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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Tonight's Moon

moon_5-29-07.jpg

The moon from my deck, not a cantoloupe on black matte paper.

300mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter

posted by michael at 8:39 pm  

13 Comments »

  1. The sky is so black! And the moon looks just like how it does in my science book. Although those meteor-crash-debris-trails do make it look a lot like a cantelope. Thanks for sharing. I wonder if–now you’ve got that down–you’ll get a great photo of earthshine in 2 1/2 weeks.

    Comment by jennifer — May 29, 2007 @ 9:16 pm

  2. I had to hit the wikipedia:
    Earthshine is reflected Earthlight visible on the Moon’s night side. It is also known as the Moon’s ashen glow or as the old Moon in the new Moon’s arms.

    Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch of crescent Moon with earthshine as part of his Codex Leicester, written between 1506 and 1510.

    Earthshine is most readily observable shortly before and after a New Moon, during the waxing or waning crescent phase. When the Moon is new as viewed from Earth, the Earth is nearly fully lit up as viewed from the Moon. Sunlight is reflected from the Earth to the night side of the Moon. The night side appears to glow faintly and the entire orb of the Moon is dimly visible.

    Leonardo da Vinci explained the phenomenon in the early 1500s when he realized that both Earth and the Moon reflect sunlight. Light is reflected from the Earth to the Moon and back to the Earth as Earthshine.

    But isn’t this a lot like this?

    Comment by michael — May 29, 2007 @ 9:33 pm

  3. All I know is, that’s a pretty damn competent exposure of our planet’s satellite. Lacking only a tracking motor tripod for improvement … Bravo.

    Comment by el Kib — May 29, 2007 @ 10:04 pm

  4. Cool! I guess your exposure was only a second or two, so you didn’t need to track. I’ve gotten star shots with only half a second using my little Nikon.

    Did anyone notice the nice lunar conjunction with Venus on May 19?
    I was driving home late and happened to look up to the west. Almost drove off the road.

    That night there were innumerable calls to police departments about aliens visiting the moon.

    Comment by rakkity — May 30, 2007 @ 12:00 am

  5. We don’t have much of a view to the west — none to the southwest — from our house, so I only see that (#4) if I’m driving. And apparently I wasn’t. Is that true about calls to police?

    Comment by Jennifer — May 30, 2007 @ 6:25 am

  6. If I may answer for rakkity – no.

    El Kib, buy me a 500mm lens and you’ll really see some detail.

    Comment by michael — May 30, 2007 @ 6:58 am

  7. OK, the no. of calls wasn’t “innumerable”, but Venus is the most commonly called-in UFO, as stated by a number of authoritative sites:

    http://www.unmuseum.org/ifonat.htm
    http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/03may_maximumvenus.htm
    http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s27271.htm
    http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:NhMN0DcTuToJ:www.morehead.unc.edu/PR/PR1998/980212Venus.html+venus+ufo&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&client=firefox-a

    But to see some true believers, take a gander at the Astral Brothers’ site:
    http://www.share-international.org/ARCHIVES/UFOs/faq_UFOs.htm

    Comment by rakkityed.schmahl — May 30, 2007 @ 7:03 pm

  8. Tomorrow-
    Blue Moon – you saw me standing alone . . .

    Comment by jJeffroeffro — May 30, 2007 @ 8:36 pm

  9. If I had a spare $7k lollygagging about, I’d do just that … But the bigger tripod would be extra.

    Comment by el Kib — May 30, 2007 @ 9:30 pm

  10. without a dream in my heart/without a love of my own.

    Comment by michael — May 30, 2007 @ 9:41 pm

  11. NOT a blue moon tomorrow. Sky & Telescope is trying really hard to put that genie back in the bottle. Or whatever. Admittedly, it’s hopeless. But, “blue moon” should be for the third full moon in a SEASON which has FOUR full moons, the others (first, second, and last) having personalized names like “harvest moon” and “cold moon”.

    Comment by Jennifer — May 30, 2007 @ 9:41 pm

  12. I dunno, Adam, if you have $7K lying around, maybe you should donate it to the Astral Bros. I think they need it.

    Comment by Jennifer — May 30, 2007 @ 9:48 pm

  13. PS. Michael, regarding Drucilla Strain…email me at:
    Royblizzard at peoplepc com
    As I shared, Drucilla was my grandad’s 1st cousin and my grandma’s favorite Fallon!
    Donna Blizzard,
    Leander, Texas
    512-351-3149

    Comment by Donna Blizzard — May 31, 2007 @ 9:22 pm

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