Night Sky Photography -- 09-17-2022 -- Neptune In Opposition

Photograph of Neptune taken by NASA's Voyager 2 in 1989.

Good evening, fellow Stargazers!

This evening our Earth will sweep between the Sun and the eighth planet in our Solar System, the gas giant planet Neptune on the evening of Friday, September 16th and morning of Saturday, September 17th, 2022, placing the distant planet in opposition in our sky.

Because of its blue color, its impossible to see Neptune in the night sky with the naked eye. This world is about five times fainter than the dimmest star you can see on a moonless night under a dark sky dome.

If y'all know right where to look, you can find it with a good pair of binoculars, or a telescope -- and even with those optical aids, at nearly 3 billion miles away, it would only look like a small, faint disk at best.

At the present time Neptune is between Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky along the ecliptic, closer to Jupiter in front of the faint Constellation Aquarius.

Sadly, capturing Neptune with the 35X Optical Zoom Lens of my camera, even at full magnification, is virtually impossible. So in my photo, I marked the approximate location of Neptune in the sky in relation to Jupiter during the time of its opposition using the Flag of the United States on my porch in the foreground for scale. 

At opposition when the Earth and Neptune are at their closest in the orbit around the Sun, Neptune’s distance from us is a whopping 2.7 billion miles (or about 28.90 AUs) -- about 240 light-minutes Earth!

Named for the Roman god of the sea, Neptune is the fourth largest planet in our Solar System and (officially) the farthest of the eight main planets -- not counting Pluto which is STILL A &%$#@! PLANET!

The planet was first observed at the Berlin Observatory by astronomers Johann Gottfried Galle and Heinrich Louis d'Arrest on Wednesday, September 23, 1846.

Neptune has 14 known moons, the largest of which is Triton.

Even though its the smallest of the giant gas planets in the Solar System, Neptune has a diameter of 34,503 miles (or 55,528 kilometers). To give y'all an idea of just how big that is, around 57 Earths could fit inside of Neptune's radius.

At its far-flung distance, the planet Neptune orbits the Sun once every 165 Earth years at an average distance of around 30.1 AU (about 2.8 billion miles, or 4.5 billion kilometers).

Because Neptune’s orbit around the sun is so huge, Neptune’s yearly opposition date with the Earth comes only a few days later each year. The next opposition of Neptune to Earth is on Tuesday, September 19, 2023.

Neptune is not the only planet to come into opposition with Earth this month. Jupiter will also be in opposition to Earth on Monday, September 26th. Until then, y'all keep your eyes to the night skies, ya hear?

Night Sky Photography -- 09-17-2022 -- Constellations Orion, Taurus, & Auriga With Mars & Last Quarter Moon

Good evening, fellow Stargazers!

Looking east two house after midnight, you can see the bright red planet Mars in the eastern sky between the Last Quarter Moon and the red giant star, Aldebaran -- the Eye of the Bull -- and the brightest star in the Constellation Taurus The Bull.

I was about to capture two really good wide shots of the brightest stars of three constellations: Taurus, Auriga, and Orion just above the tree lines.

As we move closer into the autumn months, these constellations, along with the other Winter Circle constellations will begin to return to the night sky.

Night Sky Photography -- 09-15-2022 -- The Great Square Of Pegasus & Jupiter In September

For the month of September the planet Jupiter -- which is slowly moving closer to its opposition to the Earth on the evening of Monday, September 26th -- can be used to help any amateur stargazer locate one of the more interesting seasonal asterisms in the night sky: the Great Square of Pegasus. 

 

The Great Square is -- well just what the name implies -- a square of somewhat moderately medium-bright stars set in a roughly 20 degree radius (or about the length of your hand from the end of your extended arm) that makes up a large majority of the Constellation Pegasus the Winged Horse.

This is the photo I took very early last night (or this morning depending on how y'all view it) of the Great Square between the trees in my back yard. Unfortunately due to light pollution, catching the other fainter stars in the entire constellation was next to impossible, but I was able to capture the asterism itself without a problem.

The star in the Great Square closest to the horizon is the magnitude 2.8 star, Algenib (Gamma Pegasi) and also the farthest star from out own Sun at a whopping 333 light-years away.

The star on the opposite corner of the square from Algenib is Scheat (Beta Pegasi), a magnitude 2.4 red-giant star that sits about 199 light-years away.

To the south, the third star in the square is Markab (Alpha Pegasi) at a magnitude 2.5 star and a distance of 140 light-years.

The final star that makes up the square is Alpheratz (Alpha Andromedae), the brightest of the four stars at a magnitude of 2.1 which lies about 97 light-years away. Alpheratz is actually a part of the Constellation Andromeda and serves as its brightest star.

One interesting detail about the Great Square is that it points the way for any amateur astrologist to easily locate the Andromeda Galaxy. Follow a straight line from Alpheratz to a point halfway across the length of the Constellation Andromeda and -- using a really good lens -- you can find the Andromeda Galaxy just slightly above the central stars of the constellation.

Unfortunately, due to light pollution from the nearby Waning Gibbous Moon, capturing the Andromeda Galaxy, or the fainter stars of the Andromeda Constellation this evening was a bust. I might try again in a few nights, clear skies permitting.

Planetary Photography -- 09-09-2022 -- Full Harvest Moon With Planets & Mars With Taurus and Auriga Rising

Good evening, fellow stargazers!

Well folks, autumn is only a few weeks away. Summer here in South Carolina is beginning to wind down, although the humidity will likely be sticking around for at least another month -- possibly till just after Halloween into November.

About an hour after midnight on Friday, September 9th, I was able to capture some really good photos of the Full Harvest Moon -- the name given to the Full Moon in September here in North America in relation to the coming autumn harvest season.

The Full Harvest Moon can be seen in my first photograph taken between the two large gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn. The second photo is a close-up of the Harvest Moon as it appears to us from the surface of the Earth.

Just above the tree line to the south between the planets and Luna, you can easily spot Fomalhaut, one of the brightest stars in the night sky (the third-brightest as seen from Earth), forming a sort of inverted triangle in the southeastern sky.

Looking towards the eastern sky, also just above the tree line, Mars can still be seen close to the bright red giant star, Aldebaran -- the Eye of Taurus the Bull.

In my last two photos, I captured Mars as it appears now between Aldebaran and the Pleiades Star Cluster. Mars currently sits just inside the Constellation Taurus the Bull and will remain so throughout the month of September.

The bright star, Capella, can be seen just to the side forming a triangle in the eastern sky. Capella is the brightest star of the Constellation Auriga the Charioteer.

In my final photo I outlined the major stars of the Constellations Taurus and Auriga in their relation with the "Seven Sisters" and Mars rising in the eastern sky.

All of these photos were taken an hour after midnight. If y'all are able to stay up another hour, or so, the bright stars of the Constellation Orion the Hunter will also appear above the horizon as the winter constellations will being to reappear overhead in the sky dome.

Y'all might also notice that Mars is getting brighter in the sky as our Earth is moving closer to opposition with the Red Planet -- the point where Earth will be between Mars and the Sun, which will take place on Thursday, December 8th of this year. Given the distances and the orbits of our two worlds, Mars only reaches opposition to the Earth every 26 months, or so.

Once again I hope y'all enjoyed my night time photography. If y'all live in the Northern Hemisphere, be sure to check out the visible planets of our Solar System this month.

RIP Queen Elizabeth II Of Great Britain (1926 - 2022)

Elizabeth II (born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Princess of Wales)
April 21, 1926 - September 8, 2022.

Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom has crossed over the river to be with out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ today, having devoted her entire lifetime to serving the people of Great Britain and the commonwealth.

Queen Elizabeth II passed away peacefully at the age of 96 at the family's summer residence at Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, U.K. She faithfully served as Queen of the United Kingdom and the British commonwealth for 70 years and 7 months following the passing of her father, King George VI in 1952. She was Britain's longest-serving monarch to date.

The Queen is survived by her four children: King Charles III; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

For many of us living today, especially those of this writer's generation, Queen Elizabeth II has been a constant fixture in all our lives. Although here in the United States of America she may not have been considered our monarch, Queen Elizabeth II did feel like a distant grandmotherly figure for many of us -- a true person of great dignity and grace that will be sorely missed in this world.

May God rest her soul and be with her family and the people of Great Britain in their time of sorrow. Rest in peace, Ma'am.