Astrophotography

A-L-E-X · 17 Jan 2019 05:50

Yes the full moon is the bane of all photography

I cannot get any star colors to show if the moon is anywhere from a week before to a week after full moon so I can only do astrophotography about 2 weeks out of every month lol. And then the weather has to cooperate also.

I have also found it is better to wait til after midnight when most of the lights are off outside and the skies are much darker.

Gnargenox · 20 Jan 2019 23:44

S.B.W.M. 1-19-19 Lat 30° Long -95.3°
The best I could do with a few phone apps on a Samsung Galaxy S9 LOL
(no contrast or color adjustments)

21 Jan 2019 00:22

Managed to avoid the clouds for this one.

Stellarator · 21 Jan 2019 01:44

Managed to avoid the clouds for this one.

Image

(Stellarator looks outside, sees clouds): "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF........."

midtskogen · 21 Jan 2019 01:46

The moon was briefly visible through the clouds, but too late. Only got this handheld shot. 1/2" f/5.6, cropped.

21 Jan 2019 02:06

At my house it was mostly cloudy, with new clouds forming over the hill the Moon had risen behind, and I only got one brief view as totality began. Decided to drive around to try elsewhere, and sure enough as soon as I got away from the hills, the sky opened up and stayed clear the whole time. It's amazing how much terrain influences clouds.

Tried a few HDR composites:

Gnargenox · 21 Jan 2019 13:17

Not disappointed with what everyone managed to get. With so many cameras trained on one spot I guess it's not surprising that we might get an asteroid in the frame.

Stellarator · 21 Jan 2019 22:07

Or a UFO. Or a weather balloon - or swamp gas... or Venus... or .....

21 Jan 2019 22:46

If it's an asteroid, it should be possible to determine which one it is. It would have to be one that comes very close to the earth. Within the moon orbit.

If not ...

Gnargenox · 22 Jan 2019 00:15

It is also seen in this PR video near the end.

YouTube · 22 Jan 2019 01:13

At my house it was mostly cloudy, with new clouds forming over the hill the Moon had risen behind, and I only got one brief view as totality began. Decided to drive around to try elsewhere, and sure enough as soon as I got away from the hills, the sky opened up and stayed clear the whole time. It's amazing how much terrain influences clouds.

Tried a few HDR composites:

Amazing photos! I have a new wallpaper now

22 Jan 2019 03:30

Stellarator, JackDole, Gnargenox is referring to a small asteroid hitting the Moon during the eclipse. Impacts big enough for the flash to be observed from Earth actually happen fairly often.

[youtube]Smp7TqccTpY[/youtube]

I checked if any of my photos might have captured it, but alas no. The impact happened just after the eclipse became total, but I wasn't in position to view it until closer to the midpoint of totality.

Stellarator · 22 Jan 2019 04:03

I think people would be surprised at the amount of fair-sized NEOs that pass the admitably large gap between the Earth and moon. I remember reading somewhere that many thousands whizz by in their orbits, perturbed as they are by Earth-moon interactions.

A-L-E-X · 22 Jan 2019 05:11

Stellarator, JackDole, Gnargenox is referring to a small asteroid hitting the Moon during the eclipse. Impacts big enough for the flash to be observed from Earth actually happen fairly often.

[youtube]Smp7TqccTpY[/youtube]

I checked if any of my photos might have captured it, but alas no. The impact happened just after the eclipse became total, but I wasn't in position to view it until closer to the midpoint of totality.

The moon was unusually bright even during totality, was that because it passed through the top part of the earth's umbra? You could still see a clear sliver of white at the top! Also why was the moon so high up in the sky near the zenith? Was that because in the winter the moon gets higher up than it does in the summer (during the Sept 2015 total super eclipse the moon wasn't so high in the sky and the eclipse was around the same time.)
Also my power went out just before the eclipse and the whole neighborhood being dark made it even more dramatic lol, especially in the 0 degree cold with -30 wind chill brrrr. The landscape went from a ghostly silver to pitch black.

22 Jan 2019 05:59

The moon was unusually bright even during totality, was that because it passed through the top part of the earth's umbra?

The brightness and color of the umbra varies with distance from the center, and also depends on the amount of cloudiness and volcanic aerosols in Earth's atmosphere. But my impression was that this eclipse was actually somewhat darker (for where it was in the shadow) than most that I've seen. I'd estimate it as maybe an L2.

Graphic representation of the Danjon Scale (take with a grain of salt because this is quite subjective). All of these images portray the Moon in the same position in the umbra, offset from the center and with the center at upper right.

My photograph which I think most closely resembles what it looked like to me at mid-eclipse:

I have definitely seen brighter, more orange-yellow lunar eclipses.

Also why was the moon so high up in the sky near the zenith? Was that because in the winter the moon gets higher up than it does in the summer?

Yes, because the full moon is opposite the Sun. During winter days the Sun is lower above the horizon (for those in the northern hemisphere), and lower below the horizon at night, and so the full moon being opposite that must be higher in the sky during winter nights.

Above the Arctic Circle, just as how the Sun never rises in winter, the full moon never rises in summer, and never sets in winter (with some additional variation due to the moon's inclination relative to the ecliptic -- the moon sometimes doesn't rise even if you are slightly below the circle.)

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