I managed to grab some pictures this morning around maximum eclipse. Since this was partial eclipse, a tiny sliver of the moon is still getting almost full sunlight. The rest is only illuminated by “Earth shine” which is sunlight that is filtered by the Earth’s atmosphere. The different in brightness means that exposures will be …
Set your clocks for 3:00 AM! The earths shadow will cover all but a small sliver of the moon and you can see a “blood moon” at maximum around 4:00 AM which is a for real thing and not some made up name for the full moon. The moon will be about 45 degrees above …
I finally have my astrophotography setup back together with a new camera and various accessories. Most amateur astronomers who are interestred in astrophotograpy ignore the Moon and try to image when its light is not washing out dimmer, deep sky objects. On the other hand, taking photos of the Moon is easy since it’s so …
Its usually a minor shower with a very broad peak that extends from about April 16-26. Tomorrow morning is the theoretical peak with rates that average about 10-20 per hour. The Geminids and Perseids can have rates of up to 100 per hour. As usual the best time to see them will be after midnight. …
After several attempts at getting a good shot of Mars with a new camera, I managed to capture a so-so image last week. You can see the south polar ice cap and portions of Syrtis Major, the dark band just shout of the equator. Due to atmospheric turbulence caused by mountain winds, clear and cold …
If you haven’t noticed already, Mars is making itself noticed in the southeast after sunset. Mars reaches opposition in October when in its roughly 26 month orbit around the Sun, it appears on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. Mars’ orbit is elliptical like most of the planets and about every 10 …
The waxing crescent phase of the moon was just over one day past new last night (April 24th). As the moon draws away from the sun more of its surface will be illuminated and it will rise later in the day. In about 27 days it sill be full, rise at sunset and set at …
Last month I was lucky to witness one of the more exciting events in the sky – a daytime meteor or fireball. Fireballs are just very bright meteors – typically brighter than Venus in the night sky or bright enough to be seen in daylight. At our home in Atlanta, I just happened to walk …
We got a good view of the transit from the parking deck of my office in Atlanta. Lots of folks came out to take a look and the clouds were mostly thin. There were several “wows” from viewers which is something that amateur astronomers strive for but also some notable “is that little dot really …
