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

I found myself without a tripod for this shot taken alongside the road (hence the reduced image size). There was a bit of motion in the exposure, but I still managed to capture the Moon Pillar. This was a really beautiful scene… and makes me want to never be without all kinds of equipment. Oh, well…

Moon pillars are most apparent just after moonrise or just before moonset as the moon is sitting just above the horizon. Moon pillars are caused by moon light reflecting off tiny particles of ice in the atmosphere.

Here’s a closeup of January’s Full Moon, aka The Full Wolf Moon. Skies were clear and cold last night. Fortunately, there was no wind and the atmosphere was bone dry. Temperatures were approaching the single digit range, but with all the layering I’d done, I was surprised at how comfortable I was. I even had my mittens off for an extended period of time.

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
* Astro Physics Starfire Refractor 160mm f/7.5
* PhotoShop CS2 Curves & Levels (mac version)

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A beautiful full wolf moon rose above the hills to the east of my home this evening. After countless weeks of cloudy, snowy skies, it was a joy to see anything in the night sky. I actually noticed the moon a while earlier (while east of the hills seen in the foreground. With a much lower eastern horizon, I knew I was going to have a nice shot on my hands when I got back home. NOTE: clear skies typically usher in arctic temperatures in this area. Temperatures were already down into the mid-teens by the time I took this shot. Single digits or even negative numbers are not out of the question as the night progresses.

The Full Wolf Moon is the name given by Native Americans to the January full moon. With deep snow blanketing their hunting grounds, I’m sure that the wolves howled a bit more intensely as the January moon rose. This moon was also referred to as the Full Snow Moon. This is a term that is quite fitting for this area, as there is easily 30″ of snow on the ground… with accumulations to climb (perhaps significantly) before they begin to drop in earnest.

Astro Photo Details:

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

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* First 1/160s at ISO100 ~ 80mm
* PhotoShop CS2 Curves & Levels (mac version)

The impending snow storm has been delayed :-\  That was my realization when I got up this morning. Apparently, by quite a bit. Skies were crystal clear. As I looked out my front window, I noticed that the Moon and the planet Venus were sitting awfully close together (7* I read on Spaceweather.com). Sitting just above the duo was a bright star. Not fully caffeinated yet, I had to fire up Starry Night Pro to see that this was the bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo. Sweet. Groupings like this are called conjunctions and have held major significance throughout recorded history. That being the case, I figured I might as well put the camera on the tripod and see what I could come up with.

I ended up snagging a pair of images. The first shot shows the trio through the Canon Digital Rebel using a 75-30mm zoom lens. This nicely framed the scene. It also revealed a bit of detail on the lunar surface.

The second shot was with the 28-80mm lens pulled all the way back. This allowed me to get the mountains in the foreground. I exposed this shot for a full 10 seconds so that I got a nicely silhouetted mountain.

Astro Photo Details:

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

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* First 1/2s at ISO1600
* Second 10s at ISO1600
* Gimp Curves