Harvest Moon September 29/30, 2012

Unusually lovely Harvest Moon tonight. I didn’t get out at the right time to show its glorious golden hue at moonrise, but here are a couple of photos. Rather than cropping them as usual, I just flipped them to be upright as the Moon appeared above my local horizon, which also illustrates the difference in magnification:

Above: 5:14 AM CDT 9-29-12 (10:14 UT), 8″ reflector telescope and 25mm eyepiece.
Below: 7:35 PM CDT 9-29-12 (00:35 UT 9-30-12), 60mm refractor telescope and 17mm eyepiece.

Both with LG VX8360 cell phone camera. Click to enlarge.

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First Quarter Moon September 22/23, 2012

9:00 PM CDT September 22, 2012 (02:00 UT 9-23-12), 8″ reflector telescope, 25mm eyepiece, LG VX8360 cell phone camera. Click to enlarge.

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Venus Phase Update for September 21, 2012

Venus is now the same distance from Earth as the Earth is from the Sun:

	2:00 PM CDT, September 21, 2012 (19:00 UT) Angular diameter 16.83 arc seconds 67.3% illumination Distance from Earth 92,101,088 miles (148,222,333 km)
	8:26 AM CDT, September 10, 2012 (13:26 UT) Angular diameter 18.36 arc seconds 62.7% illumination Distance from Earth 84,452,528 miles (135,913,169 km)
	10:17 AM CDT, September 4, 2012 (15:17 UT) Angular diameter 19.31 arc seconds 60.1% illumination Distance from Earth 80,311,754 miles (129,249,240 km)
	1:15 PM CDT, August 21, 2012 (18:15 UT) Angular diameter 22.02 arc seconds 53.5% illumination Distance from Earth 70,401,199 miles (113,299,747 km)
	7:36 AM CDT, August 13 2012 (12:36 UT) Angular diameter 24.07 arc seconds 49.1% illumination Distance from Earth 64,429,600 miles (103,689,390 km)
	1:39 PM CDT, August 6, 2012 (18:39 UT) Angular diameter 26.05 arc seconds 45.2% illumination Distance from Earth 59,516,628 miles (95,782,727 km)
	8:52 AM CDT July 30, 2012 (13:52 UT) Angular diameter 28.56 arc seconds 40.6% illumination Distance from Earth 54,298,771 miles (87,385,401 km)
	5:49 AM CDT July 22, 2012 (10:49 UT) Angular diameter 31.96 arc seconds 34.9% illumination Distance from Earth 48,512,519 miles (78,073,332 km)
	9:18 AM CDT July 13, 2012 (14:18 UT) Angular diameter 36.52 arc seconds 27.9% illumination Distance from Earth 42,450,876 miles (68,318,063 km)
	11:56 AM CDT July 3, 2012 (16:56 UT) Angular diameter 42.79 arc seconds 19.0% illumination Distance from Earth 36,238,688 miles (58,320,514 km)
	11:21 AM CDT June 27, 2012 (16:21 UT) Angular diameter 47.07 arc seconds 13.4% illumination Distance from Earth 32,940,927 miles (53,013,283 km)
	8:38 AM CDT June 21, 2012 (13:38 UT) Angular diameter 51.42 arc seconds 7.8% illumination Distance from Earth 30,154,150 miles (48,528,401 km)
	8:57 AM CDT June 12, 2012 (13:57 UT) Angular diameter 56.46 arc seconds 1.6% illumination Distance from Earth 27,463,558 miles (44,198,313 km)
	7:33 PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor telescope and 17mm eyepiece

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The Jupiter-Moon Conjunction of September 8, 2012

When the Moon passes close (in our sky) to a bright “landmark” such as a planet or bright star, it makes it easier to see that it moves about one lunar diameter per hour eastward in its orbit, so you’ll see in this series of photos that it starts to the lower right of Jupiter, and ends up to the lower left:

5:22 AM CDT September 8, 2012 (10:22 UT). You’ll see that light balance is a challenge to my low-budget cell phone astrophotography when the sky is dark and the Moon is illuminated 50% or less, but the balance improves as the sky lightens, and lunar detail appears.

The Moon at 5:35 AM.

5:39 AM.

5:52 AM.

6:17 AM.

6:26 AM.

A closeup of Jupiter and the four Galilean Moons during the conjunction, at 6:29 AM CDT (11:29 UT). From left to right: Europa, Ganymede, Io, Jupiter, Callisto. 8″ reflector telescope with 25mm eyepiece and 2x Barlow.

6:35 AM.

6:36 AM.

6:53 AM.

7:02 AM.

Jupiter/Moon photos with 60mm refractor telescope and 25mm eyepiece. Moon photos with 8″ reflector telescope and 25mm eyepiece. All with LG VX8360 cell phone camera. Click to enlarge.

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Venus with pink jet contrail

6:49 AM, September 14, 2012, a few minutes before sunrise. Venus is visible above the right end of the contrail, just to the left of the tree. More Moon, Jupiter, and Venus photos soon, including more about last week’s Jupiter-Moon conjunction.

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The Towers, on an ordinary spring day

My wife took these photographs on a school trip to New York City in April, 1975.

Though you cannot see them, millions of New Yorkers and visitors were going about their everyday activities, thousands of them at the World Trade Center, which was two years old at the time:

There would be nearly twenty-six and a half years more of mostly ordinary days.

In memory of nearly three thousand who were just getting started with their work and play on what promised to be another ordinary day, up until 8:46 AM, eleven years ago today.

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September 8, 2012 Jupiter-Moon Conjunction: First Report

I was able to take quite a few photos of this morning’s close conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter, including closeups of the Moon and the Jupiter system. I’ll compose a detailed post later. In the meantime, above you may see that they just fit into the same view at 7:02 AM CDT September 8, 2012 (12:02 UT) with 60mm refractor telescope, 25mm eyepiece, and LG VX8360 cell phone camera. click to enlarge.

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Nice Moon-Jupiter Conjunction coming up for September 8, 2012

Tomorrow Jupiter and the Last Quarter Moon will form a striking conjunction. How close, you may ask? Here’s an illustration via NASA/JPL’s Solar System Simulator, one of my favorite online utilities. This is the Moon and Jupiter as viewed from Earth at 11:00 Universal Time on September 8, 2012, which, for example, will be 6:00 AM local time here in North America’s Central Time Zone:

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

Here’s the Moon slowly approaching Jupiter at 6:22 AM on September 6:

So far this month I’ve managed to photograph the Moon every morning! I don’t expect the streak to be unbroken, but I’ll do my best. Here’s the Waning gibbous Moon progressing through its phases this past week:

5:04 AM CDT September 1, 2012 (10:04 UT)

5:40 AM CDT September 2, 2012 (10:40 UT)

6:51 AM CDT September 3, 2012 (11:51 UT)

6:08 AM CDT September 4, 2012 (11:08 UT)

9:05 AM CDT September 5, 2012 (14:05 UT)

6:05 AM CDT September 6, 2012 (11:05 UT)

7:00 AM CDT September 7, 2012 (12:00 UT)

All with 8″ reflector telescope, 25mm eyepiece, LG VX8360 cell phone camera. Click to enlarge.

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Jupiter and the Galilean Moons September 4, 2012, with Venus Phase Update

Not only is it great fun to watch Jupiter’s four Galilean Moons as they orbit, it’s also a reenactment of one of the most pivotal discoveries of early modern astronomy. Along with the phases of Venus, they were one of the first bits of unassailable evidence that not all celestial objects had Earth-centered orbits. At times only a few minutes can make a noticeable difference in the configuration of these four large, bright moons, and that was the case yesterday morning. In the following series of photos, one can see conspicuous changes in the span of only 36 minutes, especially with Io and Ganymede to Jupiter’s right:

6:00 AM CDT September 4, 2012 (11:00 UT). I oriented these photos with north at the top, which I usually don’t do with planetary photos. From left to right we see Callisto, Europa, Jupiter, then Ganymede (lower) and Io (upper). In the next few photos you see Ganymede orbiting to the right, as it has just passed between Earth and Jupiter (it had transited Jupiter six hours earlier), whereas speedy Io was orbiting to the left, and was eclipsed and then occulted by Jupiter three hours afterward:

6:19 AM CDT (11:19 UT)

6:23 AM CDT (11:23 UT)

6:31 AM CDT (11:31 UT)

6:36 AM CDT (11:36 UT). You may also have noticed the transition from deep twilight to a bright sky. Sunrise at my location was eleven minutes after the last photo. By the way, Jupiter’s distance from Earth at the time of this photo series was about 462,230,000 miles, and getting closer.

Venus and Jupiter continue to dominate the predawn sky, even more so than this photo suggests. Looking southwest, with Venus to the lower left and Jupiter in the upper right, 6:10 AM CDT, September 2, 2012:

A visual treat is coming up in the predawn sky on Saturday, September 8, especially for North American observers, as the Last Quarter Moon will be in close conjunction with Jupiter.

As I mentioned, the changing phases and apparent size of Venus were also a pivotal discovery of early telescopic astronomy, momentous indeed in the history of scientific thought. The great ancient astronomer Ptolemy had correctly predicted that Venus would appear as a crescent, but incorrectly supposed that it would always be a crescent, since he believed that Venus was always between the Earth and the Sun. But Venus appears largest during its crescent phase and its apparent size wanes as it waxes towards the full phase, which is exactly what we would expect if Venus’ motion is Sun-centered rather than Earth-centered.

Venus has attained the gibbous phase, and soon will be as far from us as the Earth is from the Sun:

	10:17 AM CDT, September 4, 2012 (15:17 UT) Angular diameter 19.31 arc seconds 60.1% illumination Distance from Earth 80,311,754 miles (129,249,240 km)
	1:15 PM CDT, August 21, 2012 (18:15 UT) Angular diameter 22.02 arc seconds 53.5% illumination Distance from Earth 70,401,199 miles (113,299,747 km)
	7:36 AM CDT, August 13 2012 (12:36 UT) Angular diameter 24.07 arc seconds 49.1% illumination Distance from Earth 64,429,600 miles (103,689,390 km)
	1:39 PM CDT, August 6, 2012 (18:39 UT) Angular diameter 26.05 arc seconds 45.2% illumination Distance from Earth 59,516,628 miles (95,782,727 km)
	8:52 AM CDT July 30, 2012 (13:52 UT) Angular diameter 28.56 arc seconds 40.6% illumination Distance from Earth 54,298,771 miles (87,385,401 km)
	5:49 AM CDT July 22, 2012 (10:49 UT) Angular diameter 31.96 arc seconds 34.9% illumination Distance from Earth 48,512,519 miles (78,073,332 km)
	9:18 AM CDT July 13, 2012 (14:18 UT) Angular diameter 36.52 arc seconds 27.9% illumination Distance from Earth 42,450,876 miles (68,318,063 km)
	11:56 AM CDT July 3, 2012 (16:56 UT) Angular diameter 42.79 arc seconds 19.0% illumination Distance from Earth 36,238,688 miles (58,320,514 km)
	11:21 AM CDT June 27, 2012 (16:21 UT) Angular diameter 47.07 arc seconds 13.4% illumination Distance from Earth 32,940,927 miles (53,013,283 km)
	8:38 AM CDT June 21, 2012 (13:38 UT) Angular diameter 51.42 arc seconds 7.8% illumination Distance from Earth 30,154,150 miles (48,528,401 km)
	8:57 AM CDT June 12, 2012 (13:57 UT) Angular diameter 56.46 arc seconds 1.6% illumination Distance from Earth 27,463,558 miles (44,198,313 km)
	7:33 PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor telescope and 17mm eyepiece

Unless otherwise noted, 8″ reflector telescope, 25mm eyepiece with 2x Barlow, LG VX8360 cell phone camera.

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