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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

One Ugly Arachnid in my Backyard

On my way up the stairs to my garage two days ago, I nearly brush against this creature with my left elbow and I let out a yelp. Hell...this damned thing is about 2" wide! I don't want to kill it, despite it's horrendous appearance, so I scoop it with a broom and fling it into my neighbors yard.

The next day it is back...right back where I almost had it in my face. So I leave it alone, as it likes the location to cause me an acute heightened since of awareness of it's presence and I decide to take a few spider shots...

It was a windy day and hard to maintain a good focus, and I used the zoom to get in tight from a few feet away, but it wasn't close enough. So I decide to come within millimeters of the eight legged creature who was enjoying a unlucky fly for it's afternoon meal...

Nervously, I approach the giant web, (it's about 2x3 feet!), and hoping he is too busy devouring his meal to pay attention to me, I practically place the camera lens at his front legs ready to take the shots. To my horror, he senses me...and uses his front legs to push me away...actually places them on the lens!

I freak...

I'm fear that he's going to scale the camera and bury his fangs in my face...and I retreat.

Momentarily reacting like a little girl, I decide I must get the shot, so I regain my composure and slowly approach again...gingerly come within millimeters of the beast, snap a few exposures and retreat quickly.

We have come to an understanding that as long as he stays where he is, I won't mess with him. I keep a very close eye on him as I pass the spot on my way to and from the garage.

But if he breaks the treaty...off to my neighbors yard he goes.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Getting better Acquainted with Arabella

I have gotten used to the huge spider setting up home next to my garage the past few days and look for it when I frequently pass it by. This Sunday morning on my way to breakfast, I saw a tattered web and no Arabella. (Arabella was one of the spiders taken onboard the Skylab space station orbiting laboratory in the 1970's.)

I was disappointed.

Perhaps she moved on and found better hunting grounds. But I still looked around for her and followed a web thread to a long length of angle Iron leaning against the garage. Within the bend of the iron was Arabella. She was upside down, hanging on to a leaf. (I have turned the images for a better perspective)

Using the macro capability of the Canon Powershot S3, I got in close to the arachnid, testing her patience and my courage. She only slightly moved when I approached, so I got closer...

She was tolerating my unannounced visit, so I got my tripod and got in as close as I could, a scant distance of one of her legs.

I needed to get closer and tighter. I did some experimentation with using my old 35mm 80-20mm Zoom lens from my Nikon film camera. I quickly adapted the long lens to the S3 lens adapter -backwards - using electrical tape to bind the two firmly together. I also taped on a small LED flashlight to the lens barrel and it provided good illumination on the subject.

The sun was at my back, streaming in over my fence but not quite illuminating the spider. With the camera on the tripod, I had to contort myself and the tripod to capture the target - and not disturb her. To get her face, I needed to lower the camera and position myself "below" her and point up to her...hoping that she wouldn't jump on my face in the process. Looking around for her friends, keeping an eye on her, and keeping my balance..it was a mini ordeal.

Now, as I returned to my precarious 1/16 distance to the creature I snapped away, keeping the f-stop at 7.8 and using a little time exposure...

A magnificent shot!

The complete beauty/horror of the beast is displayed here in this shot. With her many eyes looking at me, she tolerates my invasion. I wonder what kind of spider thoughts she has...?

Keeping a leg on her signal thread, she now poses for me.

Staring at me face to face...I don't know if I am fascinated with the intricate features of the spider, or like a car wreck...just have to keep looking.

What seems to be "eyes" only under her two left legs, stares right back at me, but they could be sensors of sorts too. At closer inspection of the images....I can see myself reflected in her leg-eyes...

Cool...

One can make out the form of my head & shoulders in her eye. Considering I shaved off my mustache, I wonder if she thinks I'm attractive.

She came out briefly on to her web & I took a shot of her thorax..

I'm not as frightened of her as I was yesterday and it will be sad to see her go when the chill of fall arrives. I messed up her web even more by jocking the camera into position...really did a number on it. She needed to rebuild anyway.

But she gave us some great pictures this September morning..

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

My friend Alice tells of a Japanese story about a spider:

"Joe -- I did a search for the story I remembered, and
found not only the story, but the exact illustrations and text from
the book my uncle in Japan sent me, so many years ago!

It's a nice story, about being kind, and doing good things in
return.....so maybe you'll also be rewarded for your kindness to
Arabella....enjoy :-)" ...

-----------------------------

THE SPIDER WEAVER

LONG ago there was a young farmer named Yosaku. One day he was working in the fields and saw a snake getting ready to eat a spider. Yosaku felt very sorry for the spider. So he ran at the snake with his hoe and drove the snake away, thus saving the spider's life. Then the spider disappeared into the grass, but first it seemed to pause a minute and bow in thanks toward Yosaku.

One morning not long after that, Yosaku was in his house when he heard a tiny voice outside calling: "Mr. Yosaku, Mr. Yosaku." He went to the door and saw a beautiful young girl standing in the yard.

"I heard that you are looking for someone to weave cloth for you," said the girl. "Won't you please let me live here and weave for you?"

Yosaku was very pleased because he did need a weaving girl. So he showed the girl the weaving room and she started to work at the loom. At the end of the day Yosaku went to see what she'd done and was very surprised to find that she'd woven eight long pieces of cloth, enough to make eight kimono. He'd never known anyone could weave so much in just a single day.

"However did you weave so much?" he asked the girl.

But instead of answering him, she said a very strange thing: "You mustn't ask me that. And you must never come into the weaving room while I am at work."

But Yosaku was very curious. So one day he slipped very quietly up to the weaving room and peeped in the window. What he saw really surprised him! Because it was not the girl who was seated at the loom, but a large spider, weaving very fast with its eight legs, and for thread it was using its own spider web, which came out of its mouth.

Yosaku looked very closely and saw that it was the same spider which he'd saved from the snake. Then Yosaku understood. The spider had been so thankful that it had wanted to do something to help Yosaku. So it had turned itself into a beautiful young girl and come to weave cloth for him. Just by eating the cotton in the weaving room it could spin it into thread inside its own body, and then with its eight legs it could weave the thread into cloth very, very fast.

Yosaku was very grateful for the spider's help. He saw that the cotton was almost used up. So next morning he set out for the nearest village, on the other side of the mountains, to buy some more cotton. He bought a big bundle of cotton and started home, carrying it on his back.

Along the way a very terrible thing happened. Yosaku sat down to rest, and the same snake that he'd driven away from the spider came up and slipped inside the bundle of cotton. But Yosaku didn't know anything about this. So he carried the cotton home and gave it to the weaving girl.

She was very glad to get the cotton, because she'd now used up all the cotton that was left. So she took it and went to the weaving room.

As soon as the girl was inside the weaving room she turned back into a spider and began eating the cotton very, very fast, just as though it were something very delicious, so she could spin it into thread inside her body. The spider ate and ate and ate, and then suddenly, when it had eaten down to the bottom of the bundle-the snake jumped out of the cotton. It opened its mouth wide to swallow the spider. The spider was very frightened and jumped out of the window. The snake went wriggling very fast after it. And the spider had eaten so much cotton that it couldn't run very fast. So the snake gradually caught up with the spider. Again the snake opened its mouth wide to gulp the spider down.

Old Man Sun, up in the sky, had been watching what was happening. He knew how kind the spider had been to Yosaku and he felt very sorry for the poor little spider. So he reached down with a sunbeam and caught hold of the end of the web that was sticking out of the spider's mouth, and he lifted the spider high up into the sky, where the snake couldn't reach it at all.

The spider was very grateful to Old Man Sun for saving him from the snake. So he used all the cotton that was inside his body to weave beautiful fleecy clouds up in the sky. That's the reason, they say, why clouds are soft and white like cotton, and also that is the reason why both a spider and a cloud are called by the same name in Japan - kumo



============

What a nice story of good karma and positive vibes. Thank you Alice!...

I hope Arabella likes me...

Visit the link for nice illustrations:

www.japanippon.com/fairytales/spiderweaver.htm

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

This thread reminds me of the fine classic movie from 1958 "The Fly".

At the end of the movie, the scientist is caught in a spiders web. With complete horror on his face, he watches the spider approach for the kill. He's screaming in a diminutive voice, "Help me! help me!" A fellow scientist see this drama unfold, and uses a rock to put an end to the drama in the garden, outside of the laboratory and smashes both as the spider pounces on him.

There is something about spiders that causes fear in all of us. Something primitive.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Yesterday, Arabella stayed hidden in a piece of angle iron with some leaves held together with some web. I thought perhaps she was in distress, but some have speculated that she is probably prepping for laying her egg sacks.

From my friend Alice:

"The species is Araneus Diadematus. It is known as the garden or European garden spider, garden cross spider, garden orb-web spider, and diadem spider. It's part of the "orb spider" group, in reference to the pattern of the web it builds. It varies in color from brown, to red, to nearly black. The identifying mark is that cross you noted. Your specimen is most likely female, with large size and it's large abdomen.

It is European in origin, very common in Western Europe -- and has spread in North America as far west as the coast. Also, I've read that it rebuilds its web nightly, and that it goes off to hide as it prepares to create its egg sac. After the egg sac is secured, it dies. This usually happens in autumn. Much like Charlotte, of Charlotte's Web."

Early this morning, I saw her in the middle of her brand new web, looking good and spry.

There was also another spider hanging about, much smaller and on a different web..

This is most likely the father.

Arabella's web was in the way, so I couldn't get a tight close shot of the guy, and I didn't want to wreck her web again.

Also,

There is another spider spinning her web in a different part of my backyard..

Too many spiders.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Labor Day Spider Drama

Arabella had decided to return to the safety of her leaves and iron railing this afternoon...

She is positioned in a tough angle to photograph her, but after some fighting with the tripod - I finally got into position. I used a booklight to help illuminate her.

The images are turned right side up for a better perspective.

She tolerated the invasion again and is either as curious about what's going or just too frightened to scurry away.

This is a nice tight shot of her eyes. I wonder what she sees.

There is another spider of a different shape. Her abdomen is more round. But she isn't as tolerant of my imposition and runs away into a niche whenever I approach..

The setting sun nicely illuminates her legs. The head of a duplex nail gives an idea of her size. Much smaller than Arabella, still scary.

This is the same spider as above.

I used my old 80-200mm zoom Nikon lens - attached to the Canon Powershot backwards with electrical tape to get the incredibly close up shots of Arabella...

I'll try and come out later when she rebuilds the nest and get some full bodied-center of the web shots.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Arabella doing well

Arabella rebuilds her web every night and I was able to photograph her again this afternoon...

It was a bit windy this day, and focusing was a bit difficult, but she tolerated my intrusion as always..

I also was able to convince the other spider to let me photograph her...and she is a very different spider...

Her belly looks furry with two odd indentations.

While I was imaging Arabella, a squirrel found my activities amusing and stayed to watch...

Resting on a wheel barrel, the squirrel pauses for a spell.

I found that it takes time for a creature to get accustomed to a person. At first these two spiders would scurry away when I approached, but now - even with the new one, they stay and allow me to invade their territory. I even bumped the web a few times on the new one, but she only moved away a little bit and returned to the center of the web.

[katodog]

Joe, you keep messing around and you'll make headlines...


"Large Spider Attaches to Local Man's Face"


News at Eleven



Now all you have to do is figure out how to get the camera on a telescope. You get pictures of people, the skyline, and now, spiders. But have you ever shot an astro pic though a telescope?? I mean, come one, what do you do all day at the Adler??

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Kdog,

Put a moist mop instead of a shovel...

...and use this since I shaved off the mustache

...completes the picture.

---------

My interests reside in inner space as well as outer space.

No extra charge.

[katodog]

Okay, I'll use it. You asked for it.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Kdog,

See?

With a little thought and research...a respectable likeness.

;D

[katodog]

As we investigate deeper, we find where Joe's passion for astronomy began...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Who told?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Three Wasps - No Waiting

Arabella snagged three wasps in her net this afternoon. I noticed two nicely wrapped packages in her web, and observed her having a meal...

The shots are not as well as the other ones, as I didn't feel like setting up the tripod and making a production out of it. So I just handheld the camera and took two quick shots - with the lens a scant few centimeters from the creature...

Earlier that day, I made a short movie..