Moonrise over Tucson

Tonight's Wolf moon rising over Tucson. It's called the Wolf Moon in folklore: northern Native Americans named it after packs of singing wolves they once heard during the winter month of January.

I predicted this scene using TheSky and Google Earth software and positioned my camera just so. Shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a 300mm lens. Enjoy.

Narrow Vision

Ever use a long telephoto lens? I mean a LOOOOOONG telephoto? Like - around 22,000 mm? Well that's about the focal lenght of a 2.3 Meter F/9 telescope. Here are a couple of snapshots taken through the BOK 90" Telescope on Monday night of M1 and Hubble's variable nebula. FOV is about 4 arcminutes.

A Canon 5D Mark II was used set at ISO 3200. Exposure times were 28 minutes at F/9. Processed using ImagePlus and PS5. Seeing was about 2.0 arcseconds.

Starlight

Spent the last two nights on Mt. Graham at the VATT Telescope training the new observer and making sure the science instrument was operational. While I was working, I put my Canon 5D Mark II to work watching the Earth Rotate under the dark skies of the mountain. (Actually I was hoping to catch a few Quadrantid meteors - which I did - but the meager showing of this shower from our location was less than impressive). Here is a one hour long effective exposure looking east toward the SMT and LBT Observatories.