Night Sky Photography -- 01-27-2020 -- Venus & Neptune Conjunction!

Good evening fellow stargazers!

This evening I have a real treat for y'all, photos taken by this blogger of the closest planetary conjunction of the year between two planets that are quite far apart in terms of actual orbital distance -- Venus and Neptune. 

Venus is the brightest object in the night sky over the Carolinas in the early evenings in late January this year.

Neptune is officially one of the farthest major planets in our solar system, other than distant Pluto....

And don't you forget it!

Anyhow, despite being a whopping 17 times the mass of our Earth, at a distance of 2.7 billion miles at our closest orbital approach, the gas giant Neptune appears in the night sky some six times fainter than the dimmest star in our night sky that is visible to the naked eye. 

However, if you know where to look just after sunset, amateur astronomers like myself can find Neptune with small telescopes, a really good pair of binoculars, or some other optical aid.  

In their conjunction, Venus and Neptune will be spaced only 1/12th of a degree apart from our perspective. For a reference, the angular diameter of the moon spans about 1/2 degree, which is some six times greater than the tiny gap between Venus and Neptune.Venus also outshines Neptune by about 60,000 times in brightness. 

This evening, despite rain earlier in the day, I was blessed with mostly clear skies in order to capture my shots of the conjunction. 

The first shot I took about 40 minutes after sunset using a local baseball field as foreground. You see see our beautiful young crescent moon just beneath bright Venus in the western sky. Unfortunately the trees blocked my view of tiny Mercury lower on the horizon following the setting sun.

My second shot was a close-up of Luna and Venus. Just barely visible as a faint ghost just above Venus is Neptune.

 

In my third shot, I adjusted the light filter settings on my trusty Sony DSC-H300 camera and was able to beautifully capture distant Neptune in conjunction with bright Venus. Even at maximum zoom on my 35X Optical Zoom lens, Neptune still appears quite faint in the shot. 

 

My forth shot I took of the clouds threatening to block my shot of Luna and Venus. I just thought the shot of the clouds getting between the two heavenly bodies made for a very pretty photo. 

 

While I was there, I turned my tripod and camera eastward and managed to capture a really good shot just above the trees of several of the major winter constellations and the Winter Triangle once again. Included are the constellations Orion the Hunter, Canis Minor the Lesser Dog, Leups the Hare, part of Taurus the Bull, and Eridanus the River. The bright star Sirius was just visible above the tree line, but the rest of the constellation Canis Major alas was not. Sirius combined with the stars Betelguese and Procyon make up the Winter Triangle.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos. Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments below.

Have a wonderful Dixie evening and as always, keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all!

Night Sky Photography -- 01-23-2020 -- Constellations Orion, Lepus, & Canis Major With The Winter Circle & Winter Triangle In Southern Sky

Good evening fellow stargazers!

This evening at midnight I was able to get some shots of some of the major stars in two of the constellations which make up the Winter Circle, and the Winter Triangle. 

The first photo I took with SC HWY 9 in the foreground to give the constellations in the sky dome some scale. It shows the major stars of the Constellations Canis Major The Greater Dog, Lepus The Hare, and the lower part of Orion The Hunter. The Winter Circle I outlined in red.

The Winter Circle -- or Winter Hexagon as it is sometimes referred -- is an asterism appearing to be in the form of a hexagon with vertices at Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, Procyon, and Sirius. The stars that make up the circle, or hexagon, are parts of six major constellations: Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, Canis Minor, and Canis Major. 

In my second photo I took a slightly higher and wider shot filling out the three constellations and their major stars. In this photo the Winter Triangle can be clearly seen.

It is an approximately equilateral triangle that shares two vertices (Sirius and Procyon) within the larger asterism. The third vertex is Betelgeuse, which lies near the center of the hexagon. These three stars are three of the ten brightest objects, as viewed from Earth, outside the Solar System. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky and one of the closest stars to Earth at a distance of about 8.6 light-years. Betelgeuse is also particularly easy to locate, being a shoulder of Orion, which assists stargazers in finding the triangle. Once the triangle is located, the larger hexagon may then be found.

Well I hope y'all enjoyed my night sky photography for this evening. Have a wonderful Dixie day and be keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all! 

Night Sky Photography -- 01-21-2020 -- The Big Dipper & Constellation Ursa Major

Greetings and salutations fellow stargazers!

Well folks, this is my first official night sky photography of the new year and the new decade. 

This evening after midnight I went out into my backyard and took several photograph of the main stars of the Constellation Ursa Major, also known as The Great Bear, which appeared just over the tops of the trees in the northern sky. 

Ursa Major is visible throughout the year for most of the northern hemisphere, primarily known from the asterism of its main seven bright stars, which has been called the Big Dipper. Six of these stars -- Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid -- are second magnitude while the other one, Megrez, is third magnitude. 

The star Mizar on the handle of the dipper is part of a binary star system with a smaller third magnitude star, Alcor, which can be seen with the naked eye, or a really good pair of binoculars. 

Two of its stars, Dubhe and Merak, can be used as the navigational pointer towards the place of the current northern pole star, Polaris in Ursa Minor -- the Little Dipper.

Ursa Major is the 3rd largest constellation in the night sky.

In the first shot I was able to get all seven of the Big Dipper's main stars, as well as faint Alcor right next to Mizar. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a very clear shot of the tops of the bare trees to serve as foreground for the shot. You can just barely seen them at the bottom of the photo.

In the second photo I managed to capture all of the stars of Ursa Major perfectly. As you can see from my perspective here in South Carolina, The Great Bear appears upside down. I highlighted Ursa Major in red and the Big Dipper in white.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed these photos. Happy New Year, have a wonderful Dixie Day, and keep looking to the night skies, y'all!

Visiting The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum

The museum is located in the old Columbia Mills Building at 301 Gervais Street in downtown Columbia, South Carolina just a few blocks west of the SC State House building. The museum shares this building with the SC State Museum.

Founded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and originally housed in the South Carolina State Library, the museum opened on Wednesday, June 24th, 1896. The South Carolina Relic Room and Military Museum is the third oldest museum in the State of South Carolina.

In 1901, the museum moved to the SC State House building and then was relocated to the SC Department of Archives building around 1960. The relic room relocated again to the World War I War Memorial Building adjacent to the University of South Carolina in 1971 where it remained for three decades. The relic room was finally reopened in the old Columbia Mills Building in 2002. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The museum focuses on South Carolina's military history from the Revolutionary War to the present-day. Its mission has been to educate South Carolinians about their state's rich tradition of military history and continues to explore how South Carolina's citizen soldiers have served their State and country in times of crisis, on the battlefield and on the home front. 

For more than a century the museum has collected, preserved, and exhibited artifacts, images, and documents that tell the complexity of war, its impact on the development of South Carolina, and how its citizens have answered the call to defend the nation. 

Visitors to the museum today can explore South Carolina's distinguished martial tradition in exhibits covering each and every major American war.

In addition, the museum houses an ever-expanding archival collection available to researchers by appointment.  

The following are photos I took of my recent visit to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum, and its outstanding artifacts and historical presentations. 

A more detailed history of the founding of the Relic Room

United Confederate Veterans (UCV) uniform
with reunion ribbon.

South Carolina Militiaman during the American
Revolutionary War 1776-1783.

1st Regiment South Carolina Volunteers,
American-Mexican War 1846-1848.

Confederate infantrymen.

Mannequin of Malvina "Mally" Black Gist,
Confederate Treasury note signer in Columbia,
SC and Richmond, VA (1864-1865).
Born in Newberry, South Carolina in 1842.

Photos of the officers and men who served in South Carolina's
defense during the War Between The States (1861-1865).

The frock coat worn by Confederate Brigadier
General Micah Jenkins when he was killed at
the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864.

The Palmetto Sharpshooters Infantry Flag.

Battle Flag of the 1st (Orr's) Regiment of Rifles.
Organized in spring of 1861 by Colonel James L. Orr
of Anderson, South Carolina.

8th Regiment South Caroling Volunteer Infantry.

United Spanish-American War Veterans Flag,
2nd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry.

Infantryman of the 371st Regiment Volunteers.

Flag of the 371st Regiment.

The battle dress uniform jacket of
Captain Kimberly Hampton U.S. Army
(August 18, 1976 - January 2, 2004)
the first American female pilot to fall in combat
during the War In Afghanistan.
Hampton was born in Greenville, SC.

I was very pleased by the exhibits and the care shown to tell the stories of the men and women from South Carolina who served in America's wars. I am also glad to see that the museum made no effort to glorify the meanings behind those exhibits -- namely war itself -- and focused more on the lives and stories of those who served. The staff and the archivists who run the museum were professional and do an excellent job.  

If any of y'all ever take the time to stop over in Columbia be sure to visit the Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum, as well as the SC State Museum that shares the same building. 

I hope y'all enjoyed this article, please let me know in the comments below if it was helpful, or informative.  

Have a wonderful Dixie Day, and y'all come back now, ya hear?