Astro Thread

Thanks for the photos, tripod or not. Looks like only a little bit of copper color? How copper or red did it look to your eyes?

Didn't get to see much of the eclipse from my house. The Moon was down behind the trees and then behind the ridge.
 
Here are a couple of photos I took this morning from where I was camped northeast of Hart Mt. Antelope Refuge.
Weather conditions there were just about perfect....at about 9° F.

This one was at 5:35am PST, about 30 minutes before the beginning of totality:
gallery_2431_332_23874.jpg


This one was at about 6:30am PST, at about the middle of totality. You can see that the sky is starting to lighten from the dawn:
gallery_2431_332_127781.jpg
 
Thanks for the photos, tripod or not. Looks like only a little bit of copper color? How copper or red did it look to your eyes?

Didn't get to see much of the eclipse from my house. The Moon was down behind the trees and then behind the ridge.


Got a good view out my back door here in Las Cruces, nice and warm :) Thanks for the heads up.
 
This isn't quite in the theme of the subtitle for this thread, because it's looking down -- not up.
But it's looking down from space, from the International Space Station, so it's still more-or-less "astro".

It's a compilation of views of the Earth at night from the ISS, and this awesome series of views is set to some appropriately awesome music. This YouTube video is available in up to 1080p, so if you have a big computer monitor or better-yet a YouTube-connected big-screen TV with good speakers, use that to experience this.

All Alone in the Night -- Time-lapse footage of the Earth as seen from the ISS -- YouTube

Wow!
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Here's a link for info on the transit of Venus this June 5. If you have kids or grandkids, I recommend getting them out to see this. There won't be another transit of Venus in their lifetime.

http://www.skyandtel...-155396605.html

I'll probably head out to the same place I went for the recent solar eclipse, since it has a good view to the west. The sun will set while Venus is still in transit for most of us - you Northwestern Canadians and Alaskans get to see the whole thing.

http://media.skyandt...Transit_Map.jpg

For naked eye viewing, you will need the same solar glasses or welder's mask you used for the solar eclipse, but it will be even better through a properly filtered small telescope. Check for public viewing events at your local university or astronomy club.
 
I noticed highz viewing this thread just now (I hope you weren't just about to post this yourself)...and it reminded me of this upcoming (Tuesday) event:

Transit of the Sun by Venus

Transit = Venus passing in front of the Sun as viewed from Earth. If Venus was much (much, much) bigger or much (much, much) closer to us it could be an eclipse of the Sun.
One of those astro events that definitely can't be viewed directly/unprotected (if you want to avoid blindness), and probably needs some magnification, since the moving black spot that will be Venus will be very small compared to the size of the Suns's disk.

Don't take my word for it...but if you use any kind of sun filter in combination with magnification, put the filter between the Sun and the magnifier, not between the magnifier and your eye...but don't take my word for it!

venus%20transit%2020120605-1.jpg

WHOOPS! I see that highz beat me to this!
biggrin.gif
 
Hmmm.... This is the forecast for Central Oregon ("East Slopes of the Oregon Cascades") for Tuesday:

Forecast%2020120605-1.JPG
dry.gif


Snow showers?!?!
angry.gif


I wonder how far I have to drive to get Sun?
 
A story on NPR this morning gives an historical perspective on the transit of Venus, from an author of a book about Venus-research history.

Photo below on the NPR website from the June 8, 2004 transit. Apparently these Venus transits come in pairs separated by 8 years.

NPR_Venus-transit_20120603.jpg
 
Hmmm.... This is the forecast for Central Oregon ("East Slopes of the Oregon Cascades") for Tuesday:

Forecast%2020120605-1.JPG
dry.gif


Snow showers?!?! :mad:

I wonder how far I have to drive to get Sun?


Hey-not here-wind today, rain on Monday and rain/SNOW on Tuesday:mad: along with a drop in temp from like 80 today to the 50's by Tues-maybe summer is gone and Fall has started? I was thinking of heading out late next week-----but where?:cool:

Smoke

Smoke
 
We had a super clear night. The moon was nice and bright. About 3:30 am I caught some of the moon eclipse in our area. Not as nice as the one earlier in the year. The moon had a 1/3 bite out of it, but still nice to look at. I didn't get a chance to take pictures though. Some where just before 5 it was over and the clouds came in and guess what? It's now raining here weird weather. It's a good day to just watch it rain and have a good cup of espresso. Enjoy the cosmic stuff, don't think we will get to see the transit thing. Have to watch for it on the tube.
Next major cosmic thing (4 billion years away) the "milky way" will collide with the "Andromeda" galaxy and become the "Milkomeda" galaxy. May be we will all be back again by than. Who knows.

May the force be with you.
Frank
 
Weather report shows "Mostly Sunny" for us. i still have the eclipse glasses out so will be watching. I'll try to get a photo using the same method I did for the eclipse.
 
Here's a link to a live streaming view of the transit from NASA in Hawaii, scheduled to begin in a few minutes (2:45 pm PDT):
NASA EDGE Live Coverage

(OK, Coverage at NASA EDGE has begun, but apparently the first-contact of the transit begins at 3:10 PDT)

Weather here in Bend is just partly cloudy, and I can see the sun right now, but I don't have proper eye-protection, so I think I'll check out the view remotely via this online source.
There are other places streaming a live view, too, if you don't care for the banter of the NASA EDGE guys
rolleyes.gif
, such as:

Mt Wilson Observatory
Fairbanks Alaska
NASA TV
 

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