Moon and Mars

Zanotti

If skies are clear in your area on Sunday night, Dec. 23, you'll be able to partake in a rather unusual sight as the full moon appears to glide very closely above the planet Mars.

Mars, which made its closest approach to the Earth on Dec. 18, will be only hours from a Christmas Eve opposition with the sun and is now shining prominently with a bright yellow-orange glow.




Went out a took a quick look and shot!

Z



Mars will be closer to Earth this month than any time until the year 2016.

The red planet is now the brightest "star" in the evening sky and is already above the horizon as evening twilight fades away. But give it at least two more hours – until about 8 p.m. – for it to climb above the poor atmospheric seeing that's near the horizon. By then, this brilliant yellow-orange world will be at an altitude of around 30 degrees as seen from mid-northern latitudes.

Zanotti

Another crop

Zanotti

Last One

Mr. 2H2O

HA! I thought that was Mars! I was looking at the moon tonight and saw Mars beside it and so I think to myself, "Self, I believe that would be Mars that I see next to the moon." I thought about trying to capture it but its too misty and rainy here tonight. Thanks for sharing - my son will be thrilled to see your thread.

- Mike

Skippy

Zanotti wrote:

If skies are clear in your area on Sunday night, Dec. 23, you'll be able to partake in a rather unusual sight as the full moon appears to glide very closely above the planet Mars.

Mars, which made its closest approach to the Earth on Dec. 18, will be only hours from a Christmas Eve opposition with the sun and is now shining prominently with a bright yellow-orange glow.

Went out a took a quick look and shot!
Z


Mars will be closer to Earth this month than any time until the year 2016.

The red planet is now the brightest "star" in the evening sky and is already above the horizon as evening twilight fades away. But give it at least two more hours – until about 8 p.m. – for it to climb above the poor atmospheric seeing that's near the horizon. By then, this brilliant yellow-orange world will be at an altitude of around 30 degrees as seen from mid-northern latitudes.

Awwwww shucks, we've had heaps of rain for the last 5 days,
so the sky's have been rather cloudy.
(Good for us though cause we need the rain)

Would have been good to see.
You moon shots are incrediably sharp I must say :ivar
Thanks for sharing Zanotti .... Skippy
.

pathfinder

I saw that last night as I was driving to the traditional family gathering 90 miles further south, so there was no way to shoot that. Darn!!

What a great spectacle!!

I was certain it had to be Mars, as the "star" was a very definite orange, and that spelled "Mars" to me.

Your images look very nice, George, but they do not have the orange I saw last night in the sky.

Feliz Natal to you and your family.

Zanotti

Hey Jim:

Yes, to the naked eye it looked very red. When I did the PP on the moon to geta good shot, the red goes pretty much away. When I blow up the shot, mars is only about 4 pixels wide and tall, I can make it red, but that would be fake - these are really the planet!

I hope you and your family had a great Christmas,

Z (G)

ABCaptures

how cool is that!!!! great capture, TFS awesome

pthorpe

Very well done ... full moon is tough .. can we know the technical details?
Lens/exposure and such?

-peter-

yoyostock

Is that what that bright dot next to the moon was?!? I thought it was just some sensor dust on my eye.

BikePilot

Great shot! I saw that while I was playing around on the beach. I only had a 5yr old sony point and shoot with me (and don't really know what I'm doing). Mine didn't turn out as well as yours:)

HarveyMushman

I saw it on the 23rd, but my camera wasn't at hand. Anyway, here's last night's view from Virginny . . .




70-200 @ 200, 100% crop

BikePilot

Very cool. I love the amount of detail you got of the moon!

sara505

BikePilot wrote:

Very cool. I love the amount of detail you got of the moon!

You get more detail with a waxing or waning moon because the light is coming from an angle. Full moon is pretty, but the dead-on light washes out the shadows, ergo less detail.

Nice job on these - I would also love to see the shooting info - exposure times, focal length etc.

Thanks!

Zanotti

Zanotti wrote:

For mine the conditions are:

Canon 30D, 70-200f2.8IS, tripod mounted, 1/400 @f9. ISO 200

Remember, its a sun lit object so the sunny 16 rule applies. See Pathfinder's tutorial:

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/3762805

That's how I learned to do it!

Z

HarveyMushman

Zanotti wrote:

For mine the conditions are:

Canon 30D, 70-200f2.8IS, tripod mounted, 1/400 @f9. ISO 200

Remember, its a sun lit object so the sunny 16 rule applies. See Pathfinder's tutorial:

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/3762805

That's how I learned to do it!

Z

Yours is quite a bit sharper than mine.

Shot info. for mine (above):
Nikon D70, with Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VR
Spot-meter, Manual
f4, 1/250, ISO200
handheld

Zanotti

Harvey:

Yours looks very good as well. I always think I am tougher on my own images. There is a fair amount of PP in mine to get it that sharp, and I think the tripod helps!

Good shooting!

Z

sara505

Zanotti wrote:

Harvey:

Yours looks very good as well. I always think I am tougher on my own images. There is a fair amount of PP in mine to get it that sharp, and I think the tripod helps!

Good shooting!

Z

Were the images cropped to get the moon to look that big? I shot an eclipse a couple of years ago with a 300mm lens and I had to crop quite a bit to get it fill the frame.

Zanotti

Oh yes, tons. Its really far away, you know!

Z

sara505

Zanotti wrote:

Oh yes, tons. Its really far away, you know!

Z

Oh, only about 233, 855 miles or so!

Thanks, those shots are great.