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pbjonearth.bsky.social
pbjonearth
@pbjonearth.bsky.social
310 followers 520 following 480 posts
Heart of gold, pancreas of plastic, chemist, teacher, cook, astronomer, writer, baseball fan, hiker, eater. OK/NC. Opinions my own and subject to change. He/him.

Words: https://pbjcom.wordpress.com/
Pictures: https://www.astrobin.com/users/bunyon/
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pbjonearth.bsky.social
Here is a gif from the Sept. 20 transit and shadow transit. This covers about half an hour of rotation. #astrophotography 🔭🧪
September 21, 2025 at 3:18 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Saturn was at opposition last night. I imaged Titan and its shadow crossing the disk the night before. Here I show that image with an image of Saturn with Titan's shadow on the disk on Sept 4. Note how much brighter the ring is on the 20th. This is the Seeliger Effect. #astrophotography 🔭🧪
Two photos of Saturn arranged above and below one another. In the top photo, Titan (a very, very small orange ball) hangs to the upper left of Saturn's disk (at about the ten o'clock position) while its shadow is a black spot just on the edge of the disk at about 11 o'clock. In the bottom photo, Titan's shadow is again on the edge of the disk at 11:30 while Titan itself is an orange/grey disk of the same size just to the lower left of the shadow. The two spots just touch one another. Saturn's disk is a ruddy orange/tan. The rings are nearly edge on and presented horizontally. The equatorial zone, just to either side of the rings is much brighter than the rest of the disk. In both images, the planet's disk is banded horizontally, though it's easier to see in the lower photo due to the seeing and scope collimation being a touch better on that night. In the bottom image, two small storms, presenting as small white spots, are visible in the southern hemisphere. The rings are much brighter, relative to the planet's disk, in the lower photo, taken the night before opposition, than in the top photo, taken 17 days before opposition. This increase in brightness of a rough, particulate surface, is known as the Seeliger effect, and can be seen in a variety of objects when the light source (here, the Sun) is directly behind the observer.
September 21, 2025 at 3:13 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
With Earth crossing Saturn's ring plane, we're being treated to some lovely moon and shadow transits. Titan is currently casting its shadow on the disk every 18 days. With gear too long unused, I managed to catch last night's transit. Color is in Vis light, Gray in IR. 🔭 🧪 #astrophotography
The planet Saturn captured in IR (wavelength 685nm - ~950nm) and, so, presented in grayscale against a black background. The planet is tilted so that the rings stretch from lower left to upper right across the disk. The rings are seen very close to edge on so that they appear to be a thin streak. Across the disk, one can just make out the shadow cast by the rings just below the razor thin rings themselves. Titan is just off the disk at about the ten o'clock position and is casting a shadow onto the disk at about the ten thirty position. The moon is a small gray disk, the shadow a completely black circle on the gray disk, which is covered in darker and lighter bands running parallel to the rings. The planet Saturn captured in visible light and, so, presented in color against a black background. Saturn's disk is a banded yellow gold. Two equatorial bands, running parallel to the rings are darker brown than the rest of the bands. The planet is tilted so that the rings stretch from lower left to upper right across the disk. The rings are seen very close to edge on so that they appear to be a thin streak. Across the disk, one can just make out the shadow cast by the rings just below the razor thin rings themselves. Titan is just off the disk at about the nine o'clock position and is casting a shadow onto the disk at about the ten o'clock position. The moon is a small orange disk, the shadow a completely black circle.
September 4, 2025 at 6:07 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
M27 imaged over June 22-23, two clear nights in a very cloudy month. The Dumbbell shape (L/R here) is apparent in even in small scopes. With my 15" and a dark sky, I can see the more delicate parts above and below. It's all greenish gray in the eyepiece, of course. 🔭 🧪 #astrophotography
A planentary nebula, Messier 27 fills the center tenth to an eighth of the field of view, surrounded by a dense starfield against a black background. The nebula is mostly blue-green (from the O-3 emission) but there is some pink from hydrogen emission. The famous dumbbell shape is formed left-right in the image, with the outer edges of the blue-green dumbbell (which is the brightest part of the nebula) tinged pink. An X of pink nodules crosses the bright dumbbell part. Above and below the dumbbell, filling in the missing space to make the nebula more circular, is lacy blue-greenish nebula. The bottom edge is, again, tinged pink. A very faint green and pink arc surrounds the bright nebula at center, the result of an earlier outgassing from the central star. The image was made with a Celestron 8 Schmidt Cassegrain working at f/7, a ZWO ASI2600MC camera, and an Optolong L-Quad light pollution filter from within the city limits of Winston-Salem, NC. The image is the result of a stack of 90 5 minute exposures processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop. No AI was involved, it's all real data.
July 1, 2025 at 1:07 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
22 and 46 degree haloes grace the sky above Wake Forest’s last day of final exams. #astronomy #science
Sun surrounded by complete 22 degree halo and a 46 degree arc, over a red brick library. A banner saying “you got this” hangs over the entrance. Sun surrounded by complete 22 degree halo and a 46 degree arc, which is split into a “rainbow.” The arc is just over the fume hood exhaust on a red brick chemistry building. Treetops occupy the upper right and left of frame. The lower section of an inverted rainbow like 46 degree halo hangs over a red brick building. Treetops fill the right of frame and upper left. The sun and 22 degree halo are outside the top of the frame.
May 7, 2025 at 11:27 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Figure some of you could use this.
A close up of a four leaf clover surrounded by three leaf clover interspersed with a few blades of grass.
April 4, 2025 at 9:09 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Simeis 147, the Spaghetti Nebula. This is 24 hours of exposure with a 200mm lens through an L-extreme nebula filter. I'm not sure my processing is the best. The nebula was barely visible on individual subs. It's a supernova remnant on the Taurus/Auriga border. 🔭 #astrophotography 🍝
A red tinted starfield with a small, bright nebula at upper left, and a lacey, delicate circular red nebula centered. Known as the Spaghetti Nebula because of the lacey, stringy strands somewhat resembling spaghetti.
March 24, 2025 at 8:36 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
It was a lovely eclipse. The moon didn't get deep enough to uniformly darken the disk, so one edge was always a little bright. It was fun seeing Leo emerge as the moon dimmed and to here doors crack open around the neighborhood at 3 in the morning. One guy whooped and clapped. #astronomy 🔭 🧪
Lunar Eclipse on March 14, 2025. A reddish-orange moon, darker at upper right and brighter at lower left, centered in a rectangular field of black with a few stars peppered across the frame.
March 15, 2025 at 2:01 AM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Having crunched the data, here is a composite of the Moon, shot while Mars was hidden, and Mars, shot well after with a longer video run (as in "normal" video planetary imaging), pasted into the place where blurrier Mars was just after emergence. Will post a link to raw video below. #astronomy 🔭 🧪
Mars emerging from behind the Moon after occultation on January 13, 2025. The limb of the Moon is gray curve filled with craters, rays, and maria occupying the bottom half of the image, which is 5 times wider than it is tall. Mars is left of center, just off the edge of the Moon. Mars is ruddy orange with dark green, almost black, features, and a white polar cap on the left edge. The apparent diameter of Mars is approximately 1 percent of the apparent diameter of the Moon, so the little orange ball is very, very small up against the arc of the Moon, of which we only see about ten percent.
January 18, 2025 at 4:04 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
The Mars occultation was a really fun event to watch live. The image doesn't do it justice, but in case you missed it. I have a lot more data to churn through, but it's late and I have, what is that again? Oh, right. Work. I have work in the morning. 🔭 #astrophotography
Mars just after it emerged from behind the moon on January 13, 2025. In the image, Mars is a ruddy circle just up and right of center, about a tenth or so of the frame height in diameter. It is one Mars diameter above the curve of the Moon. Only a very small portion of the moon is visible, gently arcing through the frame left to right, filling roughly the bottom half with mountains and craters.
January 14, 2025 at 5:09 AM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Only whole milk drinkers panic.
Grocery store fridge with many variety of milks but the three rows of whole milk are empty.
January 9, 2025 at 2:28 AM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Tonight is the 40th anniversary of 1st light (the Orion Nebula) with my first scope, a Celestron 8. The scope came with a 25 year warranty that I thought ridiculous and my folks hoped my interest would last a couple of years. This photo was taken with that scope four nights ago. 🔭 #astrophotography
A starfield with a bright pinkish nebula, the Orion Nebula, M42. Most of the nebula is on the left side, with one comma shaped outcropping (with a bright star centered on it) just to the right. Grayish (dusty) cloud and dark lanes separate the main nebula from the comma shaped cloud. The gray clouds form a concave shaped with focus at lower left. In the area to the left of the gray concave are red/pink wisps. The trapezium, a paralellogram of 4 stars, is centered in the frame and in the brightest part of the nebula.
January 4, 2025 at 9:43 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Very glad I was able to adjust Mom's digital antenna so that she could get a clearer picture of this.
A Black man in a coat (light blue with pinstripes) and tie (dark blue with polka dots), presents a game show question: "Women: What's the least sexy place to get a zit?" Possible answers: "Your face," "Your chest," "Your bum."
December 10, 2024 at 7:22 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
I love planetary nebulae. I mostly love them because there a lot with a high surface brightness and a lot respond well to OIII filters. These are, then, great visual/imaging targets in a light polluted sky. These (Pease 1 in M15 and IC 289) were taken 30 feet from a streetlight. 🔭
Image of a star field with globular cluster M15 at center. Planetary nebula Pease 1 is a green spot in the whitish ball of stars that is M15. Around M15 is black space dotted by individual stars. A zoom on the globular cluster M15, which is a swarm of stars increasingly dense toward the center. In this gif, two images alternate. In the first, the green channel is broad spectrum green. In the second, the green channel is the green channel from an image made through an OIII filter. In the latter, the planetary nebula Pease 1 is a bright green spot. The central stars flicker and Pease 1 pops in the OIII image. A star field with planetary nebula IC 289 at center. Viewed at full resolution, IC 289 is a smoky grayish blue donut with faint gray tendrils. In the hole of the donut is the white central star that illuminates the nebula.
December 9, 2024 at 3:52 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
The Catseye Nebula, a planetary nebula in Draco. A bright star (white spot) surrouneded by two interlocking and orthogonal, blue/purple oval rings.
December 6, 2024 at 4:26 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
For a holiday treat, I made some NI3 for my class. It's a morning class; the batch I made the night before went off overnight. This was pretty damp so I had to hit it a little harder. Still, always a fun bang. Between 500mg and a gram. #chemsky
November 27, 2024 at 3:24 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
On Saturday (16 Nov) evening. I found a cute lineup of three of Jupiter's moons. I imaged them once per minute for an hour and made a short video. That video repeats here several times. Europa moving quick, Callisto the dimmest. Jupiter is the blown out disk. 🔭 #astrophotography
November 21, 2024 at 2:23 AM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
This is the same video as the original, but annotated so that you can see a label for Uranus and the four minor planets. The stars flicker more than in the file on my computer. Data compression? Just flickering isn't the planet - must be motion.
November 18, 2024 at 2:51 AM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Uranus is at opposition tonight. I'd hoped to image it, but...clouds. So, here is a two frame blink from Dec 11/13, 2023. Uranus' motion is fairly obvious but there are 4 minor planets as well. Can you find them? Annotated video (and alt-text) as a reply. 🔭 #astrophotography #uranus
November 18, 2024 at 2:48 AM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Tethys emerging from Saturn's shadow on October 2, 2023. Dione is to the lower right. Imaged with a 15" scope in IR light. You can see the disk's shadow on the rings. Saturn is visible in the evenings now for a bit longer. Go take a look, it'll do your heart good. 🔭 #astrophotography
November 15, 2024 at 3:15 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
I tried to post this as a gif several weeks ago and it failed. Trying again as a video. I practiced and practiced automated imaging for the April 8 TSE and then made a change in the field just before. Computer crashed 10s after 2nd contact. Alas. This is the last 0.5s before. 🔭 #astrophotography
November 12, 2024 at 2:20 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Europa passing behind Ganymede as seen from my driveway, 24 Mar 2015. There is something funky in the sharpening that makes it hard to tell which is behind, but it is definitely Europa. More in the alt text. IR (>685nm) light, 382mm reflector. 🔭 #astrophotography
November 11, 2024 at 3:53 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Thanks, Calendar.
Image of the 28th and 29th of November from a calendar. Beside 28, it says in English: “Thanksgiving Day.” Beside the 29, it says: “Day after Thanksgiving Day.”
November 9, 2024 at 7:42 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
I'll go ahead and put the Jupiter and Mars images here as well. I really messed up. I got two images of Ganymede sliding into Jupiter's shadow but I didn't know it and had just awakened at 3am so missed it. Still, in the IR image, you can see a half-Ganymede.
Black and white image of Jupiter shot in IR light. The disk is crossed by two dark bands, tilted so that the equator runs upper right to lower left. Between the bands, in the equatorial band are dark streaks, swirls, and ripples. To the right of the planet are two moons. The darker, further away from Jupiter is Callisto. Brighter Ganymede is a "half-moon" as half of it is in Jupiter's shadow. At lower right is an inset showing the two moons a little brighter and increased in size by 80%. A color image of Jupiter. The cream colored disk is most obviously crossed by two brown-orange bands in which are numerous swirls and waves. Between the two bands are lighter colored blue and tan streaks and ripples. The polar regions are light tan, speckled with blue-green spots. Color image of Mars. Against the ruddy surface can be seen darker lands. Most obvious is a wavy stretch near the bottom of the gibbous disk. At the top of the disk is a white polar cap. Black and white IR image of Mars, showing the white polar cap ringed by dark material, dark wavy land at the bottom of the gibbous disk, and the shadow of several mountains on the right of the disk near the terminator.
October 27, 2024 at 2:42 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Had great seeing in the early morning of 23 Oct. After Jupiter and Mars, I had a look at the Moon, nearly straight overhead, at an unusual time (last quarter). These were made at a focal length of ~6000mm and 382mm aperture. Descriptions are in the alt-text. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon
A close up of the lunar surface with lunar north at left and sunlight coming from bottom, so that shadows point up. Hundreds of craters, superimposed over one another, dominated by four large craters. Three cross the bottom 60% of the frame. On left is the largest of the three, Ptolemaeus, which is speckled with little craters on a flat floor (which indicates later filling with magma). One moderate sized (about 5% of Ptolemaeus’ diameter) is in the upper right of the crater. Ptolemaeus shares a wall with the medium of the three craters, Alphonsus. Alphonsus has a small central peak that is bright on the bottom face and in shadow on the upper. Alphonsus is also speckled by small craters. Separated by a bit to the right of Alphonsus is crater Arzachel, which is slightly smaller than Alphonsus. Arzachel is a deeper crater than the previous two. Arzachel has a more prominent and complex central peak than Alphonsus. There is a crater in the upper part of Arzachel that is about 10% the diameter of the larger crater. An arc of rille runs across the upper floor of Arzachel, like a frown. Arzachel is much deeper than the other two and has a complex, terraced rise to the rim. A ridge connects Arzachel to Alphonsus, which appears as a lighter stream of gray than the surrounding area. The fourth crater is straight up from the shared rim of Ptolemaeus and Alphonsus – Albateginus. Albateginus has a central peak and a lava filled floor speckled by tiny craters. There are two significant craters inside Albateginus. The largest, Klein bisects the rim of Albateginus. Klein has a hint of a central peak and it’s own smaller craters. I can’t locate a name for the smaller one on the north side of the big crater. It has a shallow rim and one smaller crater inside it. A close up of the lunar surface looking toward the lunar south pole with lunar north at left and sunlight coming from lower left, so that shadows point to upper right. Hundreds of craters, superimposed over one another. Crater Clavius dominates the image, which is centered on crater Porter, a midsize eroded crater with small central peak that bisects the rim of Clavius, which extends to the lower right. Crater Magnius dominates the upper left of the image. Both Clavius and Magnius are old craters with eroded walls. They host a series of other craters ranging from barely detectable by my scope to ~10% of the area of the larger crater. The entire field is similarly covered with such craters. In any crater with a rim, shadow extends to the upper right. On the left edge, just below center is crater Tycho, with a strong central peak and terraced walls. In the upper right is crater Moretus, another with a strong central peak and terraced walls. Moretus is at 70 degrees south latitude and the shadows are long. A close up of the lunar surface near the terminator so that the local time on the surface pictured is late afternoon, near sunset. Lunar north is to the left, sunlight is coming from the bottom so that shadows, long because of the local time, point up, toward the terminator. The surface is brighter at bottom and grows increasingly dark toward the top, until the upper right is entirely in shadow. The surface is pockmarked with craters, all of which have shadows on their floor from their rims. At top center is crater Barocius, which is mostly in shadow. The far rim, at the very top of the frame, pokes up and catches the last Sun before a two week lunar night. To the lower left of Barocius is Maurolycus, a complex set of overlapping craters. The shadow of the rim extends to the central peak, which still sticks up into the sunlight. The peak’s shadow, in turn, extends all the way to the slumped wall which is brilliantly illuminated in the afternoon Sun. Below is crater Stöfler and Faraday, the younger of the two, locked together by dozens of other craters. Right of Faraday is the gouge of craters of Licetus and Heraclitus. Crater Copernicus near local noon so that there are few shadows and little relief. Hundreds of tiny craterlets ring the land surrounding the crater and the ray system from the ancient impact is clearly seen as ghostly lighter material splashed across the darker maria. Only a few moderately sized craters share the frame with the large, bright Copernicus at center. To the upper left, near the edge, is Pytheas, about a quarter the size of Copernicus. To the right of center is the double crater Fauth arcing over to Rheinhold at lower right. Copernicus itself is very bright under the high Sun, with it’s myriad central peaks bright specks against the rough crater floor. Only by looking at the terraced walls can we see that the Sun is a little past noon – the upper rim is extremely bright, while there is just a hint of a shadow on the first terrace on the bottom.
October 27, 2024 at 2:32 PM