Rising In The Mist

A thin veil of fog was brightly illuminated by the rising sun as seen in this image, photographed from the parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Sunday morning, February 19, 2017. Time was 7:38 am CST, temperature was 30 degrees F. The temperature maxed out at a record breaking 69 degrees F on this day.

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On Comet, On Cupid?

Nope. Just a whole lot of nothing in the northeast sky. Unless you're a fan of the constellation Bootes. With positional information I thought I had, I attempted to capture the comet Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova (45P) one day before Valentine's Day. That information positioned the comet just south of the constellation Bootes (image above), and gave its brightness at an easily discernible magnitude of 3. Other information, though, had it at magnitude 7, which is in telescope territory. With a three-quarter moon saturating the night sky (outside the image at right), I got nothing but some washed-out stars. Above, the constellation Bootes lays on its side, with its brightest star--the magnitude -0.07 Arcturus--seen at right center. This image was captured from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 12:08 am CST, Friday, February 13, 2017. It is a 5-second exposure at f/4.5, 2000 ISO and 23mm focal length. Air temperature was 27 degrees F.

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Saw Its Shadow

The full moon emerged from a fast moving bank of clouds in the east sky from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 7:20 pm CST on Friday, February 10, 2017, to reveal its unobstructed face, complete with a penumbral eclipse. A penumbral eclipse is created when the Earth's outer shadow (not the main one) reaches the moon. The lightly-shadowed upper left of the moon seen in the image above is that shadow. The eclipse began at 5:33 pm, reached maximum eclipse at 6:43 pm, and ended at 8:53 pm. This image was a hand-held capture at 1/500 second, f/6.3, 250 ISO, and 300mm focal length. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Chilly Celestial Viewing

At 21 degrees F and with a wind chill of 7 degrees F, watching (or photographing) the conjunction of the moon, Mars and Venus on the evening of Wednesday, February 1, 2017 was a chilly prospect. Above, from top-to-bottom in line are the moon (apparent magnitude of -11.39), the planet Mars (1.12 magnitude), and the planet Venus (-4.56 magnitude). The moon was 41 degrees above the horizon, while Venus was 30 degrees. The skies here had just cleared to make the photo opportunity available. Image looks southwest from the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 6:22 pm CST, and is a 15-second exposure at f/9, 250 ISO and 18mm focal length. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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