Antares and the Moon

 

Moon Mosaic - It's a Stitchup!

This was an unexpected experiment which I just thought of the spur of the moment.  I'd taken four different stacked segments of the moon with my planetary camera and C6se telescope whilst I was waiting for the skies to clear. I didn't try to get full coverage, just focusing on interesting parts of the moon.  But as the segments came out quite well, I thought I'd try making a mosaic by stitching them together in Photoshop using the PhotoMerge feature. I had no idea that it would be so easy and come out so good.  

When I saw this result I was sorry that I hadn't tried for full coverage, and so I decided just to crop the biggest complete area I could.

Next time I'll be looking for full coverage!
 

Waxing Gibbous Moon (28/5/23)

 

First Quarter Moon (27/5/23)

 

Crescent Moon (21/5/23)

 

Waxing Crescent Moon

Unfortunately the weather has been very poor in recent weeks and this is the first time I've seen the moon in ages. The cloud cover meant that I couldn't see the thin sliver of moon which appears after a new moon and so I'll just have to be content with this crescent which is a few days old now.

Waning Gibbous Moon

 Here are some shots of tonight's waning gibbous moon:

The 2022 Lunar Occultation of Mars

Occultation is where one astronomical object, such as a planet or moon, passes front of another one, obscuring it from being seen.  In this case, the Moon was due to pass in front of Mars in the early hours of 8 December 2022.  In addition, Mars also happened to be in opposition, meaning that the Earth was directly in line between Mars and the Sun. Opposition is when a planet appears at its brightest in the night sky.

I had so looked forward to this rare astronomical event and planned for it quite throughly, but in the end I was frustrated and foiled by the cloudy weather. I set up early in the afternoon and had quite a few practice shots during the early evening when the skies here were crystal clear.  

At first I thought I'd stay up all night waiting for the main event when Mars was occulted by the full 'Cold' Moon at around 4:45am, but in the end I decided to get a few hours sleep starting around11:45pm. When I got up at 3:14am, the skies were still clear and Mars was a lot nearer to the moon than when I had gone to bed.  However, when I returned from making a quick cup of tea, everything had changed!

The clouds had rolled in totally obscuring Mars and the Moon at times and time was running out.  I'd focused everything previously, so I wasn't concerned about that, but the exposure time was giving me real problems and I had to keep adjusting it manually with every passing cloud.  This really wasn't easy and was certainly very frustrating.

Consequently, I couldn't see Mars at the all important moment of occultation, so I just left the camera video running whilst I hoped for the best.  I was also trying to take some manual single shots with my DSLR and big lens in a sort of belt and braces approach.  In hindsight this wasn't such a good idea as my attention was constantly switching between the two systems.

At first I thought I'd totally fluffed it, but with a considerable amount of processing I managed to resurrect these two shots from the stacked video.  They're quite disappointing really but they are all I've got and at least I witness the event.  

My best shot probably came after the occultation had finished and Mars was on its way to set in the western sky. You can see how cloudy it was from the colours in the sky and the lack of clarity in the Cold Moon's surface features.

One Step Closer

Tonight I got one step closer to achieving the lunar image I desire from Rivington Pike.  My aim is to take a photograph of the full moon rising from behind the pike, with the Pike Tower on top being silhouetted against a large, bright moon.

I've tried a couple of times now and got it wrong on both occasions - however I learnt valuable things in doing so, and the most important thing is finding the right location from where to take the shot.  This may seem obvious, but it's nothing like as easy as it seems!

I used an iPhone app called PhotoPills to plan the shoot, because it tells me where and the moon will be rising each day and gives me an indication for the line of sight from where i will be able to see it.  Of course, it's not perfect as it can't foresee a stand of large trees or a mobile phone mast being in the way.

So armed with a few ideas, I drove up to Rivington at around 9:30pm to get set up and wait for the moon to rise at 11:13pm.  At this time of year it doesn't go completely dark and so, even with no street lighting or significant other lights, it's quite easy to see even in reasonably remote locations.

My first mistake was to realise that although the moon rises at a certain time, the times are for rising above the horizon -  being in the low west Pennine hills, there's no horizon in sight, and it takes much longer for it to appear above the hill tops. So I had another hour or so to wait after the time indicated.

During this waiting time the clouds came and went - at some point I could see stars and the Plough constellation and at other times I couldn't see anything.  The International Space Station passed overhead at around 10pm, but I was set up for the moon, so I didn't attempt to photograph it.

My second mistake was not to bring a torch because, even though I could see where I was standing and walking, finding the camera controls in the dark can be fiddly. I usually have a head torch with me but for some reason I didn't think to bring one tonight.

I took some test shots of the Pike Tower before it got near moonrise time and then waited, and waited, and waited. I actually started to wonder if it was so cloudy in the east that the moon had risen but I couldn't see it. 

Meanwhile, cars were whizzing by me at a fairly constant rate (it's the only road in this area), probably wondering what this lunatic (ged'dit?) was doing.  With my car up a slight verge at the entrance to a farm gate, I must have looked as if I had broken down, but only two cars stopped to see if I was OK, one of which held three beautiful young ladies (they looked like models), who asked me what I was doing and who were very interested to learn when I explained. Ah, if only I was 30 years younger!

Eventually the full moon did appear through hazy clouds, lighting up a patch of sky with an errie glow. It was a little more to the right of the Pike Tower than I wanted and so I lifted the tripod with the camera on it and walked further up the road.  The moon rises pretty quickly and by the time I'd got setup in a new location, it was higher in the sky. It was also much cloudier and so there was no chance of a decent shot tonight.

Never mind I thought, there's a full moon every month, although not a Supermoon like this one.  I was pleased to have got to my best location yet and now that I've found this, I can pop out again when the weather is better and I'm sure I'll eventually get the shot I want.

Super Flower Blood Moon

Super Flower Blood Moon (26/5/21)

This is the second and last of 2021’s two 'Supermoons' and it's also known as the 'Flower Moon' as it appears at the time that many flowers start to blossom.

A supermoon happens when a full moon occurs at the same time, or close to the time, that the moon reaches its closest point to the Earth – a point called perigee.

As well as being a supermoon, the moon also experienced a lunar eclipse (although not visible in the UK) giving it a reddish tinge and turning it into a so-called ‘Blood Moon’. 

A lunar eclipse happens when the moon’s orbit moves in front of the Earth’s shadow, preventing the sun’s light from reaching it – instead, light from the Earth’s sunrises and sunsets illuminates the moon, giving it its ‘blood’ red appearance. 

The hue and depth of the red colour is dependent on a number of factors, like the amount of dust in the atmosphere at the time of the eclipse. If there is a particularly high amount of dust in the atmosphere, the higher frequency blue waves will be blocked, allowing through the lower frequency ‘red’ coloured light waves. So the super blood moon’s appearance can range from a deep, fiery red to its regular grey self.

Supermoons appear to be bigger and brighter and this one will continue to look full to the naked eye for a couple of days on either side of May 26.

X and V on the Moon'

At certain times, the moon shows features which have been given names according to their shape.

The Lunar X is a clair-obscur or chiaroscuro effect in which light and shadow creates the appearance of a letter 'X' on the rim of the Blanchinus, La Caille and Purbach craters.

The X is visible only for a few hours before the first quarter, slightly below the lunar terminator. Above the X, the Lunar V is also visible, formed by Ukert crater and several other small craters.

Here's a labelled version:

Waxing Crescent Moon

 

Full Moon

 

Moon Segments Anyone?

 

Waxing Gibbous Moon and Segments