Night Sky Photography -- 10-13-2024 -- Jupiter & Mars With Early Morning Winter Stars

Salutations once again, fellow stargazers!

Now that autumn here in North America is here, the morning skies overhead an hour before sunrise will begin to feature the stars and constellations of the Winter Circle, most of which will begin rising after about an hour before midnight the evening before.

Both the planets Mars and Jupiter can now be seen inside the Winter Circle with the Red Planet near the Constellation Gemini the Twins and Jupiter inside the Constellation Taurus the Bull.

Early this morning, I stepped outside and set up my tripod in the front yard, focusing my camera up at the two planets, as well as the brightest points of light near them, and took several very clear photographs. Because of the wonderfully clear morning sky overhead, I managed to capture not only our nearest planetary neighbors, but all the beautiful stars of four of the Winter Circle constellations -- as well as Sirius, the brightest star that can be seen from Earth.

In the first photo, I labeled both Mars and Jupiter, as well as all the major stars of the constellations around them and in the second I outlined the constellations themselves, including the location of the Winter Triangle asterism.

Looking up at those beautiful stars and planets in a clear autumn sky, its almost hard to imagine just how far away most of them are.

The closest of them, Mars, is actually over a hundred million miles from Earth at present and getting slightly closer as the planet moves in its orbit towards its opposition to Earth in January of 2025, and will appear to be getting even bigger in the early morning sky over the next couple of months. Even at its closest approach, Mars will only be about 60 million miles from Earth since this opposition puts the small planet will be near its aphelion, or the point farther away from the Sun in its orbit.

In my final photo of the post, I labeled not only the planets and the major stars and the location of the Orion Nebula, but I also added the exact distance from Earth to put into perspective just how massive our nearest galactic neighbors are. Also keep in mind most of those points of light that we see comes from light that took decades in most cases to reach our curious eyes.

With that in mind, I bid all of y'all a wonderful day. More evening photography will be coming soon, until then keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear.

Night Sky Photography -- 04-30-2023 -- Venus & Mars With Major Evening Stars & Constellations

Good evening my fellow stargazers!

Closing out the month of April, I was blessed to have some actual clear skies for this evening after rain and cloudy conditions for most of the last week.

This evening I was about to capture a couple of really beautiful shots of the bright planet Venus and the small red planet, Mars, along with four of the major evening star constellations over 50 minutes after sunset in the western sky. 

Venus and Mars are the second and fourth planets in our Solar System respectively, with our own good Earth in the orbit between them around the Sun.

As you can see from my first photograph, both planets appear in the western sky almost an hour after sunset with several bright stars in the western sky belonging to the winter constellations: Orion The Hunter, Canis Minor, Gemini The Twins, and Auriga The Charioteer.

Sirius, the Dog Star, is part of a fifth constellation, Canis Major which is largely obscured from view by the trees. While Venus is currently the brightest "wandering star" (planet) in the western sky, Sirius is actually the brightest of the evening stars in the night sky seen from the surface of the Earth.

In my second photo, I outlined the star constellations themselves in their current relations to the position of the planets.

Mars is just inside of the Constellation Gemini The Twins and will remain in close proximity to them for the next month at least. As it moves further and further away in its wider orbit around the Sun, Mars will become dimmer and, unless you know where to look, you might have a hard time finding it.

Venus meanwhile is very bright and easy to spot towards the sunset in the evenings. It will be the brightest object to appear in the evening sky other than our lovely Moon.

Night Sky Photography -- 05-30-2021 -- Venus, Mars & The Constellation Gemini

Good evening y'all, and Happy U.S. Memorial Day weekend!

This evening I traveled over to the local baseball field and using it as a backdrop was able to capture some really outstanding photos of the planets Venus and Mars an hour after sunset.

Venus appeared not long after sunset, being the brightest object in the evening sky. Mercury was unfortunately below the tree line, otherwise I might have been able to capture all of the inner planets this evening.

In the first photo you can see bright Venus appearing in the evening dusk.

Between about 9:00 PM EST and 9:08 PM EST I was able to capture several shots of Venus sinking below the top of the ballpark fence as it sank lower into the west following the sun.

As the evening progressed and dusk started deepening more into night time, smaller Mars and the major stars finally began to appear in the sky.

In this next shot you can faintly see Mars in the top left of the photo with Venus now just above the tree line.

Finally you can see the major stars of the Constellation Gemini The Twins with Mars close to the bright stars Castor and Pollux. The other bright stars Procyon and Capella, which together with the Twin Stars make up the top portion of the now waning Winter Hexagon asterium, can also be seen in the photo.

I've also outlined the major stars of the Constellation Gemini and Canis Minor. Venus can still be seen in this wide shot overlooking the baseball field.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos for the evening. This will close out the month of May for this year. Have a Happy U.S. Memorial Day 2021 tomorrow and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all!

Night Sky Photography -- 04-19-2021 -- The Moon & The Twins; Mars Between The Bull's Horns; Orion & His Dogs

Good evening fellow stargazers!

This evening was a beautiful, clear evening for viewing the stars after sunset in the western sky. The beautiful,  crescent moon could be seen overhead alongside Pollux and Castor, the two brightest stars in the Constellation Gemini The Twins.

Thanks to the clear springtime evening sky, I was also able to capture just about all of the brightest stars of all the constellations that make up the Winter Hexagon asterism. The planet Mars can also still be seen in the Constellation Taurus The Bull between the stars Tau Zeta and Elnath -- the bull's horns.

Among the photos I was able to capture a beautiful shot of the Constellation Orion The Hunger and both of his dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor.

I labeled all of the evening skies brightest stars, their constellations, and the Winter Triangle and Winter Hexagon asterisms.

The following are the photos I took.

So I hope y'all enjoyed my evening offerings and as always have a good evening and keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all.

Night Sky Photography -- 04-01-2020 -- The Constellation Gemini, First Quarter Moon, & Winter Circle

Good evening fellow stargazers!

 

My apologies for not having any night sky photography since February, but March here in South Carolina is pretty cloudy and rainy for the most part. In a way that is a good thing since it helps to wash away the mountains of allergy-inducing POLLEN, but bad because it caused me to miss out on several really awesome heavenly shows. 

 

This evening -- with thankfully clear skies at last! -- I was able to capture some good shots of our beautiful Luna in all her half-lit first quarter phase glory in the vicinity of Castor and Pollux, the two brightest stars in the constellation Gemini the Twins.

 

The first shot here shows the two main stars of the Twins above and to the right of Luna. 

 

 

Interesting to note that while Castor appears as a bright pinpoint of light, in reality it’s actually a small system made up of three pairs of binary stars -- six stars centered in a single mass. The two larger visible components in the Castor system are hot, A-type stars. The smaller components are cool, M-type red dwarf stars. In total the mass of all six stars together is about six times that of our sun.

 

This was the first binary system that was recognized in 1802 by the astronomer Frederick William Herschel. 

 

Pollux is slightly brighter than Castor. It shines with a golden glow while Castor appears whiter. Pollux is the 18th brightest star in Earth’s night sky. 

 

In 2006, astronomers discovered a exo-planet orbiting Pollux they named Thestias (Pollux b). The planet is estimated to have at least twice the mass of Jupiter.

 

Despite being "twins" both Pollux and Castor are actually about 18 light-years apart on a cosmic scale. At 34 light-years, Pollux is closer to us while Castor is a further 52 light-years away. Thus Pollux and Castor aren’t bound, but only near each other from our Earthly perspective. Castor and Pollux are about 4.5 degrees apart in the night sky, which helps stargazers estimate separation distances between other stars.

 

According to Greek mythology and stargazer lore, the twins Castor and Pollux were the sons of a mortal mother, Queen Leda; Castor was the mortal brother, born from a mortal father, King Tyndareus of Sparta, while Pollux, a son of Zeus, was the immortal brother. When Castor was later slain in a battle by his cousin Idas (who was then killed instantly by Zeus with a thunderbolt), Pollux was inconsolable and was given the choice by Zeus of spending all his time on Mount Olympus, or giving half his immortality to his mortal brother. He begged Zeus to relieve him of his immortality opting for the latter, thus enabling the twins to alternate between Olympus and Hades. Zeus granted his request, and Pollux and Castor stand reunited in the heavens as a tribute to the power of brotherly love. 

 

The second shot I took is a wide shot of the Twins and was able to just barely get all of the major stars of the Constellation Gemini in the shot. As an added bonus I also managed to get just about all of the major stars that make up the Winter Circle (Winter Hexagon) and the Winter Triangle as well. The only one missing star is Rigel, on the bottom leg of the Constellation Orion, which was below the horizon. 

 

  

Finally, my last photo for the evening is a close-up of the beautiful First Quarter Moon. 

 

 

The reason this moon phase is called a first quarter because it is one quarter of the way around in its orbit of Earth, as measured from one new moon to the next. Although a first quarter moon appears half-lit to us, leading to the erroneous term "half-moon" the illuminated portion we see of a first quarter moon truly is just a quarter of the moon's diameter. We’re now seeing half the moon’s day side, that is. We never see the other side (or "dark side") of the moon, so in reality all we ever see is half-a-moon during a full moon. 

 

During the first quarter moon, the right side of the moon is lit, while the left side of the moon is lit during the last quarter moon later in the month as the moon travels eastward in the skydome. 

 

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my night sky offerings for the evening. My hope is for clearer skies as spring gets up and running and more night sky photography in the coming weeks. Venus will be beginning its conjunction with the Pleiades Star Cluster on the evening of April 3rd. Be sure to check it out, I will try to get some shots -- God and good weather permitting. 

From South Carolina, have a wonderful Dixie evening and keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all!