Blood Moon Composite
A composite of the total lunar eclipse from May 15-16, 2022. Overall, I used 25 frames taken around totality. As background serves an image from the maximum of the eclipse.
Super Flower Blood Moon
On Sunday night, we could watch how the full Flower Moon moved through Earth's shadow, resulting in a total lunar eclipse. Since the Moon was close to Earth, this was also a Super Moon. Because the eclipsed Moon turns into a dark red color, its popular name is Blood Moon. Thus, we were witnessing a Super Flower Blood Moon. With a total duration of 5 hours and 19 minutes, it was
Partial Solar Eclipse
We were treated to a partial solar eclipse on April 30, 2022. Partial solar eclipses happen when the Moon comes between the Sun and Earth, but the Moon only partially covers the Sun's disk. Here at the southern edge of the Atacama Desert, the Moon covered roughly 23 percent of the Sun's disk during the maximum of the eclipse. All this happened deep in the western sky, and shortly before
Planets in the Morning
On April 30, 2022, we witnessed a magnificent conjunction of the two brightest planets, Jupiter and Venus, with Mars and Saturn as celestial observers higher in the sky. While Jupiter was the lowest planet in the sky before April 30, it swapped places with Venus after that date, and will have a close encounter with Mars on May 29, 2022.
Pink Flower
A creative composition realized with a pink flower, a macro lens, double exposure and a Photoshop finish.
Christmas Comet
I was finally able to image Comet Leonard, aptly dubbed this year's Christmas comet. Officially named C/2021 A1 (Leonard), this inbound long period comet was discovered by G. J. Leonard at the Mount Lemmon Observatory on 3 January 2021. It swept closest to Earth on December 12, 2021, and passed by bright Venus on December 17-18, 2021. It will make its closest approach to the sun (perihelion) on January 3,
ATLAS goes Chile
It was an exciting day at El Sauce Observatory as this remote Chilean observatory witnessed the arrival of the ATLAS telescope. ATLAS stands for "Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System" and refers to an asteroid impact early warning system developed by the University of Hawaii and funded by NASA. Currently, the ATLAS system consists of four identical telescopes: one at Mauna Loa Observatory on Big Island (Hawaii/USA), a second on the summit of
Partial Lunar Eclipse
On November 19, 2021, a large part of the world was treated to a lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon align so that the Moon passes into Earth’s shadow. In a total lunar eclipse, the entire Moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra. In this eclipse, up to 99.1% of the Moon’s disk entered Earth’s umbra. Therefore, this eclipse
Lunar X
By sheer coincidence, I got a lucky shot of the Lunar X tonight. The Lunar X is an effect in which light and shadow create the appearance of the letter 'X' on the rim of some lunar craters. This X is visible each month before the first quarter moon - but only for a few hours. It can be found along the so-called lunar terminator, i.e., the borderline between the
Antares
This is an image of Antares, the brightest object in the constellation of Scorpius. It is a giant red star that is surrounded by dust. It is often referred to as the "the heart of the scorpion" and appears distinctly reddish when viewed with the naked eye. I used an 8" refractor to obtain this image. Since refractors don't produce starburst patterns, I placed thin threads in front of the