst Fair Barn. Mars can be seen faintly just under Mercury.

-- Dalton Hammond

Moon over the 10th tee

Don't believe anything you see on the internet.



The 2009 Harvest Moon — the full moon falling closest to the autumn equinox — did rise in front of the 10th tee around dusk tonight but it didn’t look anything like this. The picture above is a PhotoShopped composite of 3 different pictures I took and edited in order to present a more pleasing visual image. The moon shown is 300% larger than the original.

Think of it as what you should have seen, not what you did see.

-- Dalton Hammond

Unidentified object crosses face of the moon

It must have been a satellite, an aircraft would have appeared much larger. The time was 9:37 PM on September 27, 2009 in Pinehurst, NC. -- Dalton Hammond

Hummingbird sitting on pine straw

Ever see a hummingbird sitting on the ground?

This was taken with the Nikon Coolpix on full zoom, handheld, shooting through sunroom window. Now you have seen it.



©2009, Dalton Hammond

Double Star Rigel

Since my $1,200 Nikon won't work right on stars I tuned up my other astrostuff tonight to see if I could split a few double stars with my $79 Philips Toucam Pro webcam and my 8" Celestron telescope.

Our own Sun being a notable exception, most stars are double stars, or even double doubles. The bright star Rigel lives about 770 light years from your bedroom and you probably know it as the right foot of the hunter Orion.

Rigel is the sixth brightest star in the sky, is a noted double and its B companion is clearly evident in this nice image taken from my deck tonight. About 400 1/50th-sec movie images were stacked in freeware RegiStax.

We are looking at the way the star appeared at about the time of the signing of the Magna Carta. Splitting this duo is the equivalent of being able to read the title of this page from three football fields away.

©2009, DALTON HAMMOND

The Planet Venus

At first glance this picture of Venus, taken in Pinehurst, doesn't look like anything to get excited about...except that this is about as good as Earth-based photos ever get because of the planet's heavy cloud cover. And this picture was not taken with my telescope but with my Nikon Coolpix at full optical zoom (about 270 mm).

When Venus is nearest to the Earth it always appears as a crescent, as shown. When it is fully illuminated it is always much farther away and appears much smaller.

This was four separate images, stacked and combined in the freeware program RegiStax.

-- Dalton Hammond

So THAT'S why they call it 3-D!

Callisto Transits Jupiter

Sometimes you have to be at the right place in the Universe at the right time.

Early on the morning of August 4th, 2008 despite a thick summer haze I captured this fuzzy image of the great gas planet Jupiter just as the Jovian moon Callisto was crossing in front of the planet. The moon appears as a black dot at the upper right edge and the shadow of Callisto can be seen on the face of the planet just above the image of Callisto. The haze-bloated dot to the left of Jupiter is the moon Io and the moon Ganymede appears to the right of the planet. -- Dalton Hammond

How to be a Tiger

To learn Tiger Woods' famous trick shot just click the big button to start the 30-second video I took on the Pinehurst Country Club driving range yesterday afternoon. -- Dalton Hammond

2008 Lunar Eclipse

©2008, Dalton Hammond

Mod Waterfall

This is a waterfall near a friend's mountain cabin. The trees were so bare I goosed up the color and added a few digital touches. -- D.H.



©2008, Dalton Hammond

Moon: Archimedes and Apennines

The seeing was still mushy around my house but here's a what-the-heck view of our friendly Moon taken a few minutes ago. That's Archimedes, the big crater at the left. Montes Apenninus mountain range arcs upward from bottom left.

This was a stack of the best 353 of 1830 images taken with the $79 Philips Toucam Pro webcam working at prime focus F/10 with the Celestron 8" Schmitt-Cassegrain reflector telescope from the Dalton Hammond observation deck.



-- Dalton Hammond

Saturn the Ringed Planet

This Saturn image was taken from my deck through wispy clouds tonight. I used a Philips TouCam web camera working through a 2X Barlow lens at prime focus with my 8" Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector telescope at F/20. The best 409 images from the .avi movie file were processed and stacked with Registax. -- Dalton Hammond

STS-116 Over Pinehurst Harness Track

The Space Shuttle Discovery roars past the Pinehurst, NC Harness Racetrack during its successful night launch from Cape Canaveral on the STS-116 mission to service the International Space Station.


©2006, Bob Jones

Christmas Treasures

The year-end hush of twilight falls
Across December's merry walls
And soon the months will mem'ried be
Like heirloom bangles on the tree.

Each glist'ning ornament attests
The love of friends I now assess.
I count each one and softly pray
God's blessings for them each new day.

And when the New Year dawns its light
I'll pray again with all my might
That all of you will still be here
When Christmas comes again next year.

©2006, Dalton Hammond

The Embers 2006 Christmas Show

See SandhillsPromotions.com for 2007 Embers Christmas Show info -- D.H.




In the last two months I have toured the Grand Canyon in a helicopter, hit the jackpot in a Harrah's slot machine, been astounded by Cirque Du Soleil's stage production of "Ka", finally seen my boyhood idol Pat Boone's Christmas show, and played six rounds of golf in the last seven days at the beautiful, fabled Pinehurst Country Club, but The Fabulous Embers and their 2006 Christmas Show was the pièce de résistance, and the best entertainment for the money I've ever come across.



I've been a fan of The Embers for almost fifty years, but I've never heard them sound better. My Christmas season is off to a blessed start from having seen and heard their world-class show.



Gerald Davis on bass was simply marvelous as usual, lighting up the stage with his contagious friendly smile. The newer band members Josh Shilling and Stephen Pachuta fit in comfortably, adding wonderful depth to the band's sound. Bobby Tomlinson, the founder, patriarch, and taskmaster of the group nearly stole the show while stealing Christmas as The Grinch.

Thanks to Bob Jones for the photos, and Happy Holidays everybody from Dalton Hammond and The Embers Christmas Show.



-- Dalton Hammond

Mercury Transit of the Sun - 2006

©2006, Dalton Hammond

Grand Canyon and Cactus

Grand Canyon and Cactus
©2006, Dalton Hammond

TWO Hummingbirds

After I publish this shot it'll be no more hummingbird photos for a while, but you need to see this.

When I bought the new feeder a few weeks ago the salesman told me I would see two or more hummers on it at a time. I found this really hard to believe, given their possessive, agressive nature (Note: See "Death By Hummingbird") but he was correct, as the picture shows.

It was raining and I was shooting through the window glass, but you get the idea. -- Dalton Hammond

Hummingbird Revisited

Hi folks.

The hummingbirds finally found me at my new home in the Sandhills. I was hiding behind the curtains in the sun room but I don't think I fooled this one.



- Dalton Hammond