Looking Up

Once the stormy weather had passed through on Wednesday and some semblance of calm had returned it was the chance to take a photo I've been trying to get for over a week but it has been so overcast. There were some bands of cloud but they were drifting past fairly rapidly leaving occasional clear spots.

To start with, a photo of the Moon



What I really wanted to capture was this



Recently the Moon and Mars have been visible quite close to each other in the night sky.
For over a week Mars has shone like a bright orange star. To spot it on the photo - start from the bright blurry moon and follow an imaginary line from it to the bottom left hand corner. Mars is about two thirds of the way towards that corner. It may show better if you click on the picture to see it larger.

Also noticeable was the amount of colour in the clouds.

 

Possibly ice crystals high in the atmosphere scattering the Moonlight. Some people have seen Moondogs, rainbow like streaks similar to Sundogs. See an example on the Spaceweather site HERE.

The Night sky + Possible Aurora Conditions, again

It is possible to see three of the Solar System's planets shining brightly in the early night sky. Looking generally to the West after Sunset, Jupiter and Venus are easily spotted as the brightest objects in that direction. I photographed those last month as can be seen HERE though the Moon is nowhere near them in the sky now.

At the moment Mars is almost as close as it will get this year. Its nearest was a few nights ago but cloud here spoilt that photo opportunity. It is virtually opposite the Sun and will be directly South about midnight here. I went out 8pm. ish when the sky was relatively clear and Mars could be seen shining much brighter than any of the stars even though there was a full Moon.

There are a couple of stars at the top left and also near the bottom right (though you may need to enlarge it to spot them) with Mars shining brightly at the centre of this photo.

 

I tried to get the Moon and Mars on one frame but the difference in brightness made that impossible, for my abilities anyway. I did take the opportunity to shoot the full Moon. Not the best time to show detail as the face on light from the Sun gives no shadows to emphasise the craters. After a bit of manipulating in Photoshop Elements adjusting levels to increase contrast this was about the best I achieved.



Photos taken with a Canon 50D fitted with the Canon IS 100-400mm lens, ISO 1250, hefty tripod and cable release.
Mars shot:  400mm 2.5 seconds f5.6 manual focus
Moon shot: 400mm  1/800sec  f10 auto focus
Both photos are cropped.


Aurora Possibility.

A  lively Sunspot sent a very active coronal mass ejection out recently. Fortunately it is not heading directly towards the Earth but should hit a glancing blow today. I say fortunately as a direct hit from this one could cause all sorts of problems to power supplies and electronic communications. There is still a possibility of some disruption to satellite communications (sat nav and such like) and power companies are monitoring the situation. If this event causes auroras there is a possibility of them being seen much further from the poles than usual.