Although high in the night’s sky, our waxing Gibbous Moon has been decidedly orange. Smoke, high in the atmosphere from North American wildfires, has tinted what should be a bright white Moon in the colors of moonset. Ruddy or not, we love that we can see mountain peaks and crater edges peeking up from the darkness just left of the sunlight terminator line.
Members of the Cuyahoga Astronomical Association (CAA) rose early June 10 to view, photograph, and promote the (locally) partial solar eclipse. Already in progress as Sun rose above the horizon, the annular eclipse or “ring of fire” could not be seen but decent coverage of the solar disk did result in some impressive views.
In addition to watching the eclipse members, led by special events director Jay Reynolds, hosted members of the public at Cleveland’s Edgewater Park. The view from Edgewater’s lakefront location included the rising partly-eclipsed Sun with the lakeshore and Cleveland’s skyline.
Other members took up station at Avon Lake, Bay Village, and even inland at a Medina County location. Here, in mixed order, is a sampling of member photographs:
CAA member Chuck Reinhart ventured out to spot planet Mercury as it reached its widest separation from the Sun, as seen from Earth.
“Thought I’d share some pics from the rare clear night on Saturday, Jan. 23 when Mercury was at its greatest E. Elongation from the Sun. Both images were taken from my backyard … which offers great views of virtually every horizon — depending upon where I journey on the five acres. I would have taken the C11 (telescope) out but it looked like clouds were creeping in pretty soon.”
This photo was “taken with a 70-210 mm lens mounted on a Nikon D600. The first image was taken @ 4/5 sec. f/9 , ISO 1000 set at 210mm at 6:25 p.m.”
As the days pass Mercury sinks nearer the Sun’s position in our skies, disappearing once again into our star’s brilliant light.
CAA member Lonnie Dittrick recently produced a stunning image of the Great Andromeda Galaxy, aka M31. Here’s his story:
“The wife and I visited Cherry Springs {state park in Pennsylvania} during New Moon and had one excellent (and cold) night of stargazing and imaging (had taken time off anyways for Black Forest Star Party). I had just finished modifying my Canon XSi and wanted a redo of M31 (done previously at home in Olmsted Falls) but now under pristine skies! Imaging was done with a Stellarview 70mm Apo refractor, consisting of 77 subs, two minutes each at 1600 ISO.”
By the way, Dittrick made the astronomical imaging modification to his Canon camera by himself — not a job for the fainthearted!
CAA: Cuyahoga Astronomical Association 