Posts Tagged "lunar"

I recently picked up a Nikon P1000. After having spent almost 15 years taking photos exclusivley with Canon Cameras I felt it was time to cross over and see what all the fuss was about with a good point and shoot Nikon.

For the price this camera is awesome. Its a good all round camera allowing you to take everything from Macros to super zoom images. The zoom is an impressive 300mm (more with the digital enhancements) and can take you close up to the moon craters. I am also looking forward to getting photos of Jupiter and Saturn.

Check back soon for some more astronomy pictures.

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