A challenging eclipse wonderful to behold

Posted by Photonstopper on May 20, 2022
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Total Lunar Eclipse of May 15 - 16, 2022, at 12:30 a.m., EDT. Some viewers may be able to see several white spots in the dark space around Moon -- stars within the constellation Libra -- better visible in the original photograph. Photo by James Guilford
Total Lunar Eclipse of May 15 – 16, 2022, at 12:30 a.m., EDT. Some viewers may be able to see several white spots in the dark space around Moon — stars within the constellation Libra — better visible in the original photograph. Photo by James Guilford

It looked like a great opportunity to see and photograph a total eclipse of the Moon! Too often, it seems, lunar eclipses have been either just starting or in progress at moonset or sunrise, either curtailing what might be seen. The May 15 – 16 lunar eclipse was an exception.

The entire eclipse sequence might be visible from my location with its peak — totality — at about midnight; not too late or too early a time for those who need sleep. Of course the big “IF” was IF the weather would allow viewing.

Lunar Eclipse Sequence Illustation, credit: NASA/Ernie Wright
Lunar Eclipse Sequence. Credit: NASA

Early in the evening things looked good but forecasters called for an influx of cloud cover and, of course, just as the partial phase of the event began, clouds began to gather.

At first, the brilliant partially-eclipsed orb was easily photographed through thin overcast. The thin veil of clouds gave a mystical feel to the event. As the clouds thickened, however, the view worsened. At times, though the camera could pick it out, Moon was visible only as a smudge in the cloudy night sky.

Early in the partial eclipse period, Moon has a flat, indistinct appearance due to being in the subtle penumbral eclipse. Earth’s deep shadow crawls across the lunar disk from lower left to upper right. Photo by James Guilford.

Late in the partial eclipse, I could make out a trace of copper-red in the darkened portion of the lunar disk though that did not register with the camera.

Thickening clouds threatened to ruin the view and succeeded much of the time! Photo by James Guilford.

Just as totality was reached, Moon was covered with clouds thick enough to block the view entirely. Disappointment set in but the clouds had some streaks where a star or two could be seen.

A fingernail-thin sliver of the formerly full Moon remained marking the final portion of the partial eclipse phase. Faint red coloration was visible to the eye but, at this exposure, the camera did not record it. Photo by James Guilford.

So while I missed the precise moment of peak eclipse at 12:11 a.m., EDT, I waited to see if the moving clouds would allow a peek at the still-red Moon. It happened!

Deep red and copper tones mark totality. No direct light from Sun reaches Moon during this period leaving only light scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere -- coloration from all of Earth's sunrises and sunsets -- to make Moon visible. The two bright dots in the blackness are stars in constellation Libra. Total Lunar Eclipse of May 15 - 16, 2022, at 12:31 a.m. EDT. Camera Info: Canon EOS 5D Mk. 4, 400mm lens, ISO 8000, f/5.6, 1/4-second. Photo by James Guilford.
Deep red and copper tones mark totality. No direct light from Sun reaches Moon during this period leaving only light scattered and filtered through Earth’s atmosphere — coloration from all of Earth’s sunrises and sunsets — to make Moon visible. The two bright dots in the blackness are stars in constellation Libra. Total Lunar Eclipse of May 15 – 16, 2022, at 12:31 a.m. EDT. Camera Info: Canon EOS 5D Mk. 4, 400mm lens, ISO 8000, f/5.6, 1/4-second. Photo by James Guilford.

There, in a narrow slot between masses of cloud, appeared the beautiful eclipse I’d waited for in the damp chill. I got busy with my camera, stood and wondered at the sight my eyes enjoyed, took a picture of my camera setup, and after only a few wonderful minutes, heavy overcast set in — the red Moon disappeared.

Camera rig used to make lunar eclipse photos -- camera with telephoto lens aimed at eclipse, visible in cloudy sky.
Camera rig aimed at lunar eclipse. iPhone photo by James Guilford

With no visible openings in the cloud deck approaching, I packed up my gear and went indoors happy to have been able to enjoy the natural wonder.

As a postscript, I submitted an image of totality to the local newspaper and it didn’t show up there. Okay, maybe not something they wanted. A couple of days later, too late to I checked my email spam folder and, to my dismay, the newspaper editor wrote that he wanted to use the photo but at higher resolution.

Last of the season’s dragons

Posted by Photonstopper on September 12, 2021
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An Autumn Meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum), AKA Yellow-legged Meadowhawk, observes its world from a dried aquatic plant leaf in the wetlands of the Alderfer-Chatfield Wildlife Sanctuary.

We’ve not been out much on nature hikes this year. We did, however, pay a brief visit to a local park Saturday, and spotted a few dragonflies. This is one of many Autumn Meadowhawks we observed that afternoon at the Medina County Park District’s Alderfer-Chatfield Wildlife Sanctuary. These red beauties are usually the last dragonfly seen each year with a flight season that begins in July and which can extend to mid-November.

It ain’t pretty but it’s progress

Posted by Photonstopper on September 12, 2021
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Planet Jupiter from a September 10 astrophotography effort. Several cloud bands and atmospheric disruptions, as well as the planet’s oblate spheroid shape can be seen despite the overall softness of the picture. From a stack of monochrome images, color added during editing.

Okay, I know this is ugly — a not-very-good image of planet Jupiter. I know, and yet I’m posting this because this humble effort is the best I’ve done thus far in my beginning planetary imaging efforts. I made a stack of images around 11:11 p.m., Friday, Sept. 10. Conditions were difficult with breezes, and high altitude haze and I found achieving good focus was hard. Maybe an electric micro focus would help? A longer native focal length telescope would also help by producing a bigger image on the camera’s sensor!

On the “up” side, even this crude attempt shows several of the planet’s cloud belts, even hints at major atmospheric disruptions; that makes me happy, or at least happier. Lost in processing were nearby Galilean Moons Io and Europa which would have appeared just to the right of Jupiter’s disk. My previous planetary effort was Mars one year ago! Between the sky conditions (rarely good, it seems), and my nighttime motivation, I sadly don’t get much practice.

To produce the image I used my Vixen 8-inch Cassegrain 1,800mm FL telescope (love the scope but need more focal length), ZWI ASI178MC planetary camera, Lynkeos Stacker processing software which is a native MacOS application. I shut down a bit after midnight Friday night and hoped for clear skies Saturday night — I wanted to try again and try a a piggybacked shot using my DSLR and telephoto lens, getting Jupiter and his family of moons. Alas, no. Clouds and smoke from western U.S. fires plus continued breezes played havoc with the sky. So I tore down the rig and stowed everything hoping good conditions come soon.

Storm Arrival: August 25

Posted by Photonstopper on September 11, 2021
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Storm Arrival. A complex shelf cloud developed along the leading edge of a mesoscale convective system (MCS) as it rolled over the city of Medina, Ohio in the middle of the day. Torrential rains followed.

I was able to record the approach of a massive mesoscale convective system (MCS) with its shelf cloud early in the afternoon of August 25 — this panorama I assembled shows most of it. I posted a panning video I shot of the storm and it was discovered by a producer at Accuweather. The cable weather channel requested permission to use the “footage” on-air but I denied the request … I feared their use of my drone video, myself not yet a certified professional drone pilot, would violate FAA regulations. I was later told by a flight instructor that I could have granted permission, even sold the video to a willing buyer, since it was created for recreation and not on assignment or with the intent of commercial use. I still sigh thinking about that one. Mebbie next time!

By the way, I have a lot of experience with this type of weather phenomenon and was even checking radar as the storm approached so I knew when to land to avoid rain and strong winds.

The Sun awakens

Posted by Photonstopper on September 11, 2021
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The Sun, showing several sunspots/active regions. This image was made at 3:43 PM EDT/7:43 PM UTC on September 10, 2021 using my Vixen Cassegrain reflecting telescope with safe solar filter, and Canon EOS 6D Mark 2 DSLR camera body.

After a long period of quiet during our Sun’s fairly predictable 11-year activity cycle, things have been happening. What was a bright, clear disk has become speckled with sunspots of late. The increased activity brings with it the chance of Earth-directed coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which result in solar storms when they collide with our home planet’s magnetic field. Auroras, or “northern lights” for us, are one potential result of solar storms. The less pleasant effects can include disruption of radio communications and satellite operation, all the way to electrical grid failures at the extreme!

Several recent CMEs have missed Earth but one is headed in our direction as this blog entry is being written. According to SpaceWeather.com, “{A} CME is on the way following an explosion in the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR2864 on Sept. 8th. NOAA analysts believe Earth could experience a glancing blow or near miss late on Sept. 11th.” Those favored with clear skies and a good view to the north may want to be on the lookout for aurora, but the odds aren’t favorable … this time!

Here are two photos of Sun I shot at 3:43 PM EDT (7:43 PM UTC). The first image shows the full solar disk. Notice not only the dark sunspots but also the lighter-colored “splotches” of additional active solar regions, most visible near the edges of the disk.

The second image is cropped to show the major concentration of the day’s sunspots with their official numerical designations. Both images have been color tinted.

The Sun is waking up and putting on a wonderful show!

A tightly-cropped portion of the day’s full-disk image shows three sunspot groups: AR 2866, AR 2868, and AR 2869. Sunspots only appear to be dark because they are significantly “cooler” than the surrounding solar atmosphere; they are actually quite hot. Sun’s shining photosphere has a temperature of 5,800 degrees Kelvin while sunspots have temperatures of around 3,800ºK (6,380℉). Nearly all of the dark features seen here are larger than planet Earth.

Late-season red dragon

Posted by Photonstopper on September 11, 2021
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An Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly perches upon a dead leaf and watches its world.

One of many Autumn Meadowhawk dragonflies we spotted this afternoon at the Medina County Park District’s Alderfer-Chatfield Wildlife Sanctuary. These red beauties are usually the last dragonfly seen each year with a flight season that begins in July and which can extend to mid-November if there aren’t heavy frosts, according to the Wisconsin Wetlands Association.

Worth the sleep deprivation

Posted by Photonstopper on July 26, 2021
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Shot of the night was of this magnificent anvil crawler that lit the clouds overhead as it sprawled across the sky. In the lower left-hand corner of this image is an interesting cloud feature — something invisible without the flash of the lightning discharge.

A line of thunderstorms was bearing down on our area the night of July 24 and it looked like it might be interesting — it has been a while since I’ve made any lightning pictures. The storm progressed slowly from Southeastern Michigan and Northwest Ohio and across Lake Erie finally beginning its arrival here around midnight. As the storm overran the area, I watched it for lightning potential. Ducking outside and looking up at one point, I was treated to a beautiful “anvil crawler” display nearly overhead!

I rushed to my office and quickly assembled my gear: Canon EOS 6D Mk. 2, wide-angle lens, and tripod. First to the northern side of the house. After some waiting and a couple of “teasers” the storm let loose a magnificent crawler — brilliant lightning crossing the cloud bottoms, branching off to the sides. Turns out, that was the shot of the night though I didn’t know it at the time since I was unable to preview my images. Light rain began to fall and with not enough shelter, I moved to the south side of the house.

Long streaks of lightning branch across the southern sky over Medina during a relatively quiet thunderstorm the night of July 24.

It took a while for the storm to progress southward enough for me to see the dwindling cloud-to-cloud lightning flashes but they eventually came. I spent maybe 90 minutes watching the storm, aiming the camera, waiting for the automatic trigger to capture the ephemeral brilliance. Thunder, this night, rolled across the dark countryside for many seconds after each flash before fading away — something I’ve not experienced in quite some time. It was lovely. My sheltered spot on the south side kept camera, lens, and photographer dry throughout, which isn’t always the case. Rain prevented me from aiming the camera as high as I’d have liked. Just a few drops on the camera lens, combined with a bright lightning flash, produces an unusable image.

Not a pretty picture, at 1:08 a.m. this powerful cloud-to-ground bolt hit only a mile or so away! Perhaps surprisingly, I head no sirens and have read no accounts of storm damage.

The storm petered out so, sometime around 1:45 a.m. I went back indoors, and reviewed the images via the camera’s display. Yes! Beautiful stuff! Editing the photos after sleeping for a few hours was the highlight of my Sunday morning.

In future I really need to find a sheltered place, or at least a place where I can park and shoot from my car at night, a spot that has an open view of the countryside and/or town. In the mean time, results from the Saturday night storm were worth the sleep deprivation.

The Shot of the Night was this magnificent anvil crawler that lit the clouds as it sprawled across the sky. The Medina County Gazette ran my photo on Page 2, crediting “resident photographer James Guilford”. I like my new title.