Hi all

Back on the 17th September 2009, there was a lovely dawn conjunction of Venus and the Crescent Moon. I woke up early and was greeted to some beautiful clear skies, so I headed out to Terrigal to capture the pairing.

Click each image to see a 1200px wide version.

Venus and Crescent Moon at Terrigal. Click for larger image.

The data has been sitting on my hard drive for almost 3 months waiting to be processed, but I finally managed to find some time to finish them off. And I’m glad I did – I’m happy with how they turned out.

Continue reading to see all of the conjunction images captured in the twilight glow.

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This image of Venus in Ultra Violet light was captured on the morning of the 23rd June – the same morning that I captured my first Mars of 2009 and Jupiter with the NEB Upheaval. It was a busy morning!

The colours reveal some albedo differences in the cloud tops on Venus, and come from a combination of using a Schuler UV filter for capturing the luminance (detail) data, and processing the image as a false-colour composite using colour data from the RGB channels as well as the UV channel.

The seeing was only average, and Venus was at a respectable 30° altitude – shining brilliantly at mag -4.18.

Continue reading for more information about the capture and processing.

I captured the image with my 12″ Newt on the EQ6, with the DMK21AU04 and 5x powermate at about 6:30am local time. The UV data was captured at 15fps for approx 2 minutes giving me about 2000 frames. RGB data was captured at 60fps with a shutter speed of about 1/1000s and gain at about 800 (approx 80%) for about 60 seconds in each channel, giving me 3000 frames in each channel.

The separate channels were processed independantly in Registax 5, and the LRGB composite was made in Photoshop, where the UV channel made up the luminance data (giving the contrast) with the colour coming from the combination of R, G+UV/2 and UV making up the RGB.

I’m still waiting for a morning of great seeing to capture an excellent image of the cloud tops on Venus – but with the Sun not rising until 7am (well after the time I’ve had to go to work), it limits my opportunities at this time of year. Venus is on its way back towards the Sun over the next 5 months, heading for inferior conjunction in December, so hopefully I’ll get a few more chances before Venus dips too low.

Thanks for looking.

On Saturday morning 9th May we had a beautiful clear morning but only barely above average seeing. I captured Jupiter with Oval BA and the small white spot next to it, and before sunrise I turned my scope towards Venus for the first time this year, and captured the lovely crescent phase in UV light to reveal albedo markings on the cloud tops.

Jupiter and Oval BA

And below is Venus at around 6am local time, captured in UV and RGB. Venus is currently a 31% illuminated disc, and is shining stunningly bright at mag -4.5!

Venus in UV False Colour

Please read on to find out more about the capture and processing.

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UPDATE: Photos of the Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars Conjunction from the 23rd February.

Conjunctions of the Moon and Planets can be quite special events, as we saw on December 1st 2008 when The Smiley Face Conjunction graced our skies. A conjunction is an alignment or grouping together of 2 or more celestial bodies (usually the moon and planets) in the sky, from our vantage point on Earth. The objects aren’t necessarily physically close to each other in space, but from where we see them, we call the grouping a conjunction.

A conjunction doesn’t have any particularly special meaning, but they can be interesting to observe because very close conjunctions are quite rare events. It can be very exciting to see two planets in the same field of view of your telescope! Not only that, but conjunctions, especially with the moon and/or bright planets are involved, are just a lovely spectacle to look at and photograph.

Smiley Face Conjunction at Sunset, December 1st 2008

Given that, there’s a few conjunctions coming up later in February and in late April that are worth getting up early to see and photograph:

• February 23rd: Conjunction with the Moon, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars (Photos here)
• February 25th: Conjunction with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars
• April 23rd: Conjunction with the Moon, Venus and Mars

Continue reading for more information including sky charts and tips for observing and photographing the conjunctions.

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Hi all

This image of Venus was captured on the evening of the 14th January 2009 as the planet reached maximum elongation (greatest apparent distance) from the Sun. Still, the altitude at capture was only 25° and the atmospheric turbulance was very evident.

It’s my first capture of Venus in over 10 months and I figured I need to get it out of the way while motivation is still high

The image was captured with a Schuler UV filter which reveals clouds in the upper atmophere. Unfortunately due to the bad seeing, the albedo features aren’t well defined but some contrast variations are still visible.

Venus in UV false colour

Continue reading for more information.

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Hi all

For the past 3 years, I’ve been doing a pictorial review of the planets – making a composite image of my best planetary images taken during that calendar year. You can see the old composites here: 2005, 2006, 2007 (click on the image to see the full size).

For 2008, I didn’t think I’d be able to keep up the tradition – in my memory, I’d only captured images of Jupiter and only one of Saturn. However yesterday when looking through my 2008 data, I found more than I expected, so it has been possible, but only just, to make a 2008 pictorial review of the planets.

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Wow, well last night certainly proved to be more stressful than was expected! After a beautiful and clear practise run on Sunday night, it was supposed to be crystal clear on Monday night too but high cloud and then thick low cloud came in during Monday afternoon which threatened to spoil the whole event for me.

News of the rare celestial alignment had made it to all the media outlets and it got quite a bit of coverage yesterday. I gave a short interview for the local Star 104.5FM radio station, and I saw it mentioned on news.com.au, and the TV news as well.

It did clear for me, just! Here’s the first of the many images I captured. 

Smiley Face Conjunction at Sunset (HDR)

The picture above is available for purchase as a print, matted and framed, or even as a greeting card at RedBubble. Please read on to see more..

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I did some reconnaisance last night to find a location and do some practise for tonights Smiley Face Conjunction. 

Jupiter and Venus, with Crescent Moon

I ended up at Yattalunga, near Saratoga on the Central Coast of NSW – about 20-25 minutes drive from home on the edge of Brisbane Water. The location was pretty good, and suitable for tonight, just a bit limited with available compositions. If the tide was higher it would allow a bit more flexibility.

Jupiter and Venus, with Crescent Moon

Not sure now if I want to go somewhere else – maybe back to the old favourite at Long Jetty or further north at the Entrance. I’m quite happy with how the shots turned out, but starting to feel like going somewhere different tonight.

Jupiter and Venus, with Crescent Moon

All shots taken with the Canon 350D with Sigma 17-70mm lens on a tripod. Capture details between 1-5s exposures, f/10 at ISO100 and ISO400.

The weather is going to be fantastic for the conjunction tonight – couldn’t have asked for more! Good luck and clear skies in your part of the world!

I also took some shots of a barnicled boat while waiting for the sun to set – it has seen better days!

Barnicle Boat

Barnicle Boat

Barnicle Boat

Make sure you head outside over the next week and look to the West after sunset – you’ll see the brilliant Venus and Jupiter closing in on each other until they are at their closest on the evening of the 1st December, 2008.

UPDATE 2nd December: Pictures of the Smiley Face Conjunction

What makes this conjunction even more special, is that the pairing is also joined by the thin crescent Moon – giving us our very own smiley face in the sky! Check the attachment below to see what I mean.

Smiley Face Conjunction, 1st December 2008. Screenshot generated from Starry Night Pro.

The view above is what you’ll see from mid-latitudes in Australia at around 8pm AEDST on the 1st December. Your view might be slightly different depending on where in Australia you live, and it might even be upside down if you live elsewhere on Earth.

Venus and Jupiter will be a close 2° apart, and the Moon will be about 3.5° away from both of the bright planets.

But don’t wait until the 1st December, just in-case it’s cloudy on that day! The couple of days before and after the 1st December still show a lovely conjunction of the planets but the Moon will be further away. The video below shows an animation of the motion from a few days before to a few days after the 1st December.

I just love conjunctions like this and love photographing them. Now I need to find a nice spot to set up and take some photos. Here’s hoping for clear skies!

This image of the 4 inner rocky planets (Venus, Mercury, Mars and Earth) was captured on Saturday night, 20th September, at Long Jetty on the Central Coast of NSW.

Venus, Mercury and Mars made a nice conjunction with the star Spica, forming a lovely triangle in the twilight sky. My daughter Eliza was the model on the jetty.

It was a lovely warm day but very windy. The photo was taken with my Canon 350D and Sigma 17-70mm lens, f/7.1, ISO100, 1.6s exposure.

Processing including selective enhancement of the planets, and saturation boost.

Venus, Mercury, Mars and Spica Conjunction

I was fortunate enough to have this image selected to appear on NASA’s Astronomy Photo of the Day (APOD) site on 30th September 2008, and I’ve received some great feedback. Eliza was embarrassed at first, but then thrilled to have the photo of her seen by hundreds of thousands of people across the world

Thanks for looking.