Show Your Astrophotos

[Wrangellian]

Thanks @snolly50, I'm rather proud of them.

 

Kris, your sky is oddly grey in that shot! But it gives a good sense of how bright Venus is relative to the Moon.

My camera is variable as to how the color turns out.. the top has the least blue in the sky but I think it looks nice anyway.

It sounds like your weather/temps were comparable to mine up here (a couple degrees C below zero).

What did you do with all those fish, do you freeze most of them, or..?

[Ptychodus04]

16 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Thanks @snolly50, I'm rather proud of them.

 

Kris, your sky is oddly grey in that shot! But it gives a good sense of how bright Venus is relative to the Moon.

My camera is variable as to how the color turns out.. the top has the least blue in the sky but I think it looks nice anyway.

It sounds like your weather/temps were comparable to mine up here (a couple degrees C below zero).

What did you do with all those fish, do you freeze most of them, or..?

The sky from behind the trees looked weird, I think it is a combination of light from the boat ramp filtering through the trees and an odd bit of dark magic from my cell phone camera that made the sky turn out like that in the pic.

 

This is a power plant lake so there's no eating the fish out of that water. It may not be nuclear but the water still isn't clean enough for me to consume any of the fish. So... it is purely catch and release fishing for me. I'll eat the fish from the rest of our lakes though.

[Wrangellian]

I see!

Well I guess that explains why the fish are so numerous in that lake... or are they in your non-contaminated lakes also?

[Ptychodus04]

On 12/7/2018 at 6:20 PM, Wrangellian said:

I see!

Well I guess that explains why the fish are so numerous in that lake... or are they in your non-contaminated lakes also?

 

There are a bunch but the power plant keeps the water temperature warm in the winter so the bass spawn when the temp cools off rather than when the water warms like normal lakes. They are about to spawn now so they are really aggressive.

 

A typical lake down here in the spring is almost as active. I’ve regularly caught my daily limit of 25 catfish. Now I’m getting hungry.

[Ptychodus04]

Not the best pic but as I was getting in my truck to go to work this morning, I had a clear shot of Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter in the east. Venus is the bright planet above the streetlight. Down by the power lines, you can see Mercury and just below that Jupiter.

[minnbuckeye]

Anyone seen the Christmas Comet yet?

[Ptychodus04]

32 minutes ago, minnbuckeye said:

Anyone seen the Christmas Comet yet?

Not yet. It is finally high enough for it to be readily seen from my latitude in the evening so I'm going to start trying with binoculars when I get clear skies. As soon as I locate with binos, I'll set up the scope and take some pics.

[Ptychodus04]

Just in case anyone wants to take a look. It is a magnitude 4.3 right now so it should be visible to the unaided eye even from suburban skies. If you can see the Orion Nebula, you can see 46P/Wirtanen. Look for a fuzzy dot in the location on the map below. With binoculars or a telescope it will be green.

 

 

 

[minnbuckeye]

4 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

. As soon as I locate with binos, I'll set up the scope and take some pics.

Look forward to your pictures. We are due for a period of overcast skies.

 

Mike

[Ptychodus04]

On 12/18/2018 at 3:21 PM, minnbuckeye said:

Look forward to your pictures. We are due for a period of overcast skies.

 

Mike

Looks like I’m going to be 0 for 3 on clear skies!

[minnbuckeye]

@Ptychodus04, WE HAVE THE SAME BATTING AVERAGE!!!!!!!! Reminds me of when I was trying to find a girlfriend years ago!! Now we have to contend with the moon if the skies ever clear. Anyone else get a glimpse of the comet??

[Kane]

37 minutes ago, minnbuckeye said:

Now we have to contend with the moon if the skies ever clear. Anyone else get a glimpse of the comet??

Not here. The moon is near full and way too bright. Here in the Caribbean, Orion is on his side, but no comet visible in relation. We did get to see the peak of last week’s meteor shower though; three days of constant dazzle. 

[Ptychodus04]

51 minutes ago, minnbuckeye said:

@Ptychodus04, WE HAVE THE SAME BATTING AVERAGE!!!!!!!! Reminds me of when I was trying to find a girlfriend years ago!! Now we have to contend with the moon if the skies ever clear. Anyone else get a glimpse of the comet??

The comet would still be readily visible in binoculars with the moon. I'm still hoping for clear tomorrow, even just for a glance.

10 minutes ago, Kane said:

Not here. The moon is near full and way too bright. Here in the Caribbean, Orion is on his side, but no comet visible in relation. We did get to see the peak of last week’s meteor shower though; three days of constant dazzle. 

The further south you go, the lazier Orion gets. In fact, he probably looks a lot like Kane lying around on the beach!! I'll bet the Geminids were splendid. My best meteor watching experience was with the Geminids over a decade ago. I started watching at 1:00 AM and stopped counting meteors at 300 just before 3:00!

[minnbuckeye]

We had a fireball with a sonic boom 2 nights ago!! Struck out on this one too.

Meteor spotted in north metro was one of this year's biggest worldwide

The fireball was reported above Cambridge, in Isanti County, about 2:10 a.m. 

By Tim Harlow Star Tribune

December 20, 2018 — 8:37pm

 

[Ptychodus04]

I saw a large bolide a few years ago. It was amazing. I was driving to work and it “slowly” made its way from east to west into a cloud bank and exploded, turning the whole sky green. I’m happy to see the smallest of meteors but those really stick with you.

[Kane]

Saw one here last week. Slow, bright, amazing. A group of us were sitting out, and some people will say, “look, another one!” But the time others do, it’s gone. This one was up for at least ten seconds. 

[Ptychodus04]

Success! Using my 50mm binoculars and a star chart, I can just make out the comet as a faint fuzzy spot. It is totally washed out by the moon. It will be a week before the sky is significantly darker. Unfortunately, every day the comet will get dimmer as it moves away from us.

 

We’re due for a really bright comet to come into the neighborhood. I’m ready...

[minnbuckeye]

That's great news!!! We are still overcast. And not looking good long range. At least a forum member got to experience the Christmas Comet.

[Missourian]

Detailed comet finder charts can be found at:

 

http://www.shopplaza.nl/astro/comets/comets.htm

 

I've seen the comet three times through 9x63 binoculars as it has drifted north during the past couple weeks. Moving forward, try to catch the comet in the northeastern sky before the moon rises.

[Ptychodus04]

With Luna moving further away from the comet every day, it will get better every night (with clear skies) until it really starts to fade.

 

I just went out and found it easily with my 10x50 binoculars. If the weather continues to cooperate and I get my shop finished, I’ll set up the telescope after Christmas and try to capture a few images.

[Missourian]

Another comet resource:

 

http://www.aerith.net/

 

This site has information on ALL current comets. For the casual observer, these pages are useful:

 

Visual Comets in the Future (Northern Hemisphere):

http://www.aerith.net/comet/future-n.html

 

Weekly Information about Bright Comets:

http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html

 

I've used this site since Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp.

[Ptychodus04]

Venus and Jupiter rising this morning. They are headed for a close conjunction next weekend.

[Missourian]

Everyone, be ready for today's total lunar eclipse. We want some good photos.

 

 

Times are for Universal/Greenwich/Zulu time on January 21.

 

For North America:

 

EST:  UT -5; mid-eclipse at 12:12 AM

CST:  UT -6; mid-eclipse at 11:12 PM

MST:  UT -7; mid-eclipse at 10:12 PM

PST:  UT -8; mid-eclipse at 9:12 PM

[minnbuckeye]

Now there is no excuse:

 

  

 

 Warmed my camera up with this early morning picture:

 

[snolly50]

Tonight's Moody Moon at totality...