Friday, October 10, 2008

Daytime Celestial Viewing


Who hasn't looked to the heavens during the day, usually to see what the weather is like, besides the weather one of my favorite daytime targets is a small crescent Moon. It's fun and rewarding if you can find it as the glare from the Sun makes it almost impossible to spot let alone image.



So here's the thing, I will give some lucky person 50 Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus 3D glasses if you are chosen as the winner by me, my cat and a select few other judges of the "Find and Photograph The Daytime Crescent Moon Contest", Let me tell you 50 3D glasses doesn't even put a dent in my collection. Not only will you receive the valuable 3D glasses estimated to be worth lots but I will post your images on this blog, actually I will post all submissions to my blog, up for the challenge? Hint, some dates to look out for; October 25-27 in the South West. October29-31 in the South. November 24-26 in the South West, November 28-30 in the South.



Second place winner will receive a DVD of the coolest movie around "In The Shadow Of The Moon". I can't say enough about this movie, all about the Apollo Missions and the effect going to the Moon had on the Astronaut's lives, and the soundtrack is killer. The best part of this whole thing is if you enter an image, you'll probably be the only one that does, hey, guaranteed to win.

To help you out I'll save you some time, the camera settings I used that had the Moon stand out best for the daytime shot were, ISO 100, exposure 1/500 sec. To find out what phase the Moon is in just click on my Moon phase button on my sidebar, to find the location in the sky of the Moon just go to Sky View Cafe and type in your city, it will come back with the location of everything in the sky on any particular time or day for your location. Any questions and to submit your image just email me.


While we're on the topic of daytime celestial viewing back in August I got a shot of some crepuscular rays. These rays are huge shadows cast into the sky just before Sunrise or just after Sunset by the Sun's rays interfering with clouds, mountains or in the case above, atmospheric interference caused by all the forest fires here in Saskatchewan . We had around 3x the average amount of fires this year as compared to the rest of Canada. Due to the serious and far ranging implications of these fires NASA sent a 120 scientists and a couple planes to the military base in Cold Lake Alberta to analyse their effect on our environment .



I got an email from from an intern at GOOD Magazine who thought my readers would enjoy their latest movie production on satellites, I agree, it is very cool.


28 comments:

Sherer said...

By the way Bob, I am totally winning the contest!

Question: what phase does it have to be in exactly? And what do you mean by thin crecent moon? How thin are we looking at?

Sherer said...

Might as well send the miley cyrus glasses right now \m/

3836 Emerald ave. St G
La Verne, CA 91750

Bob Johnson said...

Lol Jesse, I,m not too fussy, as long as it's in daytime and less then gibbous, which means less then half, of course the less Moon showing the better, mind you if you're the only one in,lol.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Lol Jesse, I just gave some more hints in the post for times and locations for a good Moon crescent.\m/\m/

S-V-H said...

Your sunset series are very nice, Bob!

Swubird said...

Bob:

A very cool video.

It will be interesting to see how many entrants you receive for your contest. Good luck to all who participate.

Happy trails.

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Very cool photos and post, Bob!!! I'm trying to load on the video and time will tell if my slow dial up with let me see it. I NEED high speed but don't want to move to town to get it. :D

Count me in on the crecent moon contest. Can I borrow that bird? Less than gibbous...got it. :D

The crepuscular rays are soooo eerie. Yikes.

Hugs, JJ


Now I'll try that satellite video again.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Susanne, glad you like them.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks swubird, well it depends on how many people do and like photographing the Moon, I think 2 maybe,lol.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks JJ, I would trade the internet and this blog for a location like yours lol, maybe one day.\m/\m/

Marvin said...

My wife goes bananas over crepuscular rays. We get them fairly frequently here in Florida.

We see the crescent moon in the daytime a lot too. Best viewing is really in Colorado - you can see a lot of the moon's surface by the reflected Earthlight.

Livingsword said...

Bob my friend I live in Vancouver…The October to May overcast and rain (we do live in a rain forest) has started so I never look to see what the weather is doing…On the rare and I mean rare occasions that the bright lukewarm light in the sky makes an appearance people stand in awe in the streets thinking it is an alien invasion!

Speaking of alien is that a UFO with the Moon? Its not a black helicopter…

Oh my…Bob what am I going to do with another 50 3D glasses? Let me see if I can get Chocolate Girl to work on this one!

Ahh the first 50 copies I purchased of “In The Shadow Of The Moon” were hard to find…hmmmmm

Hang on a second! Bob as we don’t see the Sun for another 7 months in Vancouver we also will not see the Moon! I knew there had to be a trick (and/or treat)!!!!

Fantastic photos Bob! I love the rays; very cool…By the way Cold Lake Alberta is well named…In the Summer the sky is blotted out by mosquitoes…

Nice video Bob…you have me thinking I will enter your contest if you will enter mine!!!

As I am sure you noticed at Life on the Blade I started a Fantasy Hockey game. You can find out how to join/play at my main page or try this link:

http://lifeontheblade.blogspot.com/2008/10/life-on-blade-fantasy-hockey-i-came.html

What do you think?

Ruth said...

Your photos are splendiferous, as always, Bob, especially the crepuscular rays. Too bad it was because of forest fires though.

Bob Johnson said...

Cool about the bananas marvin,lol. We get a lot of Earthshine here too, if the weather is just right, even during the day you can make out a little.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Lol livingsword, about the weather, I used to live in Victoria, totally different weather there, lots of clouds in Van.

Lol about the UFO, stupid bird got in the way, then I used it, thought it looked cool.

I will have to take a look at your contest, I used to really be into hockey...........when Bobby Orr was playing,lol, have no idea what is going on now though.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Wow thanks that's great Ruth, I think it is, lol, I just learned a new word,
splendiferous,lol.\m/\m/

RW said...

Awesome Bob! Your focal settings did a great job!!

Max Coutinho said...

Hey, Lord of Astropics!

Thanks for this great movie: I loved it! I had not idea of some of the facts contained in it, so it was cool to learn!
One thing that caught my attention was the idea that one day a satellite might be able to send to earth clean, renewable energy: wow!

The contest is very interesting; but although I love any phase of the moon, I will leave this for the amazing and talented photo-artists out there :D! So good luck, guys!

Your photo of the early crescent moon is superb! Let me share something with you: every month, I manage to catch (with my eyes, without the help of any camera) this early stage of the moon...I don't know if it is due to the location of my neighbourhood, or not; but I always manage to see it (that very thin curved line in the sky)!
One day I might venture and take some pics! :)

Ah, (I nearly forgot) photo of the crepuscular rays: nice colours!

I wish you a great week, Bob :D!

Cheers

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Roger. \m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks max, too bad you aren't going to enter the contest I know you'd do well. The cool thing about the Moon is like you said, you don't need any equipment to enjoy it. You have a great week too max.\m/\m/

Max Coutinho said...

Hey Bob :D!

You are welcome! You see, the thing is: I still don't have the proper camera to take this type of photos (the one I have sucks), but if in the future you repeat this contest...I might participate (I wish to acquire a better camera)! :D

Meanwhile, I will enjoy your magnificent pics :D!

Cheers

Martha Hughes said...

An interesting blog and some really cool photos.

Web 2.0 Design said...

Cool video and awesome pics....

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