Crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter with Sub-Zero Temps

Below zero air temps and about -25 wind chills in NE Ohio this morning didn’t stop me from going outside to get a photo of the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter in the southern sky.

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February Stargazing

We had record warm temperatures the day before – 69 degrees. While it was still chilly the next morning, the mid-40s before dawn in February is tolerable weather to do some stargazing and star photography.  A slice of the moon was intruding but it wasn't bothersome.  Here are photos that I took this morning, while some cirrus clouds crawled into the skies.

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Supermoon – The Morning After

It was slightly cloudy/hazy here yesterday when the “supermoon” was rising/setting, so I was unable to get a good photo. But this morning, the sky was clearer and I got a photo of the moon setting over the treetops. The moon picked up a pinkish hue from the rising sun (and possibly a light haze). Here’s a photo.

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Advancing Snow Brings Halo Around Moon

A small  snow storm (with possible lake effect) is approaching northeast Ohio, and the leading clouds from the front began to obscure the moon. The clouds were thin enough to create a huge, pale colored halo around the moon. Here are photos taken of the moon, only minutes apart.   The sky went from clear to high clouds quickly.

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A Glowing “Super Moon”

Last night we saw the “super moon” - where the moon was closer to earth than it’s been in over 18 years. It was reportedly the biggest full moon of 2011, and the next super moon will not occur again until 2016. But to my camera and to my eyes, the moon really didn’t look any bigger than normal. Still, it was nice to be able to grab a picture - even though the sky was not completely clear, giving the moon a bit of a fuzzy glow.




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The February Waning Moon

It was bitter cold out this morning, but the cold air made for a crisp photo of the waning moon.




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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.)






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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.





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A Good Day For Fliers – Man and Bird

We have another beautiful weekend here in Northeast Ohio – few clouds and nice temperatures - making for perfect weather for fliers or all kinds – the feathered kind and the human kind.

While trying to catch a picture of a very vocal male red-bellied woodpecker, I also caught a biplane flying overhead. Later in the day, we had several raucous blue jays in the yard, and two of them later settled down to sun themselves and preen.

There was an added bonus – the sight of the moon, high up in the sky, just before noon.

Enjoy the photos!

Biplane

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Two Blue Jays Sun and Preen

The Noon Moon

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Venus, The Moon, Earthshine…UFO?

Considering the frequency that I point my camera to the sky, I’m bound to get something in the picture that doesn’t seem to belong. This morning I was out photographing Venus and the moon (along with some “earthshine” on the moon). The sky was crystal clear which made for some nice shots. But when I opened the files to look at the photos, one of them appeared to have a smudge on it. I zoomed in to see what got in the way, and, well, I am not quite sure what it is. My best guess is that it was a high flying bird that flew into the camera’s field of view, but it’s just more fun to call it a UFO.

The Moon, with Venus to the upper right

The Moon and "Earthshine"

The "UFO" - probably a bird

A little close up

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The Moon, Jupiter, and Its Moons (Photos)

Today’s early morning sky was crystal clear and the setting moon was full. Just to the left of the moon was a bright object that was likely a planet. I got out my camera to take a few photographs before I researched which planet I was seeing.

Imagine my surprise when I viewed the photos on my computer to find that the planet- Jupiter – was also surrounded by a few of its moons. Granted, the shot shows a slight “trail” from the movement cause by the earth’s rotation and my long camera exposure, but it is still amazing to see the moons so clearly despite the brightness of the full moon.

I got another surprise when I looked at a photo of a random grouping of stars to the west and saw a faint streak in the image of the sky. I think I captured a meteor!

The Moon, with Jupiter at upper left

Jupiter and its Moons

Faint meteor at bottom left

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Waning Gibbous Moon

The sky was very clear this morning, so it provided the perfect opportunity to get this photo of the waning gibbous moon as it set.






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The Full “Psychedelic” Moon

Last night, we had a relatively clear night, with a full moon rising. Since it seems that we’ve had more than our share of cloudy days and nights lately, and as the moon appeared unusually huge (I know – optical illusion), I thought I’d grab the camera and take a few pictures. But after looking at the pics, they looked like the same old full moon. So I decided to take one of the pictures I took as the moon was rising behind a group of trees, and I did a little “color correcting.” With all the branches crisscrossing the moon, the result was a very psychedelic-looking moon. I thought I’d post it here, just for fun!





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Snow, Sleet, Ice, Plus a Close Full Moon

This morning we had a mixed bag of weather. It started with snow, then moved to sleet, ice, and it is supposed to change over to rain later in the morning. I snapped a few shots as the precipitation was coming down as a sleety, icy mix. It looked like little sparkling diamonds, which made a pinging noise as it hit the surfaces. The pictures don't quite do it justice, as it's hard for the camera to pick up the sparkle. Later in the morning, ice began to form on the trees, so I added a few pictures of that as well.

I also forgot that I took a picture of the full moon that occurred on December 12, 2008. It was the closest and largest full moon of the year. It was also the closest and largest that the full moon has been since March 8, 1993. We won’t see a full moon this close again until November 14, 2016. My picture of the moon has a slight “glow” to it, as there was a very thin layer of high clouds in the sky at the time.

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The Full Moon Transitions Spring to Summer

All photos by Chris Zimmer

It was one of those nice mornings where the sky was clear, the dawn was pleasant, and the moon was full. I got out the camera and spotting scope and snapped some nice pictures of the moon, first with the black sky before dawn, and then with a bluer sky as the sun rose. As the moon dropped lower, there was a little more distortion from the atmosphere, but it still made for some nice pictures. In some of the photos, the moon took on strange colors as the moon dropped lower in the horizon and the sun rose. Today transitioned the last day of spring AND the first day of summer, and it was an extra treat to see such a bright full moon. An added bonus is that at one point, the moon was very close in the sky field to the planet Jupiter. With the spotting scope, Jupiter and one of its moons could be seen clearly (but not photographed with the equipment I had, much to my dismay).

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A Halo Around the Moon

It was a very cold evening last night (January 21) with an extremely bright moon. As some clouds moved in, a beautiful halo appeared. Although less intense that a rainbow, a halo around the moon still shows some color.

If I recall my weather lore correctly, these halos are harbingers of precipitation. It did snow as morning arrived.

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