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

Parallel Lines Meeting at Infinity

  We've all seen rays of light fanning out from the sun at dawn or dusk.  But that's not what the photo below is depicting.

  The photo was taken Saturday afternoon but not toward the setting sun in the west.  On the contrary, the camera was pointed east, in the opposite direction from the descending afternoon sun.  So what are the rays we see in picture?  They are anti-crepuscular rays, the parallel rays that had emanated from the sun, passed overhead and are seen  meeting at infinity 180 degrees from the sun.

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