Moon and Venus this evening

Grampa Don

Grampa Don

Yep, that's me
Location
Orange county, Calif.
Clear sky here tonight.

moon-venus-small.jpg


Here's a closer look.

moon-venus-closer.jpg

Don
 

The photo does not do the real thing justice. Wherever you live, if the sky is clear, go out as the sun goes down and look above it. There will be Venus, the brightest object in the sky other than the sun. About 13 degrees higher along the sun's path will be the crescent moon. To the east, half way up the sky will be the beautiful open cluster the Pleiades, the seven sisters. If you are lucky enough to have a dark sky, look straight up and see the Andromeda galaxy. It will look like a fuzzy patch of light. If you can see the Milky Way, I envy you. It's invisible here. Uranus is also in tonight's sky and is visible with binoculars. But, it's tiny and you have to know right where to look. Neptune is too, but it takes a telescope to see it.

Don
 
We can often see the milky way here where I live but then we have relatively low light pollution... however I don't have a decent enough camera to take the picture..

OTOH..my daughter lives on the top of a remote mountain and she has zero light pollution... and it's literally like living in Space at night , the stars are all enveloping...
 
Hollydolly -- Your daughter is very lucky in that respect. The night sky is so bright here that you can practically read by it.

I took the photos with the little Canon A570 that I bought on ebay for $5 and repaired. I propped it against the gate to steady it.

Don
 
Grampa Don said:
Hollydolly -- Your daughter is very lucky in that respect. The night sky is so bright here that you can practically read by it.

I took the photos with the little Canon A570 that I bought on ebay for $5 and repaired. I propped it against the gate to steady it.

Don
Click to expand...
sorry you have so much light pollution.:(.. perhaps I should try with my old Fuki finepix, although tbf I have tried before on full zoom, and I just got a blur but I could try popping it on a tripod and see if that makes a difference... I'll ask my daughter to pop out and take a picture at her place and send it to me, and I'll put it on here when she does..
 
Hollydolly

The first photo was taken at 1/20 sec, f2.8, iso 200, no zoom. The second was 1/5 sec, f5.5, iso 200, 4x zoom. It's a cropped image. The Canon has full manual control and I played around with it. Using a tripod and the self timer to fire the shutter should give much better results.

I hope you will share your shots, and I would love to see your daughter's.

Don
 
Grampa Don said:
Hollydolly

The first photo was taken at 1/20 sec, f2.8, iso 200, no zoom. The second was 1/5 sec, f5.5, iso 200, 4x zoom. It's a cropped image. The Canon has full manual control and I played around with it. Using a tripod and the self timer to fire the shutter should give much better results.

I hope you will share your shots, and I would love to see your daughter's.

Don
Click to expand...
Although as I explained to you elsewhere Don, my daughter had recently sold her top of the range camera equipment, she had some photos that she'd taken in the past with it .. so here are 2 she sent me today ... these are taken at the top of the mountain where she lives in Southern Spain ( Malaga region)

Whats-App-Image-2020-01-06-at-14-37-05.jpg


Whats-App-Image-2020-01-06-at-14-39-12.jpg
 
Grampa Don said:
I'm going by what I see in binoculars, a bright central fuzzy zone and dim extensions to the upper right and lower left. It must be naked eye for her.

Don
Click to expand...
Oh yes it is, we can see it easily with our eyes on a clear night. There's absolutely no light pollution at all where she lives being right at the top of the mountain. The nearest light source (aside from inside her own home) is 1/2 hour drive away so we can see the lights in the distance while standing outside her house
 
Grampa Don said:
It's sad, because much of it is preventable if people cared. Lights could be designed so they only shine down, and most don't have to be as bright as they are. As a result, most of humanity never get to see the milky way. I'm lucky if I can see a dozen stars naked eye in my sky.

Don
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You can see a dozen stars naked eye at night? We are lucky if we can see the sky at night. Cloudy overcast dominates our night sky most of the winter months. I got very interested in amateur astronomy but the interest faded due to relatively few opportunities.
 
johndoe said:
You can see a dozen stars naked eye at night? We are lucky if we can see the sky at night. Cloudy overcast dominates our night sky most of the winter months. I got very interested in amateur astronomy but the interest faded due to relatively few opportunities.
Click to expand...
That's a real pity.... , we can see hundreds on a clear night including the Big and little dippers very regularly as well as Orion's belt , just with the naked eye. , and literally as many as the Brain will accept at my aforementioned daughters place ...

My o/h used to have an App on his old iphone which would identify the stars and constellations just by pointing the phone at the sky... it was a wonderful thing. I don't think he has it on his latest phone but when he gets home I'll ask him if he
remembers it's name!!
 
johndoe said:
You can see a dozen stars naked eye at night? We are lucky if we can see the sky at night. Cloudy overcast dominates our night sky most of the winter months. I got very interested in amateur astronomy but the interest faded due to relatively few opportunities.
Click to expand...

Really good nights when the sky is clear and the atmosphere is stable are scarce. Then, I can see stars down to a magnitude of about 2, and with binoculars, about magnitude 6, which is naked eye in a really dark sky. Astronomy definitely requires patience. If it isn't clouds, we get a thin haze from moisture in the air that magnifies the light pollution. Then, like last night, the sky was clear but the bright moon was wiping out all the dim stuff.

I have my scope on casters, and I can take it out and set it up in a couple minutes when things look encouraging. Even then, the clouds sometimes roll in.

Don
 
I have an iphone too, but again this is the latest one so I've not got all the apps installed on it yet, that I want. I may get hubs to install that astronomy one on mine this evening...
 
I posted this back in January.

In the winter here the sky is very clear. I always go out and check the sky. I can even see the sky from my kitchen window.
Anyway. This is the moon and Venus is just below to the left. I just snapped it with my cell phone. That was the south east sky.
Click to enlarge.
 

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Camper6 said:
I posted this back in January.

In the winter here the sky is very clear. I always go out and check the sky. I can even see the sky from my kitchen window.
Anyway. This is the moon and Venus is just below to the left. I just snapped it with my cell phone. That was the south east sky.
Click to enlarge.
Click to expand...
Your picture won't enlarge Camper.. However that's impressive taking that picture with your mobile phone..which phone do you have?
 

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