by terranovabay
No sign in the backyard night sky of Elon’s Tesla Roadster nor its David Bowie-inspired passenger. We can only look up and wonder about their lonely journey through the Solar System.
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: David Bowie, Elon Musk, Orion, Solar System, Starman, Tesla
by terranovabay
The second full Moon of January 2018 rose into a cold, iron blue sky at dusk with clouds scudding by blocking the view every now and then. The Moon rises on the eve of a lunar eclipse happening at dawn the next day, 31 January, with the Earth’s shadow just starting to darken the Moon’s face before the Moon sets in the west, at least in what is viewable of the event from Florida. People on the west coast of […]
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: Florida, Lunar eclipse, Moon
by terranovabay
Views of the solar eclipse of 21 August 2017 as seen from the pollinator garden at Audubon House at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area. While totality swept across the continental United States, thrilling millions, down low on peninsular Florida the Moon only eked out a partial eclipse. While totality may have eluded us, this example of heavenly bodies moving stately through their paths in the cosmic clockwork was spectacular in its own right. The Moon made first contact with the […]
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: Audubon House, eclipse, Florida, Indian River County, Moon, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, Solar Eclipse, Sun, sunspots
by terranovabay
Living in Florida, there sometimes appears to be only two seasons. One hot, and one not-so-hot. Sadly, the not-so-hot season, which normal people in other places call winter, is all too short. Great masses of cold air fighting their way southward down from the Arctic usually peter out before they can cross the state line, let alone making it halfway down the peninsula to cool all the hotheads clinging desperately to the paradise fantasy. As I am constantly looking up […]
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: constellation, Florida, Orion, winter
by terranovabay
The Moon passed through the edge, the penumbra, of Earth’s shadow leading to a very subtle lunar eclipse on 10 February 2017. A trio of photographs show the progression, which was far more apparent to the camera than it was to the human eye. To paraphrase Jack Kerouac, the Moon, big sad face of infinity.
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: eclipse, Jack Kerouac, Lunar eclipse, Moon, penumbral lunar eclipse
by terranovabay
The Pleiades (M45) is an open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus visible to the naked eye as a small, foggy patch in the sky from which six or seven individual stars can be faintly seen of the hundreds of stars that make up the cluster. A Greek myth about seven sisters is the origin of the name. The Pleiades are visible from the backyard even in my light polluted sky from where these images were made. A wide […]
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: constellation, Florida, Indian River County, M45, Messier 45, open star cluster, Pleiades, Taurus
by terranovabay
The waning SuperMoon as seen from the backyard shortly after midnight on 19 November 2016.
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: Florida, Lunar, Moon, Supermoon, terminator, waning
by terranovabay
A view of the Moon as seen from the backyard on Saturday, 12 November 2016. This is a preview of the upcoming SuperMoon on Monday, 14 November 2016. On this date the full Moon will be closest to the Earth since 1948, which means the Moon will be 14% closer to the Earth than normal and a whopping 30% brighter. The next time this occurs won’t be until 2034. Looking forward to the full “super” Moon over the next couple […]
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: Earth, Moon, Supermoon
by terranovabay
As seen from Florida — it is all about perspective after all — the planet Mercury could be seen moving across the face of the Sun on 9 May 2016. Florida was lucky enough to be positioned to see the entire event, which lasted for more than seven hours. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, having the shortest “year” of all the planets in the Solar System. Other interesting info from NASA states “Mercury’s day is 176 Earth […]
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: greenhouse effect, Mercury, NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, planet, Sun, transit, Venus
by terranovabay
The planets Venus, Jupiter, and Mars move in the sky as seen from the backyard over 18 predawn photo sessions. This is called a conjunction when planets appear to be close together in the sky but it is really an illusion of our Earth-based viewpoint given the vast distances between the worlds. 20 October 2015 – The planets are about to disappear into the brightening dawn sky. I would have to get up an hour earlier to catch the planets […]
Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: conjunction, Jupiter, Mars, planet, Venus
