Eclipsed

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This morning there was a partial eclipse of the Moon. I observed it from Saguaro National Park - West. Here are a couple of images from the event.



The eclipse at maximum in High Dynamic Range.

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.

Up Close

The Moon and Jupiter through the Kitt Peak 2.3 Meter Telescope.

A gathering of planets

This evening four planets (Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury)and the Moon bunched together in the western sky - a conjunction. I had a front row seat for the presentation, being atop Mount Lemmon hoping to get some shots of the Persied meteor shower peaking tonight. If I don't succeed in the later - the show in the early evening was reward enough.

Tough Shoot

As an amateur astrophotographer, I'm always on the lookout for challenging astronomical events to photograph. Well - tonight, a gathering of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon (called a conjunction) was visible at sunset.

Below is the view through a 300mm lens. A tough shot to get - the moon was only 23 hours past new and only 3 degrees above the horizon. This image was obtain just 2 minutes before Venus set behind the distant Tucson Mountains.

A different view of the Universe

Well - back up at Kitt Peak again running the 2.3 meter telescope for the astronomers. Took the opportunity to make some quick and dirty images of the environs during the night and a couple of "portraits" of the astronomers working. Above is Andrew Cenko from USNO. He and his team were there to test out a new laser based spectrograph - you see him here in the 2nd floor lab were he kept watch on the laser's tuning.



Another couple of images from my last romp at Kitt Peak - above an environmental portrait of astronomer Dr. Bob McMillan at work beneath the 2.3 meter Bok telescope. I combined a short 2 second exposure of Dr. McMillan with a 30 second exposure of the telescope which was illuminated by the LCD display in front of the astronomer and a flashlight which I used to "paint" the telescope's structure with light during the long expsosure.

Below is a rectalinearized fisheye view of the 2.3 meter telescope dome and the full moon. The image displays a full 180 degree panorama of the telescope and sky. Photo details: Canon EOS 5D | 15 second exposure | ISO 800 | f/4.5 | Sigma 8mm.