A bit over a week ago (18 March 2018), we had a triple conjunction in the sky. Venus and Mercury had been in the evening sky for a few weeks—and now a crescent Moon was going to join them in the evening. Weather permitting, I was interested in capturing images of this event. I headed out towards the Mormon Lake Overlook which would give me a good view of the western sky as well as the possibility of reflections of these sky objects in the shallow waters of the lake.
While waiting for the sky to darken, I was treated to a few minutes of sunset colors on some interesting wave clouds. More on that below.
Conjuction of Mercury, Venus, and the Moon.
The Moon and Venus are easily visible in this image taken at 7:20 P.M. MST while Mercury is a bit harder to see to the right and above Venus. A second image taken at 7:29 P.M. shows all three bodies quite clearly. And, as I had hoped, there were reflections in the water.
Conjuction of Mercury, Venus, and the Moon.
This is how Venus and Mercury looked earlier in the month.
Venus and Mercury in the evening sky.
Now, back to the wave clouds.
Long and thin wave clouds in the evening sky.
Although they look like jet contrails, these were actually long and thin wave clouds. As the sun began to set, the colors were briefly quite amazing.
Sunset colors on wave clouds.Sunset colors on wave clouds.
It was an fun evening: Interesting clouds and a triple conjunction.
A few days ago the Moon and Venus were very close together in the evening twilight sky. At sunset on Friday, the two objects were about 3° apart—about six moon diameters—with the Moon located up and to the left of Venus.
Crescent Moon and Venus in evening twilight.
To view this I wanted a location with a very low western horizon. I chose to visit Navajo Point on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. From this location, the rim to my southwest was actually slightly lower than my position giving me an unobstructed view.
There was a nice sunset to start off the evening. The clouds were lit up and there was still enough light to fill in the lower canyon.
Sunset at Navajo Point, Grand Canyon.Twilight at Grand Canyon.
The moon was only one day past New Moon and was about 1.4% illuminated although there was a bit of Earthshine helping to illuminate the entire disk.
Setting moon over the South Rim of Grand Canyon.
As the Moon approached the horizon, atmospheric effects resulted in the lower limb of the Moon being distorted. The final image is a composite taken over several minutes prior to moonset. In this composite it is easy to see the distortion of the lower limb.
Getting up early in the morning, driving to a location with a good western view, and then standing around for many hours taking photos of the lunar eclipse.
Yes, it was worth it. But I was very cold by the time it was over.
Four stages of the total lunar eclipse of 31 January 2018.
This lunar eclipse has been referred to as the “Super Blue Blood Moon” eclipse. What does that even mean? Okay—here is an informative article written by an astronomer on how these terms came to be part of our jargon for this eclipse.
Anyway…
I had considered many possibilities how to photograph the lunar eclipse including interesting foregrounds, multiple exposures, and even video. Some examples of single and multiple images can be found in this blog for 2014 and 2015 eclipses taken during the recent Lunar Eclipse Tetrad of 2014-2015. A tetrad is a series of four consecutive total eclipses occurring at approximately six month intervals. It’s now been a bit more than two years since the last lunar eclipse visible around here and I was ready for another.
Start of totality.
Eventually I decided to try something a bit different from previous events. I would mount the camera on the iOptron SkyTracker so that the camera would follow the stars. From these images, I would construct a time-lapse of the eclipse as it went through its different phases. With the SkyTracker, the stars would remain fixed while the moon would slowly move across the sky relative to the stars—and the Earth’s shadow.
Mid-totality of Lunar Eclipse.
It worked pretty well but I did manage to bump the camera a few times as I was changing exposure settings. I had considered using a phone application that could change the settings on the camera so I would not have to touch it—but the power drain when WiFi was active was unacceptable. I would probably need to change the battery during the eclipse—which put me right back in the same situation of jostling the camera. Okay—just keep it simple. No WiFi, adjust by hand, and be careful.
The image at the top of this entry is a composite of four stages of the eclipse. P1 is the first stage when the Moon enters the Penumbral shadow of the Earth. Only a subtle darkening occurs during this stage. U1 occurs when the Moon first enters the umbral shadow and the darkening along one edge is very distinct. U2 is the beginning of totality. Mid-totality is the darkest stage of the eclipse.
The second image shows the start of totality. There is a brief period near the start and end of totality in which the limb of the moon can have a bluish cast to it. Lunar eclipse researcher Rich Keen says:
“Most of the light illuminating the Moon passes through the stratosphere, and is reddened by scattering. However, light passing through the upper stratosphere penetrates the ozone layer, which absorbs red light and actually makes the passing light ray bluer.”
This can be seen as a turquoise-blue fringe around the red. And here we have an image taken just a few minutes after totality began that shows some blue along the lower limb.
A few minutes after totality ended—and a few minutes before moonset.
Stages P1, U1, U2, and mid-totality were all visible with a very dark sky. U3 (end of totality) occurred during morning twilight; U4 and P2 both occurred after Moonset.
The time-lapse sequence was shot with 3-minute intervals. This is a good interval if you want to composite images as the moon has moved a full diameter plus a bit more in three minutes so that individual frames do not overlap. Three minutes, however, is too long a time for a smooth time lapse. Lesson learned for the next event!
The animation of the eclipse starts at P1 and ends just as the moon sets. The exposure was changed during totality and stars become visible. Later, twilight brightens the entire sky and, at the end, the distant mountains can be seen as the moon sets in the west.
The next total Lunar Eclipse will occur 27 July 2018 but will not be visible from any part of North America. The next North American total lunar eclipse will occur on 21 January 2019.
This week the waning moon joined four planets in the eastern sky. Lowest to the horizon was Mercury with Saturn just above. The moon was located well above that pair. And high in the sky were Mars and Jupiter.
Earlier this month on 07 January 2018, Mars and Jupiter were in conjunction. The pair was only 0.25 degrees apart in the sky at its closest. By comparison, the full moon is approximately 0.50 degrees. And, then, on 13 January 2018, Mercury and Saturn were in conjunction—but not quite as close as the Mars-Jupiter conjunction.
On the 14th and 15th, the Moon was just above and just below the pair of Mercury and Saturn.
The waning crescent moon (~5% illuminated) sits above the planetary pair of Mercury and Saturn.A wider view shows all four planets (Mercury and Saturn low; Mars and Jupiter high) plus the moon.
I had planned to photograph on both days but clouds intervened. All I got was this thin crescent Moon (~2% illuminated) that was visible for only a few minutes before it was obscured by clouds.
A thin crescent moon is visible for just a moment after moonrise.
Coming up: at the end of the month there will be a total lunar eclipse that will be visible in the pre-dawn hours of the western states. I hope the skies are clear.
The Geminid meteor shower peaked on the evening of 13 December and skies were incredibly clear all that day. Just as darkness was arriving, clouds were starting to approach from the north. Would I be able to get some photos of a few meteors in the early evening before the clouds arrived?
The clouds moved in about 45 minutes after I started shooting and remained through most of the evening. If I had been located a bit farther to the west or south, clouds might not have been a problem, as can be seen in this Infra-red satellite image.
Infrared satellite image from GOES-West at 0600 UTC (11 P.M. MST).
Now, that’s just bad luck on my part.
I pointed the camera at the radiant and used my iOptron Skytracker to keep the camera pointed at the radiant as it rose higher in the sky during the evening. I was then able to combine several images showing a handful of meteors originating from the constellation Gemini.
The brilliant meteor in the upper right corner occurred while the sky was partly cloudy and, as a result, the beginning of the track was obscured by clouds. I didn’t see this bright flash as I was looking in another direction but it was so brilliant that it lit up the sky and landscape for a second or two.
Composite image showing several Geminid meteors.
The small number of meteors captured by the camera doesn’t tell the whole story. There were many more—some brilliant and many long-tracked—that streaked across the sky that evening. We had a wonderful time looking up at the sky.
