Moon, Mars and Venus Conjunction over Mount Whitney
Moon, Mars and Venus Conjunction over Mount Whitney
I was evaluating places to capture the moon with Mars and Venus nearby last Friday, and Lori Hibbett suggested, "How about Mount Whitney?" Mount Whitney is the highest peak in America's contiguous 48 states, and is has a nice, pointy summit. I checked with The Photographer's Ephemeris, and sure enough, there were several positions we could shoot from and capture the moon and planets setting.
Shooting the actual event was just as straightforward as expected based on the predictions. As the moon and planets set in the first location closest to the mountain, we moved back to the next location and captured them setting again. The sky was getting a little dark by the third location, roughly 2 hours after sunset, so it was time to head in for dinner at that point.
#moon #moonmarsvenus #conjunction #astronomy #photography #landscapephotography www.JeffSullivanPhotography.com
excellent.
ReplyDeleteNice I love it great shot
ReplyDelete....................
ReplyDeleteEARTHSHINE ... Nicely done
ReplyDeleteVery nice.
ReplyDeletelikee
ReplyDeletenice
ReplyDeleteSuperb!
ReplyDeleteLike this picture
ReplyDeleteAstonishing sight! Really beautiful photo.
ReplyDeleteGreat capture!
ReplyDeleteYou are saying this was taken on Friday the 20th...Amazing! Some liars out there are trying to say the New Moon was this day or even the 21st. As we can see that is not so. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteEva Celeste The new moon was February 18, so this night was close to the new moon date. Only a small sliver of the moon was lit by the sun, the rest was lit by a nearly "full earth" shining light onto the shaded portion. Just as a full moon enables us to walk around and see well once our eyes adjust, when the earth is brightly lit by the sun, the portions of the moon experiencing night are lit well enough for our cameras here on earth to pick up some detail.
ReplyDeletePrior to sunset I was having trouble seeing the crescent moon, so I checked three programs to see how much of the moon's surface was illuminated. The first one said 1.6%, which was not promising, the second said 14%, which should have made the moon visible when I was looking, and the third said 6.3%. So I can't tell you accurately how much of a crescent moon it was, but 2 days after the new moon, the moon was enough towards the sun from us for the earth to be well lit and reflecting a lot of sunlight back on the moon.
Jeff Sullivan Wow! Thank you so much for confirming that fact. I hope to see you do this every Moon. Thanks, again! Thanks for your words also, there is manipulating out there, even with NASA, but the Sun and Moon are true witnesses. I don't understand it all, but they work together for our days, months, and years, not a man made calendar.
ReplyDeleteGertjan Stolwijk Exactly! I hadn't even checked the moon phase before planning this alignment of three planets (including earth) and the moon, but I couldn't have asked for a nicer coincidence than one of those planets reflecting light back on the unlit portion of the moon.
ReplyDeleteI've learned not to call the unlit portion of the moon the dark side of the moon, not even in a descriptive sense, because many people insist that the "dark" side can only refer to the far side, even when that "dark" side is bathed in full sunlight.
Pure beautiful nature, a delight on the eyes...
ReplyDeletephotoshop xD
ReplyDeletereally amzing
ReplyDeleteWith a 2 second exposure did you need a tracker for this shot Jeff?
ReplyDeleteNice shot
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! I uploaded a horizontal version to my Jeff Sullivan Photography page on G+: https://plus.google.com/b/104896696773020847048/104896696773020847048/posts/DLHM3B5nYz3
ReplyDeleteI. Love. Looking. Up. At. The. Sky. At. Night. . I. Thank. Its. Cool.
ReplyDeleteAwesome indeed !
ReplyDeleteJechałam z bratem na Szabat i widziałam to piękne zjawisko.Wierz Jeff to się nazywa początek miesiąca bo ADONAJ ustanowił pory i czasy o czym pisze w Bereszit (1 Mojzeszowa)
ReplyDeleteAMAZING,NICE CAPTURE.
ReplyDeleteDITTO, restrepo abelardo...
ReplyDelete;)
ReplyDeleteWow this was that I missed last weekend the weather in Texas wasn't clear sky
ReplyDeleteBeautiful
ReplyDeleteS. Hauzel Sailo Yes, Venus is the bright, lower one, Mars is the red one in the middle.
ReplyDeleteJohn Getchel No, to keep celestial objects sharp you use the "500 rule", and keep the focal length times the exposure time under 500. 220 mm x 2 = 440, so it should be fine.
ReplyDeleteglenis minarapa Here's information on that: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2015Mar20Tgoogle.html
ReplyDeleteEhran Chandler The new moon was February 18, so this night was close to the new moon date, when the moon is towards the sun. From the earth we could only see a small sliver of the moon lit by the sun, since the sun was on the other side of it. The rest of the moon's surface you see dimly lit here was lit by "earth shine", light from a nearly "full earth" as seen from the moon, reflecting sunlight onto the shaded portion of the moon.
ReplyDeleteJust as a full moon enables us to walk around and see well once our eyes adjust, when the earth is brightly lit by the sun, the portions of the moon experiencing night are lit well enough for our cameras here on earth to pick up some detail.
Jeff a może spróbujesz zrobić zdjęcia Księżyca 3 kwietnia gdy przypada Biblijna PASCHA i na SZKOT. Te szczególne znaki czerwonych Księżyców opisane jest w Biblii jak znaki przyjścia MESJASZA JESZUAHMESZYIAH
ReplyDeleteglenis minarapa Hopefully I'll make it back to New Zealand some day soon. I spent a month touring Australia and New Zealand in 2001 and enjoyed it immensely.
ReplyDeletePhilip Plait has a nice write-up of this event on Slate :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/03/08/moon_mars_venus_sunset_appulse_video.html
(Thanks for featuring my time-lapse video, Phil.)
What a beauty !!!
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