Mercury, Venus & Mars @ Dawn

From Newfield, NJ, December 2004

Dusk Planet Combos

Saturn, Venus & Mercury from Vineland, NJ, June 2005.
Venus & Mercury from Fort Davis, TX, July 2005.
Venus & Jupiter from Cherry Springs, PA, September 2005.

Moon & Jupiter

Over the Grand Canyon, July 2004, taken about an hour after the sunset photo on the Homepage.

Moon & Venus

Dawn, July 2004 at New Mexico Skies

Solar System Portrait

Taken in one morning (between 5 and 11 a.m.) in a very cold late December, 2004. The sun was rather inactive (spot-wise). Oh boy! - my computer clock JUST switched from 2:00 back to 1:00 a.m. for the end of Daylight Savings...I wonder where the blog will insert this photo?... (answer: it kept the correct order, although the time zone was set to PST)

Moonrise at Belleplain State Park, NJ, 10/2/05

After a LONG night of observing and taking amazing photos of Saturn and Mars. The earthglow was so crisp and pretty.

Lunar Eclipse in stages

Two Moon photos stitched

A long exposure (8 seconds) was required to obtain the dark orange areas in the umbra, but the penumbral and lit areas were overexposed. A short exposure (fraction of a second) was adequate for the lit portions of the moon, but the colorful umbra was lost. So how to photograph what the eye actually saw looking up? Stitch the two photos together! The result is a pretty close approximation to a phase well before totality.

Lunar Eclipse, October 2004

The best shot of the night, more or less at totality.

The Moon on 4 consecutive nights

Close-up of Lunar Surface

Recognize the craters?

Near Full Moon on Summer Solstice 2005

The Sun Vanishes

A series of photos taken at he Grand Canyon a year after the sunset photo on the Homepage.

Solar Eclipse 4/8/05

Moon took a tiny bite out of the sun. Now all I need is a total eclipse.....

Venus Transit without filter

One of two non-filter photos I like. The sun was just clearing horizon haze over the Atlantic Ocean and was too low for the filter, and on the brink of being too dangerous to observe without.

Venus Transit with filter

Some "older" photos like this (June 8, 2004) was taken before I got my SCT, so it is a photo using a 10" Discovery Dob (Thousand Oaks solar filter) and my camera on a TRIPOD aimed at the eyepiece!

Sunspots, 1/18/05

An impressive display of sunspot activity. The designations escape me but I imagine are easily researchable since I bothered noting the date. Just remember how cold I must have been taking this photo.

Our Solar System

Here you will find the best of my solar system family portraits. Oh yea, I suppose that would include that one comet photo I took too...