Moon, Mars and Antares – October 18, 2012
A few minutes after sunset last October 18, 2012, two reddish objects were found near the waxing crescent Moon (12% illuminated) in the western sky. These two bright red objects were actually the planet Mars, and the bright star Antares in the constellation Scorpius. Mars was about 2 degrees to the upper left from the Moon, and Antares about 4 degrees to the lower left from Mars.
Mars and Antares are often mistaken for each other because of their similarity in appearance. In fact, the name Antares means “Rival of Mars” in Greek.
All photos were taken using Canon Powershot SX40 HS. Some if the images were blurry. My camera got out of focus and i didn’t notice till it was too late! 😦
Click on the images to see larger versions.
The sky was extra clear that night. Amazed by the beauty of the starry night sky, I took my camera out again and snapped this photo while walking home:
Orion, Jupiter and the Pleiades
This morning, I went outside again at around 4:30 AM to check the sky condition. I’ve been doing this for about a couple of days now in hopes of seeing a clear sky despite the continuous rains over the past few weeks.
It’s really creepy out there — wind’s blowing strong & it’s totally dark! But thank God it wasn’t too cloudy and I was able to do some timelapse photography just before the stars start fading away against the blue sky at dawn.
An image of the constellation Orion [The Hunter] as it marched through the zenith at 5:21 AM local time, 2 October 2011 (SJDM, Bulacan)
The planet Jupiter & the star cluster M45 (Pleiades) separated by about 20 degrees in the western sky at 5:02 AM, 2 October 2011 (SJDM, Bulacan)
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the coming weeks. 🙂 Clear skies!
Moon and the Winter Constellations
Tonight’s sky (January 17, 2011) —- Find the waxing gibbous Moon (96% illuminated) surrounded by the stars of the bright Winter Constellations (Auriga, Taurus, Orion, Canis Minor, Canis Major, and Gemini). This beautiful celestial view will climb up to the zenith at around 10 PM local time.
Image: Stellarium (You may download this free planetarium software here.)
Clear skies!
Skygazing from Antipolo and Induction of Batch Zenith
To the newest members of UP AstroSoc (Batch Zenith), congratulations and welcome to the family! 😀
UP AstroSoc's Batch Zenith (photo credit: Ana Geronimo)
I just came home from an overnight event to welcome the newly-inducted members of my organization, UP Astronomical Society, at a private pool resort in Sitio Boso-Boso, Antipolo City (Philippines). The place was quite far away from the city, but the two-hour travel going to the location was all worth-it, thanks to the nice resort which accommodated us and the amazing view of the night sky from there. 🙂
I and my fellow orgmates, had fun identifying stars , planets and constellations which were not fully drowned by the moonlight from the waning gibbous moon.
We saw the mighty Jupiter behind the mountains in the east a few minutes after the crescent Venus set. As the sky grew darker, we also saw more of my favorite star groups like Taurus the Bull which contains the bright star Aldebaran and the star cluster Pleiades; Auriga the Charioteer, and its alpha star Capella; the winter triangle which is composed of the three bright stars, Sirius of the constellation Canis Major, Procyon of Canis Minor and Betelgeuse (beetle-juice) of the hunter Orion. The winged-horse Pegasus with Andromeda, the chained-lady were almost directly overhead at 11 PM.
I felt happy to have seen a clear night sky again 🙂
Hopefully, I could also take an escape further away from the city lights to see the Milky Way soon! Haha.
Congratulations again to Batch Zenith! 🙂
Journey to the Stars 