Pic of the Day

Comet NEOWISE this morning at 4:47 A.M., CDT.

Nikon D800, Nikkor 500mm f/4, 2 Seconds @ f/4 ISO 640

Comet NEOWISE, this morning at 4:47 A.M., CDT. 

This photo is a cropped version of top photo. In this

cropped version, the split in the tail is more easily seen.

     I was up again this morning to photograph Comet NEOWISE.  A cloud in the northeast obscured the comet until about 4:45, but once it moved out the comet was fantastic!  It is best seen with binoculars.  Here in North Alabama it is but a faint smudge, however the coma is seen as quite star like.  The top photo, full frame by the way, shows the comet over Horse Cove, near Gurley, Alabama.  The split in the tail was more noticeable this morning. This morning was overall better viewing conditions and less humidity in the air than on the morning of the 8^thwhen I photographed the comet.  

The bottom photo is the same one, but it has been cropped.  I included the cropped photo so the split in the tail can be more easily seen.  Just behind the coma, the tail splits into two parts from our angle of view.  While comet NEOWISE is current visible in the northeastern morning sky, by July 14^thyou should be able to see it about an hour after sundown in the northwestern sky.

The comet is currently .91AU’s* (85,128, 736 miles) from Earth.  On July 24 it will be .69 AU’s (64,436,192 miles) from earth.

The following website has good information on viewing the comet.

https://skyandtelescope.org/press-releases/new-bright-visitor-comet-neowise/

* AU is an Astronomical Unit, approx.. 93 million miles.  The distance of the Earth from the Sun.  https://www.britannica.com/science/astronomical-unit)

Comet NEOWISE

This comet bears the name of the satellite that discovered it on March 27th: NEOWISE, an acronym for Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, used to assist NASA’s efforts to identify and characterize the population of near-Earth objects, such as asteroids. And occasionally, as in this case, it also can discover a comet.    https://www.farmersalmanac.com/comet-neowise-july-2020-131179

Pic of the Day

 Alignment of Moon, Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury
January 1st, 2019

                                         Alignment of Moon, Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury

                                                      identified with Mercury magnified

                                                 (both images best viewed when enlarged)

     Mercury is always hard to spot.  Especially where I live, here in North Alabama.  But on January 1^st, 2019, I was on the causeway between Titusville, Florida and Merritt Island NWR awaiting the rising sun.  The sky was dark, the waning moon shown bright, but so did two bright planets.  I assumed the planets to be Venus, and Jupiter and when I checked the positions of the two planets I discovered I was correct.  But, I also saw from the chart that Mercury was in the morning sky, below Jupiter and very low to the horizon (as always).   Sure enough, I found it just above the horizon in the glow of dawn. I used binoculars to find Mercury, but once found I could easily see it with the naked eye.

     I was so excited!  The last time I remember seeing Mercury was at least 50, maybe 52 years ago.  An exception of course was the Mercury transit on November 10, 1973.  Mercury was easy to see as it crossed the face of the Sun. (with filters of course).  

     I quickly set up my tripod to take a photo of the event.  I did a number of exposures and settled on this one to post.  The first image shows the moon and all three planets, but mercury is hard to see in the wide-angle shot as it is much dimmer than Venus and Jupiter.  If you can view the image full screen you can see Mercury half way between the left side of the image and the middle of the image in line with the clouds on the horizon. In the second image I have enlarged Mercury, and named each of the planets and moon.  Mercury is inside the white circle.

What a great way to start the New Year.  I hope its not another 50 years before I see Mercury again!  By the way, Florida has a great horizon line for seeing Mercury. Lucky Floridians.

     If you’re interest, Mercury will transit the Sun on November 11, 2019.  The entire transit will be visible from the eastern half of the United States and most of it visible from the entire continent. The transit will last over 5 hours, very long for a transit.

     If I am lucky enough to see this transit it will be my last.  Though there are two more transits, one on November 13, 2032 and another on November 7, 2039 neither will be visible from the North America.  The next transit visible from North American that will be, May 7, 2049. 

Camera: Nikon D800, Lens: Nikkor 16-80mm, f/2.8-4   set at 16mm
Exposure:  2 seconds @ f/5.6,  on tripod 

Sharp-tailed Grouse in Nebraska I

Sharp-tailed Grouse lek under the Milky Way

Nebraska National Forest near Halsey, Nebraska

     On the day before my Sharp-tailed Grouse adventure began, a local friend and I went to the lek and set-up two photography blinds.  When we arrived we looked for feathers, and found many.  There was no doubt that the lek was active, so we set about erecting the photo blinds.  Setting the blind up before the morning shoot was essential.  The moon was only 2 days old, so there was no moonlight whatsoever the following morning.  We would have never been able to get the blinds in the proper place in the dark.

The next morning we arrived at the blind two hours before sunrise.  The temperature was somewhere in the forties, not warm but not brutally cold.  The stars were wonderful.  I have some pretty dark skies at home, but they had nothing on a moonless night in the heart of Nebraska. 

     The constellation Scorpio loomed over the southern horizon and the Milky Way was as brilliant as I had ever seen it, maybe more.  It was then that I thought of shooting an image of the sky above the lek.  I wanted my blog viewers to understand the experience, and arriving at the blind before sunrise so not to disturb the birds is essential.

    Over the years I have found that a ten second exposure when using a 20mm to 35mm, f2 lens works quite well as an exposure.  This exposure produces star that are points of light instead of streaks of light (star trails).  I did not have a cable release with me so I set my shutter to 13 seconds.  I set the camera to mirror lock up to reduce vibration. I then placed my hand in front of the lens, trip the shutter, counted to 3 and removed my hand.  This prevents vibration from touching the shutter button.  The technique seems to work fairly well.  At ten seconds there does seem to be slight star movement when the image is made larger.

     After my morning of shooting Sharp-tailed Grouse (see previous post) I took a photo of the lek in the morning light.  To create this photo I used photoshop and combined the two images.  I layered the star image over the lek image and proceeded to erase the black landscape area of the star image.  I reduced the opacity of the eraser to 5% and erased the black landscape area of the star image until the foreground area of the lek was visible.  I erased just enough to give the hint of the grassy lek.

    The idea is to give you a hint of my experience.  It was absolutely amazing.  The stars, the grasslands, and birds; but nothing I say here, or images that I post can convey the experience.  It is something that you must experience yourself to fully understand its magnitude.

To Be Continued ……………...

Nikon D800, Nikkor 35mm f2, 10 seconds @ f2

Pic of the Day

Moon from Horse Cove; Gurley, Alabama

     I shot this image last night (1/27/2015) at 5:45 pm.  The clear sky and lack of turbulence in the atmosphere helped to make a sharp image, revealing the detail of the lunar surface.  I particularly love the detail along the terminus of the moons southern hemisphere.

Nikon D800, Nikkor 500mm f4 with 1.4 teleconverter (effective 700mm f5.6).  1/2000 second @ f7.1, ISO1600

Pic of the Day

Comet Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2 (green dot right of center):

taken from Horse Cove; Gurely, Alabama 

Nikkor 50mm 1.8, 10 seconds @ f1.8, ISO 2500

Comet Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2: taken from Horse Cove; Gurely, Alabama

Nikkon 300mm f2.8; 6 seconds @ f2.8; ISO 5000

     I went out this evening to find Comet Lovejoy.  It is a naked-eye object, but was not very birght.  Once I found it with binoculars it was easy to see without optics.  Comet Lovejoy dosen't have much of a dust tail.  In the bottom photo you can see a spec of the tail (at about 9:00).  With longer exposures the tail is more visible, but the background is much lighter.  According to Sky & Telescope the green glow comes from molecules of diatomic carbon (C2) fluorescing in ultraviolet sunlight.

Learn more at:

www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/spot-comet-lovejoy-tonight-122920141/ 

Pic of the Day

     While I was at Catalina State Park just North East of Tucson I spent one evening taking a few star photos.  The light from Tucson prevented dark skies, but added and interesting effect to some of the images.  Hope you enjoy the images.

The Constellation Scorpius with lights of Tucson behind the Santa Catalina Mountains.

The Milky Way from the constellation Cygnus on the left to part of Ophiuchus on the right.  The  constellation Delphinus is near the bottom of the frame, left of center.

The Constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper, at center of frame) and Ursa Minor (Little Dipper, right side of frame) with Polaris (North Star, at lower right side of frame)

All image:  Nikon D800, Nikkor 20mm f2.8, Exposure 8 sec. @ f2.8

Pic of the Day: Transit of Venus

Venus Transit at 2nd contact 1/1,000 sec f8 with Orion full aperture solar filter

Venus Transit with a patch of clouds that passed in front of the sun.
1000 sec. @ f8 with Orion full aperture solar filter

Venus Transit over 1/2 complete at sunset.  1/80 sec.@ f8 with
Orion full aperture solar filter.

     Venus Transit from 45^th Parallel:  I took time out today from shooting birds to photograph the transit of Venus.  The day started out with clear sky and then turned cloudy and looked liked no hope of seeing the transit.  About 4:00pm the sky began to clear and by the beginning of the transit I was able to shoot.  These are three shots I have quickly picked to post.  I’ll spend some time and pick out some more later.  Hope you got to see the transit.  It was AWSOME!  Seeing Venus against the sun, and knowing that Venus and the Earth are a about the same size really puts things in perspective.  We are really small in the universe.  Hope you like the images.  I’ll post more on this when I have more time. 

     As I mentioned in my last post, I am traveling and shooting for the summer.  Still shooting Kirtland’s Warblers in Graying, Michigan and will post some of those shots soon.


For all images:  Nikon D7000, Nikkor 500mm lens with 2x extender.  With crop factor of D7000 the lens is an effective 1500mm focal length.  I used a 6.5 inch full aperture Orion Solar filter for each image.


PS:  I'm sure there are mistakes in this post.  Will correct them later.  I'm exhausted!!!!!