Planet Archives - Bliss Photographics

Moon Hanging with Mars

Here’s a Close / Far Perspective for you. Moon Close, Mars Far…(ish). If you can full screen this, the moon is pretty sharp here….Good seeing that night.

There was an internet/Facebook meme that the Moon and Mars would be in the sky together with a GIANT Mars. Well here they are…. Mars was supposed to be the size of the moon. Darn it….. So disappointed…😜

Captured is the reality, only a “little” different than the meme circulating around with two big globes in the sky. From the human eye perspective this is a giant mars. (that little red dot far right frame). The moon getting close in the sky to mars was obvious looking up that evening. I don’t work night skies very much photographically as it’s off schedule to me. I get jet lag easily lol.

At any rate, I don’t see opportunity to take a planet and our moon in the same frame too often. Well I could zoom WAY back to be able to actually fit them in the frame lol. Only when a planet is close can you do this. The dynamic range difference between the bright moon and the little dim mars is tough to pull out of the dark.

Mars closes approach to earth will be on October 6th 2020 at only 38.6 million miles away. The moon is currently 224,800 miles out which is relatively close I suppose. It does indeed appear larger than it normally would further away lol. Not QUITE the same apparent size as our orbiting partner.. So if you read it on an internet meme, you might want to initially question the information.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming / Montana borderlands (Well somewhat over it anyway)

Title: Moon Hanging with Mars

Jupiter and Main Moons with a bit of intentionally blank space … Excuse the text…

Galileo Galilei has made Many Contributions to science but one of the biggies was the discovery of 4 moons/satellites orbiting the bright Planet Jupiter. Galileo observed that the “stars” moved along with Jupiter in the sky. Seemly carried along with the bigger/brighter star. The moons were all lined up like ducks in a row. Just a week ago in 1610, he was gazing through an “astronomic instrument” . He had noticed those “stars moved apparently around” Jupiter. Several noted historically famous astronomers were enjoying the new fangled contraption. We call it a telescope. They failed to receive credit because Galileo’s work was more precise and accurate, he got the glory.

This arrangement is the worlds largest clock “on the wall” literally. Those moons move like clockwork. Galileo discovered this phenomena. Jupiter Moon time schedules in the form of books remained in use for hundreds of years. By looking at where the moons of Jupiter emerge or disappear. You can literally tell a good accurate time for use in navigation on ships. This works on Land too with Lewis and Clark using Jupiter and it’s moons to tell the exact time. They were in a sea of grass but the sextant works every bit as well there. You need to know the exact time to properly use a sextant to determine your position on the globe.

In this photo, I timed it for Europe just emerging from behind Jupiters shadow at that precise moment of time. Then I could have taken a sextant to give me Latitude and longitude. The sextant is used to measure angles between the horizon and astronomic objects.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch Driveway, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)

Title: Jupiter and Main Moons