Space Goings On for December

Finally, after almost 3 years we will be treated to a Total Lunar Eclipse starting at 1:32 am EST. December 21. I took the above image during the last Total Lunar Eclipse, February 20, 2008. If you live in North America and miss this one you'll be waiting awhile for the next...April 2014. If you look real close, preferably with binocs just before and right after totality you'll see a beautiful turquoise color, like the above image.

During a Lunar Eclipse, the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, you see the reddish brown on the Moon as the result of the Sunlight going through the Earth's stratosphere which absorbs the blues and allows the reds through to the Moon's surface, much like our lower atmosphere does during Sunrises/sets. Just before and after totality some of the Sunlight reaches into the Ozone layer which absorbs the reds and allows the blues through to the Lunar surface, just an fyi. Later that day, we have the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, now the good thing about that is after it occurs the days will be getting longer, sweet.


December 13th look to the East for the Geminids Meteor Shower, they have actually started right now but will peak in numbers around 2 am, EST. December 14. If not for my Fisheye lens I would not have been so lucky to capture the low Geminid back in 2008. I was actually out to capture an Ursid Meteor in the Big Dipper near the end of December when by a total fluke caught the latecomer Geminid. Cool thing about low meteors is the dust in the lower atmosphere tends to make them more colorful, like the green above.


On December 18th the Moon and Pleiades will be getting together. If you can score a pair of binocs do so. They are a perfect celestial couple and look awesome through them and since the Moon will be near full it will kind of wash out the Pleiades, the binocs will help make them more visible. I will give reminders here as well and weather permitting take and post the images here.

Daytime Moon and Zodiacal Light

Wife: Whatcha up to?

Me: Looking at a daytime crescent Moon...just above that tree over there..see it?

Wife: .......No.

Me: Okay, look at the top of that pine over there and then a little to the left...see it?

Wife: .......No.

Me: Alright watch where I'm pointing, the Moon is sitting on top of my finger....see it?

Wife: .........If I say yes will you stop?



This conversation actually took place, the daytime crescent Moon can be a hard target to find but boy is it worth it, looks so majestic in the daytime.



If you're interested you can go here to see the current phase of the Moon and go here to find out where it is. I eventually set up the telescope and took some images for her to see later, which I don't think she did, but hey if she reads the post she will.


Just a reminder, in the early morning hours of this coming Thursday the Moon and Pleiades will be in conjunction, but you can enjoy the coupling late Wednesday evening, just grab some binocs, find the Moon then just off to the left will be the Pleiades, granted you won't have me to point them out to you but you should be good to go on your own.

Zodiacal Light ..credit The Worlds Of David Darling

Mark September 16th. on your calender for an awesome showing of the Slim Crescent Moon, Venus, and...and, the Zodiacal Light, triple whammy. The Zodiacal light will be putting on quite the show for a few days beyond the 16th., until the Moon gets brighter and takes away it's cool soft glow.

First you have to get up a couple hours before Sunrise, leave the glare of the city lights, and look to the east. You will see a faint triangle of light rising up from the horizon, very beautiful. The Zodiacal light is the result of Sunlight reflecting off dust particles left behind by comets and collisions between asteroids, best seen the beginning of fall before Sunrise in the east and spring after Sunset in the west. You may or may not know that the Zodiacal light is responsible for 60% of the skylight on a moonless night.

I'll leave you now with an animation of a Sunset I took a week ago.

Moon, Pleiades and the Perseids

As far as I'm concerned there is nothing more pretty then a celestial gathering of the Moon and Pleiades.


We just had one August 14. Next groupings of the two are September 10, October 7, November 3, and December 1, do yourself a favor and look at the pairing on one of these nights using binoculars.


If you're so inclined just email me and I'll tell you where and when to look, you won't regret it. I think I can almost see the usefulness of tweeter in a case like this, might learn how to tweet to give you a reminder.

What can I say, the Perseid meteor shower this year was probably the best shower I've seen in years. I missed the peak night due to clouds but was lucky enough to get some clear skies the following night, I later found out that this particular shower had 3 peaks, which is unusual, this year we happened through 3 distinct concentrated dust trails left behind by comet Swift Tuttle. The tiny dust particles aka meteoroids create the meteors aka falling stars we see by burning up through friction as they enter our atmosphere.

Was treated to around 30 an hour and 5 fireballs, but the real cool thing was I didn't watch it alone. As I was pulling up to my regular viewing spot I noticed a car parked, as I got closer I noticed a couple people in it, a Mother and son. They had heard about the event, believe it or not, not through my blog but through a local radio station, they decided to venture out to see their first ever meteor shower, the looks on their faces when the first fireball came along was more exciting to me then the fireball itself. They had lots of questions and I did my best to answer them and at the end of the day they went away a little more in tune with the cosmos, a very special night for us all.


Next major shower are the Orionids, peaking October 21. Look to the South East at the Constellation Orion around 10:00 pm for the show to start.

Expect around 20 or so an hour. They are generally small, fast and have a slight color to them as in the above image I took last year. Notice the bright Moon, it took away a lot of the contrast so I was only able to spot the very bright meteors, not to worry, this year the Moon will be coming off it's new Moon stage and will have set by that time leaving us a dark sky in which to pick off even the faintest of meteors.

I'll leave you with an animation of a bamboo forest just outside of Shanghai.

The Lunar Pleiades Occultation

Lunar Pleiades Occultation March 3 2009 2:01 am

Oh...... what a beautiful sight. The clouds broke for me once again last night for the awesome gathering of the Moon and Pleiades star cluster. The Occultation started with the Moon covering the star Electra at exactly 2:01 am March 3.


Had my doubts throughout the day as the weather channel was going between clear skies and snow,but in the end clear skies prevailed and allowed me to view and image the gathering. The image above was taken at 9:30 pm cst.


As the night got older the Moon drew closer to the cluster. Due to the relative motions of the Earth and the Moon, the Moon appears to go backwards or retrograde when compared to the starry background, why you see in these images, the Moon getting closer to the cluster,to finally occult, or cover some of it's members.

Getting closer,

And closer,



Closer still,

Finally occultation.

Just off to the left, Orion the Mighty Hunter was setting as well, kind of leaves a guy speechless. To be alone under the stars that night was just too much for me to even begin to put into words, so I won't.

Next gathering of these two will be April 26. Look to the west just after Sunset. This time Mercury joins the grouping. Do yourself a favor and get some binoculars, to see the Moon, Pleiades and Mercury in close proximity with binocs will be something you will not soon forget.

I'll leave you now with one of my first images animated, it was cool how the clouds opened just for a minute to allow the Pleiades to peek through.

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.