Night Sky Photography -- 11-23-2017 -- Mercury & Saturn At Dusk

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!  

This evening while many folks were just finishing their turkey supper with family and friends, I was outside having recently finished my own Thanksgiving Day celebrations, and looked west after sunset waiting to see the two smallest of the Wanderers toward the western horizon. 

The giant planet Saturn only appears dim in the night sky because of it's great distance from the Earth -- a whopping 792 million miles at the planets closest orbital approach! Despite being the second largest planet in the solar system, from Earth it is the farthest planet that can be seen with the human eye without the aid of a telescope, and appears to be small and dim.

By contrast little Mercury often appears as a small white star low on the horizon just before sunrise and after sunset. Much of the time, this world is lost in the sun’s glare. Right now is good time to catch Mercury, though, because this planet is swinging to its greatest evening elongation, or its greatest angular distance from the setting sun.

Also managed to get a great shot of the waxing crescent moon just before the two planets became visible. A few good sized craters can be seen along the line of the Earth's shadow on Luna's surface. 

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed these Thanksgiving Day planetary photographs. Have a wonderful Dixie Day and keep looking to the night skies, y'all! 

Night Sky Photography -- 11-03-2017 -- Late Full Hunter's Moon

Good evening fellow travelers and sky watchers! 

Earlier yesterday evening I caught the November full moon rising over the trees behind my house. 

In the Northern Hemisphere, people call this full moon the Hunter's Full Moon, the name given to the first full moon that follows the Harvest Moon, which if y'all will recall from a previous blog post is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox. This year the Northern Hemisphere's Harvest Moon fell on October 5th, almost 13 days following the September 22 fall equinox, making this a late Hunter's Moon. Incidentally, November 4th is about the latest possible date for a full Hunter's Moon. 

In the Northern Hemisphere, y'all will be able to see the full Hunter's Moon till at least Saturday, November 4th. This year's late Hunter's Moon is the 2nd largest full moon of 2017. The brightness of the full moon however might interfere with those anticipating the South Taurid Meteor Shower -- but don't worry, the official peak of the meteor shower in North America is in late evening on Friday, November 10th this year.

If you are waiting to see the Full Hunter's Moon tonight, be sure to remember that full moons rise in the east at or near the time of sunset. After that the moon rises about 50 minutes later each following day. For those of us in North America, be sure to remember that late evening of Nov 4-5th at 2 AM is the end of Daylight Savings Time, and take that into account. 

Once again I hope y'all enjoyed my photo of the late Full Hunter's Moon of 2017. I will be back soon with more photos of our wandering stars. Till then, keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all.