Scope Diagram Astrocamera.Net - Astrophotography by Dave Kodama

Mars & Geminids

 
Conditions weren't great for this Wednesday evening (third quarter Moon, intermittent clouds, temperatures near freezing), but a break in local bad weather near the peak of the Geminid meteor shower and Mars conjunction prompted me to take a chance.

Mars animation sequence info:

  • Date/Time: 14 Dec. 2022
  • Location: Vanishing Point Observatory
  • Camera: Player One Saturn-C
  • Lens/Scope: Celestron C11 + 2X Televue Big Barlow
  • Filter: Player One UV/IR
  • Mount: Losmandy Titan
  • Guiding: --
  • Image Processing: Autostakkert / Registax / Photoshop / Lightroom


 

Geminid meteor.

 

Composite of some of the Geminid meteors (does not include meteor in previous image). Click on the image to see a larger version.

 

While shooting the Witch Head nebula with a 180mm lens, I also caught a Geminid meteor (the long diagonal streak). Small horizontal streaks near the bottom of the image are geostationary satellites. The bright star at the right edge of the frame is Rigel. The Witch Head nebula is very faint in this shot because I ended up with too few frames due to the Moon rising and clouds drifting by.


 

After moonrise, clouds also drifted in and a moon ring around appeared along with the rarer moon dogs. The moon dogs were only visible for a few minutes. The rings and dogs appear about 22° away from the moon and are caused by high altitude ice crystals.

Time lapse video of the entire night is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu-I7b9v6co

Gemini meteor, moon ring/dog photo info:
  • Date/Time: 14 Dec. 2022
  • Location: Vanishing Point Observatory
  • Camera: Nikon D850 @ ISO 1600
  • Exposures: 20 sec.
  • Lens/Scope: Sigma 15mm fisheye @ f/2.8
  • Filter: --
  • Mount: --
  • Guiding: --
  • Image Processing: Lightroom
Witch Head photo info:
  • Date/Time: 14 Dec. 2022
  • Location: Vanishing Point Observatory
  • Camera: Canon RP (modified by Hutech) @ ISO 1600
  • Exposures: 97 x 90 sec.
  • Lens/Scope: Nikon 180mm @ f/2.8
  • Filter: IDAS HEIUB (light pollution, sky-glow filter)
  • Mount: Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi
  • Guiding: --
  • Image Processing: Nebulosity / Photoshop / Lightroom
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