Moon play

Moon play?  What kind of title is that? What do you mean by Moon play?   

Well, I'll tell you. 

I have been taking lots of pictures of the Moon.  What I like best are the close-ups.  I love looking at the craters, and mountains and mare of the Moon.  I've taken what I think are some pretty good photos. 

And I also like recording images of the Moon rising.  Had some dandy ones there too.  

However, I've taken even more of what turned out to be rather odd photos of the Moon.  Shots that for some reason are not quite what I had hoped them to be. Actually, as new as I am to taking quality pictures, many times I just point and click, with this or that setting dialed in, and look to see what I get. Just playing with my toy.  

Sometimes, I've been surprised, even delighted with these experimental shots. Many more times, I hit delete.  

Today, I'm going to show you some of these in-between photos, that are kind of cool in some ways, but certainly don't qualify as a proper photograph.  Focus and exposure issues produce lots of pictures that fall into this category.  

Here we go.  

Now, don't get me wrong, I really like some of these.  Some of these you may also like.  They might even make you decide to take out your own camera and experiment with some Moon shots. You might be pleasantly surprised with some of yours, and the rest that you take, well, they probably won't be any worse than lots of these.  

The most notable feature in this first shot is the 'golden handle,' which is formed when the terminator line hits the Jura Mountain Range that lies along the edge of Mare Imbrium. The highest peak in that range is over 12,000 feet high.  

It happens on a waxing moon, that is, when it's getting larger each night.  You'll see it several days before the full Moon. 

And remember, if any of you in the northern hemisphere look for this feature, it will be reversed on your view of the Moon.  

Also here

This is a pretty good shot, not an odd-ball, but I've included it here with an arrow to show you another view of the mountain range that produces the golden handle.  

This next photo is also a good shot, showing the golden handle, but not so prominently as in the first picture.  

Just coming up, through the clouds, with lots of zoom. 

The palms framing this picture kept the Moon from being in focus, but look just to the left of the Moon.  That is a jet with it's contrail showing.  I was hoping that I could get a shot of the jet in front of the Moon, but with the focus problem, that didn't happen.  You can see the jet farther away in this next shot.   

I got a somewhat similar effect here as I did in the first picture.  Mountains, edge on and accentuated.  

I was temped to edit this picture and make it a little brighter, but decided to show it to you just as it was that night.  That is a mood-setter Moon if I ever saw one.  

Not a good picture, but boy, look at those craters.  

These next shots are rather nice, but not quite on the mark.  

I like this one, mostly. Very similar to the header. 

For this one, I turned on the flash and zoomed in a bit besides.  I was on our balcony. 

I like the fact that there is a round area on the right-hand palm that my zoom made just about the same size as the Moon. And that it's dark against the lighter tree.  Sort of a yin/yang thing going on there between the spot on the tree and the Moon in the sky. And they both seem to show a little bit of lean toward the other.   

I took this one the night of the eclipse of 11/19/21. It looks to me like a molten drop of metal.

Whoops, I broke the Moon. 

I really wish that this one had sharper focus.  

This is a 'misty-Moon.' 

That's it for now.  

Grab your own camera and give it a try. Try to have as solid a rest as you can. That makes a huge difference. Play a little. See what happens. Delight or delete.  You can't lose.       -djf

The Madeleines visit The Gardens

 

I'm going to start this post with a video.  I think it is a great introduction to the group that entertained us here at Waitakere Gardens on May 11, 2022.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47kR4kvFwxs

Quite a few entertainers have performed here during the 16 months Jeanne and I have been residents, and each has been talented and enjoyable in its own way, but this group, hands down, is my favorite.  They weren't  just good.  They were spectacular.  

The concert was free, but you did have to sign up if you wanted a seat.  

It is intermission and snacks are being served in this first photo.   

Lots of folks chose to watch from whatever floor they lived on.  

They started their program with the Bugle Boy song you saw on the video.  

By the way, the flowers you see on the piano served a double purpose. Raewyn, from our village, regularly picks flowers from the gardens and arranges them.  

The bouquets she crafts are available to any resident.  The price is just one gold coin. ($1 or $2)  

The money collected is used to buy more flower seeds, fertilizer, and other gardening necessities.  

Today, her arrangements also added a touch of class to The Madeleines stage.  

Even the style of microphones they use reflect the era of most of their songs.  I like that. 

Most of their songs were jazz or swing from the '40's and 50's, although they did what I thought was a very interesting version of Blondie's, Heart of Glass.  I was hoping I could show you a video of that song from You Tube, but no such luck. 

An hour and a half program went all too quickly.  We won't soon forget them.    -djf

Parade of Planets (part three)

For those of you who have been watching the sky with me during the last two posts, we have arrived at part three.  

For those of you who just happened to visit my blog, we are watching the parade of Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter.  The Moon joins in every now and then.  And one morning, we had a satellite briefly fly through.  I suggest that you go back and look at the first two parts of this adventure if you haven't seen them yet and then return to this one. (just scroll down to find them)  

I would also suggest that all of you view this post when the lighting is low. Because the planets are spread out, they are small and dim in some of these pictures, and bright lights in your computer room may make it harder to see them.  

This is where we left off during part two.  Venus is in the center and is the brightest. Saturn is at the top and Mars below it. The apparent distance between them is growing. Jupiter is way down by the palm fronds and will be moving up each day. The conjunction, of Venus and Jupiter will happen on May 1st. It may be on May 2nd here.  

Keep watching at how the distance between Venus and Jupiter diminishes.   

5:50 a.m., April 24, 2022  "♪ Oh what a night! ♪"  

I was lucky this morning.  The clouds are moving in fast, but what a line up!  The moon is leading the parade today, followed by Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter. I call that spectacular. 

 

April 26, 2022

The moon has changed its position but the planets are still lined up. Jupiter is getting much closer to Venus.  

April 29, 2022  No moon today, sorry.  Look at Jupiter go!  It's like a horse that got out of the gate late, but is coming up fast on the rest of the field. 

April 30, 2022   A big surprise today for me. (Maybe for you too.)  

Here is the wide-angle view. (Disregard the fairly bright star off to the right of Saturn) 

In this picture I zoomed in part way on just Venus and Jupiter and when I uploaded the photo, I discovered that I could see the Galilean Moons of Jupiter as well.  (No, that's not a moon of Venus, just a star that happened to show up in the photo...Venus has no moons.)

Well, I've got to get closer yet, don't I?  Here it is.  WOW!

And here is a view I took just before daylight washed out the planets altogether.  

May 1, 2022  Look at that! It's almost conjunction time! Look how close Venus and Jupiter are.  The humidity this morning is making them look fuzzy and blending them together. 

This is a closer look....

And this is as close as I can get. This absolutely floors me.  I never imagined that I would ever see Venus and Jupiter with three of its moons in a single picture.  

Scroll back up to the blue sky picture and see how much closer Jupiter is to Venus in this picture than it was just yesterday morning.  

Based on how much Jupiter has moved up in the last 24 hours, I think that by tomorrow, if the clouds allow me to see it, I'll find that it has moved well past the point of conjunction and will be above Venus. 

Success!  I Was able to see the planets this morning and I was right, Jupiter is quite a ways past Venus.  I'm very pleased that I could witness this.  

Here it is at about 5 a.m. on (my) May 2, 2022.  (from our balcony) 

If you compare it to the picture from the balcony above, (with the palm fronds showing) you'll see how much Jupiter moved in the last 24 hours.  

Here is the close up of just Venus and Jupiter.  Wow.  Impressive, huh? 

Looking back at how close J was to V yesterday, I think the actual conjunction moment took place just hours possibly after the pictures I took yesterday morning.  The conjunction probably took place in the bright sky above me, maybe around noon.  

Well, I saw it as close to conjunction as it was possible for me to see.  

This is a shot of a very fuzzy Jupiter et al. I love that we can see two moons passing one another.  This may be my favorite picture of the series.  It shows of a 'conjunction' of moons, happening during the conjunction of planets. 

I have been so incredibly lucky with my photos.     

I find it interesting too that my camera can be thought of as a humidity gauge.  The clearer the shot, the lower the humidity. And the reverse is true of course.  I looked up this morning and found that the humidity was 88%.  No wonder Jupiter is fuzzy.  

So, that's it.  The main part of the parade is over. If we wanted to, we could continue to watch the line of planets move on, with Venus still very bright, but now bringing up the rear.  But I think I've had enough for now.  

Early in June, Mercury will briefly join the other planets in the early morning, but it will be really hard to see it.  You can be sure though that I'll be trying.  

As a bonus feature, here are two more pictures of Jupiter and its moons close up. I took both of these pictures on May 2, 2022. 

What I want you to notice are the two moons that are passing one another, above the planet.  This was the first zoom picture I took.     

This picture was taken a few minutes after the first one. I think you'll agree that the right hand moon is closer to being even with the left hand moon in this shot than it is in the previous photo.  We are seeing them move past each other.  I wish I had taken more shots and could continue the progression for you.  

One final thought.  Check out the text and picture I have below. 

What a difference, then and now. 

This is a picture I took on December 25, 2020, at about 9:30 p.m. This is Jupiter and Saturn during their conjunction.  I was excited to see this of course, but what a difference a new camera makes.  

The conditions were cloudy and it was not yet full dark, so that affected the quality of this shot, but the sizes of the planets were as good as I could produce at the time with my little Canon.           -djf

Parade of planets, part two

 

Welcome to part two of our parade of planets.  It's April 3, 2022.

This is the photo with which I ended part one.  Notice here that you can see the redness of Mars, the upper planet.  

Saturn is going to continue to move upwards in relation to Mars however and will soon lead the parade.  Let's watch what happens. 

It's April 5, 2022 today. April 4th was 'clouded out.'  

Saturn has moved up significantly. 

I wish I could have shown you the moment of conjunction of these two, but thank goodness the clouds relented to the degree they did and I am able to show you this. (I had been watching for sometime, earlier this morning, and gnashing my teeth at the weather)  

I would have liked to show them to you side by side, but really, they were probably not high enough in the sky for me to see them when they actually passed one another. Clouds or no clouds, the moment of conjunction probably happened below my horizon.

Saturn is now above Mars in the sky. 

A short time later on the 5th

It's really hard to see Mars and Saturn in this sky. Let me zoom in a bit...

There they are. Beautiful, aren't they?  And remember, that's Venus down below, not the moon. 

April 8, 2022

They are moving apart. 

Back in part one, I showed you the moon joining the marching planets briefly in the very early morning. It's no longer rising early in the morning. This view was taken in the evening of April 9, about 9 p.m. 

The humidity was down to around 58% and I got this picture. 

The next morning, about 5:30 a.m., (April 10) I took the shot you see below.  Notice that Jupiter has now, finally, joined the parade.  It's peeking through the palm fronds.  You can see that dawn is coming soon. That's why we haven't been able to see it before. It was hidden in the dawn.  

This picture is a close-up of the upper portion of the previous photo. Note that Mars, the lower of the two smaller appearing planets, shows some color, proving its identity.  Saturn is now well above it.  

I tried to get close-ups of both these planets but wasn't able to.  

(And, as Dianne mentioned in a comment she made about part 1, some stars will occasionally appear in these pictures.)  

This picture was taken about 10 minutes after the last one.  The dawn is coming faster now and you can just barely see Jupiter down low, between the fronds. 

April 11, 2022, about 5:45 a.m. 

They're almost in a straight line now.  What a parade!  

April 14, 2022. 

You can see that Saturn has moved farther from Mars since the 11th, and Jupiter is moving closer to Venus. 

I'm excited.  A Jupiter-Venus conjunction is coming.  Cross your fingers that we can see it.  

Part three continues shortly.  Keep watching.     -djf