lunar eclipse 5/15/22

 The 5/15/22 lunar eclipse began with the partially eclipsed moon rising during full daylight--it being May:

full moon rising

Well, not exactly full:

eclipsed moon rising

In this wider view the partially eclipsed moon is visible rising in the shadow of the earth beneath the pink belt of venus, indicating the sun has set...a shadow within a shadow

partially eclipsed moon rising in the shadow of the earth, opposite the set sun

Here's an attempt at the progressive eclipse:

rising lunar eclipse sequence

And a star aligned view of the second half of the eclipse, showing part of the earth's shadow (thanks dave):

Eclipse end, star aligned.  

A bright star (upper left of moon) popped into view after being occulted by the passing eclipsed moon:

At the end of the eclipse the "blood red" moon had a prominent turquoise stripe.  Thought to be due to ozone in the upper atmosphere blocking red light. 

blue stripe at eclipse end (no saturation boost)

Short video showing the color change (4x speed):

refs:
https://www.phenomena.org/atmospheric/beltofvenus/
https://science.nasa.gov/blue-banded-blood-moon

image details:
5/15/22 
near pacific ridge trail head overlooking el moro canyon in crystal cove park (southern california)
nikon D850
poor transparency 
wide view:
AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm F3.5-5.6G ED VR  @ 32 mm f/16?
close ups:
F-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR @ 300 mm F/5.6

the rig:

samsung galaxy note 9

f/2.4 1/15s 6.0mm ISO 250

eta aquarid?

i've recently had bad luck hunting bright meteors under my light polluted skies. Here's my latest effort during the eta aquarid meteor shower.

star trails 5/6-7/22

didn't catch much in the way of meteors, but distortion and chromatic aberration at the edge of the fisheye lens made cool oval star trails and subtle color fringing around polaris:

star trails around the north star, polaris (short arc)

here's a meteor candidate:

Meteor? 5/7/22 ~01:34 PDT
(north upper left)

pretty sure it's not a plane--i'm expert at identifying those, living near an airport.

heavens-above.com (link requires login)  lists one potential satellite.  it's about the right place, direction and time:

Cosmos 1980 rocket pass 5/7/22

Meteor or Cosmos 1980 rocket pass?

but stretching the chart out, aligning on the stars, and allowing for fisheye lens distortion in the image...

the streak in the sky appears to be in cygnus while the satellite passes in cepheus on the chart:

Meteor or Cosmos 1980 rocket pass?

the direction is also about right for an eta aquarid.

so cosmos rocket or eta aquarid?

i'm thinking meteor...

or is it something else?

 

imaging details:

5/6/22 10:46 PM - 5/7/22 2:54 AM (battery died), Eastbluff, CA

poor transparency

nikon D850

Sigma 15mm F/5 EX DG fisheye

30 sec, iso 200

sunspots (AR 2991, 2993--2997, 2999?) 4/23/22 22:07 UTC

a nice set of sunspots were on display the weekend of 4/23/22.  Here's an animation comparing two views: a traditional "broad band" view showing the spots visible with neutral filter, and a view with a hydrogen alpha (Ha) filter showing ionized hydrogen plasma in dancing magnetic fields above the visual surface.  

Sun WL vs Ha 2/23/22 22:07 UTC

while i generally find the Ha view more interesting, it tends to mask the detail of the sunspots as well as the subtle "granules" on the surface of the sun.  

the visual surface of the sun is called the photosphere, while the Ha/plasma layer is called the chromosphere as hydrogen plasma emits mostly red light.  

Here's a composite Ha view combining a surface image with a much brighter image showing the prominences projecting off the disk edge:

Sun Ha Composite 2/23/22

Here's a small animation of one of the prominences over 4 minutes:

Prominence 4/23/22 22:43-22:47 UTC

another of surface filaments between the sunspots no flares :(

Prominence 4/23/22 22:29-22:37 UTC

next day i pulled out a big scope for higher resolution views of the spots, but the seeing wouldn't really support the magnification

Sun broad band 4/24/22 22:18 UTC

a 2x barlow added no detail :(

Sun broad band 4/24/22 22:25 UTC

Imaging details:

the "broad band" images were actually taken with a Lunt 60 Ha scope with the pressure tuner "off band". this is basically the equivalent of a red continuum filter which, to my eye, passes as "white light".
this conveniently allows "white light" and Ha images through the same imaging train with only a minor adjustment.
  
4/23/22
Ha Lunt 60 PT 
sky-watcher star adventurer mount

full disk
zwo ASI 174MM 
Ha disk
FPS (avg.)=172
Shutter=0.458ms
Gain=190 (47%)
Histogramm=75%

Ha prominences
FPS (avg.)=114
Shutter=4.575ms
Gain=190 (47%)
Histogramm=100%

Ha tuned off band
FPS (avg.)=121
Shutter=0.131ms
Gain=190 (47%)
Histogramm=72%

close up animations
ZWO ASI 290MM 

disk face
FPS (avg.)=71
Shutter=0.468ms
Gain=190 (31%)
Histogramm=78%

prominence
FPS (avg.)=253
Shutter=3.946ms
Gain=190 (31%)
Histogramm=100%

4/24/22
white light images 2/24
celestron 11" Edge HD
ASA mount
ZWO ASI 290MM 

"wider" close up
IR pass 685 filter (sharper than green due to poor seeing)
FPS (avg.)=21
Shutter=0.091ms
Gain=256 (42%)

close up with 2x powermate
ZWO green filter 
FPS (avg.)=38
Shutter=1.847ms
Gain=256 (42%)

processing:

autostakkert
best 20 frames of 20 sec captures

registax, photoshop

East Bluff, CA
4/23-24/22 

Starry Stormy Night

I don't usually post others' work, but I sort of collaborated:

StormyStarry Night

Notice anything unusual about the sky?

The sky is not filled with van Gogh's stars, but rather swirling storm clouds on jupiter's north pole captured by the juno mission.  The foreground is my daughter's rendition of van Gogh's Starry Night.  After seeing this awesome flyby of jupiter captured by the Juno space craft, my brother commented that the clouds were reminiscent of Starry Night.  So I took a picture of my daughter's painting, a screen shot of the NASA flyby and combined the two in photoshop.  

Here's her original a la van Gogh:

Starry Night by Alice circa 8th grade

and here's the flyby paying homage to kubric (suggest full screen view):

Juno Flyby of Ganymede and Jupiter
Video Credit: Images: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SWRI, MSSS;
Animation: Koji Kuramura, Gerald Eichstädt, Mike Stetson; Music: Vangelis

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html

more than you wanted to know about 2001 a space odyssey

Ice Giants and Moons

Here's a capture of Uranus equatorial north (earth's) up:

Uranus
11/29/21 06:50 UTC

Uranus' north pole is rotated to the left 90 degrees relative to the orientation of the rest of the planets in the solar system. a cloud on the north pole makes the left side brighter.  

Here's a wider view using a much longer exposure showing...

the moons of Uranus
Miranda is above, but lost in the glare as it's too close
11/29/21 06:36 UTC

Here's Neptune:

Neptune 11/29/21 4:04 UTC

and a brighter view showing Triton:

Neptune and Triton 11/29/21 4:04 UTC

The magnetic fields of the ice giants uranus and neptune are unusual in that, they are highly skewed/off center from the axis of rotation.  a recent study suggest this is due to super ionic ice (which is just fun to say).  

Imaging details:
camera ZWO ASI 290MM with ZWO RGB filters
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA

11/29/21 04:04-06:36 UTC
120 second captures
gain 456, exposure ~5-12 ms, 30% histogram, ~60-200 fps

3x upsample (drizzle)

animated jupiter

seeing was not great for me this past apparition of jupiter.  here's an animation at low power:

Jupiter 10/4/21 03:34-03:47-UTC

Here's a combination of all of the frames derotated combined.  this gives a smoother image, but blurs the moon and causes edge effects at the extremes:

Jupiter 10/4/21 03:34-03:47-UTC
derotated to each time point

Lastly here's a wider composite image showing the moons:

Jupiter 10/4/21 03:24 UTC

Imaging details:
camera ZWO ASI 290MC with IR block
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA

10/4/21 03:24-03:47 UTC
90 second captures
gain 351, exposure ~0.567 ms, 30% histogram, ~200 fps

spiked sunspots

 unusual spiked sun spots saturday morning ;)

spiked sunspots 2/5/2022 15:55 UTC

according to google they are spiked seed capsules from the gum tree.  if you look closely, there are a few real sun spots, also a prominence at the bottom edge blocked by branches.  here's the prominence a few minutes later:

solar prominence 2/5/22 16:00 UTC

the over exposed central portion has been digitally occluded.  unfortunately shorter exposures to capture detail on the face did not come out well. 

spoiler--annotated true sun spots and prom (click for full size):

Image details:
Ha Lunt 60 PT double stacked
zwo ASI 174MM
manual tracking on alt-azm mount
spiky spots are single frame captures

prominence: 
20 sec capture
FPS (avg.)~48
Shutter~2.283 ms
Gain=234 
East Bluff, CA
2/5/22 15:54-16:00 UTC

lunar lines: Rima Ariadaeus

a long straight trough on the moon is called a rille (german for groove). just to confuse, "rima" the latin term for crack or fissure  is used when naming these objects.  

Rima Ariadaeus is thought to have been formed when a section of the Moon's crust sank down between two parallel fault lines (click image for wider view):

Rima Ariadaeus
9/13/2021 03:02 UTC

Objects on the terminator (day/night line on the moon) are contrast enhanced by shadows from low angled light--a bit too much in this image as the bottom portion of the line is lost in shadow.  

next up is the crater posodinius:

Posodinius
9/13/2021 02:59 UTC

the secondary rim (top) is apparently not another crater, rather the floor of the crater is fractured and tilted, creating a 1 km drop. also, you'll notice a faint rille crossing from center to upper right.  the crater was not near the terminator during this capture, so the contrast is poor. might revisit while closer to the terminator to capture the rille.

references:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rima_Ariadaeu03

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/796

Image details:

camera ZWO ASI 290MM 

filters: ZWO IR pass 850 

(seeing was mediocre with the 850 filter clearly sharper than a Baader IR pass "685")

celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow

East Bluff, CA

9/13/21 02:59-03:02 UTC

moon waxing crescent 6.6 day old

FPS (avg.)=73

Shutter=12ms

Gain=251 (41%)

still more great lunacy: theophilus and friends, ghost crater

also seen in the wider image in the previous post is this trio of craters:

Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina craters
 9/13/2021 02:54 UTC 

the age of these craters increases from left to right (north to south):
theophilus (left) has steep sharp terraced walls and a steep triple peaked central mountain.  

cryillus (center) has more rounded walls, with the northern interrupted by theophilus.  the central peak is also rounded and less prominent.  

catharina (right) has low rounded edges with no terracing and multiple craters interrupting/obscuring the rim.  nothing remains of the central peak.  

Lastly, can you find the "ghost crater" in this wider view (click for full size)?

ghost crater daguerre upper left
(straight up from theophilus)
almost entirely covered by lava
 9/13/2021 02:54 UTC 

ghost crater daguerre
almost entirely covered by lava
 9/13/2021 02:54 UTC 

references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophilus_(crater)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillus_(crater)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharina_(crater)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerre_(crater)

Image details:
camera ZWO ASI 290MM 
filters: ZWO IR pass 850 
(seeing was mediocre with the 850 filter clearly sharper than a Baader IR pass "685")
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA
9/13/21 02:43-03:02 UTC
moon waxing crescent 6.6 day old
FPS (avg.)=73
Shutter=12ms
Gain=251 (41%)

more lunacy, rupes altai

here's the feature that helped me identify the crater in the previous post:

rupes altai 9/13/2021 02:54 UTC 

the distinctive curved white line is called rupes altai, a ridge that can be best seen in the lunar morning with the sun shining on it's face (5 days after the new moon), or in the lunar evening with it casting shadows (4 days after the full moon).

nearly 500 km long and 3 to 4 km high, it's the rim of a gigantic impact basin (mare nectaris-smooth area upper left in image below)

it terminates on the right hand side at the crater piccolomini

a wider view (click on image for full size):

rupes altai, lower right 9/13/2021 02:54 UTC 

rupes altai, rim of giant impact basin
mare nectaris

Refs:
wikipedia
LPOD

Andrew Planck BLOG

Image details:

camera ZWO ASI 290MM 
filters: ZWO IR pass 850 
(seeing was mediocre with the 850 filter clearly sharper than a Baader IR pass "685")
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA
9/13/21 02:43-03:02 UTC

moon waxing crescent 6.6 day old
FPS (avg.)=73
Shutter=12ms
Gain=251 (41%)

let the lunacy begin with john of holywood aka sacrobosco

 i know very little about the moon, but once in a while i'll turn my planetary rig to the really bright thing in the night sky.  my usual approach is to take pictures of cool looking stuff, then learn what i've captured later.

Craters within craters caught my eye here:

sacrabosco 9/13/2021 02:43 UTC

The age of a lunar object is often estimated by how many craters there are.  so craters filled with other craters are probably old structures.  the soft cratered rim also looks old.  It took me quite a while to identify the central crater:

"Sacrobosco is an irregular lunar impact crater that is...a readily identified feature due to the three circular craters that lie on its floor." (err not so readily by me) wikipedia

Named after John of Holywood, Johannes Sacrobuschus Sacrobosco - British astronomer, mathematician (c. 1200-1256). ref

here's a wider view, click on the image for a full screen moon walk:

sacrabosco 9/13/2021 02:43 UTC

lunar surface detail is best photographed near the terminator (dividing line between light and dark) as the enhanced contrast brings out detail.  the problem with that is that most lunar atlases have a bright full moon view with a black shadow overlay, but no actual shadows on the surface.  here's the atlas view of the central crater:  

note that the 3 internal craters are easily visible, but the larger and much older crater is difficult to see without the sun's contrast bringing out its soft edges.  i was only able to identify it by finding the bright ridge at the top of the larger image and working backwards...

UPDATE:

i just found the needed site:

nasa's scientific visualization studio

gives relatively high resolution images with appropriate shading based on date as well as some labels

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4874

(wish i'd found it earlier)

Image details:
camera ZWO ASI 290MM 
filters: ZWO IR pass 850 
(seeing was mediocre with the 850 filter clearly sharper than a Baader IR pass "685")
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA
9/13/21 02:43-03:02 UTC
FPS (avg.)=73
Shutter=12ms
Gain=251 (41%)

Venus in infrared and ultraviolet 9/13/21

Here are several images of venus captured with infrared and ultraviolet filters. UV  light shows cloud structure which cannot be seen in the visible spectrum while IR in this case gives a sharper image, but no cloud detail:

Venus IR 9/13/21

Venus UV 9/13/21

Venus UV (colorized) 9/13/21

Venus IR as red, UV as violet 9/13/21

the seeing was fair to poor.  my intent this day was to image mercury, but i could not locate it during daylight with my overloaded mount.  here are the raw stacks with two different IR pass filters one at 685 nm, the other 850 nm.  the 850 being further into the infrared is generally preferred for mercury or poor seeing conditions, the latter being the case here:

Venus IR (raw stack) 9/13/21

Image details:

camera ZWO ASI 290MM 

filters: Baader IR pass "685", ZWO IR pass 850, Baader U-filter bw 320-380nm
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow

East Bluff, CA
9/13/21 00:13-02:17 UTC

685 filter:

FPS (avg.)=212

Shutter=0.101ms

Gain=234 (39%)

850 filter:

FPS (avg.)=20

Shutter=1.351ms

Gain=234 (39%)

UV filter:

FPS (avg.)=201

Shutter=4.952ms

Gain=351 (58%)

solar stuff

Solar Prominence Ha 
8/15/21 18:20 UTC

 

Solar Prominence Ha 
8/15/21 18:20 UTC
Exclusion

Solar Prominence Ha 
8/15/21 18:32 UTC
smaller prom from the side of the disk (rotated up)

There was a lot of excitement in the solar community this week due to a series of solar outbursts directed at the earth, some massive.  I actually caught the beginning of one visually on 10/28, but did not take pictures.  according to spaceweather.com a cannibal coronal mass ejection (fast moving coronal mass ejection, running into a slow moving one) hit the earth creating auroras visible as far south as 39 N in central california; detectable in cameras as far south as joshua tree. 

it was of course cloudy here so i missed it all as well as the taurid meteor shower and the new moon :(

The images above show a pretty big solar prominence i captured on 8/15/21 and have absolutely nothing to do with the events described ;)

Image details:
Ha Lunt 60 PT double stacked
zwo ASI 290MM

manual tracking on alt-azm mount

20 sec captures
FPS (avg.)~93-178
Shutter~0.331-2.283 ms
Gain=351 (unity)
East Bluff, CA
8/15/21 18:20, 18:32 UTC

Jupiter got smacked

the astronomy community was abuzz last week when an amateur astronomer in Brazil captured video of a  bright flash as a meteor estimated at 100 m crashed into jupiter.  At least 10 other observers independently observed the event, making it the most observed impact on jupiter to date; the eighth recorded since the first was observed in 1994.  More information can be found in this sky & telescope article

Had the meteor struck earth it would have been equivalent to 34 megatons of TNT (hiroshima was 15 kilotons).  Jupiter's massive gravity is thought to protect earth from many of these collisions.

Despite the fact that observers were not able to find any residual storms (which have been sighted after prior impacts), i decided to check out the impact site with a methane filter.  unfortunately, the Jupiter Central Meridian calculator cited in the article is now defunct and spat out the wrong data--so i completely missed the site (holy homophones).  nevertheless i got some colorful pictures of jupiter:

Jupiter 9/16/21 04:38 UTC.  RGB left, Methane center, Methane as red, GB right

Imaging details:
camera ZWO ASI 290MM with ZWO RGB filters
Baader methane 889 nm 8 nm bandwidth
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA
90 second captures, 2x binning for methane
gain 351, exposure ~0.6-1.0 ms, 30% histogram, ~280 fps
methane exposure 375 ms, 2 fps

a rocket at night: falcon 9 launch 9/13/2021

visually it was a spectacular event, there was something surreal about seeing the long bright orange rocket plume slowly rising up through the trees.  it looked very...well rocket-like.  perhaps we'll be used to it in years to come.  perhaps residents closer to vandenberg are already used to it--tired of it?

 Unfortunately, my images were pretty much a bust, but here are a few salvages, the best from my cell phone:

Falcon 9 from Coastal Peak Park 9/13/2021

image details:
Samsung Galaxy Note 9
f/1.5, 1/4 sec, 4 mm

Nikon D850
Nikon Nikkor AF-S DX Telephoto Zoom 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR
f/4.5, 2 sec, iso 5000, 55 mm

much processing in photoshop to correct star trailing due to camera shake as my remote wasn't working.