Thin Moon and Jupiter Setting (March 22, 2023)

The thin one-day-old crescent Moon just above Jupiter as both set on the evening of March 22, 2023. The Earthshine glow is obvious on the dark side of the Moon. The age of the Moon was about 31.5 hours this night at this time and longitude. This is a single 1.6-second untracked shot with the Canon RF100-400mm lens at 270mm and f/8 (wide open at this focal length), on the Canon Ra at ISO 3200 to keep the exposure time short and with the Ra's red sensitivity enhancing the twilight colours. Topaz DeNoise AI applied to smooth the high ISO noise. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo.

Venus and Jupiter Conjunction Between Trees

Venus (at top) and Jupiter in a close conjunction on the evening of March 2, 2023, the day after their closest approach. They were one degree apart this night but were 1/2° apart the night before. I've framed the scene between some lone trees on a prairie hill near home in southern Alberta. This is a single 1-second exposure with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 32mm and f/4 on the Canon R5 at ISO 200. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo and star spikes added with AstronomyTools actions.

Venus and Jupiter Conjunction with Single Tree

Venus (at top) and Jupiter in a close conjunction on the evening of March 2, 2023, the day after their closest approach. They were one degree apart this night but were 1/2° apart the night before. I shot this on a hill near home in southern Alberta. This is a single 1-second exposure with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 45mm and f/4 on the Canon R5 at ISO 100. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo and star spikes added with AstronomyTools actions.

Comet ZTF Near Hyades (Feb 14, 2023)

A portrait of green Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in Taurus beside Aldebaran and the Hyades on February 14, 2023. The star cluster NGC 1647 is at upper left. This is a stack of 8 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon RF 70-200mm lens at f/5 on the Canon R5 at ISO 1600. Star glows with MagicLight extension in Luminar Neo.

Green Comet and Red Planet (Feb 11, 2023)

The infamous "Green" Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passing by reddish Mars with both in the constellation of Taurus on the night of Feb 11, 2023. The comet was 2° south of Mars this night. Mars was embedded in some of the dark obscuring dust clouds in Taurus, creating the dark patchy appearance to the background sky. The comet's coma glows cyan due to emission from diatomic carbon molecules, a common trait of comets. The dust tail and faint ion tail are just visible. This is a stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with filter-modified Canon R and with the SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor at f/4.5. On the AP Mach1 mount, and autoguided with the ASIAir Mini and 30mm ZWO guidecope. In the 8 minutes of exposure the comet didn't move enough to significantly blur its image at this scale (420mm focal length). Taken from home as part of testing the Mini. A mild diffusion effect added with Radiant Photo plug-in. The comet tails brought out with luminosity masked curves from Lumenzia and with a Lighten DSO action from AstronomyTools.

Comet ZTF and Taurus Clusters (Feb 10, 2023)

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the constellation of Taurus on the night of Feb 10, 2023. The comet is the cyan-coloured glow above bright orange Mars at upper left. The framing takes in the major star clusters in Taurus: At upper right is the Pleiades star cluster, while the Hyades star cluster with reddish Aldebaran is at bottom. Other NGC catalogue star clusters are in this framing: NGC 1647 to the left of the Hyades and NGC 1746 to the left of the comet and Mars. Mars appears to be at the tip of a dark lane of interstellar dust in the Taurus Dark Clouds. This is a stack of 10 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with Canon R5 and with the RF70-200mm lens at f/4 and 89mm. Tracked but unguided on the AP Mach1 mount, and taken from home. A mild diffusion effect added with Radiant Photo plug-in. Faint nebulosity brought out with luminosity masked curves from Lumenzia.

Comet ZTF and Mars (Feb 10, 2023)

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passing Mars in the constellation of Taurus on the night of Feb 10, 2023. Mars appears to be at the tip of a dark lane of interstellar dust in the Taurus Dark Clouds. The comet is showing its whitish dust tail and blue ion tail, as well as its cyan coma from diatomic carbon emission. The star cluster at left is NGC 1746. This is a stack of 6 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with Canon R5 and with the RF70-200mm lens at f/4 and 179mm. Tracked but unguided on the AP Mach1 mount, and taken from home. A mild diffusion effect added with Radiant Photo plug-in. Faint nebulosity brought out with luminosity masked curves from Lumenzia.

Comet ZTF in Taurus (Feb 10, 2023)

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the constellation of Taurus on the night of Feb 10, 2023. The comet is the cyan-coloured glow above bright orange Mars. At right is the Pleiades star cluster, while the Hyades star cluster with reddish Aldebaran is below. Other NGC catalogue star clusters are in this framing: NGC 1647 below centre, NGC 1746 below right of the comet and Mars, and NGC 1817 at lower left. Mars appears to be at the tip of a dark lane of interstellar dust in the Taurus Dark Clouds. This is a stack of 8 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 800 with Canon R5 and with the RF28-70mm lens at f/2.8 and 65mm. The lens was stopped down from f/2 so the iris blades added the diffraction spikes. Tracked but unguided on the AP Mach1 mount, and taken from home. A mild diffusion effect added with Radiant Photo plug-in.

Lunar Haloes in the Winter Sky

An ice crystal halo around the waxing gibbous Moon set in the winter stars of a January night. The 22° halo is most obvious and with a reddish and sharply defined inner rim and a bluish and more diffuse outer edge. But a faint 8° halo is also visible, a rare halo sometimes called the Van Buijsen Halo (according to Lynch and Livingston in their book Color and Light in Nature; Minnaert also mentions it in his seminal book The Nature of Color and Light in the Open Air). It is not a lens flare as shots taken with the Moon well off to one side of the frame still show the inner halo centred on the Moon. Nor is it an artifact of the exposure blending as it is present on the raw single long-exposure image. The Moon was in Taurus this night and very close to Mars, shining here just above the Moon. An occultation occured for locatons in the southern U.S. and Mexico this night, but for me in Alberta it was a very close conjunction. Orion is at lower left; Gemini at upper left; Auriga above the Moon; and Perseus is at upper right. To retain the disk of the Moon and better capture the scene as the eye saw it, this is a blend of 7 untracked exposures, from 20 seconds to 1/200 second with the RF15-35mm lens at 15mm and f/4 and Canon R5 at ISO 400. Blended with luminosity masks.

Lunar Haloes (22° and 8°)

An ice crystal halo around the waxing gibbous Moon set in the winter stars of a January night. The 22° halo is most obvious and with a reddish and sharper inner rim., and a bluish and more diffuse outer edge. But a faint inner 8° halo is also visible, a rare halo sometimes called the Van Buijsen Halo (according to Lynch and Livingston in their book Color and Light in Nature; Minnaert also mentions it in his seminal book The Nature of Color and Light in the Open Air). It is not a lens flare as shots taken with the Moon well off to one side of the frame still show the inner halo centred on the Moon. Nor is it an artifact of the exposure blending as it is present on the raw single long-exposure image. The Moon was in Taurus this night and very close to Mars, shining here as the red point of light just above the Moon. An occultation occured for locatons in the southern U.S. and Mexico this night, but for me in Alberta it was a very close conjunction. Orion is at lower left; Auriga is above the Moon; and Perseus is at upper right. To retain the disk of the Moon and better capture the scene as the eye saw it, this is a blend of 8 untracked exposures, from 30 seconds to 1/250 second with the RF15-35mm lens at 22mm and f/4 and Canon R5 at ISO 400. Being untracked exposures, the stars are trailed somewhat. Frames manually aligned then blended with luminosity masks created with Lumenzia. A mild glow effect was added with Radiant Photo plug-in.

Thin Moon with Venus and Saturn Conjunction (Landscape)

Venus in a close conjunction with dimmer Saturn in the evening twilight on January 22, 2023. They were 22 arc minutes apart this evening. The 1-day-old waxing crescent Moon is below the planet pair deep in the twilight. The magnitude 2.8 star Deneb Algiedi, aka Delta Capricorni, is faintly visible below Venus. Venus was magnitude -3.9 while Saturn was magnitude 0.8. This is a single 1-second exposure with the Canon RF70-200mm lens at 124mm and at f/5.6, on the Canon R5 at ISO 100. Taken from home in southern Alberta. Most processing done in Adobe Camera Raw with the aid of AI Sky and Inverted Sky masks. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo. Noise reduction with ON1 NoNoise AI 2023. There is a portrait orientation version of this as well.

Thin Moon with Venus and Saturn Conjunction (Portrait)

Venus in a close conjunction with dimmer Saturn in the evening twilight on January 22, 2023. They were 22 arc minutes apart this evening. The 1-day-old waxing crescent Moon is below the planet pair deep in the twilight. The magnitude 2.8 star Deneb Algiedi, aka Delta Capricorni, is faintly visible below Venus. Venus was magnitude -3.9 while Saturn was magnitude 0.8. This is a single 0.8-second exposure with the Canon RF70-200mm lens at 171mm and at f/5.6, on the Canon R5 at ISO 100. Taken from home in southern Alberta. Most processing done in Adobe Camera Raw with the aid of AI Sky and Inverted Sky masks. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo. Noise reduction with ON1 NoNoise AI 2023. There is a landscape orientation version of this as well.

Venus and Saturn in Winter Twilight (Jan 21, 2023)

Venus below dimmer Saturn in the evening twilight on January 21, 2023, the evening before their close conjuncton. The magnitude 2.8 star Deneb Algiedi, aka Delta Capricorni, is below and to the left of Venus. Venus was magnitude -3.9 while Saturn was magnitude 0.8. This is a single 0.8-second exposure with the Canon RF70-200mm lens at 103mn and at f/4, on the Canon R5 at ISO 400. Taken from home in southern Alberta. Most processing done in Adobe Camera Raw with the aid of AI Sky and Inverted Sky masks. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo. Noise reduction with ON1 NoNoise AI 2023.

Mars in the Milky Way (40mm)

Mars, the bright orange object right of centre, is here amid the stars and constellations of the winter Milky Way in January 2023. Mars is in Taurus, above Aldebaran and the Hyades, and below the blue Pleiades. The stars of Auriga are at left. At top are stars in Perseus, including the reddish California Nebula. The interstellar Dark Clouds of Taurus are at centre. This is a stack of 7 x 2-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 40mm, on the stock Canon R5 at ISO 800. A single exposure through a Kase/Alyn Wallace Starglow filter blended in added the star glows. The main images were also shot through an URTH light pollution reduction filter. Taken from home January 10, 2023. There's another version of this shot at 35mm for a little wider framing of Auriga and Taurus.

Mars in the Milky Way (35mm)

Mars, the bright orange object right of centre, is here amid the stars and constellations of the winter Milky Way in January 2023. Mars is in Taurus, above Aldebaran and the Hyades, and below the blue Pleiades. The stars of Auriga are at left. At top are stars in Perseus, including the reddish California Nebula. The interstellar Dark Clouds of Taurus are at centre. This is a stack of 7 x 2-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 35mm, on the stock Canon R5 at ISO 800. A single exposure through a Kase/Alyn Wallace Starglow filter blended in added the star glows. The main images were also shot through an URTH light pollution reduction filter. Taken from home January 10, 2023. There's another version of this shot at 40mm for a little closer crop in on Auriga and Taurus.

Moon and Mars in Clouds

This is the waxing gibbous Moon (11.7 days old) near reddish Mars (at upper right), both set in a swirl of clouds, looking like they are in an interstellar nebula. Diffraction from ice crystals in the clouds adds the colourful corona around the Moon. This was the Moon-Mars conjunction of January 3, 2023. Mars was then about a month past opposition. This is a blend of 6 exposures, from 5 seconds to 1/200th second, to compress the high dynamic range in brightness and recreate the view more as the eye saw it. Exposures blended with luminosity masks. All were with the Canon RF100-400mm lens at 300mm and f/8, and on the Canon R5 at ISO 400. The camera was on a tracking mount to prevent the stars from trailing. Diffraction spikes on Mars added for artistic effect with AstronomyTools Actions. A mild Orton Glow added with Luminar Neo.

Moon, Mars and the Hyades in Clouds

This is the waxing gibbous Moon (11.7 days old) near reddish Mars (above the Moon), and with reddish Aldebaran and the Hyades star cluster below. All are set in a swirl of clouds, looking like they are in an interstellar nebula. Diffraction from ice crystals in the clouds adds the colourful corona around the Moon. This was the Moon-Mars conjunction of January 3, 2023. Mars was then about a month past opposition. This is a blend of 8 exposures, from 8 seconds to 1/500th second, to compress the high dynamic range in brightness and recreate the view more as the eye saw it. Exposures blended with luminosity masks created with Lumenzia. All frames were with the Canon RF100-400mm lens at 100mm and f/5.6, and on the Canon R5 at ISO 400. The camera was on a tracking mount to prevent the stars from trailing. Diffraction spikes added for artistic effect with AstronomyTools Actions. A mild Orton Glow added with Nik Collection/Color EFX.

The Quarter Moon Near Jupiter (Dec. 29. 2022)

The first quarter Moon near the planet Jupiter (at right) amid a hazy sky adding a colourful diffraction effect around the Moon — a lunar "corona." This is a blend of 6 exposures, from 8 seconds to 1/125th second, two stops apart, all at f/7.1 with the Canon RF100-400mm lens at 174mm and Canon R5 at ISO 400. Blended with luminosity masks to retain details on the disk of the Moon but with it set in the bright halo and moonlit sky. Jupiter at right mostly comes from the 2-second exposure, to minimize its trailing in this set of untracked camera-on-tripod exposures. The background sky and trailed stars come from the longest exposure. This was partly a test of this new lens as it was used here straight out of the box for the first time on this scene.

Christmas Evening Planets in Twilight

The waxing crescent Moon above the pairing of Mercury (highest) and Venus (lowest) at lower right in the evening twilight on Christmas Day, 2022. This night, and this Christmas week in 2022, all the naked eye planets were visible across the evening sky, but Mercury and Venus disappeared into the horizon clouds this evening before the sky darkened enough to shoot a panoroma of the scene, to catch dimmer Saturn in the southeast, plus Jupiter to the south and Mars to the east. This is a single exposure with the Canon R5 at ISO 100 and RF28-70mm lens at 70mm and f/4 for 0.3 sec.

The Occultation of Mars (December 7, 2022)

This is the occultation of Mars by the Full Moon on December 7, 2022, in a composite showing the motion of Mars relative to the Moon. The motion here is from left to right. However, while this composite makes it look like Mars was doing the moving, it was really the Moon that was passing in front of Mars. But for this sequence I set the telescope mount to track the Moon at its rate of motion against the background stars and Mars, to keep the Moon more or less stationary on the frame while Mars and the background sky passed behind it. Mars was at opposition this night and so was the Moon, so the Moon was full and Mars was at its brightest for this appearance in 2022. The size of the Martian disk was 17 arc seconds across this night and its magnitude was -1.8. Mars is twice the actual size of the Moon, but appears tiny here due to its greater distance — some 206 times farther away than the Moon. This night, the Moon was 397,000 kilometres away, near is apogee point, while Mars was 82 million kilometres away, a week after its closest approach. This is a blend of 40 exposures (20 pre-ingress at left and 20 post-egress at right) that each contained the Moon and Mars. The Moon image here is a single exposure taken at the end of the sequence when the sky was clearest. However, for many of the images, especially pre-ingress, the Moon and Mars were in light cloud and haze, adding the glow around the Moon. The sky is from a blend of all the images. I shot images at one per minute, but used only every second frame here, so the images are two minutes apart, taken over 40 minutes on ether side of ingress and egress. Each is a unique image subject to varying seeing conditions blurring some of the Mars disks more than others. This is not a composite made of the same "best" Mars image copied and pasted along what its path should have been. Even so, I still had to adjust the alignment somewhat for each image, as the field still drifted out over several minutes of tracking, causing me to recenter the field occasionally during the shoot. Exposures varied with the cloud cover but were from 1/200 to 1/40 sec, all with the Canon R5 camera at ISO 400 and on the Astro-Physics 130EDT refractor with a 2x Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm at f/12. I've processed the image for high contrast on the lunar disk (using a Subject mask in Camera Raw) to emphasize its lunar seas and bright ray structures, such as from the crater Tycho at bottom, a relatively recent impact. I also brought out the sky colours from the clouds for added effect.

Full Moon and Mars at Occultation Ingress (Dec 7, 2022)

Mars is about to be occulted by the Full Moon on December 7, 2022. This is ingress with the eastward moving (i.e. right to left here) Moon about to cover up Mars on the Moon's western limb. The sky had thin cloud adding the colourful halo, or "corona," around the Moon, so the sky is not black. Mars was at opposition this night and so was the Moon, so the Moon was full and Mars was at its brightest for this appearance in 2022. The size of the Martian disk was 17 arc seconds across this night and its magnitude was -1.8. Mars is twice the actual size of the Moon, but appears tiny here due to its greater distance — some 206 times farther away than the Moon. This night, the Moon was 397,000 kilometres away, near is apogee point, while Mars was 82 million kilometres away, a week after its closest approach. This is a single 1/80-second exposure — it is not an exposure blend or composite — with the Canon R5 camera at ISO 400 and on the Astro-Physics 130EDT refractor with a 2x Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm at f/12. I've processed the image for high contrast on the lunar disk (using a Subject mask in Camera Raw) to emphasize its lunar seas and bright ray structures, such as from the crater Tycho at bottom, a relatively recent impact. I also brought out the sky colours from the clouds for added effect.

Eclipsed Moon in Starfield with Uranus (Nov 8, 2022)

This is the totally eclipsed Moon of November 8, 2022 set in the stars of Aries, with the planet Uranus nearby, visible as the greenish star about three Moon diameters away from the Moon at the 10 o'clock position. Uranus was at oppostion the next night, November 9, at magnitude 5.6. I shot the set of images for this scene at about 3:28 a.m. MST, about 20 minutes after the start of this long totality, so the right (lunar eastern) limb of the Moon was still fairly bright. The field of view is about 7.6° by 5°. This is a blend of four exposures to compress the dynamic range and record the stars while maintaining the Moon more as the eye saw it. I blended a 5-second exposure at ISO 1600 for the stars, with 1-, 2-, and 5-second exposures at ISO 200 for the lunar disk, all with the Canon Ra on the SharpStar 61mm EDPH refractor with the Reducer/Flattener for f/4.6. The scope and camera were on the Star Adventurer tracker, turning at the sidereal rate for the long exposure for the stars but at the slower lunar rate for the shorter, lower ISO exposures for the Moon. Blending was with old-fashioned manual masking, not HDR routines or even luminosity masks. It was -25° C this night, and with several inches of snow having just fallen that day, so I kept the gear complexity to a minimum. However, using a 280mm focal length scope on the tracker was pushing it. Most long exposures for the starfield were trailed. I shot several sets of "HDR" exposures to be sure I got one that worked.

Mercury at Greatest Elongation at Dawn

Mercury a morning before its greatest western elongation in the eastern dawn sky, October 7, 2022. Taken from home in Alberta at latitude 51° N. A single 1-second image with the RF28-70mm lens at f/4 and 70mm and Canon Ra at ISO 100.

Jupiter and Saturn in September 2022

Jupiter (bright at left in Pisces) and Saturn (dimmer at right in Capricornus) low in the southeast sky on a mid-September evening in 2022. Jupiter was then nearing its opposition, and a close one at that in 2022, appearing brighter than it usually does at opposition. Jupiter appears below the Square of Pegasus at upper left. This was from home in southern Alberta at latitude 51° N. This is four tracked and stacked 1-mnute exposures blended with a single tracked 1-minute exposure for the ground, all with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 18mm and f/2.8, and Canon R5 at ISO 1600, on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker. Taken on a night of lens testing as a "grab" shot. It serves to illustrate Jupiter rising near opposition. Light cloud added the natural glows on the stars and planets. No filter was used here.