Venus.

View of Venus out my bedroom window when I wake up in the morning. Won't be long before the Sun is up when I am!

Full Moon.

So there is a full moon today. A BIG one. Nice and big and yellow hanging just above the horizon.

Why does the moon look so big when it is rising? No one ever tells you to go look at the giant moon when it is high in the sky. The key thing here is that the moon only looks big.

While the distance the moon is from the Earth varies slightly in its orbit (this is why some tides are bigger than others), on any given night the radius of the moons orbit does not change significantly. The moon is no bigger when it is high in the sky than when it is low on the horizon.

The main reason for this is perspective. When we see objects at a distance, they look small, but knowing in our minds what their true size is, the brain compensates and interprets the objects size accordingly. 

When the moon is high in the sky, we have nothing to compare it to, so its size means nothing. With no reference points, we perceive it to be closer than it is. When it is low on the horizon, however, we see it in relation to buildings and trees, and it looks absolutely huge.

Apparently, one way to un-trick your mind is to bend over, and look at the moon upside down through your legs.

I suppose you could also take a picture, but I loaned out my tripod... unfortunate since there is supposed to be some awesome auroras coming up!

Parsec.

I have talked about this before... but I came across this mock-tourism poster for Star Wars by artist Steve Thomas... and I love it!

Original art here

Moon.

I love the moon. While it often gets a bad rap in scary movies, I've never found it ominous in real life. I mean, sometimes it impedes my star gazing, but that's not so bad.

I do find the moon tricky to take pictures of. For one, it moves much faster than the stars (ever tried looking at it through a telescope? As soon as you find it, zip! it's gone). It also has a great deal of surface detail to capture. And it's actually really bright.

I hadn't tried taking pictures of the moon since I got my new zoom lens, and since there was a full moon the weekend before I went to Golden I figured I'd try it out while there was still lots to look at. I set my tripod up on the bike path on the main road next to my house (I'm sure the motorists thought I was very creepy), attached the hood to limit the light pollution from the street light I was standing under, zoomed as far as I could, tried to focus, and started testing out exposure times.

One of the first things I learned was that the moon does not need 20 seconds like stars do. I kept dialing back the time until I could make out craters and maria (the dark patches). Anywhere between 1/60 of a second and 1/320 of a second provided pretty good results. I had to crop some of the pictures to get the moon to the size I wanted it to be, but I was pretty happy with the final product.

1/60 second exposure

 (The large round crater near the bottom is called Tycho, for the Danish astronomer. FYI...)

1/320 second exposure - cropped

When you look at the moon this closely, it becomes really apparent that our lunar companion has a lot of dark patches. These lunar maria are the results of lava flows from the moon's ancient past, but were given the Latin name for sea, because that's what people originally thought they were. Less reflective than the neighboring surface rock, they appear dark.

You've heard the song about the "Man in the Moon" right? Well, that's because some people think they can see a face in these dark patches on the moon. I've taken the liberty of connecting the dots on what I think they are refering too...

1/200 of a second

And apparently the Man in the Moon is Peter Griffin. Or possibly Quagmire. Either way, I may be starting to find the moon a bit creepy. (Giggidy giggidy?)

I learned in a random side note in a History class I took at University from a prof who also taught History of Astronomy (he was a cool dude) that the Chinese had a different idea of the image presented in the moon... Apparently to them it is a rabbit with some kind of cooking pot...

Peter Rabbit? Maybe.

I can't decide if that is better or worse than Peter Griffin in the Moon.

Maybe....

Skull in the Moon.

Okay... Now that I can't un-see.

Night Sky.

I have always loved stargazing. Growing up with a cabin, I had access to reasonably dark skies. There is a little bit of light pollution from the nearest towns near the horizon, but it is dark enough to see hundreds of stars - constellations are there if you know where to look, shooting stars if you're lucky, and Northern Lights if you are willing to brave cold, snowy winter nights.

Taking pictures of the night sky isn't easy (you'll want to click on the pics to make them bigger). Long exposure time means any light pollution can spoil your shot, even if it is barely visible to the naked eye. A tripod is a must, because it is impossible to hold a camera still for even 2 seconds, let alone 20 or 30. I haven't mastered star pictures by any stretch of the imagination... any longer than 20 seconds and the bright stars turn into big dots. (And don't even get me started on the Moon! Haven't figured that one out yet...)


Late September view of the Big Dipper
with light pollution from Camrose

 The Big Dipper is a fairly iconic constellation. It is often visible in cities in the winter time when it gets dark fairly early. The fact that it always appears in the same general vicinity of a Canadian sky makes it relatively easy to find. (Just look North! It's gotta be there somewhere...)

However, many people are at a loss to recognize other constellations. They can recognize the names, sure (usually those associated with the zodiac, like Gemini, Capricorn, and so on), but are at a loss to point them out in the night sky. Even looking at a star chart where the lines are drawn in is difficult ("it's an x... how is it supposed to be a swan?")


(left to right) Sirius, Orion, Taurus
Late December view facing South-West



Same picture, but labelled

 Since the advent of reliable, widespread electricity, our nights are not dark. Few of us have ever experienced true darkness. Take a "city dweller" out into the country and the awe they experience is telling - few of us actually know what the night sky looks like. That our ancestors were mesmerized and believed that the heavens could foretell events becomes much more understandable when a black velvet sky is littered with a multitude of stars. That they were able to navigate the stars and record their movements seems incredible.

These are remarkable feats, but with no light pollution, and few other activities to do in the dark, it is less surprising that the Arab astronomers (who assigned most of the names I've labelled - "al" is Arabic for "the". "Aldebaran" is "The Follower" while "Algol" is "The Ogre". In the constellation Perseus, he is depitcted holding Medusa's head.) were able to actually identify the color of individual stars, and pick planets out from the background stars. (In some of the pictures I took, you can just make out the fact that some of the stars are red, and some are blue. Betelgeuse, for example, is a red giant.)



(left to right) Orion, Taurus, Pleiades, Perseus
Late December view facing South-West

 


Labelled.

 The summer skies in Canada are pretty dull compared to the winter skies. Fewer of the really bright stars are visible in the summer, which means fewer landmarks help you identify stars... plus it doesn't get "dark" until really late. The winter sky is much more interesting (and it gets dark nice and early! Great for star gazing). Orion is a fairly obvious constellation, even if all you can make out are the three stars that make up his belt. (Orion's "Nebula" also known as "M42" is the bright fuzzy patch that appears to be hanging just below his belt. I challenge you not to giggle when you look at his "sword" the next time you go outside...)

As long as you can find Orion, it's fairly easy to identify other interesting objects in the winter sky. Located to the right of Orion is a very bright star (Aldebaran, part of Taurus). Aldebaran is located about half way between Orion and the Pleiades, a star cluster. To the naked eye, it looks a little bit like a small, squashed Big Dipper. In Greek mythology, the Pleiades (or Seven Sisters) were nymphs chased by Orion.

While it is still summer, when winter inevitably rolls around again try to get outside and expand your knowledge of the night sky. It might give you a greater respect for the astronomers of the past, and will definetly make the hot chocolate when you head back inside much more satisfying.