2010 Perseid Meteor Shower

Well, after a much-too long absence from blogging, it's time for me to catch up a bit. I'll be posting a number of articles over the next few little while to get caught up with the present.

The first post is regarding the Perseid Meteor Shower from August 2010. The Perseid's appear to originate from the constellation Perseus and are the remnants of the Swift-Tuttle comet. The peak rate of the meteor shower has seemed to diminish over the years. When I was a kid, I remember we would count over 100 per hour. This past August, we didn't even count 30 per hour. It could have been that it was somewhat cloudy, but the shower is nothing like what it used to be. The average peak rate currently is about 60 per hour.

Below are pictures from the shower, which I photographed with my astro-buddy Bob Johnson of Blackholes and Astrostuff. The first three images were taken with a Canon 40D and Tokina 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 fisheye lens. The last one was taken with a Nikon D90 and 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Rising Moon

After years of looking at the Moon and photographing it for the past few, I still have to admit that it is one of my favorite night sky objects. Even though when it is up it washes out a good portion of the other objects, I never get tired of looking at it. I finally had the chance to catch a wonderful event - a full Moon rising from the horizon when it was large and orange.

I went out on July 24, 2010 with my good friend Bob of Blackholes and astrostuff fame. We were on time and set up and ready to go, but where the heck was the Moon? Our Moon phase info was accurate and we knew it was up, but what in the world was going on? It turns out that for one, there was a lot of forest-fire smoke in the sky above the horizon where we were looking for the Moon. The next problem is that we were out in our calculation of where it would be rising. So, by the time we noticed it, it had risen a couple of Moon widths from the horizon. No worries though, all turned out well and we were able to catch some decent shots.

The next night, July 25, 2010, we were both out at separate locations shooting the Moon again. It was cloudy in the area it was rising, but alas, the clouds dissipated and the Moon was out in full force. It was huge to say the least and looked amazing. I wish I had my telescope with me that night to take some Moon pictures through that, but I didn't. No problem. I managed to get some shots I was very happy with. Below are photos from both evenings. All were shot using a tripod-mounted Nikon D90 with a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens and a 1.5x teleconverter, with a remote shutter release. Enjoy.

And Now For Something Completely Different

I was in Lethbridge, AB this past week and noticed that the Moon was up during the day. There is a neat looking bridge there called the High Level Bridge. It is used by trains to cross a large valley. It is the largest of it's kind in the world. I've been wanting to photograph it for some time now and finally had the chance. I went out on a day when there was little cloud cover and the Moon was visible during the day.

It also gave me a good chance to finally use my Canon 40D. I will be posting pictures taken with the Canon soon, but for now, here are the photos taken with my Nikon D90.

Perigee Moon and Mars

Finally, I've been able to put up a new post after a two month hiatus. By hiatus I mean cloudy, snowy and cold weather interfering with my picture taking and observing with the telescope. However, I am happy to report that I was able to snap the perigee Moon last night and Mars. It was the first time I've ever seen Mars through the lens of my camera. I'm hoping it will warm up a little so I can observe it through my scope.