Tag: Planets

Milky Way rises above a moonlit Cathedral Rock

The Milky Way rises above Cathedral Rock which is lit by the setting crescent moon. To the right, the triplet of Mars, Saturn, and Antares in the constellation Scorpius stand out as the brightest points of light. In the center of the triangle formed by these three objects lies the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, a nebula of gas and dust that appear in the image as dark bands.

Milky Way and Cathedral Rock.
Milky Way and Cathedral Rock.

This is a composite of two images. The first was taken of Cathedral Rock as the moon was setting in the west. An exposure of 120 seconds at ISO 400 and an aperture of f/4 was used. The second image was taken a short time later after the moon had set allowing the fainter stars in the night sky to appear. This image was 8 minutes at ISO 400 and an aperture of f/4. To prevent streaking of the stars an iOptron Sky Tracker was used. The two images were then blended together.

There will be several more opportunities during the spring and early summer for images like this as the moon sets in the west and the Milky Way rises in the east.

Rho Ophiuchi.
Rho Ophiuchi.

As twilight began in the east and the stars began to fade I switched lenses to a short telephoto to zoom in on Rho Ophiuchi to better show the dark dust present in this nebula. This is a 120-second exposure at f/2.8 and ISO 400 using an 85 mm lens.

A Lunar occultation of the planet Venus

There was an interesting astronomical phenomenon that occurred a few days ago that was worth viewing. On that morning, the crescent moon slowly moved towards and then in front of the planet Venus. This is known as a lunar occultation. For several hours that morning, folks could look up in the sky and quickly spot the crescent moon and then, a moment later, the bright point of light that was Venus.

Venus is bright enough to be seen in the daytime sky but is usually hard to locate. When it is near the moon—as it was on that morning—it becomes much easier.

I took a series of photographs every few minutes as the two celestial bodies drew closer together until, finally, the moon slid in front of Venus. It actually took about 30 seconds for the moon to move completely across the disk of Venus and, as it did so, the bright point of light grew dimmer until it blinked out.

A few hours later, the process reversed itself as the moon moved away and Venus appeared on the other side.

Lunar occulation of Venus.
Lunar occulation of Venus.

While I was taking images, I also had a pair of binoculars set up on a tripod and invited others to look through and view the pair. Most did not know that Venus could be seen in the day. All were amazed at the sight through the binoculars.

The images presented here were taken about 5 minutes before occultation, beginning of occultation, and a few minutes after Venus reappeared.

Dark skies and the Milky Way

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With the moon well past full combined with very clear and dark skies it was time again to do some night sky astrophotography. On an earlier outing, I had taken a few “exploratory” images of potential targets. It was now time to take some longer exposures.

My first target was Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, a dark nebula of gas and dust that is close to the star ρ Ophiuchi of the constellation Ophiuchus (and located adjacent to the better known constellation Scorpius).

Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. The planet Saturn is in Scorpio and is located in the upper right of the image.
Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. The planet Saturn is in Scorpio and is located in the upper right of the image.

My tools for the night were a Nikon D700 DSLR (fairly old camera technology by today’s standards), a Nikon 85mm f/1.8 lens (a short telephoto lens that works well for astrophotography), a tripod, and an iOptron SkyTracker equatorial mount for tracking the stars on long exposures.

I took 10 exposures each of 4-minutes duration and then stacked them using the (free) Deep Sky Stacker application. The resulting image was post processed in Photoshop CS6 using Astronomy Tools v1.6.

The result isn’t bad considering I’m still pretty much an amateur at this astrophotography thing. For comparison, check out this amazing version of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex at the APOD site.

The next night was almost as clear so I returned again to my viewing location near Mormon Lake. This time, I used an ultra-wide angle lens (16mm). Here you can see the Milky Way rising in the east with Saturn in Scorpio and visible in the center right part of the image. The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is also visible to the right of the Milky Way. The glow in the lower right is from the city of Phoenix—locateded over 150 kilometers to the south.

Milky Way rising.
Milky Way rising.

While capturing these images I was treated to the yipping of coyotes, hooting of owls, and could hear a small herd of elk grazing in a nearby meadow.

Another planetary conjunction

Another planetary conjunction occurred yesterday (31 Aug 2014) with the close placement of Mars, Saturn, and the Moon in the evening sky. It’s only been a few weeks since the planetary conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the morning sky so we’ve had an interesting few weeks for sky watching.

Mars and Saturn were joined by the crescent Moon to form a triangle in the evening sky. Using “The Photographers Ephemeris” I was able to determine that I could get a photograph of the triplet as they hung in the sky above Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona. But if only it were that easy. After arriving at my predetermined spot I still had to move around to get a good setup. A bit of travel southward along the Templeton Trail…followed by some climbing up…then down…then back to the north…and finally I get a few minutes where they lined up with the spires of Cathedral Rock. Whew!

Conjunction of Mars, Saturn, and the crescent Moon.
Conjunction of Mars, Saturn, and the crescent Moon.

With that done, I retreated back down to the parking lot before it got too dark and spent another few hours photographing the Milky Way as it lined up with Cathedral Rock.

Milky Way and Cathedral Rock.
Milky Way and Cathedral Rock.

Planetary conjunction in the morning sky

On 18 August 2014 there was a planetary conjunction in the morning sky when the planets Venus and Jupiter appeared next to each other with the distance separating them considerably less than the size of the full moon. Jupiter was rising a bit higher each morning while Venus was dropping closer to the horizon. For several days before and after the conjunction the two planets so close together made a spectacular image in the morning sky.

Venus and Jupiter in the morning sky.
Venus and Jupiter in the morning sky.

For three days I shot photos of Venus and Jupiter. I then took the images from each day and created a layered image. Next, I shifted each image up/down, left/right until the planet Jupiter lined up. The result was that the composite contains a single image of Jupiter along with three images of Venus. This makes it easy to see how the two planets were shifting relative to each other over the course of three days.

The previous conjunction of Jupiter and Venus was 26 May 2013 and was, in fact, a triple conjunction and included Mercury. The next conjunction of Jupiter and Venus will occur on 01 July 2015.

The photos were taken from Mars Hill where Lowell Observatory is located and look over the city of Flagstaff, Arizona, the worlds first International Dark Sky City.