Saturday Morning Orion

 

My intention was to view and/or photograph the Comet Atlas A3 on the morning of Saturday, September 28, 2024. This was to be unsuccessful, but the constellation Orion was glittering beautifully in the southern sky, so I diverted to that instead. The image above, captured at 5:32 am CDT, is a 20 second exposure at f/4, ISO 400, 24mm focal length, and was photographed from White Road at North Marion Road, north of Marion, Iowa. The constellation Orion is seen at center upper, with the bright -1.47 magnitude star Sirius at left. Contrail streaks are seen at lower right. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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Harvest SuperMoon River...with a Partial Eclipse

 

A "Harvest Moon" is a full moon in the month of September. A "Supermoon" is when the moon is at its closest orbital approach to Earth (perigee) and is in full phase. Now, let's throw in a partial eclipse and you have an "Eclipsed Harvest Supermoon." That all occurred over the state of Iowa during the evening of Tuesday, September 17, 2024. I mulled over the best location to photographically capture the event and finally arrived at the Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids, with all its nighttime colorful reflective properties. The above image, which looks southeast from near the old Quaker Oats railroad bridge, is a composite. Time was 9:36 pm CDT, the moment when the moon was 100% full, and eight minutes before maximum partial eclipse. The foreground is a 6 second exposure at f/8, ISO 100, 24mm focal length. The moon itself is a 1/320 second exposure at f/8, ISO 200, 70mm focal length. The moon's reflectivity in the water (center) mingles with the reflected lights of the city. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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Pre-Dawn Eastern Skies

 

The eastern sky during the pre-dawn hour of Saturday, August 31, 2024 was chocked-full of celestial features. This image, captured from the Bowman Meadows housing development at 4:05 am CDT, is a 10 second exposure at f/4.5, ISO 125, 24mm focal length. At right center is the constellation Orion. The bright object at center upper is the -2.27 magnitude planet Jupiter. The slightly less bright object below and left of Jupiter is the 0.74 planet Mars. Above and right of Jupiter is the constellation Taurus. At left in the image is the constellation Gemini.

4:06 am. Rising just above the horizon at about the same time was a thin crescent moon. This is a 10 second exposure (which created the bright Earth-shine appearance) at f/4.5, ISO 125, 70mm focal length. Note the ground fog at center. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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