Night Sky Photography -- 05-07-2023 -- The Waning Gibbous Moon & The Heart of the Scorpion

Late last night -- or very early in the morning depending on how you might look at it -- I was about to capture three really good night sky photos.

In my first photo, I was able to capture most of the major stars of the Constellation Scorpius The Scorpion just above the tree line to the south. The Waning Gibbous Moon can be seen right next to the constellation's brightest star, Antares (also known as the Heart of the Scorpion).

My second photo is a wider shot showing our beautiful Luna, the visible stars of Scorpius The Scorpion, and the interesting asterism known as "The Teapot" which is a part of the larger Constellation Sagittarius The Archer. The last photo is a close-up photo of the features of the Waning Gibbous Moon and the bright star, Antares.

Antares is the 15th brightest star visible in our night sky and lies about 550 light-years (or 170 parsecs) from our Solar System. Its also nearly 10,000 times as bright as our own Sun.

While Antares appears to be a single star when viewed with the naked eye here on Earth, but it's actually a binary star system, with two components called Alpha Scorpii A and Alpha Scorpii B. The brighter of the pair (a Scorpii A) is the red supergiant star that we can see, while the fainter star is a hot white main sequence star similar to our own Sun which is classified as a G-type main sequence star. Both stars are believed to be separated by about 529 AUs.

The name Antares comes from a Greek phrase meaning "the rival of Ares" (or in this case, the rival of the planet Mars) and was probably given because of the star’s red-orange color and brightness similar to that of our small, red planetary neighbor. Unlike Mars however, Antares is very large, with an estimated radius of around 800 million miles (or 8.6 AUs). So large that, if it were replaced with our own Sun, Antares would envelop all the inner planets of our Solar System!

Well I hope y'all enjoyed this presentation and my photographs. Have a wonderful Dixie day and y'all come back now, ya hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 06-14-2022 -- Full Strawberry Supermoon & Constellation Scorpius

Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, June 14th I was able to capture some really good shots of the second of four supermoons for 2022, along with the red star Antares and some of stars of the Constellation Scorpius The Scorpion in the southern horizon.

My first photo shows the full supermoon close to the Antrares -- The Heart of the Scorpion -- in the southern sky. In my second photo I outlined the visible stars of the Constellation Scorpius as it appeared above the tree tops. And my final photo is a closeup of the full supermoon itself showing the details of the visible features of the Moon itself.

The June full moon is known as the Strawberry full moon in the Northern Hemisphere -- making this the Strawberry Supermoon! There will still be two more supermoons in the next two months of the summer of 2022.

Night Sky Photography -- 06-02-2022 -- Three Summer Constellations: Saguttarius, Scorpius & Libra

Good evening fellow stargazers!

With the summer solstice only a few weeks away, some of the more prominent summer constellations are again beginning to appear in the skies here in South Carolina.

Last last night about an hour after midnight I was able to capture a great shot of three of these low-lying constellations in the southern sky just over the trees: the Constellations Scorpius The Scorpion, Libra The Scales, and the "teapot" asterism of Sagittarius The Archer.

The brightest star of the Constellation Scorpius is the red supergiant star Antares -- the Heart of the Scorpion -- and the fifteenth-brightest star in the night sky. Once you locate that star, the rest of the Scorpion is easy to find.

Closest to the head of the Scorpion are Zubenelgenubi (Alpha Librae) and Zubeneschamail (Beta Librae), the two brightest stars of the nearby Constellation Libra. 

The final Constellation, Sagittarius The Archer, is a bit trickier since its lower on the horizon and you need a higher place to spot the whole constellation. As seen from the northern hemisphere, the constellation's brighter stars form an easily recognizable asterism known as "the Teapot" which I outlined in the photo.

If you are fortunate enough to live someplace with far less light pollution than I do, it might be possible to see with the right light filters on your telescope, or camera, the densest part of our own Milky Way galaxy center, which is located between Scorpius and Sagittarius. 

Using the tip of the "spout" of the Teapot in roughly a line between that star and Antares, you can locate the Galactic Center where a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) sits. I highlighted the approximate location in my photo above.

Throughout the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere these three constellations will remain largely visible along the southern horizon.

I hope y'all enjoyed my photos and presentation, have a wonderful evening and as always keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 10-09-2021 -- The Moon & Saturn With Antares In The Southwestern Sky

Good evening my fellow stargazers!

This evening I captured several really outstanding shots of the crescent moon and Venus, with the bright red star, Antares, and most of the major stars of the Constellation Scorpius the Scorpion in the southwestern sky above my neighbor's houses about 45 minutes after sunset.

As you can see in the first photo, the wide shot, the three heavenly bodies are clearly visible, with Venus in close conjunction with Luna in her beautiful crescent glory. In the second photo I took a close-up of the crescent moon, which will soon be a First Quarter Moon on the evening of Tuesday, October 12th this week.

My third photo is a close-up of Luna and Venus with the red giant star, Antares -- the Heart of the Scorpion -- making up the third part of the heavenly triangle. 

As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, Antares is a red supergiant star approximately 604 light-years from our Sun and actually part of a binary system with the largest, Antares A (a Scorpii) visible to us as the 15th brightest star visible from Earth in the sky dome. The bright orange-red coloring of Antares is clearly visible on camera.

In my final photo, I outlined the first part of the Constellation Scorpius The Scorpion visible in the tree-line. You can actually just make out the final star of the arms of the scorpion visible through the trees at the bottom right of the shot.

Venus will continue to be visible with the stars of the Constellation Scorpius for at least the next two weeks as Venus continues to move steadily eastward away from the sunset. Antares and Venus will soon have their own conjunction in the evening sky on Saturday, October 16th -- one week from today. God and cloudless skies willing, I should have some photos of that event as well.

Until next time, have a good night and y'all be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 08-21-2019 -- The Constellation Scorpius & Jupiter

Good evening fellow stargazers!

This evening, just after dusk, I managed to capture a really good shot of Jupiter with all the major stars of the Constellation Scorpius The Scorpion over busy SC Highway 9 just outside of Chester, South Carolina.

Scorpius is easy to spot in the night sky. Look for the large bright star Antares near Jupiter. Antares is the largest star in the constellation.