Took a couple images of the Mars, Beehive open star cluster conjunction which occurred May 22nd. The Beehive Cluster is located in the constellation Cancer, is anywhere from about 400-750 million years old, 577 light years away and is 16 light years in diameter.
Ancient Greeks called the stars in the sky that seemed to wander, Planetoi. wanderers, hence the word planet, my second image below I took the night after my first shot illustrates the wandering part quite nicely thank you very much.
A cool utility that I used to frame the top image is Pikifx, if you want to email someone a picture you took and make it look a little more finished you can just put a frame around it. The software is totally free and it's one of those things like my fisheye lens and animated images at the bottom of my posts that I will probably overuse, I have a habit of grabbing onto something I really, really like and using it over and over and over and over and over again until I get sick of it and stop, and then remembering about it again and then the cycle repeats itself, over and over again.
Some more cool upcoming conjunctions are happening, one June 7th. the Moon with earthshine and Mars are getting together, look low in the west sky around an hour after Sunset. June 8th. look to the west an hour after Sunset again for a Moon Saturn and Regulus gathering. June 30th. look in the west sky for Saturn, Mars and Regulus grouping and then July 5th. and 6th. west sky again for a Saturn, Mars, Regulus and Moon conjunction, all these conjunctions about an hour after Sunset.
The The Phoenix Mars Lander has gathered its first official scoop and is ready to deposit it into Its' lab's partially open doors, yeah that's right the doors haven't fully opened up, it will take up to a week to study the sample and come back with the results. I'm hoping it will be "We've found water!" instead of the usual "We've found evidence of water."
Totally off space topics and keeping with my overuse problem, I have posted a framed image of a yellow bird that I took while on vacation in BC, I have looked everywhere for the name and type of bird with no luck, can anybody help me out? I would really like to know the type of bird this is.
I'll like to leave you now with my Milky Way image with the exploding meteor as an animated gif, which I call "Shooting Star"
32 comments:
Awesome pictures Bob. The wanderer passing through the beehive - very cool. Did you use any kind of magnification? or is that just point and click?
Love the photos. Very interesting about how the stars were seen in antiquity ... I'd love to see the sky like they did ... without any lights from earth. I guess I'd have to travel quite a distance to see that. My sister told me she was awe-struck when she went to Arizona and saw the sky there. I'd love to see that some day.
Thanks sherer, I used my 300mm lens and Canon 40D at a 8 second exposure, it's about 15X, about the same it would look like through some good binocs.\m/\m/
Thanks drowsey, the skies in Arizona are awesome, some of the best astrophotographers come from there, I wish.\m/\m/
"Hey! Did that star just move?"
Nice shot of the bird. I wish I could tell you what it was. How about "the eatin' kind"?
Thanks for the frame link, Bob - and whatever the bird is it ain't from this neck of the woods!
You'd like it here this afternoon - I've just seen a Lancaster and a couple of Spitfires fly over from Biggin Hill Air Show.
Hi Bob, haven't been around for a while, as I have been burning the midnight oil and not had much time for visiting, so I an doing the catch up thing.
Nce to catch up with what is happening on Mars.
As a matter if interest what lens and what exposures are you using for your star shots?
The yellow bird is an American Goldfinch, Bob. We have them here. I love to hear them singing. They become brighter in the spring.
Beautiful images!!! Thank you for the heads up for the upcoming conjunctions. You make the night so much more interesting. And I saw my first earthshine. :D At least Jeff told me that was what it was.
Hugs, JJ
Hey Bob - As JJ said, that is a great shot of a goldfinch. We have them by the thousands around here. The photo makes it look like a large bird of prey! But they are actually quite small.
Lol marvin, thanks for trying to name as opposed to eating the bird.
Thanks Julie, take pics and frame them and post them, or just take them and post them, love those planes, I used to have a gas motored spitfire controlled by strings like a kite when I was a kid, lots of crashes,lol,\m/
Hey max-e. For my wide angle shots I use two lens, my fav Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, I can actually get away with 60 second exposures with out star trails, I also use a Canon 17-85mm, but only get away with 40 second exposures before I get trails and that is because of course more magnification then the fisheye.
All my star shots I've been using ISO 3200 or 1600 depending on the surrounding area's light.
The Beehive Mars conjunction was taken with my 75-300mm, set at the 300mm spot, because of the magnification I only could get away with a few seconds exposure before developing star trails.
Conjunctions are our friends,lol.
Thanks JJ for telling me the name of the bird, your first time discovering earthshine, very cool.
\m/\m/
Thanks Will, you have thousands and we have none,:( we don't have too many colored birds around here at all.
Lol, you are right it is a small bird, I was trying out speedshooting with my telephoto lens and was lucky enough to catch it in flight, then I cropped it.
400-750 million years old? Geez Bob- I thought you were the only thing around here ancient. lol Great pictures Bob. :)
Lol, Rose, hey this space stuff makes me feel young in more ways then one.\m/\m/
Hi Bob! You never cease to amaze me with the images and articles that you present. All perfectly framed and focused on making our day a little brighter.
As for the bird, I can tell you that it's not a kookaburra!
Take Care,
Peter
Well thankyou very much Peter, the pleasure's all mine. Not a kookaburra, too bad,lol, I had to go take a look at what a kookaburra looks like, they are so cute.:D :-D
Bob:
Great shot as always. Thanks also for the PikFix. I know I'll be using those frames. I have Photo Elements 4, and it only offers a few frames.
LOve the GIF. Nice and bright.
Question: Is everything working alright with Phoenix. I heard there was some type of problem, but I'm not sure what it was. I hope it's not connected to it ability to detect water.
Happy stargazing.
Thanks swubird, I love the frame program too, will be using it a lot,lol.
The Phoenix, the last time I heard, is having problems getting the sample of Martian soil into it's lab, they think it is clumping and not going through the screen at the lab entranceway, always something,lol,
They are going to try to pulverize the sample next time with the arm so it will be able to get through the protective screen. \m/
Bob - your photos are excellent! You sure did a great job of freezing the little bird in flight!
Thanks Kathy, I was using my high speed continuous shooting and shutter priority modes with a very fast speed and it worked out real good, the bird is actually very small as you probably know.\m/
Hey Bob,..
a gas motored spitfire... lol
Do you think Astronomers would believe in Creationism ?
Wow you did great with that beehive cluster! Did anybody figure out what the bird was?
Hey priyank,it was a lot of fun that old plane.
Sure there are a lot of Christian astronomers that have no problem with both. A great show I watched was called Galileo's Sons a show about Catholic astrophysists and how they live with a seemingly huge paradox.
Thanks Roger, both JJ and Will came back with the American Goldfinch.
Excellent.... totally... about the yellow birds, I have 2 living right outside this window in one of the trees here, and I also, have tried to find what they are called. They are gorgeous, playful, and intriguing. They play like tag from my balcony and have a very nice song... again, great post and pics... have a great day:))))) drowsey monkey, your sister is right, Nevada and AZ have spectacular night shows of stars, planets, galaxies, and cosmic gases, even UFO's... the skies are wide open, clear, and well, it is a star gazers dream come true... :)))))
I agree, Bob, you have an American goldfinch there. I hope that I can take action shots as well as you do, someday!
Cool Lynda that you have the American Goldfinch right outside your window, very colorful bird, love them, UFO's too, very cool, have you ever seen one?\m/\m/:greenalien:
Thanks Marvin, it is the camera, being able to take multiple shots one after the other, got one pretty good one out of the bunch.\m/\m/
Thanks for that info Bob. That is way out of my league, equipment wise. My maximum iso rate is 400 and my lens totally inadequate for these purposes
Looks like you need to get one of those motor drive set-ups that you move with the stars.
Awesome picture! Wow! I had to show my granddaughter your site and she was truly impressed.
Love and Blessings,
AngelBaby
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