Creation Through a Lens

 Lunar occultation of Mars photographed on 1/13/2025 in Athens County, Ohio.

 2024 Solar Eclipse

  I wanted to photograph the solar eclipse but didn't want to spend a bunch of money on a solar filter that I wouldn't use afterwards very often so I bought a 5 by 5 inch piece of solar paper that I sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard that had a hole the size of my lens cut out in them, then fastened that onto a cardboard tube that fit snugly around my camera lens. I put the homemade solar filter on a tripod and hooked up a remote trigger so my finger on the shutter button wouldn't cause the camera to shake while taking pictures.

  I returned to check my beaver tree camera I had set up and unfortunately all the camera captured was squirrels. Winter isn't really the best time to get footage of beavers felling trees as they're usually more active in the spring and summer repairing their lodges and dams and throughout the fall when they're stockpiling food underwater that they can access under the ice during the long winter, but I had hoped that since we've had a pretty mild winter here so far that they would still be active. I did a bit more walking though and found two beaver lodges and a dam. I've only seen one other lodge before and that was pretty close to this area but it appeared to be abandoned so to find two lodges and a dam with fresh sign is pretty exciting. I set up the camera on the smaller of the two lodges (not the one pictured) that was closer to shore and within camera range, but I hope to return either with hip waders or once the water freezes to put a camera on a tree next to...

  Found a pretty cool spot for a camera set up on this tree. If successful this would be my first trail camera footage of a beaver - as long as the tree falls the way it looks like its going to and not on my camera.

      The heron rookery had just come into view when I spotted what at first glance appeared to be a small great egret but upon closer inspection had the wrong bill and feet color, size, and shape. I snapped several pictures to help with later identification at home and continued on my walk.     After checking on the heron rookery and swapping SD cards on a trail camera I had on a nearby wetland, I returned home. When I got home I looked the new bird up and found that it was a juvenile little blue heron, a bird that was not normally found in northwest Ohio. Range map from Cornell with a red dot where these two were found      I saw from my trail camera footage that there were two of them in the area.      I have since been told that it is possible that they flew too far north after being sent away by their mother in a process called brood dispersal. This seems to be the most likely reason these vagrant birds showed up so ...

  As the days grow shorter and colder towards the end of the year the green leaves that adorned deciduous trees and shrubs throughout the summer begin to change into colors of red, orange, and yellow, and fall off the tree. Most trees with broad flat leaves lose their leaves every fall, while most trees with needles and a few with flat leaves keep them throughout the winter. Leaves that stay on the tree throughout the year have specially designed protective features, such as a sturdy needle shape, or a wax coating.  Most broad leaf plants do not have these features though. They must lose their large delicate leaves or risk having them destroyed by winter weather. When the days grow shorter there is less sunlight available for the tree to use in photosynthesis, which is the process by which most plants use the green pigment chlorophyll to convert water, carbon dioxide, and light into carbohydrates. Oxygen is produced as a byproduct of this chemical reaction. When the lack of su...