SJAstro Page Index | Weather Links | Mercury 2024 | Lunar X | Omega Centauri | Barnard's Star | Bald Eagles | T CrB |

Polaris Dawn Launch
September 10, 2024

On September 10, 2024, SpaceX launched their Polaris Dawn mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, lifting off at 5:23 am EDT. Since the launch trajectory headed northeast off the coast of the eastern USA, it was visible as from southern New Jersey as it passed, although I wondered if astronomical twilight starting at 5:04 am would have a deleterious effect; it didn't. I watched from the street in front of my home in Maple Shade, NJ, and first spotted the massive and spectacular rocket plume at 5:29 am. It had nine "arms" that aren't clearly differentiated in this blurry photo that I took at 5:32 am with a handheld iPhone 11 looking southeast. The two stars in it are Procyon (left) and Sirius (right), about 26° apart, so the visible plume is on the order of 25° long. Taking that angle and assuming the rocket was 300 miles away, the small angle approximation yields a physical length of about 130 miles for the visible plume. The rocket exhaust and the plume abruptly faded at 5:33 am. Moments later, the second stage ignited, with the rocket exhaust then sporting a single modest trailing arm and paraboloidal plume; all of this, the rocket exhausts and the plumes from both stages were whitish in color (as opposed to the orange rocket exhaust of a Falcon 9 second stage seen on August 28 taking a batch of Starlink satellites to orbit). It was a most spectacular view! Here's another picture at the Spaceweather Photo Gallery.

The Young Crescent Moon and Venus
September 5, 2024

On September 5, 2024, the young Crescent Moon joined the planet Venus as they approach the tree line on the western horizon after sunset as seen from Bishops Gate in Mt Laurel, NJ. Venus was at superior conjunction on June 4, 2024, while the Moon new at 9:56 pm EDT on Sept 2, so it was nominally 2.9 days old and 7.3% illuminated. This is the view at 8:06 pm when the Moon was at 4.0° altitude, Venus was at 3.6° altitude, and the pair was 6.6° apart (center-to-center). Taken with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera and a Canon 100 mm f/2.8L telephoto/macro lens on a fixed tripod. This single raw frame was automatically exposed 0.4 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600 with auto white balance. It was lightly adjusted with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4 and cropped to a 16:9 ratio for a field 16° wide x 9° high. Venus was slightly enhanced with Adobe Photoshop Elements. Mouseover for labels.

Here's the camera setup used on September 5, 2024, to take the preceding picture. It's the Canon RP DSLM camera, which being mirrorless, normally has the current view when the rear screen is flipped outwards (no need for live view mode like a DSLR). It was attached to a Canon 100 mm f/2.8L telephoto/macro lens, which in turn was mounted on a FotoPro gimbal head, featuring a tilting arm for access to higher elevations. All of this rides a substantial Benro carbon fiber tripod. An electrical remote shutter release dangles from the mount. Taken with a handheld iPhone 11 at 7:56 pm EDT. Exposed 1/30 second at f/1.8, ISO 800. The Moon can be seen in the background, and with difficulty, Venus too. The antenna on the left is at NJ Turnpike Southern Division Maintenance HQ (the NJ Turnpike is just behind the distant trees). The NJ State Police Troop D Moorestown Station is next the maintenance yard.

The Young Crescent Moon
September 5, 2024

On September 5, 2024, before taking a wider field picture of the Crescent Moon and Venus as seen above, I also captured the Moon itself using the same rig, except with a Canon 400 mm f/5.6 telephoto lens. This single raw frame was captured at 7:45 pm, exposed automatically 1/125 second at f/8.0, ISO 3200, auto white balance. It was minimally processed in Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4 and cropped to a 4:3 ratio using 38% x 43% of the original length x width. The resultant field is 2.0° wide x 1.5° high.

On September 5, 2024, this is the final shot of the crescent Moon before it sank behind the distant trees. Again, the same rig with the Canon 400 mm f/5.6 telephoto lens. This single raw frame was captured at 8:13 pm, exposed automatically 0.8 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600, auto white balance. It was minimally processed in Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4 and cropped to a 16:9 ratio using 77% x 65% of the original length x width. The resultant field is 4.0° wide x 2.2° high.

Smoke at Carranza
September 3, 2024

On September 3, 2024, I went to Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ, mainly to look fort comet 13P/Olbers. However, on the way down Carranza Rd, I smelled wood smoke and saw light beams from the headlamps. When I arrived at the field, it was shrouded by bluish smoke that again smelled like burning wood. No fires were visible from the field and I never found reports of a nearby fire. Evidently, the winds that day blew in the smoke from an unknown, more distant place. The picture shows an LED flashlight (on low power) aimed upwards while standing in the windshield wiper well of my car. The reflection is off the car's windshield. Taken with a handheld iPhone 11 at 8:25 pm EDT. The star near the top is Arcturus.

Venus from Thompson's Beach
August 22, 2024

On August 22, 2024, the planet Venus was low and sinking towards the western horizon after sunset as seen from the Thompson's Beach, NJ, nature observing platform. Venus was at superior conjunction on June 4, 2024 and has been slowly gaining altitude after sunset as it creeps away from the Sun. At the time of this picture, 8:17 pm EDT, 31 minutes after sunset at 7:46 pm, Venus was at 4.6° altitude, 272° azimuth and 21.6° solar elongation. The shallow inclination of the ecliptic at sunset this time of the year, about 29° with respect to the horizon, is a major factor in Venus's slow climb; much of the elongation is sideways rather than vertical. Nevertheless, Venus' brightness, now magnitude -3.9, allows it to be seen relatively easily after sunset. It was first spotted on August 22 at 7:50 pm with 12x50 binoculars, then once located, it was seen with unaided eyes. By 8:10 pm, it was easy with unaided eyes. The Moon was observed breaking the horizon shortly after it rose at 9:39 pm, see below. Taken with a handheld Canon EOS 7D Mk II DSLR camera (APS C sensor) and a Tamron 45 mm f/1.8 lens. It was automatically exposed 1/60 second at f/2.8, ISO 1600 with auto white balance. It was lightly adjusted with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4 and cropped to a 16:9 ratio (keeping the full width) for a field 28° wide x 16° high. Venus itself was lightly enhanced with Adobe Photoshop Elements. Mouseover for labeling.

This image of the rising Moon was captured on August 22, 2024, from Thompson's Beach, NJ, not long after it rose at 9:39 pm. At the time, it was 84% illuminated and 4.5° altitude. Visually, it did indeed have this orange hue from differential absorption due to the thick atmosphere at that low altitude (blue attenuated more than red) and there's a little atmospheric prismatic chromatic aberration (a greenish tinge at the upper limb, a reddish tinge at the lower limb). This snapshot is from a single raw frame taken at 9:56 pm EDT with a Canon EOS 7D Mk II DSLR camera and a Tamron 150 to 600 mm, f/5.0 to 6.3, telephoto zoom lens (on a fixed tripod) set to 600 mm focal length. It was exposed 1/320 second at f/11, ISO 3200, daylight white balance (about 3.3 stops less than the Looney 11 rule of thumb for lunar exposure). Except for a slight reduction in color saturation in Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4, it is unadjusted. It was cropped to a 4:3 ratio, 44% x 49% of the original linear dimensions, yielding a field about 0.9° wide x 0.7° high, then saved as this 1000 x 750 JPEG, in DPP4.

Jupiter, Mars and Uranus
August 15, 2024

On August 15, 2024, the planets Jupiter and Mars were separated by 27 arc minutes, a day after they were in conjunction on August 14 and just 20 arc minutes apart in our New Jersey pre-dawn sky. The planet Uranus is also present here, near the Pleiades star cluster. Taken at 3:11 am EDT from Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ. It's from a single raw frame captured with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera (on a fixed tripod) and a Sigma 20 mm, f/1.4 Art lens. It was exposed 2 seconds at f/2.0, ISO 3200, auto white balance. Modest adjustments were made with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4, then it was cropped to 51% of the original linear dimensions providing a field about 49° wide x 34° high. Mouseover for labels. On the morning of August 14, 2024, I observed Jupiter and Saturn from my front yard in Maple Shade, NJ, with my Kowa 88 mm apo spotting scope. They both fit in the same field at 96x. I also looked at Uranus in the spotter. The shift in position angle between Jupiter and Mars, mainly due to Mars' movement east, is obvious between the image from August 13 below and August 15 above.

Jupiter & Mars with the Hyades
August 13, 2024

On August 13, 2024, the planets Jupiter and Mars were just 44 arc minutes apart in the pre-dawn sky as seen from Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ. The two planets will be at formal conjunction in geocentric right ascension on August 14 at 1 pm EDT, but towards dawn, they'll be just 20 arc minutes apart. This snapshot of them, looking roughly east around 20° altitude, is from a single raw frame taken at 2:58 am EDT with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera and a Canon 100 mm, f/2.8L macro lens on a fixed tripod. It was exposed 3.2 seconds at f/4.0, ISO 6400, 4200K white balance. Modest adjustments were made with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4, and it was cropped to 87% of the original linear dimensions providing a field about 18° wide x 12° high. Mouseover for labels. Here's a heavy crop, using 19% of the original linear dimensions of the same raw image as above, providing a field 4.0° wide x 2.6° high. It magnifies the field around Jupiter and Mars showing the Galilean satellite Callisto outside the glare of greatly overexposed Jupiter (it's just visible with close inspection of the version above). Solar system objects are labeled in yellow, along with their magnitude values, as well as magnitude values for selected stars shown in blue (all magnitudes are from SkyTools).

Jupiter, Mars & Uranus with the Pleiades & Hyades
July 27, 2024

This image with the planets Jupiter, Mars and Uranus near the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters, all in the constellation Taurus, was captured on July 27, 2024, from Marter Avenue in Mt Laurel, NJ. The 59% illuminated gibbous Moon was about 32° east of Uranus, resulting in some glow to the background sky. This was mainly intended as a test image to check the field of view of the camera-lens combination as shown by SkyTools and SkySafari (it matched). On the morning of July 30, 2024, the 27% illuminated crescent Moon will form a compact triangle with Mars and the Pleiades, to the left of a line between them (here's a SkySafari screen capture of this alignment). By then, Mars will have moved about 2° eastward, down and to the left in this view (for reference, it's about 3.2° between the stars Ain and Aldebaran in the Hyades). On August 14, 2024, Jupiter and Mars will be in conjunction, about 0.3° apart. Mouseover for labels. This snapshot is from a single raw frame taken at 3:31 am EDT with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera and a Canon 100 mm, f/2.8L macro lens on a fixed tripod. It was exposed 0.8 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 3200, automatic white balance. Very mild processing was applied with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4. It was not cropped yielding a field 13.7° wide x 20.4° high. The camera was rotated about 15° clockwise from a vertical orientation to fit all the objects inside the frame.    If magnified and examined closely, the Galilean satellites of Jupiter can be seen. The picture below, taken at 3:27 am with the same equipment, but exposed 1 second at f/3.5, ISO 3200, better shows those satellites. It was cropped to 400 pixels square (10% x 6% of the original linear dimensions) for a field 1.3° square. Mouseover for labels.

Mars, Uranus and the Pleiades
July 16, 2024

This image with the planets Mars and Uranus near the Pleiades star cluster, all in the constellation Taurus, was captured on July 16, 2024, from Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ. The two planets were at formal conjunction in geocentric right ascension on July 15 at 5 am EDT and were at their apparent closest to each other (appulse) at 10:28 am EDT, 32 arc minutes (0.53°) apart, but clouds precluded observing yesterday morning. Since then, Mars has moved eastward (down and to the left in this view) at a faster rate then Uranus. As a result of that differential rate, and regardless of their current proximity, Uranus reaches opposition on November 16, 2024, but Mars won't until January 15, 2025. The stars labeled in the upper right quadrant of the image (mouseover for labels) were guides in recent years for finding Uranus quickly with binoculars. Around 3:30 am, Mars (magnitude 0.9), Jupiter (-2.1) and Saturn (0.9) were visible with unaided eyes, while Uranus (5.8) and Neptune (7.9) were visible with 8x42 binoculars, despite the hazy sky. So, five of the seven non-Earth planets were visible. Mercury and Venus are visible after sunset now. This snapshot, looking roughly east-northeast at 16 to 22° altitude, is from a single raw frame taken at 3:22 am EDT with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera and a Canon 200 mm, f/2.8L telephoto lens on a fixed tripod. It was exposed 2 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 6400, tungsten white balance. Modest processing was applied with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4. It was not cropped yielding a field 10.2° wide x 6.8° high. Astronomical twilight would begin at 3:48 am. Here's the alignment on July 19, 2024 (same exposure settings).

Fire in the Pines
Wharton State Forest, July 10, 2024

On July 10, 2024, after afternoon clearing at home, I went to Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ, to look at comet 13P/Olbers in a darker sky. There was a fire in that area that made the news the previous week, the Tea Time Hill Fire, which closed the nearby Batona Trail and Campground, but I thought it was already history. The main sand road to the field, across from the monument, had no warning/prohibition signs that I could see, but 100 yd farther down Carranza Rd at the Batona trail, I saw some barrels at the entrance, so I drove down for a look. The barrels had signs indicating the Batona Trail was closed to Rt 532, but it looked like someone had pushed the barrels out of the way, so I took that route back to the field (this is little more than a narrow, sand two-track, but it has few dips, unlike the main road; here's a picture of it snow-covered in January 2024). Going down the trail, I saw a small patch of flames just off the side of the trail/road, but when I got to the field itself, there was blue smoke wafting over the western end, and as I rounded the southwest corner, I could see some substantial flames in the trees to the south. There was no firefighting in progress. This snapshot of those flames was taken at 8:40 pm, twelve minutes after sunset, with a handheld iPhone 11. It was exposed 1/30 second at f/1.8, ISO 800. The only processing was a slight adjustment of the color balance. Click here, or the picture, for a larger version. A warning: With the recent hot, dry weather, and likely truck traffic from firefighters when they were active, the sand road passing the campground became really sugary. My RAV4 groaned a little on the way in with the default 4WD setting, but on the way out, I used the "sand" setting and it passed through with aplomb. I'd be concerned about trying to drive a non-4WD/AWD vehicle through it. BTW, the astronomical viewing was a bust as clouds had moved in by time it got dark, so 13P was out of the question. I did see a nice crescent Moon early on, and around 9:40 pm, I noticed a bright satellite pass intermittently through cloud openings, moving from the SW to the NE. Back at home, I checked Heavens-Above and it was the ISS as I suspected, peaking at 72° altitude, magnitude -3.6.

The Crescent Moon & Mercury
Collins Lane Park, July 7, 2024

On July 7, 2024, the 2.1-day-old, 4.6% illuminated Crescent Moon was 2.8° above the planet Mercury at 9:18 pm EDT when this image of them was captured from Collins Lane Park in Maple Shade, NJ. Taken with a Canon RP DSLM camera and a Canon 400 mm, f/5.6L telephoto lens on a fixed tripod. It was automatically exposed 1/25 second at f/5.6 , ISO 12,800 using 4800 K white balance (the directly illuminated crescent is greatly overexposed). The only processing was a little boost in Mercury's brightness, and cropping this portrait orientation to a 3:4 ratio for a field about 3.2° wide x 4.2° high. Mouseover for labels.

The Young Crescent Moon
Bishops Gate, July 6, 2024

On July 6, 2024, I went to Bishops Gate in Mt Laurel, NJ, to look for the planets Venus & Mercury, comet 13P/Olbers and the young Crescent Moon. New Moon was on July 5 at 6:57 pm EDT, so at sunset on July 6, 8:32 pm, it would be 25 hr 35 min old. Arriving a little late, I spotted Venus just above the distant treetops at 8:44 pm with 12x50 binoculars. One minute later with the 12x50s, I found the sublimely thin lunar crescent 4½° above Venus when it was just 25 hr 48 min old and 1.3% illuminated. At 8:56 pm, I spotted Mercury with the 12x50s about 10° from the Moon at the 10 o'clock position. As twilight deepened (but thin clouds were increasing), I found comet 13P/Olbers at 9:37 pm with my 35x115 spotting scope. In the meantime, I checked Corona Borealis with the 12x50s; I could see all the stars that make up the constellation's semi-circular stick figure, but there was no sign of the recurrent nova, T CrB. This snapshot of the thin crescent was taken at 9:04 pm when the Moon was 26 hr 07 min old and 4.8° altitude, afocally through one eyepiece of the bino viewer on the 35x115 spotter using a handheld iPhone 11. It was exposed 1/30 second at f/1.8, ISO 800. The only processing was cropping and a slight adjustment of the color balance.

Thompson's Beach
July 1, 2024

On July 1, 2024, I went to the parking lot of the nature observation platform at Thompson's Beach, NJ, on the north shore of the Delaware Bay, about 2 miles east of East Point and the Maurice River Cove. My primary objective was to spot Venus, Mercury and comet 13P/Olbers, and to follow-up on the recurrent nova, T Coronae Borealis. These observations were successful, starting with Venus at 8:29 pm EDT, a minute before sunset. Before that, and continuing during twilight, I used my Swarovski 115 mm (4.5 inch) spotting scope with the 35x binocular eyepiece module to observe the Osprey over the marsh on the west side of the parking lot. Ten adults (five pairs) were seen, including a pair at the nest in the picture above (plus a chick in the nest) about 100 yd away. They were a splendid view in the scope. The birds are evidently accustomed to nearby humans as I could periodically see the adults closing they eyelids to take a nap. I discovered they (the adult and the chick) defecate the same as the Bald Eagles (adult and fledgling) back home in their nest on the cell phone tower at the Pennsauken Country Club (link at the top of the page). This snapshot of the scene, looking west-southwest, was taken at 8:30 pm with a handheld iPhone 11. The scope's objective is to the right, with the sliding lens hood extended, The ribbed section near the middle is the focuser (it focuses like a typical telephoto camera lens). The 35x binocular eyepiece module is at the left end. I also have a 30 to 70x zoom eyepiece module (they attach via a bayonet mount) . The top of the this module includes a forehead rest and a short aiming tube (which I don't often use, especially after dark). Dangling below is the lens cover (mouseover for a view from the rear). The scope is mounted on a Foto-Pro gimbal head, the vertical arm of which can be tilted for better access to high elevations. As shown, it's at the 45° setting, so I can tilt the scope enough to observe the zenith. The mount sits on a heavy-duty Benro carbon fiber tripod.

The Moon and a pair of Moon Dogs
Bishops Gate, June 20, 2024

On June 20, 2024, I went to the field at Bishops Gate in Mt Laurel, NJ, to look for comet 13P/Olbers. Unfortunately, clouds along the northwestern horizon foiled that attempt, but about 10:30 pm EDT, as I sat under the open hatch at the back of my car facing southeast, I saw the nearly-full Moon (it would be full at 9:08 pm on June 21). Then I noticed a Moon Dog (paraselene) in a cloud to the right of the Moon. Shortly after, as another cloud moved into position, a second Moon Dog appeared on the left, so a pair of Moon Dogs (paraselenae) flanked the Moon, 22° on either side (checked with an outstretched thumb and little finger). Mouseover for labels. This snapshot of them was captured at 10:34 pm with an iPhone 11 handheld while resting atop my spotting scope, which in turn was locked in place via its mount on a tripod. The EXIF data indicated it was exposed 1/2 second at f/1.8, ISO 1000 (although the exposure period was clearly longer than 1/2 second). Except for size reduction, no  processing was applied or adjustments made. The turquoise dot left of the greatly overexposed Moon is an internal camera reflection. The star well above and a little left of the Moon is second magnitude Sabik (Eta Oph). To the right of the Moon, and a little higher in the contrail shadow, is first magnitude Antares (Alpha Sco). At the time, the Moon was 14.6 days old, 99% illuminated, 18.3° altitude, 158° azimuth (SSE) in the very southern part of the constellation Ophiuchus (just east of a line  between M19 and M62). The Moon's ecliptic latitude was –5.4°, about as far south as it gets, so it would transit (12:13 am on June 21) at just 21.7° altitude for this nominal 40°N-75°W location.

Click here for the previous page.

Click here for an index to all previous SJAstro pages.