Category Archives: Moon

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse 2020.01.10

Posted on by July 20, 2021
annimation of Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

Click on animation

Will you come? Will you come?
Will you ride so late at my side?
O, will you come?

Will you come? Will you come?
If the night has a moon, full and bright?
O, will you come?

-Edward Thomas-

During a penumbral eclipse the darkening of the Moon as it drifts into the Earths penumbral shadow is so slight that most of the times I don’t go to the trouble of taking images. However I was not going to miss a live show on Slooh.

I used my images taken through Slooh’s Canary Two telescope for the animation.
Slooh granted me permission to use their Home Page layout as a backdrop.
©2020 Slooh LLC. All rights reserved

SUPERmoon

Posted on by July 20, 2021

Another Supermoon! – The third for 2019. Jan Feb March..no, not April May June July.. and NO to all, according to Neil deGrasse Tyson.

To set the record straight: Niel deGrasse Tyson is thé American astrophysicist, author and science communicator who is not related to Michael Gerard Tyson, an American former professional boxer as was suggested in  the “Mike Tyson Mysteries”, which is an American adult animated television series, produced by Warner Bros

Niel deGrasse Tyson has been trying desperately to negate all supermoons  by tweeting: “Supermoons are an insult to Superman or supernovas, if a 16.1 inch pizza is ‘super’ to you, compared with a 16.0 inch pizza, then we have an issue of vocabulary”

Those who are really into Astonomy, professionally or as amateurs, understand why the fullmoon appears bigger on the horizon during certain months of a year. The Moon’s orbit is not circular taking it closer or further away from Earth. This is stuff most people do not think about from day to day. The media has actually done us a huge favour by “superfying” the Moon. The hype surrounding these events has added terms like perigee, apogee, perigee-syzygy! to the vocabulary of a much wider audience  while the Moon is getting the attention it deserves.

Fullmoon at perigee. Lights off!..cameras..cellphones..action.. The excitement usually starts two weeks before fullmoon when the first slither of a crescent becomes visible. Social media becomes abuzz with moon images and supermoon challenges. The frenzy is contagious and this is what we want, is it not? The whole aim is to get as many people as possible involved, inspiring them to learn more about our Moon, the workings of our solar system and our place in the universe. Three or four times a year there is this window of opportunity to reach out, especially to the younger generation, to become involved in astronomy, science, engineering or any technology that will get the human race on voyages into space. Three or four times a year writers, poets, lyricists or painters are made acutely aware of the beauty of our universe.

I beg to differ from Niel deGrasse Tyson. I will not get on his snobbish band wagon just to show that I know a bit more than meets the (Supermoon) eye. On every one of these enchanted evenings I will be outside, online or paging through a book about the Moon  if the weather is unfavourable. I hope I will never become blasé and ignore a Supermoon.

Recently the online observatory, Slooh, proposed a Supermoon Challenge. The idea for my entry was sparked by watching my grandchildren at play. The brief was that we should use the online telescopes to take images of the Moon from crescent, waxing to fullmoon. Due to weather conditions in the Canary Islands, I could only capture the images that I used in the “film strip” line up at the bottom of my image. The images of the Moon that my grandchildren are playing with are my own. The backdrop is an image taken on route to a little town, Leipoldtville, in South Africa.  Submissions had to be in before the special livecast which was on 20 Feb 2019

Three submissions had merit. Slooh could not decide on a definite winner. I felt greatly honoured when my submission was named joint winner.

This Supermoon Challenge went deeper than just a winning image. Every evening I took images of the Moon and thought of my four grandchildren as I remembered a song my mom used to sing to me, Que Sera Sera. I thought of my friend who invited me to Leipoldtville to witness the sodiacal light. This image became a reflection of life. Dream..catch..hold.. appreciate.. Tomorrow life may be just a slither of what it is today.

Perigee: the point in the orbit of the moon at which it is nearest to the earth
Apogee: the point in the orbit of the moon at which it is furthest from the earth
Syzygy:  a (roughly) straight-line configuration of three or more celestial bodies in a gravitational system
Perigee- syzygy:  The technical name of a Supermoon is  a perigee syzygy (of the Earth–Moon–Sun system)
Apogee syzygy: The technical name of a micromoon is  apogee- syzygy (of Earth-Moon-Sun system)

Total eclipse of the Moon

Posted on by July 20, 2021

I looked up at the Moon and knew that this evening would be my last public outreach event. From now on it will be only me and my telescope or camera. This sounds kind of depressing but when I’m alone under a star filled sky, finding new objects but never forgetting to look at the familiar ones as well,  I am at my happiest.

I will always remember this particular eclipse of 27 July 2018.
A dear friend has come to the end of his teaching career. I have come to the end of a most wonderful journey of bringing Astronomy to the public. I hope I have inspired many to look at the night sky and hope to continue but just in a different way.

This Moon is dedicated to all who are letting go of the old with a touch of sadness as they enter a new stage of life.

Smartphone Moon Photography

Posted on by July 20, 2021

I’ve been doing my fullmoon shots with my camera and 400mm lens on a tripod for some time now.

Then along came Slooh with the #supermoon- challenge which inspired me to go out for a few nights in a row to capture the waxing Moon.

I thought, what if I attach my cellphone to my telescope? This is when the real fun began. I’ve been able to push to a 6mm eyepiece but you have to be really quick if you have no tracker on your scope like me It’s quite tricky.

First I identify the area that I want to shoot – then focus the telescope with cellphone attached. I bought one of those adaptable cellphone holders. A word of caution – cellphones slip easily if you’re not careful. When I’m happy with the adjustment of the cellphone holder and focus is ok, I nudge my telesope so that the area to be shot is just outside of the field of view. As the area moves into view I take shots with a feather light tap on the cellphone screen. Then it’s to my computer to sort the blurry ones from the not so blurry ones! If your telescope has a tracker, things will be much easier but then you’re most probably already doing astro photography for real 🙂

Someone suggested that I should try to zoom in more but believe me, it will get really tricky if you are already using a high powered eyepiece because the motion of the Moon becomes intensified. Others advised that I should use continuous shooting. One could experiment with this but I have had no luck up to now. My cellphone’s camera seems to adjust focus and my continuous shots have all been very blurry.

Each cellphone is obviously different. The camera’s auto setting will most probably not give the best result. With some of my shots I even tried the “beauty” setting . So just play around with what you’ve got and try all your modes and exposure settings. The holders come in different sizes so make sure the dimensions will fit your phone. Read reviews on the different makes of holders before you buy. Some guys in my astronomy group have printed their own holders on a 3D printer.

Instead of going into a slump after the supermoon adventure, I will continue seeking interesting formations on the Moon. Eventually my plan is to do sketches of the images that I captured during this challenge.