The Moon... It rises and sets

I love sun rises/sets. The moon also rises and sets, most don't even think of it.

The moon rises and sets differ dramatically from the time of the sun. The moon works off the full moon cycle and the set for example may vary an hour or two from the night before.

Camera captures are only a couple of times a month and in foggy SF; only a few times a year. Short winter days allow for more captures.

Now I prefer the moon because you can capture its texture. I start the thread with a few:

The first is a sunset in the afternoon, the second a moonset in the morning both shot to the west of my balcony

[IMG]http://torags.smugmug.com/photos/138049269_Crj5q-M.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://torags.smugmug.com/photos/252676230_fskY2-M.jpg[/IMG]

The moon , like the sun moves across the horizon during the year.Noisy, but what the hell...

[IMG]http://torags.smugmug.com/photos/189325441_kRLi2-M.jpg[/IMG]

Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon in the morning.

Rags and Jeff,

These are really nice shots. I shot these over Monument Valley and couple of years back with a Nikon Coolpix 5700. Cropping involved in image 2.

[URL=http://snc1923.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=64504306&ImageKey=mddYK][IMG]http://SNC1923.smugmug.com/photos/64504306_mddYK-L.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://snc1923.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=64504310&ImageKey=hNsh5][IMG]http://SNC1923.smugmug.com/photos/64504310_hNsh5-L.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

An old faithful

[IMG]http://torags.smugmug.com/photos/177854720_kJVGr-M.jpg[/IMG]

We have all seen the "front side" of the moon. Thanks to NASA, we can all now see the "back side" of the moon:

<img border=1 width=600 src=http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/PIA00225.jpg>

Setting Moon

[IMG]http://torags.smugmug.com/photos/253969270_U47uv-M.jpg[/IMG]

The moon, a closeup. Taken with my Canon D60 thru a friend's one of a kind TMB 9 inch apochromatic folded refractor telescope back in 2003. Looking at the moon thru this telescope, with a binoviewer attached....it felt like we were looking out the window of a space ship orbiting the moon! As is often the case....my photos don't come even close to capturing the intensity of the actual visual experience. It was truly awe inspiring.

Gary Benson
Eagle River, Alaska

By way of contrast.....here's another photo taken the same night. Also with my D60. But this pic was taken thru my telescope....a well made, but small, Televue Pronto with a 70mm aperture and 480mm focal length.

Nice.....but not quite the same visual impact as seeing the moon up close and personal thru the big TMB! :laugh

Gary Benson
Eagle River, Alaska

Gary, I've seen these telescope pix and love them as I do yours.

I bought a Russian 1000mm reflector lens in Dec. for the Mavericks surf contest & sky shots. It required my 1.4TC to clear my on board flash housing.

I bought it from Kremlin Optics and it was a nightmare, I sent it back. I wouldn't recommend purchasing a unit out of Russia.

[QUOTE=torags;293749]Gary, I've seen these telescope pix and love them as I do yours.[/QUOTE]

Thanks! My efforts are pretty basic, compared to others. Maybe someday I'll have a place to build a small observatory and do it properly.

[QUOTE]I bought a Russian 1000mm reflector lens in Dec. for the Mavericks surf contest & sky shots. It required my 1.4TC to clear my on board flash housing.
I bought it from Kremlin Optics and it was a nightmare, I sent it back. I wouldn't recommend purchasing a unit out of Russia.[/QUOTE]

I've had excellent experience with the Newtonian reflectors being made in China and marketed by Orion Telescopes (and others). I have 6 and 8 inch Orion Newts....the 8 inch may be similar to yours as it has a 1000mm focal length.

There are some excellent optics (mostly lens cells) coming out of Russia, but the good stuff is very expensive. It's produced in an optical glass factory called LZOS. The TMB telescope I mentioned (Thomas M. Bach) uses lenses made by LZOS for TMB....this particular telescope was a one-off custom designed folded refractor priced in the $30,000+ range. Needless to say, the views thru that telescope are spectacular!

Here's a little info about TMB/LZOS.

[url]http://www.tmboptical.com/itemsGrid.asp?cat_id=10[/url]

Clear Skies! (as they say in the astro community).

Gary Benson
Eagle River, Alaska

[URL="http://www.space.com/spacewatch/monday-total-lunar-eclipse-moon-preview-101220.html"][B]Tonight's Lunar Eclipse Comes With a Rare Twist[/B]
[/URL]

[IMG]http://i.space.com/images/070828_japan_eclipse1_01.jpg[/IMG]

A rare event not seen in 372 years will occur early Tuesday morning, when a total lunar eclipse coincides with the winter solstice. While you can't see the solstice, the eclipse promises to be an amazing spectacle.

And if that's not enough, a minor meteor shower is expected to send a few shooting stars through the darkened sky during the height of the eclipse.

Weather permitting, viewers in North and South America, as well as the northern and western parts of Europe, and a small area of northeast Asia should get a great view of the total eclipse of the moon.

For something slightly less technical and a lot less serious....
I have to say the far side of the moon was great--had not seen that before.

Feh.

Pink Floyd covered it in 1973.

[IMG]http://www.alreadybeenchewed.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/dark-side-of-the-moon-cd-cover-design.jpg[/IMG]

All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.


...

I think by about .0001 seconds in, my radio is cranked as loud as possible. I love that album! In fact, it's about time to listen to it again.. :thumb

If you can see it... The moon is gone.