The Moon reached perigee the other day. Perigee is the closest point in the moon’s orbit around the Earth, making this moonrise just a bit larger than all the others. Additionally, the Earth was very near perihelion, the side of Earth’s elliptical orbit closest to the sun. Extra sunlight increased the reflected luminosity of the Moon, making it seem bigger and brighter still. This full moon was referred to as the Wolf Moon by native Americans because it comes during the middle of the winter. Cold, hungry wolves would howl in distance as the moon rose. It’s was also sometimes called the Snow Moon. The moon will now start to get out of our way, allowing for some deep sky observing/imaging in the days and weeks ahead. (If only the weather would allow for this)

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Moon

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 1/100s at ISO400
* 300mm f/5.6
* PhotoShop CS2 Levels (mac version)
* Neat Image noise reduction

I woke up this morning to a beautiful crescent moon. It was just climbing above the mountains to the east of my home. I decided I needed to snag a shot of this. Once outside, the amount of Earthshine became apparent. This was actually going to be a nice shot. I quickly put the Canon Rebel XTi onto an old beater of a tripod and quickly attached my 75-300mm zoom lens. To better frame the scene, I pulled back to 130mm providing the following view. Not too shabby, huh? Checkout this higher powered view taken via eyepiece projection to 48x through my Astrophysics Starfire 160 Refractor

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Moon
Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 1s at ISO800
* 130mm f/4.5
* Astro Physics Starfire 160
* PhotoShop CS2 Levels (mac version)
* Neat Image noise reduction

Here’s the view I found myself under on the other morning (9/25). Skies were mostly clear and a nice crescent moon had just come up over the mountains to the southeast. I’ve not yet looked up the name of the star pictured next to the moon (likelihood of this happening is descending towards nil).

Note the earthshine visible in the image. Earthshine is sunlight reflecting off the Earth and back onto the moon. It makes a beautiful sight. Earthshine is most apparent just before and just after the new moon.

Here’s a shot taken the other night (7/5/08) atop a ridge in Utah’s Uinta Mountains. Located about 10 miles up the Trout Creek drainage at about 9400′, we’re prepping for what would turn out to be an amazing night of observing. That’s me and the ObDob posing in front of a gorgeous alignment (moon, regulus, mars and saturn).

Skies above Trout Creek were easily mag 7… with amazing transparency and pretty nice seeing. We spent the night visiting with old friends (M13, M51, M57) and enjoying the wonders of the summer Milky Way.

You never quite know when skies are going to cooperate on any given evening. Tonight, the stars (err… solar system objects) were in alignment. Checkout these shots of this evenings conjunction involving The Moon and The Planet Mercury. I’d actually forgotten about this alignment, and had to go home to get my camera and tripod. Around 8:30pm or so, I saw the crescent moon coming into view. I knew that Mercury couldn’t be far behind, but where would it appear. A quick peak at a sky map provided by Dr. Tony over at Spaceweather.com was all I needed. Back down the road (to my less obstructed western horizon) and 15 minutes later there was the first rock sitting just below and to the left.

I took a few shots with each lens to make sure that I’d have a good enough exposure to work with. I figured the wider field of view of the first shot made for a more neighborly feel. These are our nearest celestial neighbors, after all. The narrower field of view (I’d hoped) would show a bit more Earthshine. Alas, I needed a better view to the west to allow skies to further darken to capture this more distinctly. Oh, well….

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: Conjunction: The Moon & Planet Mercury

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* Image #1 - wide view 1/8sec @ f5.6 ISO400 70mm focal length
* Image #2 - narrow view 1/10sec @ f/5.6 ISO800 200mm focal length
* Adobe PhotoShop CS2 Curves & Levels
* Neat Image

Winter still refuses to relinquish its grip on the Park City area. 6-8″ of snow fell again yesterday (4/24/08). Skies did clear for the approaching weekend, though and the forecast is calling for mostly clear skies for the next few days at least. I woke a bit earlier than hoped for… (5ish)… and decided to take advantage of some nice early morning views. I managed to checkout the giant planet, Jupiter… which was sitting high in the southeast. I snapped a couple of prime focus pics, but I didn’t get these focused sharp enough to be worth anything. The moon was sitting due south when I came out… and slightly to the west as I focused the camera on it. For all my complaining about how bright the moon can be, it is one sweet astro-photography target. Focusing on the moon is a non-issue as you can so clearly see the details in your camera’s view finder.

Details on the lunar surface are clear and crisp. The lunar terminator can be seen running along the edge of Mare Serenitatis, lighting up the far edge of Crater Posidonius. Visibility along the terminator is especially detailed because of the stark contrast.

Here’s a shot I snagged a while back of a waxing crescent moon. This was taken on a rare clear night this past February. I’m hoping the (eventual) arrival of spring here in Park City will allow me to get outside and start taking astro images again. Only time will tell…

I’ll start my first post in quite some time with this sweet shot of Sunday evenings crescent moon. This was a tiny sliver of a moon, just shy of 24 hours old. It was only because of the incredibly flat horizons to the west that I was able to snag this shot. This was taken from our campsite down at Gooseberry Mesa in extreme southern Utah. Note the existence of Earthshine in the image. Earthshine is sunlight that reflects off of the Earth and illuminates the non-sunlit portions of the moon. This is why you can actually see the moon in its entirety in this image

I need to tell you just how amazing the skies were here. Except for some sky glow along the western horizon (light pollution comes from nearby St. George, Ut and more distant Las Vegas, NV), the skies were nearly pristine. In the wee hours, the Milky Way spanned from southern horizon to the northern horizon. It was an almost spiritual sight. It was also nice to see some of my old friends… the summer constellations of Hercules, Cygnus, Lyra, Sagittarius, etc.

I got several nice hours of dark sky time after the moon had set. I hit a bunch of old favorites. The Orion Nebula was sitting low in the western sky as it got dark. The galactic pair of M81 & M82 were almost directly over head. This made for some incredible views through the big scope. With its long focal length, I could just barely squeeze the two galaxies into the field of view simultaneously. Cranking up the power forced me to look at one or the other in much more detail (not exactly a bad thing).

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Moon
* Magnitude: roughly mag -12
* Size: roughly 1/2*
* Phase: 23.9 hours past new

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 0.3s at ISO800
* PhotoShop CS2 Curves & Levels (mac version)

Shortly after sunset on Wednesday, February the 20th, skywatchers across the Americas will be treated to a sweet total lunar eclipse. This will be the last total lunar eclipse until 2010 (so start praying for clear skies). Depending on where you live, you’ll get see all or at least most of the event. Those located to the east will see the Snow Moon rise as the Sun is setting. Shortly after that, the partial phase of the eclipse will begin. For those located in the mid-west and west, the moon will rise with the partial phase already underway. Regardless,  most everyone in the view area should be able to see all of the totality phase.

Look for the moon to turn a coppery or reddish color during totality. This is caused because the eclipse will block all direct light, but not all light. Some light will filter through Earth’s atmosphere and still shine upon the Moon. This will give it a beautiful reddish color. No special equipment is required to view a lunar eclipse. Simply head outside during the event and you will be able to enjoy it. That simple. If you have a telescope or binoculars, you might as well plan on pulling it out for the event. Wide angle views of the eclipse should be simply spectacular. Those of you looking to image the event should plan on mounting your camera on your tracking telescope or tripod. You’ll need to take exposures of as much as 2 seconds…far more than you’ll be able to hand hold. A good idea is to bracket your exposures…. ie… take a 1/2 second image… a 1 second image… and perhaps a 2 second image. Compare these to see which works best for your local conditions. Those of you still using film… might start around 1/4 second… and simply take a number of exposures for each shot you’re looking to catch. This will dramatically improve your chances of getting some nice shots.

I’m hoping to put together a post that’ll focus on imaging in more detail. Check back between now and the 20th to see it. I’ll also have a review of the event (if its visible from here).  Checkout Science@NASA for more details.  Here’s a shot I took of the last total lunar eclipse… taken this past August.

Skies were clear again this evening, offering a magnificent view of the moonrise across the valley. Temperatures, accordingly, were dropping rapidly already into the low teens by 7:30pm. Plus or minus single digits were likely to result.

Anyway, here’s a waning gibbous moon silhouetted against a nearby home. Had I prepared for this shot (notice a recent trend?), I’d have gotten setup outside a bit early…. with a tripod… and thought about the required ISO setting. This shot at ISO100 was not quick enough to pull in any foreground details. The scene moved by so quickly, that I had little or no time to make adjustments. This shot was 1/500 second f/5.6 @ISO100. A better setup might have been set to ISO800-1600… and perhaps about a 1/125 second exposure. This would have allowed for all kinds of details in the foreground. Once this detail was acquired, I’d have had considerably more options available during image processing to seek some sort of balance.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Moon
* Magnitude: roughly mag -12
* Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 1/500s at ISO100
* Gimp Curves