A challenging day. ~ 2 comments.
Yesterday was challenging for my solar panels. Thick gray clouds stretched from horizon to horizon for the entire day and made it difficult to catch up from the previous day's electrical use. But on the bright side, there was enough charging coming in from the roof and portable solar panels, pitiful though it was, to keep my batteries pretty much even with my daily usage, the batteries neither gaining nor using the charge they started with in the morning, so I'm taking that as a win.
Since the clouds were so thick and so low, it was a terrible day to take pictures of airplanes. I could hear the military jets flying over; even with my poor hearing, it was impossible not to know they were there due to all the noise they made. Needless to say, they were flying way above the clouds, so I never even got a chance at a picture. I also haven't got a picture that's clear enough to see any markings on the jets. I can easily tell there F- 35's, but I can't tell if they're Air Force or Navy jets. The Air Force and the Navy both use them, and both have bases in the area: Luke Air Force Base just outside of Phoenix, and the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) in Yuma, Arizona. So, without seeing any markings, I have to keep calling them military F-35s instead of Navy or Air Force F -35's.
Today was better, with a lot more sunshine and a lot fewer clouds, so my batteries got filled up, but still no decent pictures of an airplane.
Theboondork.
I know pictures are supposed to be worth a thousand words, but my pictures are mute and need to be explained; otherwise, they won't make any sense at all. I'm trying to get a decent picture of military jets flying over, and here's what I'm up against.
The F-35s that fly over my area are always at an extremely high altitude, and so far away that I can't see them with my eyes. So my only hope of knowing where they are is when they leave a contrail, which isn't all that often, but when they do, it gives me a chance to get a picture of the airplane.
This picture shows F-35 contrails in the sky. If the wind at their altitude is not blowing very hard, contrails remain distinct, but at a different altitude, contrails start to get "fluffy".
I barely spotted this plane in the middle of the picture because it had a tiny contrail behind it. The picture was taken with a 400 mm lens, which is a medium-long-range lens. My biggest lens is 800 mm, but that has its own set of problems when trying to take a picture of something going by at seven or eight hundred miles an hour.
So this picture is not only taken with a telephoto lens, but I had to zoom in considerably in my photo software to be able see the airplane all.
This is what I'm usually seeing in the sky with the planes flying around. It shows a clear contrail, but you'll notice it's not very long, because it's dissipating in four or five seconds, which a lot of the time means I've only got a few seconds to see the plane and find it in the camera.
This is what often happens: by the time I spot the contrail, the F-35 has changed altitudes and is no longer making a contrail, and since I can't see the planes with my eyes, I don't know if it's there or not until I develop the picture.... In this case, I guess it's not.
I wish all the planes had contrails like this; it would sure make my hobby of taking pictures a lot easier. But the humidity in the air, the altitude of the jet, and the wind all have to work out perfectly to get a long-lasting, easy-to-follow contrail.
I've got a few pictures taken with my 800 mm lens that I will show tomorrow. Today, I just wanted everyone to see the difficulty of taking decent pictures of the F-35s playing war games.