Moon Venus and Comet Catalina 12/6/15

 This morning after work I headed to the nearest dark site to attempt to photograph Comet Catalina before the morning dawn got too bright.

Moon and Venus

Venus

Venus and Comet Catalina

Screen-grab from Starry Night Enthusiast  program

  Tomorrow the view will be more interesting as moon slides down within a degree of  Venus in the predawn.  As the day progresses the Moon will actually cover Venus as seen from most of North America. In Michigan this will occur shortly after noon, and last about an hour and ten minutes before Venus can be seen emerging from behind the Moon around 1:30 PM.  If the skies are clear the beginning of the event should be visible in binoculars despite the mid-day sun 40 degrees away.

Morning Planets 11/07/2015

   On my first night off of a four day weekend, I hadn't intended on staying up all night. But the skies a provided full slate of photo ops that started with an auroral display that I caught between 1 and 4am and concluded with a planetary grouping in close vicinity of the waning crescent Moon.   

Moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter

Closer view on Moon, Venus and Mars

Moon and Venus seperated by degree and a half .

Ludington State Park - Northern Lights Again 11/07/2015

Following a heavy overcast day, I wasn't holding out much hope of viewing a potential auroral display in the hours after midnight this morning.  I woke up just as the calendar clicked over to November 7, and saw that according to spaceweather.com the Kp index was up to 5 with a possibility of intensification.  Since the dog hadn't been out since we fell asleep during the second period of the Red Wings game, we stepped outside,  me to check the cloud cover and Roscoe to water the lawn.  

    In the 3 hours that I napped on the couch the skies had just about cleared.  I packed my camera gear into the car and headed toward Ludington State Park.  As I headed up County Rd 116 I noticed glow through the clouds to the north.  I pulled over and took a 10 second exposure with my camera held on the dashboard.  There they were, the elusive glowing green pulses that I hadn't seen since...Wednesday.   

Hand held through the windshield

   I found a suitable spot on Hamlin Lake and set up the rig.

   Once again I created a video from some of the still shots. Here is the youtube link......Northern Lights 11/07/2015

Northern Lights 11/4/2015

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Northern Lights 11/04/2015

  Last night I arrived at work 20 minutes early and set up my camera to attempt to capture a Northern Lights display.  What transpired was a modest auroral display that my camera was able catch and I was able to turn into a video that I put on youtube.  Link below....

Northern Lights 11/04/15 


   In one of the photos taken before the display began my camera caught a meteor.

    The first time that I saw the Northern Lights was back on November 8, 1991. Over the years I've seen them 8 times from the state of Michigan.

 Here is a list of those dates.
November 8, 1991
November 5-6, 2001
October 29, 2003
November 20, 2003
November 7-8, 2004
November 10, 2004
March 17, 2015
November 4, 2015.

  What jumps out from the list is that 87% of the sightings occurred over 6% of the calendar that spans from October 29 to November 23.  An even tighter window from November 4 to November 10 includes 62% of my observations in a 7 day period.  The Northern Lights are more likely to occur in the spring and fall rather than summer and winter for reasons explained in the link below.
NASA explanation 

Venus, Jupiter and Mars in the Morning 10/25/15

Prominent Jupiter and Venus with dimmer Mars

Mars, Jupiter and Venus at higher magnification

Mercury

Jupiter and Venus 9:45 AM

Mars, Jupiter and Venus 10/19/2015

   The early morning planets presented another photo op this morning.

Venus, Jupiter and Mars

Cropped photo shows Jupiter's moon Ganymede and star Chi Leo

  Hours earlier as seen from Japan, Mars occulted the 4.5 magnitude star Chi Leo.  Below is a link posted on spaceweather dot com that shows the occultation.
GIF of Mars Occulting Chi Leo

Moon and Planets October 10 and 11, 2015

  A photogenic grouping of four naked eye planets plus the last days of an old crescent moon greeted early risers or (as in my case) those pulling an all-nighter, on the past Saturday and Sunday mornings.

  In the first photo brilliant Venus is to the uppermost right side.  Above the Moon are Jupiter and dimmer Mars to its upper right.  Mercury, to the lower left of the Moon is difficult to see in the first photo shows up a little better in the cropped second photo.

  The next morning the moon slipped down a little lower and serves as a guide to the elusive innermost planet Mercury. 

  A bigger lens isolates the pair and makes them much easier to see.

Flight Radar

  Ever see a high altitude jet fly over and wonder where it started or where it is going.  Flightradar24.com  can give you those answers.  The other day I photographed this red-bellied Airbus 330 that flew over my house.  I had my computer handy and found that it took off from Chicago's O'Hare and was heading to Berlin.

A few minutes later an O'Hare to London Heathrow flight was ID'd by Flightradar24.com,

Queen Ant Day 9/18/2015

  Every year ant colonies in an instinctual effort to pass on their genes, raise extra queens and drones(male ants) that set out to start their own colonies.  Typically in late summer all the colonies in a particular area will release the queens on the same day.  The day of flying ants, deemed 'Queen Ant Day' by my brother Rob when we were kids, is not so much dependent strictly on the calendar, weather conditions also play a big part .   

   Yesterday afternoon I noticed a Common Nighthawk working the sky over my house.  When I put the binoculars on it I noticed several flying ants in the field of view.  A quick check of the ant colonies by my driveway, revealed the Queen Ant Day festivities were in full swing.  Below are photos of the event. 

Activity around the nest

Drones and workers

Queen and drones

  Here is an attempt at video.

Persied Meteor Shower 8/13/15

  Tried to photograph the Persied Meteor shower last night. Only caught three before the high clouds wiped out the contrast of the night sky. 

  Below is a timelapse video put together from the 1500 photos that I took. 

Save the Drammatus for your Mammatus

   Last evening a line of intense thunderstorms accompanied by high winds (and even a tornado in Huron County) rolled across Michigan toppling trees and  knocking out power to tens of thousands.  I was awoken from my pre-work nap by my alarm clock as I had slept through the whole storm. 

   Per our evening ritual, I took the dog out to empty his accumulated liquids and solids before he turned in for the night.  When we headed back toward the house, I looked up and saw that mammatus clouds had formed in the wake of the storms. 

   Mammatus aka mammatocumulus (or mammary clouds) are named for their sac-like structures that are said to resemble a cow's utter or human equivalent (Full disclosure - having been strictly bottle-fed as an infant I can only confirm the bovine reference).

. Most clouds form when warm humid air rises and condenses in cooler air.  These clouds on the other hand, develop when cool moist air containing  large drops or even ice crystals descends into drier air. The mammatus phenomena can be a long lasting feature, as it may take a while for the large drops to evaporate.   The common misconception that I had heard growing up, was that they are associated with tornadic activity.  But only times I have seen them were after a severe storm had passed and the dry zone into which they formed had sucked the energy out of the atmosphere.      

Taken from my driveway

   Sensing a rare photo opportunity I grabbed my camera and headed toward the lake shore in the waning dusk.