Connect Four: Saturn Moon Mars Spica Alignment

Chris and I were taking an evening walk around the neighborhood when we saw this alignment of 4 bright objects, starting with Saturn in the top left connecting through the moon to Mars and Spica further to the bottom right.

Canon T5i, ISO 400, 33mm, f/5.6, 5 sec, edited in iPhoto

View to the South: Corvus, Virgo, Mars, and Saturn

There are some great views to the southern sky this month, with Mars blazing near Spica, and Saturn hanging out in Libra. I also got a chance to see one of my favorite smaller constellations, Corvus the crow - also known as Spica's Spanker because it resembles a type of sail called a spanker, and because two of its stars form excellent pointers for Spica.

Single frame at f/4.5, 10 sec, ISO 800, 18mm

Same image as above without labels

Next, I wanted to see if I could fit Saturn, Mars, Corvus, and Arcturus all in the same frame. At 18mm, my calculated field of view is about 64° horizontal and 45° vertical. Currently, Arcturus is about 38° from Saturn, Saturn is about 41° from Corvus, and Corvus is about 48° from Arcturus in a big triangle. It looks like it should fit, and it does!

Single frame at f/4, 13 sec, ISO 400, 18mm - Gaussian blur light pollution layer subtracted in Photoshop

Same image as above with fewer labels

Mars, Moon, Spica Conjunction July 5, 2014

On July 5, 2014, the night of my sister's birthday, and my friend Ryan's wedding, the Moon will be within half a degree of the planet Mars, and the pair will both be about 3 degrees from the 15th brightest star Spica. It should be a bright and interesting summer night conjunction!

The position you see here is based on my location in Indiana. In South America the moon will actually move in front of Mars. This is known as an occultation, e.g. the moon will "occult" Mars.

Every time I poke around in Stellarium I find new and interesting events. I suppose I could have just looked at the 101 Astronomical Events for 2014, but stumbling upon conjunctions is fun too.

Screen capture from Stellarium software

Moon Alongside Spica, January 23, 2014

I was taking the dog out at 4:00am (that's how a lot of these blog posts start, huh!) when I saw the Moon alongside the bright star Spica. I went back inside to get my camera, and when I came back out the clouds had rolled in. I quickly snapped a few photos of the pair and went back inside minutes before it started snowing heavily.

I didn't have time or patients for a composite image, so this is actually one frame - however, I juiced up the brightness of Spica in Photoshop so that it's more apparent.

Single frame at ISO 100, 300mm, f/11, 1/40 sec

Screenshot from StarWalk app

Screenshot from Stellarium

Venus-Mercury and Moon-Spica Conjunctions on the same night!

Dim Mercury was moving ever closer to brighter Venus just after sunset. I was able to get these photos of the pair low over the horizon.

170mm, 1.3 sec, f/5.0, ISO 400

The moon was also very close to Spica, but a blob of clouds was rolling over the area. I actually like it with the look of smoke surrounding a glowing moon and a little beacon off to the right. I have enough photos of the moon-next-to-things, so a few clouds for variety really ain't bad!

200mm, 1/5 sec, f/5.0, ISO 800

Corvus the Crow and Spica's Spanker

Corvus the Crow, with pointer stars toward Spica. Part of the shape resembles a kind of sail called a spanker, which gives the 4-star asterism the name "Spica's Spanker."

15 sec, 18mm, ISO 400, f/4.5

Messing about with the Full Pink Moon (99%) and Spica

The Full Pink Moon, named after a type of flower called grass pink, will not actually be pink as it rises tomorrow 12 minutes after sunset. In fact, it will probably be orange - similar to this twilight moonrise in February. Deferring to the alternate name, the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, might alleviate some of the confusion.

Tonight, the moon caught my attention through my bedroom window. I noticed a strange glare caused by the window pane that created 6 reflections that looked like they were orbiting the moon.

75mm, ISO 200, 1/5 sec

When I went outside to get a good look, I noticed Spica to the upper right of the moon a couple degrees away. The star showed a subtle blue color. Spica is actually a blue giant star 260 light years away. It's 15th brightest in our night sky. Tonight the moon will actually occult (pass in front of) Spica in parts of South America.

Composite image, stacked moon each 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 300mm

Taken from my bedroom window, this tree silhouette in front of the moon looks like a cracked plate.

300mm, 1/200 sec, ISO 200

Photoshop emphasizing the cracked dinner plate look of a tree silhouette in front of the moon

42 stacked frames, each 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 300mm

Mars, Saturn, and Spica form a triangle hours before Curiosity landing

Tonight, just after sunset, Mars was visible in the west forming a triangle with Saturn and Spica. This picture came out blurry, which actually makes it easier to see the color difference between the objects.

Mars is reddish, Saturn is yellow, and Spica is blue.

Mars 300mm zoom

Saturn 300mm zoom

These are my first close-up shots of planets with the 300mm zoom lens. I think they came out a little blurry, meh. No, those aren't moons circling the planets, those are other stars in the background.

And right now, screaming toward Mars at thousands of miles per hour, the Mars Science Laboratory mission with the Curiosity rover is on approach. I'll be tuning in tonight at 11:30pm for live coverage on Ustream up until the landing at 1:31am ET. Unfortunately, I've heard that 2:30am ET is the earliest anyone will expect to hear news from Curiosity on the ground.