It is the season for capturing the nearly-full Moon as it rises behind Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona. The best time to capture this is a day (or two) before the actual full Moon so that late afternoon sunlight still illuminates Cathedral Rock. The Photographers Ephemeris (TPE) was used to determine the best location to shoot this as it became visible between the towers.
Unfortunately, there was a major dust storm the day and dust remained in the air partially obscuring the Moon at lower elevation angles. The Moon got brighter as it rose higher in the sky.
The nearly full Moon rises behind Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona.
And here is a time-lapse sequence of the Moon rising.
Time-lapse sequence of the Moon rising behind Cathedral Rock.
Bonus:
Here is additional Moon photograph taken at Upper Lake Mary near Flagstaff in early June. I was going for the reflection.
Moonlight reflected in Upper Lake Mary from a crescent Moon.
I have taken countless photographs of the Milky Way using anything from ultrawide to telephoto lenses. But I have never taken a photograph of the Milky Way with a fisheye lens until now.
The Milky Way along with bands of airglow stretch across the eastern sky.
I like the result because it shows a large part of the Milky Way from south of the Galactic Center northward almost–but not quite–to Cassiopeia. Cygnus can be seen in the center.
As a bonus there is some banded airglow along the eastern horizon.
Here are a few more SpaceX Falcon 9 deorbit burns observed over Arizona during the latter half of May.
SpaceX Falcon 9 second-stage deorbit burn on 31 May 2024.
SpaceX has launched frequently during this time period and many of the flights pass over the southwest United States and Arizona. The timing of the deorbit burn is fortuitous as it occurs just as the 2nd stage of the rocket appears above the western horizon and continues until it is near the zenith. This results in very favorable conditions for taking photographs and video of the event.
SpaceX Falcon 9 second-stage deorbit burn on 23 May 2024.SpaceX Falcon 9 second-stage deorbit burn on 22 May 2024. This is a 1-second exposure with 80mm telephoto lens.SpaceX Falcon 9 second-stage deorbit burn on 22 May 2024.
I have used both ultra-wide angle and fisheye lenses and really like the result from the latter as it is able to capture the lake reflections as well as the entire burn even as it passes overhead. One time I used a short telephoto (80mm); I may try this again.
Some of the images use 30-second exposures while others use a very short 2-second exposure which is useful for creating time-lapse video.
Time lapse video (2-second exposures) of the SpaceX Falcon 9 deorbit burn.
It’s interesting how all the image and videos show a burn that ends as it approaches the zenith followed by a splash of color as it moves overhead and leaving a circular red patch in the sky. It’s possible that the red is from the chemical reaction of the exhaust gases with the ionized air in the ionosphere. This red coloring of the ionosphere has been noted before with launches ascending into orbit so it is possible that the same chemical reaction takes place on descent.
The beginning of a strong substorm of actiivity. Some of the best and brightest colors occurred at this time.
It has been called the Great Aurora Storm of 2024 and it occurred on May 10–13 with the peak occurring on May 10–11. It was seen across high, middle, and even low latitudes and it was the strongest geomagnetic storm in decades. From the NASA science site:
May 2024 has already proven to be a particularly stormy month for our Sun. During the first full week of May, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest solar storm to reach Earth in two decades — and possibly one of the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years.
At its most intense the event was classified as a G5-class geomagnetic storm (Kp = 9).
Time-lapse video of the aurora substorm. Images at 30-second intervals.
Was not trying for a panorama–but these three shots about 1-2 minutes apart still sort of work.The aurora begin to move higher in the sky towards the zenith.Higher still and almost reaching the zenith.Aurora at the zenith.
We were in Colorado at the time visiting family and I only carried a Sony RX10, a camera with a 24–200mm zoom at constant f/2.8 aperture. It’s a good camera but doing long exposures at high ISO at night is not its strong point. Well, you’ve probably heard the saying: “the best camera is the one you have with you.”
Looking to the south as the aurora reached and passed the zenith. The rapid motion in the aurora was fantastic.Looking north as the substorm began to subside and the aurora retreated to the north.
So I used what I had with me. The results were mixed. Some of the images are noisy at high ISO settings. Some of the long-exposure images show tripod shake resulting in streaky stars. And so on.
There have been some amazing photographs published on social media sites–including a shot that I have been trying to get for the past few years of increasing auroral activity.
Ah, well. We still haven’t hit the solar max which is expected between late 2024 and early 2026 so there will be other opportunities.
So here are some photographs taken from our location in northeast Colorado.
I have posted several images here of the launch of SpaceX/Falcon 9 rockets from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. These are easy to see during morning and evening twilight hours. They are less easy to see at night and quite difficult (but not impossible) to see during the day.
SpaceX/Falcon 9 de-orbit burn on the second stage booster as it flies over the southwest United States. The start of the burn can be seen in the upper portion of the image where it increases quickly in brightness.
Until recently, I had never seen nor photographed a de-orbit burn on the second stage in preparation for atmospheric reentry. A few photographs have shown up from time to time—the most recent from a launch just a few weeks ago. It turns out that yesterday’s launch (12 April) was very similar: launch from Florida in the early evening, deploy Starlink satellites while over the Pacific Ocean, and then initiate a de-orbit burn as it crosses the west coast and moves across the southwest.
With this information I made a guess at what time the Falcon 9 second stage would move over Arizona and start the burn. I was only off by a few minutes so it was a good guess.
I shot with a wide-angle lens to ensure that my field of view was wide enough to capture the event (it was, until it moved overhead). We could see a small point of light that was both the cluster of 23 Starlink satellites and the second stage booster. Suddenly, it brightened significantly signaling the start of the burn. It was very bright as it moved overhead. At this point, I was not able to photograph it anymore. And that’s too bad because that’s when it got really interesting. For about 20–30 seconds it was like a puff of glowing gas moving across the sky. Really amazing! It ended quickly as the booster moved into Earth’s shadow and the light show was over.
I will probably do things differently if I get another chance. Maybe shoot video? Telephoto lens? Shorter exposures? All or none of the above?
