I almost missed this. I was putting the dog out the back door and happened to see it just before it set. I quickly grabbed my camera and tripod. Cannon EOS 300D 100-300mm zoom telephoto. 21:42:43 EDT.
ISO 1600 – 2 sec exposure to illuminate the foreground.
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Note the haze and skyglow of the Florida summer as it compares with a similar photo from mid-winter. 🙁
What looks initially like a Hubble photo or an exceptional ground based image of Jupiter was indeed taken from Mars!
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Image courtesy NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
The martian astronomer responsible for this outstanding shot is actually not a native but a terran immigrant. The HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this picture on January 11th while calibrating camera’s pointing and color response.
Original images and further details can be found here: HiRISE | Jupiter As Seen from Mars
Just thought this was kinda “gee-whiz” interesting.
This past Saturday they had a night launch of the shuttle (Discovery STS-116). I was on my way off to work but I delayed 15 minutes to bring the video camera outside and catch it. There were some hazy clouds near the horizon that weren’t visible to me until illuminated by the launch. I’m about 150 miles from the space center as the crow flies, so any launch from there takes about 10-15 seconds to clear my horizon and come into view.
I’m sure you’ve all seen amateur video of small objects moving against the sky and mumbled to yourself “Why couldn’t this idiot keep the camera still and in focus?” Well, mostly-still wasn’t too hard but the focus? …Sheesh! I tried to keep some foreground objects in the frame but it didn’t help much. My next camcorder is going to have a manual focus option if such a thing exists!
Here’s the video from my front yard. Watch it HERE (5.7 MB).
You’ll need Apple – QuickTime to view this movie file.
For some really spectacular on-scene photos visit For the Birds: Night Launch
I have the next 4 nights in a row off so I hope to finally see first light on the new scope. Keep your fingers crossed.
First have a look at this LPOD – lunar photo of the day entry.
Then examine this photo I took of a similar feature… 🙂
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I wonder if any analogies can me be drawn between the way my pumpkin pie cooled and the way crater Pitatus cooled after it initially formed. Are there similar dynamics at work here or is it just coincidence? After extensive core sampling of pie (yum!) I am no closer to an answer.
At any rate I thought the name was apt.
Happy Thanksgiving!