The shot at left was taken at about 10pm.The one at right, about an hour later.
Sadly, the moon sunk into the trees soon after this,
preventing further photography. Jupiter skimmed by the arc of the moon, missing it by only
minutes of a degree.
Both photos were taken through an f5.6 300mm Schmidt-Cassegrainian telephoto lens, on 100ASA colour negative film.
The left hand exposure was 4 seconds, the right hand one about 1 second. The images as presented are in colour!
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Same satellite - different planet. On June 16th, 1999, the moon passed within 2° of Venus. Here is the result, as viewed from the same location with the same equipment as above (except that this time the photo is rendered in black & white.) Given that the moon is 2° from Venus (in this photo), roughly what angle would you say the moon subtends at Earth; i.e. how wide is the moon in degrees, as viewed from the Earth?
Look what happened to the moon one year and one month later, on July 16th 2000. |
More Astronomy pages at Parramatta High:
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July the 28th 1999 brought the full moon, and with it the last lunar
eclipse of the year. Click here to view its progress. |
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July the 16th 2000 brought the full moon, and with it the last total lunar
eclipse of the decade, century and millennium. Click here to view its progress. |
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August 28th 2007 gave us a most magnificent total lunar eclipse. Click here to have a look. |
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Another July eclipse, on July 5&6 2001. Our first this century. Only a partial, but
it did provide a nice indication that the Earth really is round. Click here to view its progress. |
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Another partial lunar eclipse - October 17, 2005. Not very impressive, but we still captured it here. |
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Yet another partial lunar eclipse - June 26 2010. No reddening, but a lovely sharp terminator line. Click here. |
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Parramatta High will have a correspondent at the total solar eclipse of 4/12/02. Find out some of the background to the event here. |
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Lunar eclipses are fun, but for a gob-smacking overwhelming spectacle, nothing beats a total eclipse of the sun. 4,600 km travelled, many more than that dollars spent, and three weeks away from school (sob!) provided this account of nature's most impressive syzygy. |
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We can't beat a total solar eclipse (see above) but this
partial solar eclipse on November 24th 2003 will
be visible at school, during school time. Come to the eclipse party! See below. |
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(See above) The clouds did their level best to ruin the viewing, but this eclipse broke through just enough for a few good shots. Details here. |
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Twelve or thirteen times a century, the planet Mercury passes between the sun and us. If Mercury was w-a-a-a-a-y bigger, we might call this event an eclipse. Instead, it is a transit of Mercury. This one happened on 7 May 2003, and Parramatta high astronomers were on hand to observe it. |
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Much less frequent than transits of Mercury (see above) are transits of Venus. Get some background information, then have a look at the photos of the actual event. Next one in eight years, then another 112 years. Be quick. |
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Slightly (!) more magnification reveals the rings of Saturn. Watch them shimmy and shake here. |
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Jupiter and three of his moons can be seen here. |
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All the moon images are presented here in
thumbnail format. (With the exception of the almost occultation photos on this page, and the lunar eclipse shots.) |
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Two moon shots are combined here to form an active image map, which will help you learn the name of some of the features on the moon's surface. |
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Easter 2005 had another close encounter between the Moon and Jupiter. |
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Three months later Jupiter was clearly visible in daylight, once again nestled next to the moon. |
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September '05, and Jupiter plays chasings with Venus and Spica. A magnificent sight to the naked
eye, this photo sadly fails to capture the full effect. Still worth a look, though. |
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Just after the new Moon, you may be able to catch a glimpse of earthshine on the dark side of the Moon. We did, and here it is. |
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Stars in your eyes. Click here to see one of our national symbols in the sky. |
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Twinkle twinkle little star... Look at some examples of astronomical "seeing" - of the moon, Antares and Acrab, or the trapezium in M42. |
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More stars in your eyes. Click here to see the moon in total eclipse, nestled in the constellation Sagittarius |
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...Or, click here to see Scorpius and the Milky Way, two
weeks later. Scorpius meets the god of war, Mars - but he's just passing through. |
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Scorpius meets his zodiacal neighbour, Ophiuchus and, incidentally, demonstrates one reason why astrologers are a bit silly.. |
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The "saucepan", at left, is actually Orion's Belt and Sword, part of which we've captured here - along with the location of an elusive horse. |
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Here is the rest of Orion the Hunter, conveniently turned around the "right" way. |
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Here is the object of Orion's aggression: Taurus, the Bull. Located within this constellation is an age-old test of eyesight - The Seven Sisters Pleiades. |
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The Seven Sisters, the Pleiades are not just a test of eyesight. See here how creeping commercialisation has crept into the heavens... |
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Much smaller than the Pleiades, M7 in Scorpius is visible to the naked eye as only a smudge. Sure is pretty through the 'scope, though. |
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Coming close to Pleiades, comet Machholz makes an appearance in January 2005. |
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Unlike Machholz (above) comet McNaught was easy to see, naked eye, tail and all. 16 January 2007 |
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Even better, two days later,
comet McNaught continues to shine. 18 January 2007 Even better, two more days later, on 20 January. |
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Artificial satellites are fun, too. Particularly the Iridium communication satellites which predictably flare up to magnitude -9! |
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The International Space Station (ISS) casually dawdles across the twilight sky, four days into the new century. |
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Find out what was taught about astronomy in 1828. Pages from the Literary and Scientific Classbook, by Levi W.Leonard. |
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Break out
of this frame. |
