Does anyone else have a view of the moon and it's halo the last three nights?

[DoctorWho]

Originally Posted by Stargazer1965

I'm in the midwest and don't see any of the effects you guys are seeing.....On a cloudless night the other night ...nothing but a spectacular view of the craters on the moon

Oddly, I'm in Central Illinois and I saw it two nights ago even with a very thin cloud cover in the upper atmosphere. The moon was at it's maximum height in the sky and the aura ring looked like it was miles away from the moon. Last night the cloud cover was thicker, so the detail was missing. You could see the moon as a diffused light source with no detail.
Bill "the Doctor"

[Phtha]

ahh shame... yea it was overcast where I was too during the perigee so I couldn't get any pics either.
I guess Mars wanted a little cover during his tryst with Luna.

Here are some pics I snapped about 10 minutes ago of our Lady though. She is out pretty good tonight. Mars is still close by but not nearly close enough to get them in the same shot.

[Christo888]

Hey Phtha sweet pics!!!!

[Firstlook]

Originally Posted by Phtha

ahh shame... yea it was overcast where I was too during the perigee so I couldn't get any pics either.
I guess Mars wanted a little cover during his tryst with Luna.

Here are some pics I snapped about 10 minutes ago of our Lady though. She is out pretty good tonight. Mars is still close by but not nearly close enough to get them in the same shot.

Now thats a picture of the moon!!

[sunny D]

The halo was beautiful in Holland as well


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_moon

[Stargazer1965]

Phtha...I was thinking about getting a telescope this spring....Do you have any suggestions??

Also...Have you heard of one with a usb for pic taking and programming the coordinates in and it track an object??

Thanks in advance

[Phtha]

Thanks guys!
Stargazer, that was actually taken with a Camera, a Rebel XTi. I was a little surprised at the clarity myself once I uploaded them on the PC...
I had a 70-300mm lense on, zoomed to the max of course.

It made me want to get a telescope too.

Originally Posted by Stargazer1965

Phtha...I was thinking about getting a telescope this spring....Do you have any suggestions??

[Christo888]

Phtha, looking at your pics of the moon... it begins to look like the glow of city lights or undersurface city's instead of reflections of the sun.

[fossileyesed]

i missed this one as it was a little snowy the last few days.i take a lot of pics of everything but the winter is a little less photogenic.mildly bi polar,lol
so i've been taking mostly night shots of the stars and moon,planets and such.
i have an album with quite a few moon shots.i was looking for halo pics,i know i got some.i get side tracked really easy(add is a blessing in desguise)
when i'm looking at pictures,they speak better than words,lol
page two and three got the moon pics

http://www.projectavalon.net/forum/a...hp?albumid=558

peace...kent

maybe it clears up tonight,lol

[Phtha]

Yah Christo888 it almost does look like she has her own light source. Even if she is illuminated 100% by the Sun, I was always fascinated by the way she glows like she does. Well... she is spot on with the rest of the fairer sex... shrouded in mystery.

[Phtha]

Here is what she looks like tonight. Not quite a Full Moon.

[aroundthetable]

i took this on my blackberry.

[Firstlook]

I took another one this morning. This time I did just a little better and also adjusted the brightness and contrast. I didnt mess with anything else like color or any other effects. Its still blury though. I'll work on getting a tri pod.

Peace

[Phtha]

Yea a tripod is pretty much a must for shooting anything celetial. You captured a really nice colour their on that last pic though! Are you using an SLR?

Originally Posted by Firstlook

I took another one this morning. This time I did just a little better and also adjusted the brightness and contrast. I didnt mess with anything else like color or any other effects. Its still blury though. I'll work on getting a tri pod.

[illuminate]

wow, awesome shots!!!
THX so much for sharing

~ one love ~

[Firstlook]

Originally Posted by illuminate

wow, awesome shots!!!
THX so much for sharing

~ one love ~

Absolutely. Heres hoping for more to come.

Originally Posted by Phtha

Yea a tripod is pretty much a must for shooting anything celetial. You captured a really nice colour their on that last pic though! Are you using an SLR?

I dont think so, but maybe.....I have a digital Canon Powershot A720 is.

I dont have the manual and it doesnt imply it on the actual camera. But from what I gather the shoot screen on is supposed to represent the actual view? IDK about this stuff yet.

I'll do some googling and figure out how to take the best shots I can. Any advice?


peace

[lightblue]

I am in the UK and I have never seen it BRIGHTER and CLEARER...almost surreal...this was minutes ago on my way back home and there i find this thread..it's quite big too (like in the summer months), as if it's come off its orbit and it's heading our way..hope that's not possible.

[lawyerforliberty]

Originally Posted by Phtha

Yea! I noticed that here the last few nights, to cloudy tonight to see it though... I'm a little surprised you see it down in Cali as well.

Yesterday and the day before there was a massive halo surrounding it, even when it was a cloudless sky. The moon also 'reddened' near by clouds when they were in the sky, especially as it neared the horizon.

I didn't take any pics of it, but here are some pics I snapped a few days ago of clouds with these rainbow colours inside them. I've been noticing these quite often the last few years or so, they appear in the daytime when the sun hits them. The camera does not pick up all the colours, and the colours that the camera does pick up are not as vivid as when viewed with the naked eye.... have you ever noticed these?

I live in New Mexico USA and I did indeed notice the halo around the moon a few nights ago. Since then its been too cloudy to see. What struck me was how large, our as this post says, "massive" it was. I was so struck by the size of it I dragged my wife out to look at it. I cannot recall seeing a halo that large at any time before.

[Neo]

I've seen that halo many times here in oz, mostly on perfectly clear nights. Next time I do see it I'll get a pic with my SLR

[WiNaDeYo]

It was completely cloudless last night here in northern Italy, and, yes, I too noticed the huge halo around the moon. I have never seen the halo with a diameter so broad! Two nights ago its halo was much smaller, but it was giving off red hues on the inner side of the halo itself.

This morning the sky was clear and we got some sunshine finally, but now it has completely gone cloudy and looks like it could snow anytime!

Here's info on the full moon from spaceweather.com:

BIGGEST FULL MOON OF THE YEAR: If you think tonight's Moon looks unusually big, you're right. It's the biggest full Moon of 2010. Astronomers call it a "perigee Moon," some 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons of the year.


Johannes Kepler explained the phenomenon 400 years ago. The Moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle but an ellipse, with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other. Astronomers call the point of closest approach "perigee," and that is where the Moon will be Friday night through Saturday morning: diagram.

A good time to look is around sunset when the Moon is near the eastern horizon. At that time, illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through foreground objects such as buildings and trees. Why not let the "Moon illusion" amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with? The swollen orb rising in the east may seem close enough to touch.

And what's that bright orange star right beside the Moon? Read on...

IT'S MARS! In a coincidence of celestial proportions, the Moon and Mars are having close encounters with Earth at the same time. Moreover, the two will spend Friday night gliding across the sky side-by-side. It's a must-see event: sky map.

Readers with backyard telescopes should train their optics on Mars. It looks bigger through a telescope now than at any time between 2008 and 2014. Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK, photographed the Red Planet on Jan. 26th using his 14-inch Celestron:

[5thElement]

Halos around the moon all week here when it has been visible - NW US coast.
I always thought it meant that it was going to be a very cold night but that hasn't proven to be true this week.

*fingers crossed* for clear skies for tonights show

El

[hippihillbobbi]

I definitely saw it here last night too (Knoxville -- East Tennessee) it was lovely! I was afraid that the halo may have been a result of pollution, though. that thought does tend to spoil the view, somewhat at least. i'm gonna look again tonight, though, and try to see Mars, i guess. is it possible without binoculars or a telescope to detect it, do ya think??

hippihillbobbi

[5thElement]

If your skies are clear, Mars will be easily viewed by the naked eye


http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...th_29jan10.gif

It will be right next to the moon.

El