Orion and Planets Shine Bright

There were some high, wispy clouds in the sky before dawn, but there were enough gaps to get some quick star and planet photos this morning. Sun rise was about 2 hours away,  but there was some light from the sun hitting the clouds high in the atmosphere, plus ambient light from ground level. This gave the clouds - barely visible to the eye - some lovely color with the long exposure. It’s a great time of year to see Orion in the southern sky, and I was lucky that Jupiter, Mars, and Venus were visible in the eastern sky. Here are a few photos. These pictures are single images (not stacked photos), all taken with a wide aperture and a 30 second exposure.

The constellation Orion is visible, identified by the three stars that comprise the "belt.")

(Jupiter is near the center of the photo, with Mars and Venus below and slightly left.The tree in the following photos appear green from light being cast by a nearby outdoor light fixture.)

All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com

Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.

Full Moon January 29, 2010 “Wolf” Moon

The full moon on January 29, 2010 was reported to be the largest and brightest full moon of the year. The size of the moon itself hadn’t changed, of course. The moon’s non-circular orbit put it at its closest to the earth for 2010. (It will actually reach the closest perigee for 2010 at 4:04 a.m. ET Saturday.) Despite the fact that temperatures were nearing the single digits, we went out into the yard to take a few pictures in the very bright moonlight, a sort of companion to the photos of the full moon and Mars that I took earlier in the day.Combined with the snow, it made for a very bright scene.

January's full moon is also called the wolf moon, from Native Americans who associated the January full moon with wolves howling in the cold. What was odd is that while we were outside taking pictures, we heard many dogs barking and howling in the distance.

Mars was also nearby in the sky, and despite the fact that some high clouds were moving in, the planet made a brief appearance in one of the photographs. It's that tiny dot of light off to the left of the first photograph, near the tree top. (Click on any photo for a larger size.)






All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.

Full Moon and Mars, Clouds and Cold

It got into the single digits during the night, and there were some clouds. But, with the full Moon, and with Mars lurking nearby, it was hard to resist going out at 5:30 AM to try to catch a picture. The bright Moon gave the clouds a strange colored glow, almost a faint, pastel rainbow effect. Here are a few pictures; in one of them, you can see the faint dot of Mars in the upper portion of the picture in the gap in the clouds.





All Content © Chris A. Zimmer and chriszimmer.blogspot.com


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, chriszimmer.blogspot.com, here.