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

Full moon rising between apartment buildings

Thanks to the couple in that apartment for not freaking out at the guy with the camera 50 feet from their kitchen window :)

I was at the gym when the moonrise began at twilight tonight, but I saw it hovering over the intramural fields on the drive home. I went inside to get our dog Katie and took her outside to scout a spot to set up my tripod. My plan was to get a picture of the moon rising over the apartments next door. While I was walking around the courtyard I saw a big yellow moon looming low between a the buildings. It was like the Stonehenge of equal opportunity housing!

Apartments at ISO 1600, 1/25s; Moon at ISO 100, 1/50s

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

Tonight's 90 percent waxing gibbous

I wanted to take advantage of the clear sky, even though the moon is dominating and drowning out everything else around it tonight. Here is one artsy/clever moon shot through a pine tree, and a stack of 100 frames trying to bring out as much detail as possible in a realistic way. I think I'm reaching the upper limit of the resolution I can get on an 8 MP camera.

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

There's a faint stacking halo to the right of the moon, as if one frame got mis-aligned and spewed off to the side. So I guess it wouldn't be correct to say that this is the MOST detailed I could be at 8 megapixels, but for right now it is.

300mm, f/5.6, ISO 100, 1 sec

Just to say I tried, here's a re-stack of the 90% moon with only 58 of the 100 frames. Like magic, no alignment halo! I wish I knew how to fix this without just dumping frames, but in any case, here is a much tighter result (original color):

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

Composite Moon Phases

I finally completed my set of moon phase photos! Obviously these are just the named categorical phases, because the shadow on the moon is constantly changing by tiny percentages all the time.

It was a fun project to work on! Each image is a stack of at least 20 frames to clean up the noise. I took the photos between February 25, 2013 and April 14, 2013. I left the colors a little different because I used different camera settings for each one and took the images at slightly different times of night (and early, early morning).

Variety of settings, all at 300mm, f/5.6 with Canon Rebel XT stacked in Registax

I'm really pleased with the result! It's my own little moon collection. Previously, I realized I only had waxing phases in my collection. I must say, the waning phases are quite cool and different. I guess the waning phases aren't as popular because you have to stay up later and later to get them, or get up right before sunrise to get a good waning crescent.