I have a great amphitheatre for the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, a nice open terrace with a panoramic view North to East. It’s not the best location to photograph them, however, I set the camera up to capture 15 second exposures constantly for 3 hours whilst I lay on a sunbed in the warm night air with a beer or two and watched the skies. I occasionally moved the camera so that it would take into account of the movement of the constellation Perseus which is where most of the streaks are coming from and where the name Perseids is taken from.
Here is a composite photograph with the the first image used as the base photo and then any streak captured overlaid because of course, the stars move. The very bright streak in the bottom left looks more like an Iridium Flare from a satellite rather than a meteor. This is when the sunlight reflects off a satellite surface causing a bright flash that can last a few seconds.
You have probably heard about the “Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn this coming Monday (21st December 2020). This is where they align in our line of sight with them making it look like they merge. Some people are of course calling it the Christmas or Bethlehem Star. Rather than me write all about this great event, Space.com have a great guide on their website which you can read HERE.
I do have a shoot planned and I will be scouting the location tomorrow, but of course, we are going to need some clear skies which have been quite unusually rare here in the Algarve in recent weeks. Tonight, however, was a very clear night and Jupiter and Saturn are already quite close. So I thought I’d grab my 500mm f/4, throw on a 2x converter to take it to 1000mm f/8 and point it. I wasn’t expecting great results, these planets are a long way away remember! However, it was great to actually see the not only 4 of the large moons of Jupiter but also the rings visible on Saturn.
After all the recent storms, it was great to be outside at night and a pass be the International Space Station was a good excuse to set the camera up. It was a very bright viewing as it was directly overhead, however, this made it tough to frame it from the house but here is a long exposure, actually 4 long exposures stitched together to give a trail as it cross the sky at almost 8 kilometres per second at a height of around 400 kilometres.
Tonight’s full moon, known as the Wolf Moon in January was also a Penumbral Eclipse. A Penumbral Eclipse is when the Earth blocks the sunlight reaching the moon’s surface, but in this instance, only a small section of the Earth’s outer shadow (known as the Penumbra) covers the moon.
If you look closely, using the moon as a clock face you will notice a darker shadow at between 4 and 5 o’clock.
Yes, I know this post is actually now the day after, but I did take the shot just before 11:57pm so it counts!
I wasn’t born at the time, but I can only imagine the excitement of watching it live on TV 50 years ago. The moon fascinates me due to the fact that I can see it, but I know I’ll never get to go there.
It seemed only right that I took a shot on this important day.
{Click image(s) to view on Flickr - opens in new tab}
The Iberian Magpie Feeding Area has been having some visitors overnight, identified by droppings left. I believe that a Badger is coming and possibly a Genet. Therefore, I now leave a trail cam running to see what comes along for a free small snack.
Last night a Fox, a healthy looking one, came along. The video is just some quick snippets as it was there for a long time, the camera picked up its arrival at 3:01am and it left at 3:47am!
{Remember to watch in HD if possible}
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