Meh-clipse...

On Friday night (10/18/13) at approx 7:50pm EST, the outer blurry edge of Earth's shadow briefly (and very slightly) darkened the lower limb (visible edge) of the Moon.  I tried to explain to folks that this is probably not an event worthy of excitement unless you are an uber-astro nerd but there seemed to be a lot of disappointed outcry out there afterward.

To explain, this was a Partial Penumbral Eclipse.  A Total Penumbral Eclipse would only dim the entire surface of the Moon because only the fuzzy outer edge of the Earth's shadow (the penumbra) is blocking the Sun.   You don't get that eerie dark red appearance that a total lunar eclipse gives.

So this Partial Penumbral Eclipse was so slight that only folks that stare at the Moon on a regular basis could even notice and only cameras and telescopes would really be able to see a noticeable difference from the normal full Moon.

Here's a photo I took during the peak eclipse coverage.  This is a stacked image of 105 frames, processed in RegiStax6.  Notice the light shadow on the lower right limb? Yup, that would be the full extent of the action.

Definitely mark your calendars for the next FULL lunar eclipse on April 15, 2014.

105 frames, 1/80 sec, f8, ISO100

PanSTARRS

The promising "year of comets" kicked off early this month with comet PanSTARRS finally visible in the northern hemisphere.  It has been either completely overcast or just cloudy at the western horizon every evening until the sky beautifully cleared on 14th.  I had a wicked cold brewing but I forced myself get out to go stand in a field in the freezing cold waiting for a glimpse since I knew it could be the last good view (and boy, was I was right!).  The Sun set at 7:26pm and after scanning and scanning with the binocs I nearly gave up when I finally spotted it much later than I expected, around 8:25pm (good thing I'm so stubborn!).  It was only barely naked eye visible for a very brief time around 8:30pm but you kinda really needed to already know exactly where to look.  Of course, a few seconds at ISO1000 made it really pop.  Here's the two worthy images.

3/14/13 8:30pm
300mm, f5.6, 1sec, ISO1000

Moon and comet PanSTARRS
3/14/13 8:38pm
29mm, f5.6, 10sec, ISO640

Conjunction Junction

Tonight is the closest Moon and Jupiter conjunction until 2026. The Moon and Jupiter are only approx 1 degree apart, about the width of a finger on your outstretched hand. The visible Galilean Moons from left to right are Ganymede, Io, and Callisto (the three that line up on the same plane nearest Jupiter). Europa is on the left side but is lost in the glare of Jupiter. 

Somehow, I drove through one of the worst blizzards I've ever experienced and when I got home the sky was perfectly clear!   This is a composite of two exposures to reclaim the detail in the Moon.

Moon - f6.3 1/320sec ISO640    Jupiter - f6.3 1 sec ISO 640

Eclipse-ish

As I'm watching all the breathtaking "Ring of Fire" shots roll in across the interwebs, I can't help but get a little jealous.  There's some great shots out there, go check Google.

This was the maximum eclipse here in NW Pennsylvania before it headed further west.

Mooning Venus and the ISS

After more than a week of clouds and few days of snow (yes, you heard right).  The skies unexpectedly cleared last night [4/24/12].  What a beauty of an evening.  I immediately grabbed my gear (camera bag, tripod, and binoculars) and ran out onto the patio to set up.

31mm,0.5sec f10 ISO100

Every evening I have this unavoidable compulsion to see how early I can spot Venus, usually before sunset. I spied and even photographed it at 3pm in February this year, that was wild.  Last night it was hard to miss shimmering there in the west near the thin waxing crescent Moon.  In my binoculars I was able to make out the tiny crescent of our inner solar system sister.  (I hope you guys are clicking the links I post, they aren't spam)

For the following picture I set up my camera in BULB, f5.6 and ISO250, plugged in my intervalometer set to 10 sec every 3 min for 20 exposures and mashed the start button.  As the camera fired away I was on my back on my patio table exploring Cancer, hitting Beehive cluster, M44 and M67.

20 exp, 28mm 10sec f5.6 ISO250

I loaded all 20 frames in PS, leaving the first frame alone I tediously erased all the other stars in all the other frames.  Then one by one I changed each layer's blending properties to "lighten" and  only the light from the Moon and Venus popped through. Tada!

Tonight [4/25/12] while I was in the middle of writing this post the ISS made a nice pass next to Venus and then Mars.  It's been cloudy all evening bus it cleared enough just in time.  I set up to shoot it rise in the west then as soon as it left the frame I whipped my camera over to Mars (the bright orangeish "star" in the second shot) and managed to catch it pass there too, unfortunately I think I was focused on the tree.  Check out the little "moon dog" on the right side of the first shot. 

22mm 117 sec f4.5 ISO400

35mm 56sec f5 ISO400

It's fantastic to see the sky again after so many soggy days.  Can't wait to get back out and observe with the group.   

Moon and Pleiades

[Last night] It was a great moonlit night at the observatory, thanks Randy.

If you have never seen the Moon through a large telescope, go find someone with one and ask them to point it at that big bright round thing in the night sky for you.          

...go ahead, I'll be here when you get back.

You're back?  Wasn't that amazing?!  I know!  So, as you were looking across the 235,000ish miles of space to the Moon, peering into all the many craters and gliding over the different surface features, you undoubtedly began to feel a strange impending excitement.  You felt like if you could only look long enough you would see one of those massive impacts first hand.  This excitement is, although not impossible, extremely (seriously) unlikely.  Nonetheless, a wonderful feeling, wouldn't you say?   Feel free to go look again.    ...I'll wait.

Now, to the photography.  I took 136 frames of the moon with my camera mounted on top of a Meade RCX 400, and using RegiStax 6, I attempted to stack them.  Then I attempted again.  Then again.  I'm sure I'm doing something wrong and in no way is this a slight on Registax.   It's obviously going to take a few tries and tutorials to get things rolling there.  

Here's an old-fashioned single frame image.  Not too shabby.

300mm, 1/125 sec, f11, ISO100

[EDIT - 04/08/12]  This is what the above image looks like processed in Registax6.

More eye candy last night was Venus nestled just under the open cluster of Pleiades (M45) like a lone egg in a nest.  Now DeepSkyStacker was much more first-time user friendly.  This is 9 frames stacked and noise perfectly removed.   Could have used longer exposure or wider aperture or higher ISO (one or all) to better resolve the background stars but it's quite pretty.  It's difficult to shoot a bright object like Venus and expose long enough to resolve fainter objects like Pleiades.  With my budget 300mm lens, that star[planet]burst just gets bigger and bigger.  The lens aberrations are a bit annoying but kind of appealing when you're going for something frame worthy or "artsy".

9 frames @ 300mm, 30 seconds f7.1 ISO 800