Red-Tailed Moon Cheese

We had a few amazing moonrises recently and this red-tailed hawk was begging me to take this cheesy picture -;]
 

Toenail moonrise over Sutro Tower

Thought this moonrise from last week was pretty fun.
 

Lucky few minutes of SF visibility!

The marine layer, clouds and light fog cleared up just enough for a few minutes to get a mostly clear view of last night's partial lunar eclipse.

Images are a bit soft because there was still a fair bit of haze and light clouds. I was also hand holding the camera because we weren't expecting it to clear up at all.

So happy to see this since we have had cloud cover here in SF for months and have missed most of the recent astro fun.

This last photo shows the clouds coming back in to cover up the view but it was pretty spooky looking which was fun.


 

Artemis II is flying by the moon!!!

I probably look a lot like the big yellow lego head right now -:P

Hooting at the moon!

I can't believe how lucky I got at the end of my walk last night.

I was on my way home almost an hour after sunset when I heard some hooting ahead of me on the path. As I got closer I spotted the great horned owl on a branch right over the path and right in front of the moon.

To catch the hooting with the moon was more than I could have hoped for. Though I wish I had managed to get better shots and video but it was dark and super hard to try and get the moon and the owl exposed together with less than a minute before it flew off.
 

October Full Moon Rise by Sutro Tower

 Another photo I didn't post last week of the October Full Moon Rise.

Again seen walking back from our local grocery store so the only camera I had was on my cellphone so wasn't super happy with it. But it's still pretty cool and goes well with the sunset and equinox sunset pictures so figured I should post it.

The moon has a pimple!

 Lunar occultation of Mars captured from our kitchen window in SF. 

Does the moon have a pimple or is that Mars being occluded?

It started from lower left and ended top middle.

Light cloud cover that you can't see in the photos but it did cause the beginning images (lower left) to be softer. The clouds actually made it look nice and spooky through binoculars. Maybe at some point I'll edit a short video from the footage I captured to stack.

Full Moon set in Half Moon Bay

 Pre Surf full moon set in Half Moon Bay. Didn't surf here because the surf wasn't great but it was pretty.

Outer Sunset Sunset

 

OB Moonset

 

Moon and Venus Sunset in the Sunset

Sunset with the Moon and Venus was pretty amazing tonight! The weather was perfect and the sky was nice and clear.

Love that I caught a surfer walking back.

Some random person having a drink while some pelicans fly by.

 

Sunset Moonrise

We had a nice Moonrise here in the Outer Sunset.

The Moon and a Pale Red Dot

The Moon and Mars.

I stole "Pale Red Dot" from a friend, Kevin, who replied to me, "Look at that pale red dot. Our future home!".

Also I probably would not have taken the photo if Linda had not looked out the window and pointed out how cool the moon looked and asked what the bright thing next to it was. Thanks Linda!

Shot with my William Optics RedCat 51 which has a 250mm focal length but with my crop sensor camera it's closer to 400mm. I think anything longer and they both wouldn't have fit in frame.

Bit of a solar eclipse

There was a partial eclipse today and I managed to get a few images.

I think this is slightly sharper than the next image.

But this one still turned out okay. You can click on the images to see a larger version.

 And one more. Less processing and maybe a little cleaner?

Orange Moon, Red Planet and some Stripes

 2014-04-16 Lunar eclipse. I think this is about the full eclipse of the moon. Unfortunately there were a lot of thin clouds. Luckily they were thin enough that it was still easy to see the eclipse.

I think this shot is a bit before the full eclipse but it was a bit more clear.

Here is an animation of a little bit into the eclipse till it started to go orange.

Mars was also at it's closest point to earth so I shot a few pictures of which this came out about the best. Like I said there were lots of light clouds and to top that off the seeing was not very good. I feel lucky I managed to get an image this good. Still waiting for good seeing and a clear night to go back out and try and get a better shot while Mars is still close.

And Jupiter was out so I snapped a few shots if it as well. Not to good. Again due to the poor seeing and light cloud cover mostly.

It's Pan-STARRS!

It's comet Pan-STARRS and it looks a little like an "!"!
Me and a friend just managed to get a look at Pan-STARRS tonight at work. It was cool but we did need binoculars or my camera+200mm lens to see it. I'm pretty happy with the pictures I managed to get. Keep looking west at sunset for the next week or so and maybe you can catch a glimpse of it.

Naked Eye Venus In Broad Daylight!

I read about seeing Venus during daylight hours before but it sounded pretty hard to find under normal circumstances. But on Saturday the moon was really close to Venus in the sky making it pretty easy to find. So I went out at about noon and found it. This is the first time but hopefuly not the last time I see Venus in the middle of the day. Anyway on to the pictures.

Can you find Venus to the lower right of the moon? It's about 4-6 moon lengths down and a few over. You may need to enlarge the image to find it.


Here is a zoom with more contrast that should make it much easier.


Here's another wide view.


And enhanced.

You can see Venus during the day when ever it's up and the sky is mostly clear. It's pretty amazing seeing a planet in the middle of the day. If you have a smart phone get an app like google sky (free) and it can help guide you to the area in the sky to look. Or with a little prep on the web you can find a sky chart that can help point you to the area to look. Or wait till the Moon is close to Venus again to help you out. Good luck!

Eclipsing Moon Sets Over the Pacific

I just managed to wake up in time to watch and capture the last lunar eclipse of 2011.

This is the time lapse I shot of it. Not too great as I only spent about 15min thinking about doing this then getting everything together and climbing onto our roof to shoot this at 5am. I only have a 18-55mm kit zoom lens for my DSLR so the moon is pretty small. That's what I get for not planning ahead. Still this is better than the last lunar eclipse I made a movie of a few years back and my failed attempt earlier this year when I was standing out in the rain waiting for a break in the clouds that never really came.


Here is an animated gif of the same movie looping back and forth to make it easier to see the eclipsed moon. It did not do this while I watched because the moon set while still eclipsed.


Here are four stills from the time lapse. I wish I had not been sick all week so it wouldn't have been so hard to wake up earlier. I woke up at about 4:45 just in time to look out the bedroom window and see the moon starting to go into shadow. I think it was 5am or later before I got myself bundled up with all my gear onto the roof to start watching and taking pictures.


Here is the view I had. It was pretty great except for the one big street light almost directly below the moon. I should have lowered the camera more to block that but then you wouldn't be able to see the ocean. It was pretty great to watch the eclipsed moon setting over the Pacific Ocean! Be sure to click on these pictures to see them nice and big. Right clicking and view in another window/tab is even better now that they have the odd new image viewing thing going on.


Here i s a little closer view. The lights on the horizon are crab boats. It's crabbing season and the one time of the year the pacific isn't totally dark. The crab boats some times make it look like a small city out there. Good thing the moon even when eclipsed is nice and bright.


Be sure to open this one in a separate tab/window. This is a panoramic from just before the moon disappeared into the low clouds on the horizon. Can you spot the moon? I love the views at sunset and sunrise (and moon set as well in this case)from our roof.