Posts Tagged "kennebunk maine"

Tonight I headed out on a mission to see and photograph Comet Neowise. Neowise is a fairly recently discovered comet first spotted by the astronomers using the Neowise Telescope. Having seen the great comet of 1997 Hale Bopp as just a teenager, standing in my back yard in Scotland with my mother – it piqued my interest in all things extraterrestrial. I didn’t own a camera back in 97′ but the internet had started to boom and I saw a lot of inspiring photos taken by people from all over the world had got of Hale-Bopp. I decided then that should another comet visit our cosmic neighborhood in my lifetime I would get a photo.

Fast forward 23 years (more than a lifetime compared to my younger self being only 17 or so at the time of Hale-Bopp) later and I got my chance. Now living in the United States, I took the photo below in West Kennebunk Maine’s Blueberry Barrens. I arrived around 9 pm and noticed a few other cars parked. It was a great evening, I enjoyed chatting with fellow comet hunters and space enthusiasts. The shot is not as tack-sharp as I wanted it to be, but the good news is that the comet will be around for the next month or so, I will be back out many more times to try and get the best results possible.

These photos were taken on July 20th, 2020 at approximately 10:30 PM

Last night I drove out the the West Kennebunk Plains known to locals as the Blueberry Barrens. I knew that this area would be a prime location for getting a shot of the Moon as it was barely over the horizon as its an area of perhaps a few miles in every direction that has no built up areas, giving ideal viewing conditions for stars and planets as there is very little light pollution.

I used timeanddate.com to find the exact time of the Moonrise and then used my Mobius Sky Map iPhone app to find the exact direction the Moon would be rising. I drove out and arrived 10 minutes or so before the moon was due to rise and set up my tripod.

I used a point and shoot Canon Sx40 as well as a Panasonic Lumix x60. I was surprised and happy to see that other astrophotography enthusiasts showed up with the same idea. As the moon rose over the distant tree line I was impressed with its reddish hue, looked like a giant version of Mars almost as its slowly crept up and over the trees before settling to its more regular white/yellowish tinge.

Below you can see a few photos I took of this adventure, hope you enjoy. Next week when the sky darkens again after the moon is gone I intent to do a star rotation photoshoot and plan to put the results of that here.

A rare event compelled me to grab my camera and stand out in the cold autumn air for 2 hours. A complete lunar eclipse coincided with a super moon (when the full moon is at its closest point to earth) giving us a “Super Blood Moon”. I stood in my back yard with my wife watching this event unfold with scary accuracy on the timing. We joked about civilizations of a bygone era looking up in fear at such events and how far technology and our understanding of astronomy has come.

At approximately 9:08pm eastern standard time we started to notice a small “bite” being taken out of the left side of the moon. It took about 1 hour for the earths shadow to completely obscure the moon and finally bask it in a dim reddish light. Looking at it (aged 37) at the time of this writing I realized with amazement and some horror that the next time I would see such an event would be when I am in my early 50s and my now infant sons would have grown up to be men by then. Below you can see a composite of the photos I took with my trusty Canon SX40 Powershot camera.

In years to come it will be amazing to see how much further cameras evolve, see you for the next one in 2033!

Super Blood Moon of 2015