Galileo's Camera

Merge of multiple frames - Saturn (L) and Jupiter (R) on 25th December 2020. The angular separation is about 25'. Shot with a Canon 450D on a Nexstar 6SE. Equipment courtesy of Eranga Ganegala, The year of 2020 was not a great year in many ways. But it was not without its own silver lines. Back in July 2020, we saw the brightest comet in 23 years, the Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) and further before in June, some parts of the world were able to witness an annular solar eclipse. On December 14th, people in Chile and Argentina were able to view a total solar eclipse, which would be the last total solar eclipse till 2024. The best of the events however, is probably the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. A conjunction is when two or more astronomical bodies get very close to each other from a visible point of view. Given that the stars are in a fixed position (unless you observe for over a period of say, ten to hundred thousand years), this refers to objects that are moving across ...

Disclaimer: I didn't do anything other than clicking a few buttons to get this photo. But this is the kind of photo you can get by using SLOOH's remote telescopes. M42 - Orion Nebula. 3x5min via SLOOH Chile Two (17") telescope Following through my hunt for telescope-as-a-service offerings, my next evaluation was SLOOH. Originally started back in 2002, SLOOH's telescopes became available to the public in 2004. SLOOH currently operates two sites, Chile and Canary Islands and has a total of 8 telescopes. SLOOH is not just a remote telescope or telescope-as-a-service offering. It also has a community set up where remote operators, astronomers, SLOOH staff can discuss various aspects of astrophotography as well as astronomy. SLOOH does not have a free access like the MicroObservatory. It's minimum plan starts at 50 USD per annum and you basically piggyback on missions that are set up by others and extract the same photos they take. They offer a 100 USD per annum and a 3...

For 2 years now, I've been postponing the decision to buy a telescope. My reluctance was based on two things; the nearly 1500 USD cost that I would be spending on it and the really sketchy weather that we have in Sri Lanka which makes it very difficult to get clear skies. The more I read and researched about how the amazing photos like the following are taken, the more I realised that my casual approach of just grabbing the telescope and going somewhere to do astrophotography isn't going to work. It's going to need some proper preparation. Photos like these require hours of shooting and at least a good one hour of prep work.

Comet NEOWISE became a pretty popular name among stargazers as well as non-stargazers in 2020. One of the main reasons why it was so popular was that it was one of the brightest comets in about 13 years (since the comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) - which was a daylight comet as well).  Unlike for example the 9 comets that turned up in 2019 or the 19 that turned up in 2018 - which clearly not many knew about, NEOWISE was a naked eye comet.

When I covered the 21st June solar eclipse, I took 19 photos over roughly 3 hours to create a montage of Moon's path across the disc of the Sun. There were some private queries on how it was done, so I figured might as well explain it all in a post.

Thesolar eclipse of 21 June 2020 appeared to Sri Lanka as a partial eclipse. The timing of this wasn't that great given that the area I live is under the monsoon season and there is absolutely no guarantee of clear skies. The day before the eclipse however, it was extremely sunny. But things got complicated when two different weather sites gave two completely different predictions for the day of the eclipse.

When I planned the year, I planned my vacation travel to be in June so that I can stop over in Oman to view the solar eclipse that is happening on 21st June 2020. While the eclipse is viewable in my own country, Sri Lanka, we can only see a partial eclipse, whereas in Oman you can view an annular eclipse.

It's the traditional new year time here again in Sri Lanka. I find this new year celebration fascinating because it is celebrated at a particular time of the day (which changes every year) as opposed to midnight. The tradition is celebrated among Budhhists as well as Hindus in Sri Lanka. You can read more about how the timings are calculated in two of my old posts: http://galileoscamera.blogspot.com/2013/04/math-of-astrology-1.html http://galileoscamera.blogspot.com/2013/04/math-of-astrology-2-sinhalahindu-new.html

No, that was not a spelling mistake. It is actually part of the partial-shadow of the Earth. During a lunar eclipse, the Moon travels through the shadow of the Earth. If we manage to catch the entire movement of the Moon along with the shadow Earth casts on it, we can get something quite amazing, the actual shape of the Earth. Part of the shadow of Earth, as seen during the lunar eclipse on 10th Jan 2020

With the very first full moon of the year 2020, we were lucky to have a partial lunar eclipse. However, if you were a casual observer who sat up late to watch the eclipse, your response to this probably would have been "disappointing". Partial Lunar Eclipse at maximum - 10th January 2020 Canon 550D, 70-300mm at 300. F5.6 1/1000 ISO200 Penumbral lunar eclipses are usually a bit difficult observe as the contrast isn't that great. Unlike in solar eclipses where what we see is the silhouette of the Moon, in a lunar eclipse what we see is our own shadow. In fact, it is not the shadow itself, but the lighter shadow on the outside. Earth's umbra, penumbra and the Moon When the Moon is in the umbra, or the full shadow of the Earth, we get total lunar eclipses. When the Moon is in the penumbra, we get penumbral lunar eclipses. But these can be subdivided too; if only a part of the Moon is going through the umbra, then it becomes a partial lunar eclipse. Simi...

On 26th December 2019, we  witnessed an annular solar eclipse. Almost always, a solar eclipse doesn't come alone; it comes along with a lunar eclipse. And sure enough, nearly two weeks later, we have a penumbral lunar eclipse. Like the solar eclipse, this too is visible to Sri Lanka. In a penumbral lunar eclipse, the Moon goes through the penumbra, or the partial shadow of the Earth. Unlike the total lunar eclipse Sri Lankans were able to witness back on 28th June 2018, this will not be a "blood moon", it will simply become partially dark during the period. The lunar eclipse will start at 17:07 UTC (or 22:37 SL time on 10th) and will end at 21:12 UTC (or 02:42 SL time on 11th ). The greatest eclipse is at 19:21 UTC (or 00:51 SL time on 11th ). You can find more details about it at http://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/2001-2100/LE2020Jan10Nprime.html .  If you were curious about the author of that website, Fred Espenak is an American astrophysicist who has work...