Galileo's Camera

Supermoon was a term that turned up in various social media news items in the recent past. While obviously sparking an interest among the general public, it drew some criticism from prominent figures in astronomy like Neil deGrass Tyson ( http://time.com/5046984/neil-degrasse-tyson-goes-on-epic-rant-about-tonights-supermoon-calls-it-an-embarrassment/ ) on how the term is a major exaggeration of reality. What does supermoon mean? The term supermoon has turned out to mean that Moon appears bigger than usual. This happens because the orbit of the Moon around the Earth is not a circle, it is infact an ellipse. At its closest point to Earth, the Moon is about 360,000km away where as at its furthest, it is about 405,000km away. For comparison, the Earth it self is about 12,600km across (diameter). It looks like the Moon swings at least four Earths towards and away, and that is clearly a big swing. So why do the astronomers claim that it is not a big deal? While the difference in the...

In the recent times, the term "blue moon" has come to mean having two full moons in a month. The term "once in a blue moon" implies some kind of a rarity. The year 2018 is in that sense even more rare in the sense that there are two blue moons in the same year. But is it that much of a rare phenomenon? Having two full moons in a calendar month occurs due to a mismatch in the lunar calendar and our standard calendar. But before going there, let's get some basics in. What is actually the lunar calendar? or what is a lunar month? There are two ways to define the periodicity of a body like the Moon. This occurs because Moon revolves around the observer while the observer also revolves around another object. If we measure the time taken to do a full 360 degree cycle around the axis of the Earth, that period is called the sidereal period (or month). It takes 27.3 days for the Moon to complete this revolution. However there is a slight problem here. Sin...

I was quite determined that I shouldn't let another year pass from my last post. The trip last week which was a failed Orionids attempt gave me an opportunity capture a well understood, but less known phenomenon relating to the Moon. Given the International Observe the Moon Day already a day behind (28th of Oct), I figured I'll make use of those. Moon - 21 Oct 2017 When we look at the Moon, we see the sunlight which is reflected by the Moon. When it is the full moon, the Moon is on the opposite side of the Sun when seeing from Earth. Therefore the whole 'face' of the Moon which is facing the sun can be seen. When it is the new moon, the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth and therefore we cannot see the illuminated side of the Moon. There is something interesting that happens when the Moon starts moving from the new moon phase to the full moon phase. Right after new moon, when the Moon is at crescenet level, you can still see the whole of the Moon at a lesse...

Moon and Venus - 06th Dec 2013 This was the view from my balcony when I returned home today, and that is what prompted me to take the next photo. The photo above, is very unlikely to be what you think it is. No it's not the Moon. It is in fact the planet Venus. Sometimes called the twin sister of Earth, Venus is the closest planet to Earth and also the closest in size. Due to the similar size and density, gravity on Venus is also pretty similar to that of Earth. But the similarities end there. The atmosphere of Venus is 96% Carbon Dioxide and is 92 times denser than that of Earth. The surface temperature of Venus is thought to be about 462 C. Due to the close proximity to Earth, Venus displays very prominent phases. In fact Venus and Mercury are the only two planets that display a full range of phases like the Moon. Contrary to intuition, Venus appears the brightest when the phase is a crescent as opposed to full. Venus is right now in its brightest peak. It will...

For about a month's time, I wasn't able to do anything interesting on astrophotography  owing to the bad weather. I started some experimentation on solar photography and well that is not going that well either. However, last week I managed to snap some decent pics of the moon. For the longest time I thought that lunar photos do not need stacking or wavelet enhancements. I mean moon is the second brightest object you can find in the sky. For the sake of experimenting, I tried stacking them and doing some wavelet processing on registax. The result is as follows: Moon - 10 frames stacked and processed with wavelets. I was quite surprised to see that this actually did made a difference. Compared to the usual blurred photos I get, these seem to do way better. For the sake of comparison, see the photos below: Non-stacked (prime focus) Stacked with wavelet processing (prime focus) So yeah it does seem to make a difference. I also wanted to see if this was something to do ...

Full Moon Shot using Canon 550D with a 75-300mm camera. No telescope is used. Lunar cycles must've been one of the earliest cycles that have been identified by humans. In this series, we will be covering its entire change of phases with 27 photographs, one for each day between a full lunar cycle. The photograph shown here is taken using a Canon 550D with a 75-300mm telephoto lens. Although the moon is the brightest on the full moon, it is not a great phase for astrophotography. When the moon is waxing or waning, the shadows on the ridges accent the actual shape of the ridge. However, when the entire moon is (reasonably) uniformly illuminated, all you can see are the larger craters and seas. In the photo below, you can see the major craters and seas of the moon marked on the same image as above: Moon - Major Crates and Seas