*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

Yesterday morning was awesome for viewing it - very crisp and clear around 6am - unfortunately Mars was behind the moon or so close to the moon it wasn't possible to distinguish it but Jupiter was very bright (looked about 4x the size of the other stars) and even with the naked eye could just about make out some detail rather than just being a blob of light.

Yesterday? I couldn't see Mars yesterday at all...At about 12pm and yesterday morning at 7am Jupiter was directly next to the Moon for me:

SwEOAoi.jpg

Mars was out this morning at least, I may try and get a picture of the two if I can be bothered to get up on Saturday that early! Annoyingly there are houses surrounding ours so visibility can be bad...There is however an old air strip round the corner, just the 'DO NOT ENTER' signs put me off :p

I tried mars in my scope yesterday morning but it's just a bright blob, trying to see if I can pick any details out now....Maybe an excuse to buy a larger scope...
 
Its trial and error and certain cameras are better at it than others. That and you need a REALLY dark place to get it properly....Basically, if you can't see the milky way in some description with just your eyes it will be hard to get.

I've tried near where I live (not many lights on the streets at all) and can't do it yet, but that may be the limitations of my camera.

Planning to head out to dartmoor once the weather dries up and we get clear cold nights, usually start of march.

Got a cannon 500d.

Just want some good guides on what to do, i'll also take my tablet so I can check photos in a large screen.
 
Yesterday? I couldn't see Mars yesterday at all...At about 12pm and yesterday morning at 7am Jupiter was directly next to the Moon for me:

Yeah that is what I'm saying :P Jupiter was up next to the moon and very visible - I could even make out some vague sense of colour and pattern with the naked eye rather than it just being a blob of light but Mars was either behind the moon or really close to it so I couldn't see it.

Unfortunately lack any proper equipment - someone here has a 10" scope somewhere but I've no experience with it or the adaptors for taking digital images through it :( might have a play later though see if I can do anything with it.
 
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Oh I dunno - definitely couldn't see Mars and the Moon was a fair distance above the horizon still at 6am - I didn't have time to fire up google sky map but a quick look on planets today suggested it was behind the moon :S possibly it was below the horizon by that point.
 
its funny the way I see about 2/3rds of the craters as protrusions instead on images of planets/moons like that until I happen to see one as a crater and then I'll always see that one as a crater from then on while others around it will still look like protrusions until I individually see them as craters :S
 
Is there a calendar fir things to keep your eye out for this year, visible from auk.

Anyone know any good guides on how to take long exposure star photos, especially with something lit up in the foreground, like a tent or tree etc.

I suspect it often involves taking multiple images from the same spot one with a lower ISO than the other. A lot of photos these days are heavily digitally edited.
 
Curiosity Mars Rover at Namib Dune (360 Video):


This view of the downwind face of "Namib Dune" on Mars covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon. The site is part of the dark-sand "Bagnold Dunes" field along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. Images taken from orbit indicate that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.

The component images of this scene were taken on Dec. 18, 2015, by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover during the 1,197th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars.
 
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