Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Aug 7, 2005 23:16:08 GMT -6
Crescent Moon of 05 August 2005
Anticipating the conjunction of the crescent Moon and Venus, I set up by my usual spot at 7:30 pm. It was still light out and the weather was indeed warm and humid. I could already tell that the transparency will be poor.
But, regardless...I push on.
I took some handheld digital pics for a bit...
The first one was taken with just the camera alone - zoomed in as much as it could go. If you notice, there is a high flying aircraft along with the Moon and Venus.
I took the next one through my viewfinder. My crosshairs got bent somehow, but pretend they arn't there.
This was shot through a monocular sistered up to the camera and snapped away. I think it came out well.
Taken through the widefield eyepiece at the telescope, this was the best of the bunch. I used a polarizer filter here.
The mucky skies gave the Moon a fuzzy orange hue and visibilty was quite limited.
Martyn, his Fiancee and nephew Matthew, stopped by to chat and share astro talk. We jumped back and forth from the Moon, Venus and Jupiter, and gave young Matthew first views of celestial objects.
Here Martyn manipulates my scope, using the Great Rigel Star Finder.
I had a pleseant time with Martyn and gang spending quite a bit talking about this and that, learning about each other and commonalities.
The Lunar and Venus Conjunction was a pretty sight and this month's Full Moon should be big, bright and quite a sight. I think I'll catch it rising over Lake Michigan on the 19th, and relish in it's Perigee.