Stars – Circadianreflections Blog

Whatever Weds- The Stars have It

April 3, 2024April 2, 2024Posted in Comets, Photography, Stars, Stars and Planets, Travel and Tourism, Travel PhotographyTagged City lights, Clouds, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, Comets, Defraction, Nikon, Skyline, Snow, Sparks NV, Star bursts, Stars, Travel, Wide Field Astro Photography47 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Last week He-Man and I had a little get-away for our 43rd anniversary. We didn’t go too far just up to Sparks, NV.

We booked a balcony suite at Hampton Inn & Suites at the marina for the view of Helms Lake, and view of Reno’s skyline. This lake has an interesting beginning.

“The site was once a gravel pit owned by the Helms Construction Corp. (1968-1995) The pit is 100 feet deep. They found petroleum and solvent contamination seeping into the pit in 1987 so it was declared a Super Toxic Sight and clean up began. In 1996 it was declared free of petrochemicals and the site was turned over to the city of Sparks.

Millions of dollars of spill mitigation money was made available to the city, which they used to construct the park and make the pit a recreational pond. They had planned to fill the pit to 30 feet, but in January 1997 the Truckee River overflowed its banks and filled the Helms Pit creating what is now Richard Helms Lake or Sparks Marina Pond.” You can read a little more about how it stays filled at the link. https://www.ndow.org/waters/sparks-marina/

Now for our view-

It was pretty windy the day we were up there as you can see by the water.

We both really enjoyed having this evening view when the lights in the city came on.

I had hoped our 4th floor balcony room would afford a great view of the sky so I could also try to photograph Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, but alas we had a storm rolling in and cloud cover.

Finally, Monday night April 1st…no joke! We had a clear night so I went out to my front yard and spied the Comet.

*Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks with faint tail*.

*Green Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks cropped in.*

*Dialing in my focus I got Jupiter and her Moons too.*

We had a lovely anniversary walking around the lake both days, and we found a new Indian place we liked a lot for dinner so, we’ll make the drive up for that again when we’re craving Indian food, and we’ll be staying there again when the weather is warmer and we’ll take our kayak up for a paddle around the lake.

I hope the stars have lined up a fantastic week for you.

Nikon D850| Nikkor 80-200mm| iPhone 14 Pro| PS CC 25.5.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Occultation of Antares

January 10, 2024January 9, 2024Posted in Occultation, Photography, Stars, Stars and PlanetsTagged Antares, Dawn, landscape, Moon, Morning, Nikon, occultations, Pinenut Mountains, Snow, Stars, Venus68 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

January 8th just at dawn I photographed my first celestial event of the year. The Occultation of the crescent moon and Antares the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius.

The tiny dot of light on the Earthshine side of the crescent moon is Antares right before it slipped behind the Moon. Venus the morning star shines brightly above and to the left of the Moon.

I give you three views, one with my star filter on my lens, one with my ultra wide angle lens, and one deeply cropped to show Antares slipping behind the Moon.

*20mm view of the Crescent Moon, Venus, and Antares.*

Crescent Moon, Antares, Venus dawn January 8, 2024

Venus above and left of the Crescent Moon, Antares a tiny dot of light on the Earthshine side of the Crescent Moon just before it disappeared behind the Moon.

I was in a bit of a rush putting on my star filter so it went on askew so some of the star lines aren’t clean, and worse it’s now stuck. It’s on too tight for me to unscrew it, and I broke my filter wrench some time ago removing a ND (neutral density) filter, and failed to replace it. DOH! I have ordered a new one…and not a plastic one this time. It should arrive today.

We had our first big snow drop that stuck on Sat/Sun. It required shoveling. My neighbor bought a new cordless snow-blower and did our driveway twice! I just shoveled the clean up and the road below our driveway. She’s a jewel! She said it took just 12 minutes to do the driveway. We’ve made a deal. She’ll do the snow-blower and I do the clean up shoveling on 3 driveways and sidewalks. I told her I’d spring for the Hot Cocoa with marshmallows!

We have another big storm coming this weekend which is going to mess up my plans to meet friends, and do some birding at one of our favorite California refuges. It’s going to snow here, and in the mountains I’d need to cross, and it’s got rain on the forecast for there. It’s always a risk in the winter though isn’t it. Looks like I’ll be cancelling my plans.

Hopefully, we can meetup in February.

That’s me all caught up. How’s it going for you? Were any of you up and notice the tiny reddish star right beside the moon Monday morning?

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm & Nikkor 20mmG| PS CC 25.3.1

more to come…

Venus and Jupiter Conjunction

June 29, 2015June 29, 2015Posted in Astro Imaging, Astro Photography, Conjunctions, Jupiter, Jupiter's Moons, Planets, Stars, VenusTagged Astro-imaging, Astrophotography, Conjunctions, Jupiter, Jupiter's Moons, Planets, Stars, Venus12 Comments

Venus and Jupiter are pretty close together tonight: just 1.1º. Also visible with binoculars or a Telephoto lens are Jupiter’s Moons. Europa, Io, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Venus is the brightest low planet, and Jupiter is next brightest object diagonally above Venus. The little dots around

Jupiter are its Moons. Tomorrow they’re be even closer together, just 0.6º apart! If I’m lucky I’ll find a spot other than my yard without tree branches in the frame. 🙂 The best time to see this is after Dusk looking West.

More to come…

Pondering the Stars

June 14, 2015June 14, 2015Posted in Astro Imaging, Astrophotograhpy, Milky Way, Night Photography, Shooting Stars, Silhouettes, StarsTagged After Dark Photography, Astro Photography, Astro-imaging, Cosmos, Milky Way, Night Photography, Shooting Stars, Stars8 Comments

It was so good to get out under the stars last (Saturday) night. Especially after being sick and cooped up for weeks.

My health, weather, and schedule all were in perfect alignment to meet a friend up in the mountains to view, and spend a few hours making images of the night sky. Even though I went up into the nearby mountains I was unable to escape all Light Pollution. The orange, and bright white on the right of the image edge are city lights to the south. I’d have to go much further inland to escape it entirely.

To my delight when I uploaded and looked through the images I discovered I captured a shooting star in this frame! Do you see it? It’s small up above the Milky Way in the centerish toward the left.

This outing was just what I needed!

More to come…

Update: My friend (Andy) finished an image of the Whirlpool Galaxy which he imaged last night while I was shooting stars, and the Milky Way. He posted it on his photo-sharing site. I hope you’re able to see it here. He’s set up with a nice telescope, and GOTO system which gets him closer looks deeper into the Universe.

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