Australian Dawn Occultation of Venus of October 2015

In the hour before dawn the waning crescent Moon rose minus Venus. But that was because the  planet was already covered by the Moon. Then at 6:08 am local time at the beginning of twilight the first sparkle of Venus emerged from the dark limb of the Moon and in a few seconds brightened to its usual glory. The sight of a diamond glint held just beyond the horns of the crescent Moon was enchanting! Pentax Kx 300mm telephoto.

    UT 20:05, 8 Oct 2015

    The Two Crescents! Imaged at sunrise. Meade ETX90 with compact Canon camera through eyepiece.

    UT 21:18, 8 Oct 2015

The Dark Lunar Eclipse of September 27, 2015

Lunar eclipses fall on a full moon by definition. This full moon was the closet to Earth full moon of any other this year. This not only makes the full moon look about 7% larger than average but also puts it deeper into the Earth's shadow during the eclipse darkening it a bit more than usual. It was further darkened due to volcanic ash from the Calbuco volcano in Chile still erupting since earlier this year.  The dust and smoke injected into the stratosphere served to filter out more of the refracted sunlight bending around the earth's circumference to the surface of the moon.

The following sequence of images were taken at the last few minutes before the beginning of totality. Camera is compact Canon Powershot SX150 pushed to full optical plus digital 48x zoom! The graininess of the original 14MP images were smoothed out by image size reduction.

    UT 2:05   

   UT 2:10

  UT 2:32

A Comet for the Merry Season

Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is high in the north-east for southern hemisphere observers.

This 2.8° wide image was taken from the suburbs of Adelaide 23/12/2014 UT13:00 

Pentax kx, 30 sec guided, f4.0, iso800 cropped from 10° wide image with telephoto zoom 133mm. Post processing applied. (North-> left, east-> down. constellation Puppis)

Comet PANSSTARS L4 Vists Evening Sky

Images taken at Largs Bay, South Australia 4 March 2013. Pentax Kx using wide and tele zoom lenses. Exposures 10 to 30 seconds. ISO 400 to 1600.

Comet closest approach to Earth on 5 March 2013. Misses us by 163 million km!

 View from the foreshore at Largs looking west over Gulf St Vincent just after sunset.

Crop from image above

Further crop form previous image. Compressed image scale horizontally to reduce diurnal trailing in 20 sec exposure. (Image rotated to accommodate).

Comet hovers over Largs Jetty as it heads toward setting.

Comet now low over the horizon and reddened by atmospheric extinction. Refracted lights at York Peninsula normally beyond horizon appear lower right.

Eye-catching Moon-Jupiter-Pleiades Grouping

On the evening of 21/22 January 2013 a waxing gibbous Moon is visible near Jupiter and Pleiades.  North hemisphere observers need to face south and look up about 60 degrees while for southern observers  they are lower toward the north.  Use binoculars to view the four Galilean satellites arranged near Jupiter.

South hemisphere View

 North hemisphere view

Pre-dawn Planetary-Stellar grouping

Took this before dane about 6am. What a wonderful sight!
Left to right: Pleiades ("Seven Sisters"), Jupiter, then Venus within the A-shaped Hyades Cluster. Star just right of Venus is Aldebaran.  [Click on image for high-res]

From Astroscapes

Pentax Kx 50mm-f1.8, 4se,c iso400, 8 Jul 2012 Pooraka, South Australia

Venus and Pleiades

After its encounter with Jupiter two weeks ago now Venus gracefully drifts by the Pleaides Cluster (M45) on 3 April. While these encounters occur every year they are not all so well placed in the evening sky like this one, Close encounters with the Pleiades occur every 8 years. the last was 3 April 2004, the next 3 April 2020.



The Pleiades are about 400 light years away while Venus is a foreground object in our solar solar system "only" 5 light minutes away (94 million km).

June Total Lunar Eclipse

One of the longest lunar eclipses, totality lasting 1h40m. Imaged from Pooraka, South Australia (click on image for larger image).

Australia Day Eclipse

While parts of Indonesia saw a total annular (ring) eclipse on 26/1/2009 we here in the southern parts of Australia saw only a small nibble taken out of the Sun as the Moon's limb transited the edge of the Sun. Image: Mid eclipse from North Haven, South Australia. Canon A550 hand-held through eyepiece of Meade ETX90EC telescope fitted with solar filter. Warning. Do not try this yourself without specialist advice and equipment. Permanent damage to eyes and camera can occur. (Click on image for large version).

Click here for a gif animation - 14 images with with Pentax K100D.

The last Australia Day eclipse occurred 25/1/1963. The next will occur on 26/1/2047 (AEST)

Images: Martin Lewicki (c) 2009

Venus-Jupiter-Moon Smiley Face

A curious alignment brings Venus, Jupiter and crescent Moon together this evening 1 December 2008






































A close up of the three...

Venus Beam

Venus, Mercury and Mars at Dusk

We've heard of Moon beams. These last few evenings Venus has been sending her beam across the Gulf waters to viewers on the western shores of Adelaide (and anywhere else where there is a body of water to the west). She is joined by Mercury just to the upper left and Mars, the brighter of the two near the top edge of the picture. Venus and Mercury are gaining height each night and will join Mars next week. Larger image

Pentax K100D; 30 sec; ISO 800; Sigma zoom 40mm; 25 August 2008 9:29UT

Aurora Australis

Aurora Australis from Mt Nelson, Tasmania on 10 February 2008. It unexpectedly appeared during group sky viewing session. The aurora shimmered and changed by the minute. The green was easily visible to the eye while the red showed up in only in this image that I took with a Canon PowerShot A550, 15 sec, ISO 800.

Aurora occur when the Sun produces a coronal mass ejection (CME). This cloud of charged particles travel out from the Sun at about 400 km/sec. When a CME brushes past the Earth, the Earth's magnetic field acts a shield to protect us but some of the particles manage to channel down through the north and south magnetic poles to collide with atoms of the Earth's upper atmosphere, about 80km up (the image shows clouds in silhouetted in the foreground). This excites atoms that produce light. The green and red come from atomic oxygen molecules.

I've see aurora twice before from Adelaide. They were fleeting lasting only few minutes. But this time I was ready with a camera and the Mount Nelson aurora obliged us with a show that lasted more than an hour!

More about aurora from Wikipedia

October Big Moon

This month's full Moon is closest of the year. About 7% closer than average. In this image the full moon rises looming like a giant orb above the roof tops of shops at Henley Square in Adelaide South Australia on 26 October 2007.


Pentax K100D 200mm. Composite of two images, one exposed for the buildings, the second for the Moon.


Moon imaged later same evening with Vivitar compact digital through Meade ETX90-EC telescope - through cirrus haze. A bit of contrast enhancement however brings it up nicely.

How imagining through the scope is done.

The near point of the Moon's orbit to Earth advances about 40 days per year so the next Big Moon season will be in mid December next year.

September: Mercury and Spica Align

The blue-white star Spica 270 light years away aligns with Mercury 9 light minutes away. Click on image to enlarge.


They're only 4.3 arcminutes (0.07°) apart in this image taken 22 Sep 2007 from South Australia. Next time they are this close together will be in 2040.

Total Lunar Eclipse - 28 August 2007

For Australia this was a prime time eclipse. Starting just befoe sundown the moon rose with eclipse already in progress. These images were captured with a Pentax K100D DSLR wit 28-50mm and 55 to 200mm zoom lenses


By 21:15 CST the Moon is minutes away from total phase. .

Just entering toality. The red colour is the light from a ring of sunsets around the circumference of the Earth falling on the face of the Moon

The totally eclipsed Moon bears ove the residential area at Henley Beach

Tatally eclipsed Moon over the Henley Pub

The end of the partial phase 21:52 CST

Aphrodite - Evening Star

You might have noticed her low in the west after dusk shining like a beacon as the Evening Star. Venus is heading between the Earth and Sun for her superior conjunction (see further down) on the 18th this month, after which she becomes the Morning Star.

This sequence shows the appearance of Venus on July 10, 20 and August 6. As it moves between the Earth and Sun waning to a slender crescent increasing size as it gets nearer. On the evening of the last frame I could just make out the crescent in 10x50 binoculars. (Click on image to enlarge). ETX90-EC & Vivitar compact digital.
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Later in the Evening, at low elevation just above the horizon before setting, the light of Venus is spread out into a rainbow of rippling colours. Its light is dispersed by thicker layers of our atmosphere that acts rather like a turbulent prism. Maximum digital zoom. ETX90-EC & Vivitar compact digital.

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Birth of Venus (Aphrodite) is depicted here emerging from the ocean "foam" in this 1879 rendition by William Bougereau (click to enlarge).

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The changing phases of Venus are due to its perspective as seen from Earth as it orbits the Sun. It completes a cycle of phases in about 584 days (19 months). Venus reaches inferior conjunction on August 18 (closest to Earth) when it crosses to the morning sky and the sequence of phases will reverse. On rare occasions Venus will pass in front of the Sun as a Venus transit. http://members.ozemail.com.au/~mlewicki/venustranasit04.html
At superior conjunction it is on the far side of the Sun, appearing very much smaller with the full disk illuminated.
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This is my setup. The Vivitar 3930 camera mounted on a bracket to the Meade ETX90-EC telescope (9cm/3.5"). Planetary photography like you see here is made easier with digital cameras and electronics. You just keep adjusting the exposure settings until you get good shots. The telescope has remote control to reduce shaking from handling and the camera has delay exposure to allow vibrations to subside before exposure. This kind of planetary photography with a small telescope and compact camera would have been almost impossible with film and manual telescope controls.

July Planets

Was hoping to get the close grouping of 17th July but cloud got in the way. Got these images though on the previous night from the porch (16th July).


Capture this scene over the Gulf waters. From top, Venus, Saturn, Regulus and Moon.



Bit later in the evening the 3-day Moon (ie 3 days after new) shows earthshine illuminating the dark side. See? Pink Floyd said so...there really is no dark side to the Moon ;) [Pentax K100D 200m] cropped and enlarged

Moon setting. The Moon reddens and distorts as its light passes through thickening layers of our atmosphere.

At the last frame only the "dark side" remains before finally disappearing. [Pentax K100D 200mm]

June Planetary Grouping: Venus, Moon and Saturn

Outlying Venus with Moon and Saturn Together. Pentax K100D, 75mm, 2 sec exp. 19/6/2007 Adelaide SA




Closeup of Moon and Saturn framed by foregound tree hangings. Pentax K100D, 200mm, 0.5 sec exp. 19/6/2007 Adelaide SA

You can see earthshine illuminating the dark side of the Moon in both images.

Note these are south hemisphere views so you northern denizens will see this nearly inverted.

Jupiter Rises with Scorpius

Scorpius and Jupiter a familiar sight in the east after dusk. Here they dodge clouds illuminated bylight pollution in this image taken on 30 April 2007 from HenleyBeach. 15 second exposure with a Canon Powershot 550.

Comet McNaught

Comet McNaught imaged from Henley Beach South Australia. Olympus OM1 film ISO400 20sec 22-1-2007

Full McNaught gallery here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martin.lewicki/McNaught

My other recent photography:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martin.lewicki