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.