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timbrefarm.bsky.social
Paul
@timbrefarm.bsky.social
32 followers 59 following 28 posts
Jazz doublebassist, amateur astrophotographer, lover of cats.
San Francisco, CA

https://paulclanon.com
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timbrefarm.bsky.social
Meteor flashing over Mount Davidson in San Francisco last night. Pic taken from my roof looking due west. Current views from this camera, and summaries of the night past, are at paulclanon.com/cameras .

#astrophotography #meteors #sanfrancisco
City lights, trees, and buildings along the bottom of this nighttime shot labeled 9:11 pm. Against a black sky two things are labeled: "Altair" appears as a bright dot, and "Meteor" is a near-vertical bright line punctuated with a thick bright section that tails messily off into darkness. Unlabeled version of the same shot.
November 10, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Paul
muddy-boots.bsky.social
First visit to Battle Abbey - absolutely fascinating and beautiful place.
November 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one whose pics are ruined by the Moon. I bet JMW Turner was almost done, putting the finishing touches on, getting the boat and the waves and the fishermen just right, when BAM the moon came out and ruined the whole painting. #tatebritain #astrophotography
A painting in a wooden frame. A small boat and a few men are tossed by waves in a night scene, the moon shining brightly through clouds and spotlighting the scene. A selfie. Me and the painting at the Tate Britain, London. Information card on the painting. “Fishermen at Sea”, 1796, JMW Turner. At the Tate Britain in London.
October 15, 2025 at 8:35 AM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Kington to Knighton on #offasdykepath. 14 miles, 2,800 feet elevation. Noticeably cooler day, which was great for the three climbs to ridgetops. Some steep climbs, but also a lot of gradual pastures up hillsides. Several visible Dyke sections. Steep descent into Knighton.
Me sitting on a rare bench along the path. Green foliage behind. Several sections of the Dyke itself right along the path. In this shot a cluster of trees and a ditch with a low wall to the left and higher to the right. Dyke section, hills in distance. Not a good omen. Dead sheep lies white against the green grass. Trees and rolling hills, and an overcast sky.
October 11, 2025 at 5:30 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Hay-on-Wye to Kington on #offasdyketrail. 15.7 miles on a warm day (eventually clear) first along the Wye River, then up a series of three ridgeline steps culminating in a pretty glorious Hergest Ridge, then a steep drop to Kington. Broad green paths on sunny flat ridge-tops, sheep and horses.
Black cattle forage in green brush on a backdrop of trees and distant hills. A mysterious stone and an isolated group of trees, both out of place on Hergest Ridge. Green pastures, cloud-shadowed and rolling up and down under a cloudy sky. Distant hills.
October 10, 2025 at 4:53 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Longtown to Hay-on-Wye on #offasdykepath, 16 miles and a whopping 3,770 ft elevation. That’s because it’s a steep climb to the ridgeline in the Black Mountains, then all day gradually rising to the 2,300 ft high point and then down to Hay. Windy, cold, exposed all day, with flashes of long views.
Black Mountains; the day ahead. Cloudy blue sky, road and fence (with stile marked as a footpath), and a long, flat, high ridgeline with steep sides. Sign hung on stile reads “Cattle attack dogs do not put your dogs on a lead with cattle”. Green pasture beyond. Two sheep watch me pass. They’re standing on a green, grassy ledge with trees and low scrub up the steep hillside. Rainbow in a cloudy-blue sky. Green pasture, with sharp promontory in the distance.
October 9, 2025 at 8:38 AM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Monmouth to Pandy today on #offasdykepath. Cool but dry, occasional breeze, perfect walking weather. A day of sheep pastures for most of the route. 18.1 miles.
Cows hanging out, trees in the background, overcast sky. That’s my climb tomorrow. Flat pasture, prominent hill, cloudy sky. Nearing the end of the day! Signpost showing Monmouth and Pandy. Interior of St. Michael’s church. Very welcoming to hikers, with snacks, electricity outlets, and a place to sit down.
October 7, 2025 at 5:46 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
First full day on #offasdykepath, from Chepstow to Monmouth mostly contouring the ridges above the Wye. Just under 20 miles including getting to the trail itself, and over 3,200 feet of elevation gain, Including that 800-ft climb just before Monmouth, which about did me in. Beautiful sunny day.
Tintern Abbey, a view from above. River Wye behind the Abbey, with trees and the houses of the town filling the frame. White arched bridge over the Wye. Blue sky above and muddy water below. Horses graze in a green pasture. Trees in the distance, blue sky above.
October 6, 2025 at 6:48 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Tagged the beginning of #offasdykepath near Chepstow today and heading northbound tomorrow. Warm and breezy; a great start.
Stone monument in Welsh and English marking the beginning of Offa’s Dyke Path. Me in the foreground, and behind the Severn Bridge and scudding dark clouds. Foliage hides the cliff behind me. Path cuts straight atop a green dyke. Rolling hills and copses in the background, beneath a blue and cloudy sky. Against a blue sky a marker post, showing “Offa’s Dyke Path” and a stylized acorn, the symbol of UK national paths.
October 5, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Paul
mythicalbritain.bsky.social
Not quite a hillfort, more a long ditch and bank; the confidence of Offa’s Dyke lies deep within the landscape. #HillfortsWednesday
Shallow ditch and bank crossing a sheep field near the mountains
September 24, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Reposted by Paul
mark-walters.bsky.social
It’s a good time to pop up to Castell Dinas Bran above Llangollen this week to see the excavations by @henebtwa.bsky.social Cadw and Chester University on the 13th century castle gateway and across the Iron Age hillfort defences. Interesting detail coming up on the quite elaborate castle entrance.
September 25, 2025 at 2:54 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Finally some clear skies as #sanfrancisco summer arrives. This #astrophotography star trails image is cluttered by zillions of airplanes from SFO airport, against a background of stars and planets. See how it's made in the animated version below. These cameras at paulclanon.com/cameras
Night sky view. Many bright dotted paths of airplanes against a background of stars and planets moving through the sky.
September 23, 2025 at 3:18 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
The San Francisco summer has been especially San Francisco-ey this year; my sky cameras have gone weeks at a time without glimpsing a star through the clouds. During the days I sometimes get treated to beautiful clouds themselves, though. Here's 30 minutes of shots looking west.
30 photos tiled. In each, at bottom a hillside, and in the sky the sun pokes through an evolving complex cloudscape. The sky itself is a deep blue above and a light blue below.
August 23, 2025 at 4:36 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Venus and Saturn just barely making it into the last possible frames before it got too light this morning; you can see the predawn glow behind my neighbors' house on the left. Streetlight at bottom right. Current photos from this camera at paulclanon.com/cameras . #sanfrancisco #astrophotography
Blue-ish predawn sky with planets (Venus and Saturn) and stars (Vega, Deneb, Altair) labeled. A faint glow from the rising sun at bottom left, and a bright yellow streetlight at bottom right.
May 4, 2025 at 6:55 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
I call this one "When the Doublebass Solo Starts". Fisheye lens looking straight up this afternoon in San Francisco. Current pics from this camera at paulclanon.com/cameras . #RaspberryPi #astrophotography #sanfrancisco
The midday sun throws a bright halo in the sky from behind a dark cloud. Scattered blue patches and more white clouds. Each corner of the image is dark, where the fisheye lens can't see.
April 25, 2025 at 3:47 AM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Sometimes the sky just serves up a mystery. Three-winged bird? Baby dragon? Bird carrying its lunch? Current pics from this camera at paulclanon.com/cameras . #sanfrancisco #raspberrypi #astrophotography
Afternoon sky over San Francisco. Mostly cloudy, with patches of blue sky. A tree and a ridgeline in the foreground. At center-right, a dark triangular shape in the sky. Assume it's a bird. But is it? In this zoomed-in shot, the shape seems almost perfectly three-winged. The dark-gray body is too blurry to make much of.
April 20, 2025 at 3:01 AM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
A dark sunset over San Francisco last night. Current photos from this camera stream at paulclanon.com/cameras . #sanfrancisco #sunset #raspberrypi #astrophotography
A 6X5 tiling of 30 sunset photos taken between 6:51 and 7:21pm on April 17, 2025 from a rooftop in San Francisco. The sun peeps through dark clouds and illuminates clouds higher up, all over a foreground ridgeline. Blue skies contrast above.
April 18, 2025 at 4:55 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Burning-bush effect as the sun sets through a tree. Current pics from this camera at paulclanon.com/cloud_cam . #sanfrancisco #sunset
The sun shines brightly through a tree. Dark-blue sky behind.
February 28, 2025 at 1:21 AM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
The sun setting through a tree on the southern slope of Mt. Davidson in San Francisco today. Real-time pics from this camera at paulclanon.com/cloud_cam . #sanfrancisco #sunset #RaspberryPi
A tiled view of 20 pictures showing the sun shining through various branches of a tree as it sets. A blue and orange sky behind.
February 26, 2025 at 2:50 AM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
A fiery sunrise over San Francisco, CA this morning in these shots taken by one of my rooftop sky cameras in the Miraloma Park neighborhood. Real-time pics from this camera at paulclanon.com/cloud_cam . #sanfrancisco #sunrise #RaspberryPi
Photo of the sky at sunrise. Fiery oranges and reds light up dark clouds with a dark blue background. A label identifies the time as 6:42am, Feb. 21. A 4X4 tiled image of 16 sunrise photos in sequence shows muted oranges and reds suddenly blooming into flame-colors against a light blue background. A label shows the time period as 6:34am to 6:49am, Feb 21, 2025.
February 22, 2025 at 12:06 AM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
A meteor burns past Jupiter last night over San Francisco, CA. More pics in the Gallery at paulclanon.com/cloud_cam . #astronomy #astrophotography #RaspberryPi #sanfrancisco
A bright curved line against a black background in this night view of the sky. Labels identify Mars, Jupiter, and a meteor.
February 19, 2025 at 12:30 AM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
I have four cameras on my roof keeping track of the skies. I'm mostly interested in astrophotography, but I also get great sunset pics, birds fly past, I get dramatic cloud timelapses, that kind of stuff. Here's a recent sunset and a star-trails image from last night, both from the same camera.
Clouds are lit in bright shades of orange from below just after the sun sets into the ocean west of San Francisco, CA. In the foreground, trees and a ridgeline. A constructed image made from about 1300 photos overnight shows stars and planets (the three brightest streaks on the left are the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter) as the earth turns beneath them. Irregular lines that curve and cut across, often with regular red and white flashes, are aircraft moving in these 30-second exposures.
December 4, 2024 at 6:17 PM
timbrefarm.bsky.social
Happy "Clock Time is Solar Time Day" in San Francisco, CA to all who celebrate. Today and tomorrow the sun will reach its zenith (not really overhead at our latitude, but its highest point in the day) at Noon, the only days all year that's true.
A chart showing for all twelve months of 2024 the relationship between clock time and where the sun is in the sky. Annotations show the sun "overhead" at 1:20pm on March 10 and 11 -- a full 80 minutes late, and "overhead" at Noon only on Dec 3 and 4. A red line shows the effect Daylight Saving Time, pushing clock time 60 minutes away from solar time.
December 3, 2024 at 8:52 PM