Night Sky Imaging – Circadianreflections Blog

Whatever Weds. Waxing Gibbous Moon

June 24, 2026June 24, 2026Posted in Moon, Night Sky Imaging, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged June Moon, Moon Craters, Moon Seas, waxing gibbous moon, Whatever Wednesday34 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Waxing Gibbous Moon, June 23, 2026. 72% illuminated.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com

I like this phase of the Moon because you can really see the crusty craters along the edges.

Seas in view are from top left moving diagonally across the Moon are-

Sea of Rains, Sea of Serenity, Sea of Tranquility, Sea of Fertility, Sea of Nectar, and Sea of Crises.

Update: I thought it would be a good idea to share with you that I’ve learned something new about the Moon while putting this post together. I’ve learned there are 23 seas and 1 ocean! Early astronomers thought they were bodies of water, but we know now they’re flat plains of solidified basaltic lava.

In my image you can see 10 possibly 11 of the seas.

There’s an International Observe the Moon Night this year. On September 19th one maybe able to observe and identify 15 of the Lunar Seas, and some landing sites on the near side of the Moon. https://science.nasa.gov/moon/observe-the-moon-night/moon-map/

I’m adding that to my calendar.

The full Moon this month is on the 29th and it’s called the Strawberry Moon. It’s called the Strawberry Moon because it’s peak season for harvesting Strawberries in parts of the USA and Canada.

Happy mid week!

more to come…

Whatever Weds. A Summer Night Under the Stars

August 7, 2024August 6, 2024Posted in Astro-Photography, Night Photography, Night Sky, Night Sky Imaging, Photography, Starry Night, Whatever WednesdayTagged Army Fort Ruins, High Desert, Light Modifiers, light painting, Light Pollution, Light Shaping, Low Light Photography, Milky Way, Nikon, Ruins, Sagebrush, Thousands of Stars37 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

US Army fort ruins from the 1860’s.

Nikon D850| Nikkor 20mmf/1.8g| Single frame

more to come…

Whatever Weds. A Starlit Night

July 10, 2024July 10, 2024Posted in Astro Photography, Night Sky, Night Sky Imaging, Starry NightTagged After Dark, Astronomy, Milky Way, Mono Lake, NASA, Nikon, Other Worldly Locations, science, Space, Starry Nights, Stars, Summer, Tufas, Whatever Wednesday38 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

It’s that time of year when I yearn to be out imaging and gazing at the night sky. A friend and I went back down to Mono Lake to do just that. Thankfully, we didn’t have any clouds to worry about.

The lake is really high eliminating a lot of the beach area we learned from our camping trip last month so, we knew to take our tall boots because standing in the lake might be our best bet for imaging. We scouted in the afternoon and found this spot. When we were leaving for dinner we ran into a Ranger who told us she would be giving a talk on the summer sky and constellations that evening on the beach and invited us back to attend it. We said we’d be there. The talk was a fast 2 hours. It was great hearing the stories the Native Americans tell about the stars and how they named the constellations and how to find them . The talk ended just after 10PM which was perfect as the Milky Way was already visible and we had some time to get to our spot in time for the Galactic Center to rise. The Galactic Center is the central region of our galaxy. The best months to photograph the Milky Way in the Northern Hemisphere are from May to August when the Galactic Center is highest in the sky and the weather is usually better in the warmer months.

We were standing in water to photograph this scene, but it wasn’t very deep, and the waves were gentle so we didn’t have to worry about a big one coming along and getting into our boots. 😊

I got home about lunch time yesterday, unpacked, got the car washed, and then started getting ready for a visit with my son and daughter-in-law. I’ll be on and offline for a bit. I hope your week and summer are going well.

Nikon D850|Nikkor 20mm F1.8G|

more to come…

Whatever Weds. The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

December 23, 2020December 22, 2020Posted in Conjunctions, Fuji X-T3, Night Sky Imaging, Nikon, Whatever WednesdayTagged Astro Photography, Crescent Moon, Fuji, Jupiter, Jupiter's Moons, Low Light Photography, Nikon, Saturn, The Great Conjunction of 2020, Whatever Wednesday47 Comments

I was pretty excited to see the Great Conjunction as I’m sure most of you were too, so I hoped for clear skies to be able to photograph it. On the 16th of December the crescent moon, Jupiter, and Saturn were fairly close to each other and it was a clear sky so I photographed it from my patio. It was cloudy all day but cleared pretty well but the wispy contrails and remaining clouds made the sky a bit more interesting. Can you spy the ski runs at Heavenly Ski Resort? X marks the spot.

Crescent Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn over the Carson Spur.

It was clear on Monday the 21st so I went out with my long lens to get a closer look at the conjunction. I had to crop it in for it to be a good look even at 400mm, but I was able to see 3 of Jupiter’s Moons too. The 3 tiny dots are the Moons.

Jupiter, 3 Moons, and Saturn. The Great Conjunction of 2020

Saturn’s rings are not defined which is disappointing, but I saw the Great Conjunction! Did you look for it?

I wish all those celebrating Christmas a very Merry Christmas, and those who aren’t I wish you a very Joyous Week!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 and Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| PS CC 22.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds. The Milky Way

April 29, 2020April 29, 2020Posted in Milky Way, Night Sky Imaging, Nikon, Photography, Stars and Planets, Whatever WednesdayTagged Carson Valley, Jupiter, Light Pollution, Milky Way, Pinenut Mountains, Planets, Saturn, Stars, telephone poles, what to do in the wee hours of the morning, Whatever Wednesday48 Comments

I woke up really early last week and the sky was cloudless so I thought I’d go out back and photograph the Milky Way. The light-pollution is worse than I remember! This was at 3:49 A M!

Jupiter and Saturn are still shining brightly over the Pinenut Mountains. Mars has marched so far East it’s out of the frame.

Milky Way from my Patio_DMZ8560

What do you do when you wake up in the wee hours of the mornin?

Nikon D810|Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G| SunDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.1.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Looking up

April 8, 2020April 8, 2020Posted in Fuji X-T3, Night Sky Imaging, Nikon, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged Fuji, Inspiration, Low Light Photography, Moon, Night sky, Nikon, Pleiades, Stars, SuperMoon, Venus, Whatever Wednesday39 Comments

The end of March and through yesterday has been for me, a time of looking up to the night sky. Starting at the end of March I was looking up to see the Moon, Venus and the elusive star cluster called the Pleiades in conjunction. This was a practice shot because the night I was hoping to see Venus and the Pleiades closer together on April 3rd we had rain and snow so the sky was too cloudy to see them. That was a once-in-an-eight year event! I’m just glad I practiced so I saw this conjunction.

Moon Venus Pleiades Conjunction Nikon D810| Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G|f/2.8|2.8s|ISO 400| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3

Last night was the Supermoon. It appears just a bit larger than normal because the Moon comes the closest to Earth in its elliptic orbit called perigee.

We’ve been having light rain and snow and it was overcast all day but, we got lucky last night and the sky to the east was clear! I went down to the golf course with my next-door neighbor to photograph the Supermoon rise over the Pinenut Mountains.

Supermoon April 7 2020

Nikon D810| 24-120mm at 70mm|f/10|1/6s|ISO 250| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3

Then I switched cameras and made an image of just the Moon. Our moon looked more golden than pink, but the Belt of Venus wasn’t very deep in color around us either so…golden.

Supermoon April 7 2020

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm LM OIS at 386mm| f/11| 1/100s| ISO 250| SunDisk Digital Film|PS CC 21.0.3

More things that are looking up is that we’ve had 8 people who had the Covid-19 virus move to the recovered side of life! There are still 17 active cases in our Quad county region. There have been no deaths yet. Knocking on wood that continues and that all move to the recovered column soon!

I hope you’re doing well and keeping busy.

I’ll leave you this thought today.

““Bad stuff does happen sometimes, always remember that but remember that you have to move on somehow. You just pick your head up and stare at something beautiful like the sky or the ocean and you move the hell on.”
― James Patterson, Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas

more to come…

Trailhead to the Stars

September 11, 2016September 11, 2016Posted in Astro Photography, Night Photography, Night Sky, Night Sky Imaging, Nikon, Photography, Star Trails, Starry NightTagged Astrophotography, Marin County, Mt Tamalpias, Nikon, Photography, San Francisco Bay Area, Star Gazing, Star Trails, Starry Sky38 Comments

Last night I met Gordon, and some other friends in a Meet-Up group we’re in up on Mt. Tamilpias in Marin County to photograph the sunset, and then image the night sky.

There was an Astrology lecture in the Amphitheater so the park was open much later than it normally is which allowed us to stay late. YEAH! Normally the park closes a bit after sunset.

This is 74 frames stacked in PS CC 2015.5.

4 planes, and one shooting star flew through the sky while I was imaging. I didn’t see the shooting star at the time as I was looking away helping a friend with her settings and intervalometer. I was thrilled to see I caught it on film though.

It was a lovely night, not windy, or cold, and the company was great!

Nikon Df| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G| Delkin Digital Film

More to come…

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