Clouds and thunderstorms during the day and evening gave way to mostly clear to partly cloudy skies after midnight. So I set up the camera to take continuous photographs then combined the best images to make this composite image. This spans a period of about 2 ½ hours in the early morning hours of 12 August.
These images were shot looking to the west at the Milky Way allowing the meteors to move from the radiant in the constellation Perseus (in the northeast part of the sky) overhead and then descend in the western sky.
Perseid meteors of 2013.
The weather was better in the early morning of 13 August but there were fewer meteors. A reasonable tradeoff. Here are a few individual images zoomed in and cropped from both nights of shooting.
Perseid meteors of 2013.Perseid meteors of 2013.Perseid meteors of 2013.
This will probably be the final entry for Comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS. The comet is heading farther away from Earth each day and its brightness has diminished substantially. I have still been able to photograph it using long exposures or by stacking* many shorter exposures.
Comet PanSTARRS
Here is an image from a few days ago that clearly shows the fan-shaped tail of the comet.
Comet PanSTARRS and M31.
From a month ago — this stacked image shows both the comet and M31 (Andromeda Galaxy).
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* I’ve been experimenting with the free Deep Sky Tracker for image stacking.
Here is another image from early April showing both Comet PanSTARRS and M31 (Andromeda Galaxy). The winds were much lighter on this evening allowing for a smooth and reflective water surface.
The show continues with Comet C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS) in the evening sky. Although it has grown dimmer — substantially so — in the past few weeks it is still easily visible in the northwestern twilight sky with a pair of binoculars. But it helps if you know exactly where to look.
For the next several nights, Comet PanSTARRS will be approaching M31 (also known as Andromeda Galaxy). Knowing where to find M31 it then becomes easy to look for the comet. Scanning the skies during twilight I was able to locate M31 with the binoculars then locked the position on the tripod. I swapped out the binoculars and replaced them with the camera.
Comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS and M31 in the evening sky.
Meanwhile, the zodiacal light has been quite remarkable this spring. This light is the result of the sun lighting up particles located in the ecliptic plane — the same plane in which the moon, sun, and planets move across the sky. The small size of many of the particles results in strong forward scattering so the brightest area is closest to the sun with the light fading above the horizon.
Zodiacal light in the western sky.
The zodiacal light was spectacular last night owing to exceptionally clear skies, no moon, and little or no nearby light pollution. After shooting the comet and M31 for some time I turned the camera more westward to capture this light. Sitting atop the triangle of light is the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades.
Over the next several evenings the comet will approach M31 so that they appear to overlap — although there is the mere distance of 2.5 million light years separating them.
There has been plenty to observe in the night sky in recent days and the show will get better towards the end of the month and into early March.
In the evening sky the planets Jupiter and Venus are both very bright and visible in the west at sunset and for several hours afterward. Over the next several days, Jupiter and Venus will move closer together creating a beautiful pair in the sky. Add in a crescent moon which will pass near the two planets (Feb 25 and 26) and it just gets better. (See the full story from NASA.)
Jupiter, Venus, and M31 above telescope dome.
This image was taken during the evening of 21 February 2012. Also visible — faint and located just above the telescope dome — is the Andromeda Galaxy (also known as M31). The telescope dome is located on Anderson Mesa and is part of the Anderson Mesa Station — a collection of telescopes and other astronomical instruments including the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer (NPOI).
Iridium 19 flare.Cosmo SkyMed 4 flare.
A few nights earlier were two good satellite flares. The first is one of the Iridium series; the second is part of the Cosmo SkyMed series. Both went from very dim spots of light traveling across the sky to exceptionally brilliant points — albeit for only a few seconds.
The SpaceWeather and Heavens-Above web sites both provide great information on when and where to look for these bright objects in the sky.
