Lunar, Pleiades and Mercury Conjunction

My last post I discussed the Mercury, Pleiades conjunction, well on April 26 the Moon joined the gathering.


What a beautiful sight. Each of the celestial objects took their turns being covered and then breaking through the clouds to allow me to be able to capture the trio.

Lunar , Pleiades Conjunction April 26 2009.

Mercury, Pleiades Conjunction April 24 2009.

This was like a super dooper 3 part conjunction. First you had Mercury and the Pleiades, then the Moon arrives for part II, then the Moon leaves for part III. Since I don't get to image Mercury that often and the fact I love the Pleiades I made it my week long project to capture the part III conjunction to show Mercury drawing closer to the Pleiades, kind of cool, the way they move through the sky.

Mercury, Pleiades Conjunction April 26 2009

Mercury, Pleiades Conjunction April 27 2009.

Mercury, Pleiades Conjunction April 28 2009.

Mercury, Pleiades Conjunction April 29 2009

Mercury, Pleiades Conjunction May 1 2009.

Mercury, Pleiades Conjunction May 2 2009.


Finally I'd like to mention about a cool new website that was just launched; " Portal To The Universe". It is another cornerstone project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. It's an easy to navigate web 2.0 based astronomy site. Like a supermarket of websites, one stop shopping where you can go see the latest space images , listen to pod watch vodcasts, read about the latest happenings in space, see the current locations of the ISS or Hubble, and more. If you like space news and the such, check it out.

I'll leave you now with an animation of one of my Lunar, Pleiades and Mercury Conjunction

Lunar Venus Conjunction

Was lucky to get break in the clouds to view a daytime crescent Moon and Venus come together April 22, added bonus... clouds, in just the right amount to add atmosphere. They, the clouds rolled back in just before the occultation, that is when the Moon actually covered Venus, but a daytime conjunction of the Crescent Moon and Venus is still a pretty picture.

That's not all, the Pleiades and little Mercury were and are as we speak also in conjunction very cool.



Click on the conjunction link above, it is the best description of a celestial conjunction ever, a conjunction is basically a temporary close gathering of two or more celestial bodies. To see the conjunction look to the west about an hour after Sunset, you'll see Mercury, as it will be the brightest object in the lower west sky, just above Mercury will be the Pleiades. They will be getting closer together till April 30, at which time they will start pulling away from each other, and drawing closer to the glare of our Sun, grab some binoculars if you can, the Pleiades are awesome through them.


From conjunctions to cats. When I first pulled up to the Marsden Hotel , where I was staying for the meteorite search, a cat ran up to me and rubbed against my legs...hey what can I say, some guys are chick magnets.... I'm a cat magnet, they love me , I love them. Anyways, 7 am the next morning there was a meowing at my window, the town cat was back, I let her in and we had tea, and surfed the net before the meteorite search, that's right, the Marsden hotel had high speed wireless internet technology.

I have been concerned about whether or not I'd be able to find wireless in China so as to post from there.... well if Marsden has wireless in their hotel, population 294, I'm pretty sure they have the technology over in Shanghai with a population of 14.6 million, I'm hoping in their Hotel rooms.

I'll leave you now with an animation of the Mercury/Pleiades encounter.

Astrostuff

While I'm getting ready for my Buzzard Coulee meteorite search I thought I'd throw together some images for my latest post, images of cool stuff I've been doing but didn't really know what to do with them, so I thought group them together all in one post.

The image above is my latest Micrometeorite, taken about a month ago. Image taken with my Celestron Digital Microscope at 200x.





The image above is a Sigma Leonid meteor taken last night, this shower generally has a peak of 1 or 2 an hour, kind of boring unless you're going out to try and image one, like me.






Was lucky to capture another double halo with circumzenithal arc from the roof of the mall I work at a month or so ago.

What Jupiter looks like through an average amateur astronomer type scope, looking through charts for the date this image was taken, the moons appear to be Callisto and Europa, Europa being the closest to.


Image above was taken March 8, the conjunction of the Beehive star cluster in the Constellation Cancer and the Moon.


Last but not least, I'd thought I'd throw this one in. It is one of my first images taken with my new Camera before I got a telephoto lens. It is an image of a Moon Antares conjunction February 2008, the second dimmer star is omi sco, in the constellation Scorpius, reminds me of the Lunar Venus Jupiter conjunction of December 1 last year which Priyank got a shot of, image below.

I'll leave you now with a couple blended images done in photoshop, then animated, one of a Moon Rise and one of my favorite Star Clusters, the Double Star Cluster in the constellation Perseus for my fantasy conjunction.

The January 7 Moon and Pleiades Conjunction

Moon and Pleiades conjunction January 7, 2009.


While you can, enjoy the 6 year time frame when the Moon's orbit is such that it allows these awesome conjunctions/occultations with the Pleiades, the 6 years ends 2010, and won't be repeated again till 2022.

Moon and Pleiades conjunction April 8, 2008.


I have posted the conjunctions/occultation I have imaged since I got my camera December 2007.

Moon and Pleiades Occultation June 30, 2008.


The image above was the occultation that was not to happen, all the astronomy mags stated that the occultation would be over , turning into a conjunction by the time the Moon rose in the western part of North America, not so, the Moon rose occulting both Pleione and Atlas of the Pleiades.

Moon and Pleiades conjunction September 19, 2008.

The next meeting of these two gems of the night sky will be February 3, 2009. Look to the SW around 10:30 pm. CST.

Moon and Pleiades Conjunction December 10, 2008.

They meet again March 3, 2009, they will be at their closest around 2am that morning, just as the grouping sets in the west. All the times I have quoted are CST, if you would like an exact time in your area you can email me or visit Sky View Cafe, a great site that gives you the location of all the main celestial bodies at anytime in your location.

I'll leave you now with a beautiful double lunar corona animation.

International Year of Astronomy 2009

This year marks the 400th. anniversary Galileo first used a telescope to view the heavens. To celebrate this occasion professional and amateur astronomers alike have set aside this year to educate the general population about the celestial wonders our Universe provides, to give the guy/gal on the street a Galileo moment.

Double Star Cluster in Perseus.

What is a Galileo moment you may ask, it is sharing any astronomical experience, from viewing various celestial objects in the night sky with a telescope/binoculars, the Double Star Cluster above being my favorite, a real show stopper, to pointing out a conjunction or even a constellation, point being to show and teach somebody something they may not already know about our cosmos, kind of what I try to do here, and the main reason I started this blog. Side note here, did you know that the average person stops learning about the science of astronomy at age 10? Think of how much more you know after reading this blog for any length of time then the average person.

To find out what's going on in your area visit the International Year of Astronomy 2009 website and go to your county or as they call them National Nodes, 135 all together, you will receive a "single point of contact" call them up and chat, going to the Canadian node you learn that on January 10 the Ontario Science Center is having a full day of demonstrations and presentations, very cool.

I am having printers do up a poster for me which I downloaded from here, letting passersby know that there is a celestial tour going on in my backyard, my own little tour of the cosmos. An open invitation to any readers who want to hang out in my pod and tour the cosmos with my scope, can't pay for your flight out but to the first 463 people a free pair of Hanna Montanna/Miley Cyrus 3D glasses, hey, while you're down we can do lunch.

There are a lot of regular readers here that are totally qualified to share a Galileo moment, step out of your comfort zone to pass on what you have learned here to the average non astronomical person on the street. I won't leave you hanging, if you feel so inclined to do such an astronomical event, email me, I will give you some good dates in your area and what to point out. You'll be hooked after the looks on people's faces and the appreciation they'll show you with the spark in their eyes.

Moon and the Pleiades meet June 30 2008.

Some upcoming events to watch out for. This Wednesday look to the East at Sunset for the Moon and Pleiades conjunction. On the 12th another conjunction, the Moon meets the Beehive Star Cluster in the constellation Cancer, image below shows what the cluster would look like in binoculars, it is an image I took of the Mars /Beehive conjunction I took last May, look to the East once again around 8:30 pm EST.

Mars and the Beehive Conjunction May 22 2008

A few more events happening throughout the year you may want to consider for your Galileo moment. February 4, March 2, and August 14 all Moon and Pleiades conjunctions. February 27 a beautiful early morning conjunction of Venus and the crescent Moon, look to the east just after Sunrise. Another conjunction to watch out for, April 26 just after Sunset, look to the west to see the Moon/Mercury conjunction with the Pleiades close by. June 19 just before the Sunrise around 4:30am look to the east to see the Moon/Mars/Venus gathering, very pretty. October 8-16 watch the Mercury/Venus/Saturn conjunctions, on October 16 the Moon joins the party, lots more going on, these are just a sampling of what's in the works, again great Galileo moments.

I'll leave you now with one of my Milky Way Galaxy shots twirled in Photoshop.

Last Aurora of 2008 and The Moon, Jupiter, Mercury Conjunction

First of all I like to wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best in 2009.

Just as I was going to call it an early night and head off to bed I got a call from Dr. Tony Phillips at Spaceweather Phone telling me that a Solar wind was due to hit Earth the morning of the 31st. and to expect Auroras!! It would be the last Auroras of 2008. It had been overcast that night but I looked outside just in case it had cleared, and it did. Was able to get my Photon Phix in between all the clouds we have been having lately, mind you still -30c but at least clear.


If I were to rate seeing a meteor fall from the sky a "10" I would have to give Auroras a "9", very beautiful, dancing through the night sky. Deadly charged energetic particles so energetic that not even the Sun's gravity can keep hold of them, escape the Sun to form the Solar winds. Once they arrive at Earth our protective Magnetosphere direct them away from us, some charged particles sneak into our upper atmosphere where they collide with our oxygen and nitrogen molecules, turning their deadly energy into the harmless lights we see as Auroras, paintings in the sky. The Auroras got their name from Galileo Galilei, he named them after the Roman Goddess of Morning.


I would have liked to have seen the Moon, Jupiter and Mercury conjunction but due to clouds wasn't able, actually the clouds broke just after the Moon set, sucks, but hey Genie got the awesome shot below, thanks Genie!


Jupiter being the top planet in this picture, Mercury below, so Genie gets another pair of Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus 3D glasses for submitting her image to Black holes, congratulations again Genie.

I was emailed by Find Schools Online letting me know I had made their top 100 list of Space and Astronomy Blogs, which is kind of cool, there are some really good blogs/sites that you might want to visit, nice thing is they are all together, you don't have to search around the net for them, all in one place.

I'll leave you now with a short clip I put together of the Aurora, 55 frames over a real time of 10 minutes. Also don't forget the Quadrantids Meteor Shower this Friday/ Saturday, peaking between 2 am and 6 am Saturday morning. Look to the NE under the handle of the Big Dipper around 11:00 pm Friday.

Another Moon, Jupiter ,Venus Conjunction Image And The Moon, Pleiades Meet

It's like when your Uncle Fred from out of town comes in to town a week after Christmas with your Christmas present, for just a little while it's Christmas again. That's how I felt when Daniel sent me the above Lunar, Venus, Jupiter conjunction image, very cool, keep the feeling alive.

Great image Daniel!! A pair of Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus 3D glasses are on their way out to you.



While we are on the topic of conjunctions, like when aren't we, there was a Lunar, Pleiades one last night. Totally cloudy here so I didn't think I would be able to see it. The cat was barking for a bedtime snack around 9:30pm like she always does, so I headed to her food dish, and happened to look out the basement window and low and behold I noticed a break in the clouds, got me all excited, got my stuff together and went outside to watch and get the above and below images. Both images were blended in Photoshop, the Pleiades at 2 sec exposure, the Moon at 1/800 sec exposure. The clearing only lasted a few minutes so I didn't get the Moon in occultation with the Pleiades, that is when it covers some of the Pleiade's stars, which happened quite a few hours later behind the stupid clouds, but I was still able to view and image them together, still pretty.



If you are looking for another pretty view, check out the Full Moon rise this Friday evening, this Full Moon is special. The Moon does an elliptical orbit around us and it will be in it's perigee stage, closest to us, the year's biggest Moon, 14% bigger then when it is apogee, furthest from us. But here is the kicker, it will be 30% brighter, which sucks if you're going to be watching for meteors during the Geminid shower this weekend.



Thought I would post a cool animation of a Coronal Mass Ejection, (CME), that occurred December 8, a few days ago, it was huge, look at it, looks to be around 100 Earth diameters. Apparently it blasted out towards Saturn, looks like our Sun is starting to get a little more active.

Halo watch, with the arrival of colder temperatures be on the look out for Solar and Lunar halos. When ever you get a combination of cold temps and the high, thin, wispy cirrus clouds you may be lucky to catch halos and dogs. I'll leave you now with an animation of a Solar halo I took a couple days ago, they come and go very fast, this one broke up due to lack of cirrus clouds after only 15 minutes.

Smiley Face and Tool Bag Conjunction

I know what you're thinking, Bob the conjunction is over........let it go." Never Give Up, Never Surrender" I always say, well ever since I heard it on Galaxy Quest.

Priyank on his awesome travels was coming down from a mountain at a height of 3900m in Paro in the Kingdom Of Bhutan when he noticed a celestial gathering and thought cool, he better take a picture, good thing. He saw it before us in the west when the Moon was below the planets making a cute smiley face. well done Priyank!! A pair of 3D glasses are on their way to you.


I was in such a funk the last couple days, what I call "Post Conjunction Syndrome". From everybody talking about the conjunction........well mostly me talking to everybody about the conjunction to nothing, plus, always being cloudy. Well my wife was going out yesterday to meet with some of her friends, I thought score!! Turn up the old Peavey Bandit, grab a guitar, add a little distortion for flavor and play some of those Twelve-bar blues, nothing like playing the blues to pull you out of em.

So I'm playing away and notice the Sun breaking through the clouds, wow, screw the blues I'm back baby!! Check out some sky charts to see if I can pull something in the way of conjunction out of my hat....hmmm......this looks good, Venus is coming within 10 degrees of 9 beta cap in Capricornus, what can I say, I was desperate, then I had a brain storm, looked at Heavens-Above and Satellite Tracking to see if there were any Iridium flares or per chance, the infamous Tool bag flying around the Venus Jupiter gathering, and score, the tool bag was making a flyby just overhead of Venus at 6:09 local time, got my gear together, only had a half hour before transit time.

Made it out to the site just in time, snapped a bunch of pics with a high ISO and short exposure to have the best chance of imaging a faint object. Turns out I actually saw it live and in person, just for an instant, probably between tumbles, Sunlight reflecting off it making it brighter, hence the above pic, the comet looking item in the middle of the picture. Next stop the Geminids meteor shower this weekend, peaking around 2:00 am Saturday December 13th. Look to the east, around 10:00 pm on the 12th. So far so good for mostly clear skies here. Update, Nite Sky Girl on her site had mentioned about the Moon and Pleiades getting together December 10, don't know how I missed that one, check out her awesome site. Look to the east after Sunset and through the rest of the night as they travel together, will be snowing here but I will post any images you may get, and hey, free 3D glasses.

I'll leave you now with an animation of the Moon taken Sunday November 30.

Venus, Jupiter and Luna Conjunction

Woo Hoo I got to see the conjunction, almost didn't. Hope some of you had the same luck I did, it was cloudy right up until the last moment but the clouds broke just in time and then only for awhile, hey, I was prepared to go down to Moose Jaw where it was supposed to be clear. When I told people at work my plans to travel 2 hours to see the gathering I got a lot of shaking of the heads and them saying BOB!, get that a lot. So maybe I am a little obsessed, and why not, lets take a look at this logically.


The stars, planets, Moon, are always on time, never late, never early, in other words very dependable. They keep on giving me their best and don't ask for anything in return, just that I show up, even then they could careless if I don't watch, my loss if I don't come to the latest show. No hidden agendas, they are what they are, a star doesn't try to be a planet and visa-versa, don't try to trick you in to believing there is a conjunction and then when you get there no ones around, what's not to like? Plus the gathering was just plain awesome. The images below are from the conjunction Sunday night.







The image below is the gathering from Saturday night, the tiny crescent Moon is hiding in the atmosphere in the lower right of the image. If anybody out there got an image of the conjunction, let me know and I will post it on my site and ship you a free pair of Hanna Montana/ Miley Cyrus 3D glasses, yeah, I still have a gazillion of them.



I'll leave you now with an animation of the 5% of Full Moon, taken Saturday night while the Moon was low in the atmosphere.