The other Corona

Two days ago I showed the corona of the total eclipse of the sun.  For even better photos of the corona, I invite you to click on the link to my wife's Scottsdale Daily Photo site, which you can easily reach through a link in the left margin of this site.  

Today I am showing a photo of the other Corona, taken from the balcony/patio of our condo on the beach in the Playa Langosta section of Tamarindo.  This photo is evidence that my sons were visiting Costa Rica at the time I took this photo about 6 weeks ago.  I enjoy a glass of wine to accompany sunset.  There would be beer in our place only if my sons were present. 

Before my recent trip to see the total solar eclipse in the South Pacific, if you had asked me what a corona is, I would have said "a brand of Mexican beer."  After being entertained by the enrichment lectures on our cruise by leading astronomers Alex Filippenko, Owen Gingerich and Richard Feinberg -- and I do mean "entertained" -- I know about solar coronas and other astrological subjects.  If you check out my wife's Scottsdale Daily Photo site this week, you, too, should learn something new about solar eclipses.

By comparing my corona photo on August 1 to the two corona photos that my wife showed on her site yesterday and today, you will be able to see the difference that superior equipment and lenses make in taking photos of extremely challenging subjects.  I shoot with a Lumix, which has a Leica lens with 12x zoom, which is equivalent to a 36 - 420 mm telephoto.  Julie recently purchased a Nikon D90 with 3 Nikon lenses, including a 70 - 300 mm zoom.  Her photos are now clearly better than mine, although she now has lots of gear to carry around, (and for me to help her carry).  I used to think of myself as the premier photographer in our household, but as Julie's recent photos of the eclipse show, she has eclipsed me, which is fine with me because I do not think I have not gotten worse.

The day after the solar eclipse, we had a session on the ship in which they showed some of the best photos of the solar eclipse submitted by some of the 300 people on our trip.  I am proud that several of Julie's photos were selected to be shown, even though some of the people on the trip were noted astro-photographers, with their own observatories at home, and some were solar eclipse chasers who had seen more than 10 total eclipses.

My wife and I have started a new travel photo blog, called Viva la Voyage.  A link to it is in the left margin of this site.  We posted our first post last evening, showing a few photos from Petra, Jordan.  I hope you find it of interest.