Galileo's Camera

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...

Ever since my NexStar 4SE broke down irreparably my astrophotography work came to a standstill. While I could've continued a little more with my 400mm telephoto lens, a particular problem I met with it meant that that's also out of question. When I learned that there was a solar eclipse on 26th of December 2019 and that it is visible to the northern part of Sri Lanka, I thought this might be a good time to may be try and get back to it. Thanks to my dad, I had an exposure to astronomy from a very early age. If I am not mistaken, the very first solar eclipse that I witnessed was on 11th Sep 1988. This was a partial eclipse. My second was again a partial eclipse, 24th Oct 1995. This one was special in a way that I used the most rudimentary method of observing a solar eclipse, using a basin full of water. I did skip the eclipse in 1999 but did checkout the one on 03rd Oct 2005. Skipped again in 2008 and observed the annular eclipse of 15th Jan 2010 as a partial one. This is th...

When I was processing the photo of the Magellanic Clouds , I noticed that four of the photos had a light trail going across it. As these are long exposure photos, a light trail means a travelling object. The light streak - Composite shot of 4x10s There are many types of illuminated travelling objects in the night sky. They can vary from natural objects to different types of man-made objects. 1. Meteors The only extra-terrestrial natural object to make star trails on a long exposure photo like this one is a meteor. During a meteor shower, you will be able to capture many trails like this during the span of an hour. One of my wishes for a very long time has been to capture a meteor shower on camera. 2. Airplanes/helicopters/drones - flying machines There is a host of man-made objects that are not necessarily space borne that can cause a light streak. These include all the flying machines invented by man. In the past, these were limited to airplanes and helicopters. But than...

Magellanic clouds are two irregular galaxies that were once thought to be the closest galaxies to the Milkyway. The two galaxies are situated in the southern hemisphere and may have been first observed by the Khosians. However, the first written evidence of the two clouds appears in 964AD in a book by Abd al Rahman al Sufi. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which is not visible from his native area, was referred to him as Al Bakr, the White Ox. Today, the two clouds are known by the name of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan. LMC, SMC and Achernar - 13 shots of 15sec 5.6F 18mm. Canon 550D. Location: Kirindy Forest Lodge, Madagascar The Small Magellanic Cloud (NGC 292) is located around a declination of -72 0 , which means anyone beyond 18 0 northwards from the equator will not be able to spot it. The Larger Magellanic Cloud, which interestingly lacks an NGC (or other formal numbering), consists of a multitude of nebulae and globular clusters, and is located between the declinations -...