The Moon, Venus, & Mercury

The Moon, Venus, & Mercury as seen at Mauricetown, NJ, March 18, 2018.

Osprey & Eagle Dogfight!

 An Osprey and an immature Bald Eagle had a dog fight over the house the other day!
The Osprey seemed to have a score to settle with the Eagle!

NASA's Wallops Island ATREX rocket launch

On March 27, 2012, beginning at 4:58 AM, NASA launched the Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment from Wallops Island Flight Facility on Virginia's Atlantic coast. Five rockets were launched in just over 5 minutes. Two Terrier Malemutes, two Terrier Orions, & one Terrier Oriole, were used to gather information needed to better understand the process responsible for high-altitude jet stream winds.
This jet stream, at 60 to 65miles above the earth's surface, is much higher than the one commonly reported in weather forecasts. The winds found in this upper jet stream typically have speeds of 200 to well over 300 miles per hour. Each rocket released a stream of tri-methel aluminum to create luminescent vapor trails.
NASA took photos from Tuckahoe, NJ, Wallops Island, Va, & the outer banks of North Carolina. I took my photos from the Delaware Bay in Maurice River Township, NJ.

Jupiter & Venus March 11, 2012

Jupiter & Venus in Aries the Ram on March 11th 2012, one day before closest encounter in western evening sky. Center left to right, the planets Jupiter & Venus are seen below, & the stars Alpha, Beta, & Gamma Arietis as seen over the Manumuskin River.

Jupiter & Venus March 9, 2012

Jupiter & Venus in Aries the Ram on March 9th. Center left to right, the planets Jupiter & Venus, the stars Alpha, Beta, & Gamma Arietis.

Jupiter & Venus will be seen closest together on March 12 & 13, 2012 after sunset in the western sky.

North America Nebula

The North America Nebula is a large cloud of glowing gas roughly in the shape of North America found in the northern Milky Way in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. 80mm F/5 telescope, 0.5 focal reducer, 20 forty second exposure with Star Shoot camera, June 14, 2009

Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge Osprey Photo

Photo taken April 19, 2011 during a trip with my brother Dave to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey. I used Nikon Coolpix 4500 camera & 102mm Maksutov telescope Lois found at goodwill.com website.

Black Brant Rocket Chemical Release

Rocket launch & chemical release from Black Brant rocket launch, Wallops Island, Virginia. As seen from East Point, New Jersey September 19, 2009. Click on the images for a larger view.

Minotaur Rocket Launch

On May 19, 2009 at 7:55 PM a 4 stage Air Force Minotaur I rocket carrying the Air Force Research Laboratory’s TacSat-3 satellite was launched from Wallops Island, Virginia. I and 3 friends watched from East Point, NJ as the rocket could be seen over the Delaware Bay. The view in binoculars was outstanding!

This is a photo I took with Nikon Coolpix 4500 camera as the rocket blasted off into space. Click on the image for a larger view.

Comet Lulin at Opposition

In this view taken February 25th comet Lulin is directly opposite the Sun in the sky and out all night long.

The gas tail points away from Earth & Sun and is unseen.

The dust tail is well presented & seen at it's longest & brightest.

This photo shows over 1.5 degrees of dust tail. It was taken at low power with my 80mm F/5 refractor with -0.5 focal reducer.

Comet Lulin Approaches Earth

I took this photo of comet Lulin on February 20, 2009 as the comet neared it's closest pass with Earth February 23rd. The reddish dust tail, the anti-tail, seen on the left, grows larger as the faint gas tail, at upper right, shrinks in size.
When comet Lulin reaches opposition on February 25th, it will be directly opposite the Sun in the sky, the gas tail should completely disappear. After opposition the gas tail, if still visible, will still point away from the Sun, but it will be pointing in the same direction as the anti-tail.

At this point the comet will have crossed the meridian and the anti-tail will really no longer be an anti-tail. Both tails will be pointing away from the Sun in the evening sky!

The Two Tails of Comet Lulin

Comet Lulin passes near the Earth on February 23, 2009 at the same time that it appears to pass 2 degrees south of Saturn.

I first observed comet Lulin August 3, 2008 as it passed 2 degrees north of Jupiter. This comet appears to pass so close to the planets because comet Lulin is closely aligned with the ecliptic, the Sun & planets path through the sky.

Although the rule of thumb is that comet tails point away from the Sun, a comet aligned with the ecliptic with an angular distance from the Sun that is increasing, can display an anti-tail that appears to point toward the Sun.

This is because the dust tail, although it initially points away from the Sun, curves as it is spread out along the orbit of the comet as it recedes from the Sun. At the same time the gas tail can be seen pointing directly away from the Sun.

I took this photo on the morning of February 1, 2009 with my 4.5" scope. The dusty anti-tail points to the upper left, the gas tail can be seen to the lower right.

Pluto 08-08-08

 Soon after I got my Orion Star Shoot camera one of my goals was to image 13.8 magnitude Pluto with my little 4.5" telescope.

This summer on August 8 & 9, 2008 I got a chance to demonstrate the capability of this reflector telescope.

 The two images above show the movement of Pluto on these two consecutive nights!

Comet Holmes November 16 & December 1, 2007

Compare the size of comet Holmes in the above photo I took Saturday night, December 1, to the photo on top taken November 16. The magnification is the same in both photos, about 18 power.

4.5" F/5 reflector, Pentax K1000, Fuji 800 film, 2 minutes.

The view last night, December 4, was amazing. The electric company decided to cut the power for a while to do some transformer maintenance. I guess they figured everyone was sleeping.

Everything went dark just moments after I stepped out of the shower. All the electric power was out for miles around for almost 2 hours. I dressed for my observing session with only a red filter flashlight. My eyes were well adapted to darkness as I stepped out near midnight into a totally dark neighborhood with a sky filled with stars. Comet Holmes was an easy naked eye object almost directly overhead and as big as the Moon!

Halloween Comet Holmes

I took this photo of Comet Holmes and Melotte 20 (the Alpha Persei Star Group) on October 31.

Comet Holmes is bigger than the Moon in this photo when you include the bluish outer coma.

Pentax K1000 camera, 100mm@F/2, Fuji Superia Xtra 800 film, 1 1/2 minutes.

Click on the photo to enlarge for the best view.

Comet Holmes November 7th

This photo was taken on November 7th with 4

Comet Holmes Continues to Amaze

Comet 17P/Holmes is still naked eye, just 1/2 degree northeast of Alpha Persei as I write this on November 18th.

It is larger than the Moon now with lower surface brightness. It is out almost all night long.

This photo was taken on October 29 with my 4.5" reflector, Nikon digital camera, and an 8 second exposure.

Be sure to click on the photo for a full size view.

Comet Holmes November 7th

I took this photo on November 7th with 4.5" F/4 reflector, Pentax K1000 camera, Fuji Superia Xtra 400 film, 30 second exposure.

Comet Holmes in a Super Outburst!

The last time this happened comet 17P/Holmes was hundreds of thousands of times brighter than usual when discovered on November 7, 1892 in London England by E. Holmes. This outburst is bigger. This comet is one million times as bright as just a few days ago before the outburst. No comet in history has ever had an outburst like this. Comet Holmes is a 2.5 magnitude naked eye object in Perseus. It could stay pretty bright for weeks.
Photo of comet 17P/Holmes with 12.5" telescope. For this photo I used 18mm eyepiece, Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera, 2 second exposure.
This photo looks very much as it appeared in the telescope. Note the starlike center and the fan of dust within the coma.

March 3, 2007 Lunar Eclipse

Last night I took this photo of the total eclipse of the Moon.

At sunset it was mostly cloudy but a break in the clouds less than an hour later allowed me to shoot this photo before the end of the total phase of this eclipse. I used an 80mm F/5 refractor & Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera, 2 second exposure with 18mm eyepiece.