Venus – Circadianreflections Blog

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…

Whatever Weds. Venus and the Beehive Cluster

September 13, 2023September 12, 2023Posted in Nikon, Photography, Stars and Planets, Wide Field Astro-photographyTagged Beehive Cluster, Big Sky, Dawn Sky, Nevada, Nikon D810, Pinenut Mountains, Planets, Stars, Venus, Whatever Wednesday, Wide Field AstroPhotography41 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Venus shines bright in the eastern morning sky. The star cluster near the top of the image is the Beehive Cluster. This cluster is in the constellation of Cancer and contains 1000 stars. You can find more information about this cluster and how to see it here.

*Venus and the Beehive Cluster over the Pinenut Mountains*

Nikon D810| Nikkor 80-200mm @80mm| PS CC 24.6.0|

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Waning Moon Conjunction

April 27, 2022April 27, 2022Posted in Astro Conjunctions, Astro Photography, Moonrise, PlanetsTagged Celestial Conjunctions, Clouds, Dawn, Jupiter, Low Light Photography, Mars, Nikon, Pine Nut Mountains, Venus, Waning Crescent Moon42 Comments

I’ve been hoping for a clear sky before sunrise in order to see the Waning Moon and four early-dawn planets, but we’ve been having cloudy overcast mornings of late. On the 26th I got somewhat lucky even though it was cloudy. Here are 3 of the 4 early-dawn planets along with the Waning Crescent Moon over the Pine Nut Mountains. Following that line of planets up above Mars was Saturn, but it was already so light out I couldn’t see it.

Waning Crescent Moon under Mars, Venus with Jupiter close to Venus.

If you’re up an hour before sunrise your time this Saturday morning looking low in the southeast Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest objects in the sky after the Sun and Moon, are going to be spectacularly close at just a 1/2 degree apart!

Can you believe we’re just days away from May!? This month just flew by! I hope your week is going well and you have a lovely day.

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.2.2

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…

Sunrise over San Francisco, CA

December 13, 2015Posted in Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Marin Headlands, Photography, San Francisco CA, SunriseTagged "Blue Period", Battery Kirby, Battery Spencer, Constellations, Corvus, Golden Gate Bridge, Kirby Cove, Marin Headlands, Photography, Planets, Sunrise, Twilight, Venus29 Comments

I got up at 3 am again to drive up to the Marin Headlands to view the sunrise. I hoped there would be some fog rolling in. It was cloudy at home which was south of my destination.

While driving north the sky was getting clearer, and clearer. No clouds, and no fog, but there were stars! I took this image while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Venus is the brightest planet (low in the sky), and the constellation Corvus is the quadrilateral shape above and to the right of Golden Gate Bridge’s north tower.

Venus and the Constellation Corvus over SF Bay

8 of us got up at O’Dark Thirty to meet at Battery Spencer in the Marin Headlands to shoot the sunrise. Since it was clear, and cold without much chance of fog we opted to hike the mile down to Kirby Cove to be at the water’s edge to photograph the sunrise. Here’s an image I made just after arriving down at Kirby Cove. The tide was a little higher than I expected. A couple of waves got my feet wet a couple of times. Thankfully I wear waterproof boots.

Venus is the only thing bright enough to shine above the on coming dawn, and the cities lights.

Venus in the Eastern Sky Before Sunrise

After making several images down at the waters edge I decided to move up to the cliff just above me to capture the sun as it crested the skyline.

Sunrise over San Francisco CA

The clouds were just beginning to roll in from the north as the sun crested the skyline. Once the sun got above the city we decided to head up the mountain to have some breakfast with lots of hot coffee to warm up with.

For more information about Kirby Cove click here.

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…

Gung hay fat choy!

February 20, 2015Posted in Astro Imaging, Astrophotograhpy, Chinese New Year, Conjunctions, Mars, Moon, New Moon, VenusTagged Astro-imaging, Astrophotography, Celestrial Conjunctions, Chinese New Year, Evening, Mars, Moon, New Moon, Photography, Venus10 Comments

It’s Chinese New Year today and a new Conjunction! The New Moon, Mars, and Venus shine in the Western Sky tonight. If not for my friend Andy I probably wouldn’t have remembered this! Check him out here. Thank you Andy!!!

I wasn’t able to venture further than my front yard to photograph it so, here you have it. Mars is the teenie tiny red dot between the Moon and Venus.

For those interested… The Year of the Sheep:
Chinese: 羊 yáng
Sheep (goat, or ram) is among the animals that people like most. It is gentle and calm. Since ancient times, people have learned to use its fleece to make writing brushes and skin to keep warm. The white cute creature often reminds people of beautiful things.

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: wei
Wu Xing (The Five Elements): tu (earth)
Yin Yang: yin

Lucky Signs for Sheep:
Lucky Numbers: 3, 4, 9
Lucky Colors: green, red, purple
Lucky Flowers: carnation, primrose, Alice flower
Lucky Directions: east, southeast, south
~http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/sheep.htm

Years of the Sheep

02/01/1919-02/19/1920
02/17/1931-02/05/1932
02/05/1943-01/24/1944
01/24/1955-02/11/1956
02/09/1967-01/29/1968
01/28/1979-02/15/1980
02/15/1991-02/03/1992
02/01/2003-01/21/2004
02/19/2015-02/07/2016
02/06/2027-01/25/2028

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 80-200mm| Tripod| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Northern Hemisphere, USA

More to come…

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