Morning Planets 4/25 and 4/28/2022

    A couple of weeks ago I received a cryptic text from my friend Kevin Welsh, that read

"Lots going on in the sky". Not sure what he was referring to, I sent him a photo of the Sun that I had taken that day with the caption "Lots going on on the Sun today"

   He responded by clarifying that he was referring to the morning planets lined up in the eastern predawn sky. The next clear morning on Monday the 25th. I hopped in the car and drove down the road to get a view of the eastern horizon.

  After receiving constructive criticism from my friend, Tim Bresnahan about the glow of the chemical plant in the foreground, I went out on Thursday the 28th to try again.

 

....and the answer is.

Jupiter and Saturn Conjunction T minus One Day 12/20/2020

    Tomorrow, Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest planets in our solar system will reach a geometric configuration that will make them appear nearly aligned as seen from Earth.  The spectacular sight will have the two planets only 6 minutes of arc from each other.  That is a distance of roughly 1/5 of the Moons apparent diameter.  Both today and tomorrow were forecast to be 100% overcast.   But after a text from my friend Tim Bresnahan concerning the celestial event, I noticed a break in the clouds which had the possibility revealing the two gas giants.  It took me about 5 minutes to gather and set up camera, lens, lens plate and tripod.  The strip of clear sky exposed the planets for a total of 3 minutes during which I snapped off 34 photos at various exposures. 

 

   In the photo Jupiter being larger and closer appears brighter, while dimmer Saturn's rings give it an elongated shape.  Today the planets were seperated by 8 minutes of arc.

Moon, Venus and the Lights Across the Lake 4/26/2020

   In yesterday's post I mentioned that the atmospheric conditions that make the city lights from Sheboygan and Manitowoc, Wisconsin visible from the east shore of Lake Michigan occur a couple of times per year.  That was based on the number of  times that I happen to view them while I drove to work over the past few years. But now that I live on the lake shore and have a relatively dark sky, it seems that the phenomena occurs much more frequently as I saw it two nights in a row.

    As we saw yesterday, the shape-shifting of the sun as it set made it apparent that some atmospheric shenanigans were at hand.  The two lingering bright stripes in the photo below were as bright as the sun had been as it was setting, but this photo was taken 3 minutes after the sun went down.

  The lead group of 40 Starlink launch 7 satellites made a dimmer passage at a lower elevation than they did on Friday.  

Starlink Satellites

Orion to the left, Taurus to the right, flanking the Moon and Venus

Orion and the Moon

The head of Taurus the Bull represented by the 'V', and the Pleiades

Moon and Venus just before they set.

Venus and the Stars of Winter 3/1/2020

  Last night after a windy and overcast winter I took advantage of first clear moonless night of spring to get some parting shots of the winter stars as they sink lower in the west each evening.  In the photo above Sirius the Dog Star, is the bright one on the left, the constellation Orion is toward the middle to the upper left of the peak of my house and the orangish star to the upper right of the peak is Aldebaran the eye of Taurus the Bull. In a couple of weeks they will be lost in evening twilight not to been seen in a dark sky again until August or September when they'll rise before the morning dawn.

  You may have noticed the jet sneaking into the frame as a streak of light emerging from behind the house peak.  Jets weren't the only things interfering with my astrophotography attempts.  The photo below shows another jet and two satellites.

Jet on left, stable satellite in the middle and a tumbling satellite on the right

   The changing brightness from not visible to bright as Venus is indication the satellite that left the dashed line is tumbling out of control with a period of about 5 seconds. 

  In the photo above, the light paths were cropped  (and in the case of the tumbler, rotated for composition purposes) to show the differences in the light trails they leave.

    Venus was bright enough to cast a shadow and did a admirable job lighting up the lake during the 30 second photo below.

Black Hole Sun

    In the two days that I spent in Eastern Oregon leading up to Monday's total eclipse, I asked a few locals where they intended to view the eclipse.  I was kind of surprised that some of them planned to view from their homes just outside of the path of totality.  Although 99.7% rounds up to 100%  and that is adequate in most situations, it doesn't compare when it comes to eclipses.

99.7%

    When 99.7% of the Sun is covered you're still looking at the Sun.  When 100% of the Sun is covered you're able to see the elusive corona and prominences the filaments of particles attempting to escape the solar surface.

100%

     The eclipsed Sun is comparable in brightness to a Full Moon.

    During the 1 minute 56 seconds of totality I was frantically operating and adjusting 2 cameras, one with a 500mm lens and the other wide angle 28mm lens.  During the fleeting moment of the 'diamond-ring' effect as the last (first) ray of sunlight disappears (appears)  at the beginning (end) of totality, the Sun and Moon combination looks like a ring of corona with one bright point shining like a diamond. At those opportunities I should have been manning the telephoto equipped camera, Instead I only (accidentally) caught it with the wide field camera.

  Crop of photo above shows a diffraction obscured 'Diamond-ring' effect.

     A little longer exposure shows the sparsely illuminated foreground during totality.

   A crop of that photo shows the star Regulus to the lower left of the eclipse. Click on photo below to see it.

   Another neat effect observable during the partial phases before and after totality is that light passing through a small aperture reveals an image of the light source.  Among our group of eclipse watchers was my niece Danielle who's sunhat projected a multitude of mini eclipses on her shoulder. 

Venus Update 3/22/2017

   This morning Venus rose 33 minutes before the Sun and I was able to get some photos of its 1.4% illuminated crescent 3 degrees above the horizon. The separation between it and the Sun is now down to 9.7 degrees.

   In the enlarged image inset in this photograph I think that I can see the whole planetary disk not just the sunlit part.

Evening Star in the Morning

  As seen from our home planet, Venus never strays more than 45 degrees from the Sun.  Because of this fact it either is referred to as the Evening Star when it sets after the Sun or Morning Star if it rises before the Sun.  Today is one of the few days every eight years when it is both.

  Since last summer Venus has been hanging out in the western sky at dusk.  By Saturday it will pull even with Earth in the race around the Sun then become a prominent beacon in the dawn sky this spring and summer.  As a result of the plane of its orbit being inclined with respect to Earth's orbit, Venus will not align with the Sun but rather pass nearly 9 degree north of it as seen from where we stand.   That nine degree difference will for a few days allow the planet to precede the Sun in the morning while lingering in the western sky after sunset.

   Today our sister planet rose at 7:17 AM (30 minutes before the Sun) and will set at 8:44 PM (44 minutes after the Sun).  I was able (with the aid of binoculars) to find Venus just 9 minutes after it rose when its 1.6% illuminated crescent was just 1.3 degrees above the horizon.  I took the following photo about 5 minutes later when it was 2.1 degrees high.

  This evening I'll try to get a shot of it after sunset.  Stay tuned. Update - got clouded out for evening observation attempt. Will try again tomorrow.

  Here are a couple of not-to-scale diagrams illustrating how the planet can be observed both before sunrise and after sunset.

Planets at the Harbor 8/5/2016

     Last evening's twilight sky at Ludington Harbor offered up a series of photo ops.

Clouds just after sunset

Venus above the clouds

Moon and lighthouse

Jupiter enters the frame

Inset of Jupiter reveals 3 of its moons

Mercury Transits the Sun 5/9/2016

    A transit is when an inner planet is observed passing in front of the Sun. Transits of Mercury occur on average 13 times per century.  Today the entire event was visible from much of the Eastern US.

Mercury starts its transit

Composite of the 7 hour event

Close up view of Mercury in line with two sunspot groups, near mid-transit

Morning Planets 2/1/16

  This morning I took advantage of a rare winter cloudless sky to view and photograph four planets along with the moon. 

Brilliant Venus and elusive Mercury

Moon and Mars

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.