Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Rare Lunar Red Flash, Moon Pleiades Conjunction and Obama's Inauguration


Totally missed the Moon and Pleiades Conjunction due to clouds but both Roger and Genie were fortunate to view and image the gathering, images below. I did however catch a couple days ago an extremely rare lunar red flash, very rare and even more rare when the Moon is in it's crescent phase. The Red flash is caused by atmospheric refraction, bending and distorting the bottom of the Moon and scattering the blues of the moonlight and allowing the reds through to be seen by the viewer.


Roger's Moon/Pleiades Conjunction image, February 3 2009


Genie's Moon/Pleiades Conjunction image, February 3 2009

Way to go Roger and Genie, and a heads up, this coming March 2 another Moon/Pleiades conjunction will be taking place, take advantage of them, the Moon is in the right position for them to occur till 2010, after that it will be slim pickins till 2022.

Congratulations go out to Genie as well, she got her images on CNN's iReport, very cool!!

Using Mars Rover imaging technology, David Bergman put together a 1,474 megapixel image of the Barack Obama inauguration. NASA developed what they call Pancam, a camera able to tilt 180 degrees, rotate 360 degrees and take high resolution images. Software stitches 1 megapixel images together and smooths out anomalies, result, a stunning high resolution image. This software helps scientists study the Martian surface through the rover's cameras like they are actually there. You can view the more then 1,400 images taken from the main 1,474 image here.
Even though I am not into politics or celebrity it is kind of addicting to go through some of these images and pick out people like Beyonce and Jessica Alba.

I'll leave you now with an animation of a Sunset I took the other day.

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Supercool lunar red flash. I especially like that the moon was in its crescent phase.

Nice conjunctions via your friends, too.

Anonymous said...

Can you believe it?
I missed the conjunction again..
It wasn't a clear sky.. :(

Genie said...

That gigipan thing is AWESOME! I swear, I think George was pouting in that shot.

I'm so very bummed you missed the conjunction because I know you'd have gotten some amazing shots of it. But a red flash crescent moon is TOO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much for the alert for last night, and I just wrote March 2 down on my calendar. I'm ready!

kml said...

Hi Bob - I always keep my eye on that moon - I have loved it since I was a kid. But you know, I never see the cool things you do - that red crescent must have been something else. Way too cool!!

Speedcat Hollydale said...

You always have the most spectacular images. Killer good sunset gif at the end too :-)

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Stephanie, was super lucky for the red flash to appear just as I snapped the pic, and was very happy to see the conjunction thanks to Genie and Roger.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Dohhh, too bad again Cashmere, always March 2nd.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, I think so too Genie, hey he had 8 years. I was up till 4:00 am waiting for the clouds to disperse, never did, thankfully you and Roger came through for me, and congrats for you CNN posting, hey always March 2nd.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Kathy, the thing is you have to be at the right place at the right time with the type of shots I take, most of my cool shots are at weird hours and very, very , very cold temps, people and rightly so don't venture out with cameras at odd hours and temps,lol.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Hey thanks a lot Speedy,the gifs are always my fav, very relaxing.\m/\m/

Swubird said...

Bob:

That absolutely stupendous. The Queen and I went through the whole library of pictures. Breathtaking, everyone.

Great post.

Happy trails.

RW said...

That red flash is awesome my man! Thanks for your help and heads up Bob. Whats funny is I was taking photos of Pleiades the whole time and and did not now it tell I started checking the shots hahahahaha!

Ruth said...

All the shots are splendid and glowy. The sunset colors are so soothing.

The Bergman image is incredible! I'll have to look at it at work, because I got bumped offline here at home (air card).

Will watch for the conjunction March 2.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting! I usually see this from the place I live at, quite an open area.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks swubird, it was kinda of addicting to go through them all wasn't it.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Lol Roger, that's the way it goes, never know what you got sometimes till you get downloading them, very cool shots Roger.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Ruth, actually I thought you would really like the Bergman shot, you'll have lots of fun with it.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Bhavesh, cool you have an open area, good luck with the one on March 2.\m/\m/

Jackie said...

Bob I am the world's worst student ever with anything that relates to science.

But, I am always so excited to get here and see what you have for us.

This was fabulous. I hope I have my new lens soon and hopefully not miss March2nd.

Congrats on getting that great image of the lunar red flash!

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Shinade, good luck with the March 2 conjunction, hope you have your lens by then, makes all the difference.\m/\m/

SEDONA said...

Very interesting.

Sherer said...

Bob,

Wow, I never thought the moon would do something like that. Amazing pic I was unaware of this occurance. Very cool

I miss the conjunction too... What a bummer. However, I am excited to see saturn again!

Jesse

Brian Opalewski said...

In a universe of mundane blogs, yours is a shining star!!! Keep up the awesome work.

Ivanhoe said...

I missed it due to clouds, too :(
We got another 10 or so inches of snow. Sigh. I'm ready for spring :)
The pics are awesome, now I know how the pleiades conjuction looks.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks a lot SEDONA.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Jesse, yes it is always good to see Saturn,will be with us for awhile now, never get tired of seeing her through the scope.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Wow, thanks a lot Shaka Zulu.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Ivanhoe, I hear you, I'm so tired of the snow and cold, I really should be living in the desert somewhere looking for meteorites,lol.\m/\m/

Dorothy said...

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Dorothy from grammology
grammology.com

Anonymous said...

WHAT!!!! CLOUDS IN SASKATOON! LOL

Great shot of the Lunar flash Bob. The things you come up with. Last night, for the first time this winter, the moon was so bright it lit up the night like it was day. So surreal. But it was -17 and I could bring myself to got outside to get some shots.

Anyways, hope you are having a great weekend my friend. ake care.
~JD

Anonymous said...

* typos:

couldn't instead of could
AND
take instead of ake

LOL

sorry Bob. All thumbs today.

~JD

Bob Johnson said...

Hi and thanks Dorothy for dropping by too, glad you like the site.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, no problem about the sp mistakes JD, I do it lots,lol. I am getting pretty tired of the snow and cold, hard to get motivated to go out in the -30c weather to get new pics for the blog, so ready for spring.:(

Peter said...

Hi! Even though I'm not into politics that didn't stop me watching 12 hours of the inauguration on the TV. History in the making and hoping he will change the world for the better.

Take Care,
Peter

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Peter, we shall see what happens.\m/\m/

Anonymous said...

Yup, thanks the fact that your friends were luckier than us and were able to shoot the eclipse as here it was very clouded for the few hours before and during the eclipse - unfortunately :/. Thank you for posting more great lunar eclipse from the fortunate once, and your Moon shots of this rare occurance are superb as always :)

Marvin said...

That's really neat! I am amazed the moon could look like that.

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