It’s been a productive few days for taking nighttime images of bright objects in the night sky including planets, stars and satellites.
On June 1, 2014, a check of the ephemeris for satellite passages noted that the International Space Station (ISS) would pass very close to Polaris (i.e., the “North Star”) at 2204 MST, followed by an Iridium flare at 2231 MST. I set up the camera to take 30s exposures from 2202-2232 MST so I could get a set of star trails with the ISS arcing across the northern sky. Two satellite flares can be seen in the lower right — the one I was expecting plus a bonus flare.
Star trails with the International Space Station.
Venus and Iridium flare.
A few days later, on June 5, 2014, for just a few seconds the planet Venus (mag. -4.0) was only the second brightest object (rather than the brightest) in the eastern twilight sky as an Iridium flare brightened to magnitude -5.7.
With exceptionally clear and dark skies it was a good time to capture an image of the zodiacal light. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about this astronomical phenomenon.
Zodiacal light is a faint, roughly triangular, diffuse white glow seen in the night sky that appears to extend up from the vicinity of the Sun along the ecliptic or zodiac. It is best seen just after sunset and before sunrise in spring and autumn when the zodiac is at a steep angle to the horizon. Caused by sunlight scattered by space dust in the zodiacal cloud, it is so faint that either moonlight or light pollution renders it invisible.
With no moon and Flagstaff’s dark skies, it’s pretty easy to see the zodiacal light.
Zodiacal light seen over the Kachina Wetlands near Flagstaff, Arizona.
In 1958, Flagstaff pioneered the world’s first lighting ordinance designed to preserve the night for astronomy. Since 1958, Flagstaff astronomers have mostly relied on quiet, friendly diplomacy to protect the night sky…
Flagstaff’s dry, clear skies and dark, cloudless nights drew Percival Lowell to town in 1894. The townspeople deeded the eccentric, wealthy Bostoner a pine-clad knoll atop the mesa immediately west of town as an observatory site, and built him a wagon road to reach it. The area became known as Mars Hill because of Lowell’s famous passion for the red planet.
An exposure of 30s, ISO3200, f/4 was enough to bring out the details of the white glow as well as its reflection in the waters of the Kachina Wetlands. At the top of the image is the bright planet Jupiter.
During the latter half of the month of May the planets Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury have been drawing closer together. Their closest approach was on 26 May 2013 when the three planets could fit within a 3° circle. For comparison, the disk of the Moon and Sun are about ½ degree.
Triple planetary alignment of Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury in May 2013.
For several nights leading up to the closest approach and for a few nights afterward I shot photos of the three planets during the evening hours. I then took the best image from each day (i.e., cloud free!) and made a composite image. Next, I shifted each image up/down, left/right until the planet Jupiter lined up. The result was that the composite contains a single image of Jupiter along with five images of Venus and Mercury. This makes it easy to see how all three planets were shifting relative to each other over the course of five days. During this period, Venus and Mercury were quickly rising higher in the sky while Jupiter was slowly moving towards the horizon.
The evening of 11 May 2013 presented an assortment of visual treats in the night sky. In the evening twilight the planets Venus and Jupiter clustered around the thin crescent of the moon. With one planet above and one below it was a delightful sight.
Details: ISO 200; f/2.8; 28mm; 1/8 second.
Moon, Jupiter, and Venus in the evening twilight.
As the sky darkened it was possible to photograph the fading Comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS, located near the constellation Cepheus. The combination of several short exposures stacked together allowed the faint glow of the comet to appear. This was photographed using a fixed tripod and an 85mm/f1.8 lens. No telescope required.
Details: ISO 1600; f/1.8; 85mm; 10x4s.
A distant and fading Comet PanSTARRS.
As twilight faded the celestial objects sank lower in the sky until Venus set behind the distant hills. As the moon began to follow, the dark sky allowed the zodiacal light to shine upwards providing illumination around the planet Jupiter.
The transit of Venus across the face of the Sun on 05-06 June 2012 UTC was an amazing sight. Even more amazing is the rarity of this event. Transits of Venus occur in pairs approximately eight years apart then not repeated again for over one hundred years. Since this was the second transit of the pair the next will not occur until the year 2117. So, if you wanted to see a transit, this was your last best chance!
NASA has compiled some stunning video and images of the transit. The SpaceWeather site also has information and a user gallery of images.
Venus transiting the sun at 1523 MST (2223 UTC). The full disk of the planet is visible at this time.
I was able to capture several images of the transit including first contact at ~2206 UTC and when the full disk first became completely visible in front of the sun.
Venus transiting the sun as the sun sets behind the low mountains west of Flagstaff. Image shot using a ND3 filter.
As the sun began to set behind the mountains west of Flagstaff I was able to capture this image with the lower portion of the sun already behind the trees.
Composite image of (1) filtered image of the sun and Venus in transit and (2) the darkening sky a few minutes after sunset.
This image is a composite of a filtered image of the sun followed a few minutes later by a standard exposure showing the colors in the evening sky as well as numerous birds.
