Stars / Astronomy / Astrophotography / Telescopes / Astro

Transit of Mercury tomorrow - https://gostargazing.co.uk/2019/10/12/where-and-when-to-see-the-transit-of-mercury-in-2019/

Went up for a rainy weekend in the Lakes Las weekend. The sky cleared just in time for the Bonfire and Fireworks.

Got a couple of long exposures while I could but the Milky Way was below the horizon.

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Rather hoping the next time I go it won't have the light pollution from the fire. And clearer sky.

Just saw Starlink train 2 from launch a few hours ago! We’re in Portugal, spent last couple of hours trying to work out what we’d seen, just found some images on Twitter that match exactly from nearby region. Pretty amazing! ! This is the pic from twitter, I couldn’t get one.

I managed an hour or so of non-serious looking at the sky last night. It was really humid and clouds kept appearing out of nowhere, but there were some lovely clear views of some winter favourites.

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Is the second one Orion? (very good, btw!)

It is indeed the great nebula in Orion’s sword. A bit rough and ready, this was a single shot with a dslr.

One more from this evening

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Cracking photos. Very impressive.

At the opposite end of the scale I had a lovely time yesterday evening pushing my daughters on the swings just after sunset. Venus was as bright as a planet can be, just off the crescent moon. As I was telling my kids what the "star" was, the mum attending to the toddler in the next swing couldn't believe it - she didn't realise you could see planets! It's so nice to spread the astronomy wonder.

Sorry, more mooning

Second photo is of the “dark” half of the moon lit by sunlight that bounced off half of the Earth up to the moon and back down to my garden

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Never apologise!

Those are beautiful...

@Ludd
Your photographs of the moon and all that detail is truly amazing.

Cheers Mr Slain!

Great pics.

bit better than my efforts from the last full moon

good camera - check
tripod - check
clear but hazy night - check
full moon - check

photographers ability - check-ered

I can detect the presence of the moon there. I find it helps to use a lens with a focal length of a bit over a metre, and it also helps that the aperture is big too, as that gets the detail pinned down. Have you experimented with very short exposures?

And another thing, a full moon is a hard target because there are no shadows on it, so it often ends up looking washed out.

i'll give it another go next full moon

if we are still here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51669384

some of the numbers in this article are mindblowing

At the other end of the scale we've got a new, temporary, moon, that's 6-12ft long.

I've just been watching the Deep Astronomy Hangout about that, was expecting a slightly larger object!!

Amazing that earth based telescopes can resolve objects that dark and that small...

https://youtu.be/71o4Gy7cZac

Hope it doesn't accidentally get obliterated by one of the lasers in the space battle.

Maybe it hasn't really been resolved yet? :)

What was the really bright body in the western sky early evening yesterday?

I told the toddler that it was Venus.

(They would like to visit, but not for too long if we can't video chat.)

You're right, probably Venus. It's out at the moment at azimuth ~240° (= West) and ~35° above the horizon

Venus has been shining brightly in the evening sky for a month or so.