Tag: Mars

Monday (13-January-2025) — New Jersey

Nine-Years Ago Today. Visible sunspots as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean from the Deck of the MV Odyssey. (13-Jan-2016, Semester at Sea).

Mars Occultation and Wolf Full Moon

The sky was clear, and the Wolf Full Moon rose above the trees to the east in time for the Vespera automated telescopes to be able to view Mars going behind the moon. First a time-lapse video of the Vespera telescopes observing the night sky. It stayed mostly cloud free the entire night observation session. For some of the telescopes I programed the “Plan My Night” script to observe Mars and the others to observe the Moon during the occultation event. This is because the Moon is so much brighter than Mars different image acquisition times are needed in order to see the object without it being overexposed.

Time-lapse Video. Vespera Overnight Observation Session. Mars Occultation and Wolf Full Moon. Best viewed full screen and in a dark room.

The first slideshow is sequence showing the start of the Mars occultation using a Vespera Pro telescope programed to observe and track the Moon. Mars is the tiny disk on the lower left side of the moon. You can see Mars approach and then disappear behind the Moon. The Vespera telescope only records monochrome images when observing the Moon, so Mars is not red.

Slideshow of Mars going behind the Moon. Individual images can be found in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

The second slideshow is sequence showing the Mars occultation using a Vespera Pro telescope programed to observe and track Mars. Mars is the small red disk below the Moon. You can see Mars approach and then disappear behind the Moon. For the other planets Vespera telescope records a color (RGB) images so Mars is red. The image of the moon is overblown, so I reduced the saturation levels.

Slideshow of Mars going behind the Moon. Individual images can be found in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

The third slideshow is sequence showing the end of the Mars occultation using a Vespera Pro telescope programed to observe and track the Moon. Mars is the tiny disk on the lower left side of the moon. You can see Mars approach and then disappear behind the Moon. The Vespera telescope only records monochrome images when observing the Moon, so Mars is not red.

Slideshow of Mars returning from behind the Moon. Individual images can be found in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Sunday (12-January-2025) — New Jersey

Nine-Years Ago Today. Feral Rooster at Kualoa Regional Park on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. (12-Jan-2016, Semester at Sea)

Silhouettes of Jets and Birds Passing in Front of the Sun.

Today while viewing the sunspots (currently at or near the solar maximum) with a Stellina and Vespera Classic automated telescope, I captured images of jets and birds passing in front of the sun.

Individual images in the slideshow are available in my Photoshelter Gallery.

What I Hope to See Tomorrow — Mars Occultation.

A simulation view created by the Stellarium application of the Mars Occultation by the full Moon tomorrow evening. The difficulty will be the significant difference in the light levels between the full Moon and the planet Mars. The forecast for tomorrow night at the time of the occultation is for a Clear Sky.

Friday (20-July-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Day and Nighttime Nature in New Jersey.

While moving some of the wood being used build the stairway to my patio, I noticed some holes in the ground with a relatively large cicada larva. It had spent the last 13 or 17 years in the ground, and is waiting for a rain storm before crawling to the nearest tree. There it will crawl up and got through the final metamorphosis to the insect phase. We can expect the loud noise of the cicada in the near future as they look for a mate.

Cicada Larva just out of the ground. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Cicada Larva just out of the ground. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Later in the afternoon, I saw a scruffy Cardinal at the bird feeder. Probably an immature bird just getting its adult red colored feathers. There were a large number of deer in the backyard. At least four fawns with spots,  four or more doe’s, and one buck with its new antlers.


After dark, I could see both the waxing gibbous moon and mars peaking in and out of the clouds. I couldn’t get both in the field of view with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm lens. Switching to a Nikon D850 camera and 500 mm lens I was just barely able to get both in the same image. The image of the moon was sharper with the Nikon D850 camera since it was shot with the mirror up, silent mode. With the exposure being used, Mars was just barely visible as a disk.

Waxing Gibbous Moon. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VRII telephoto lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/11, 1/100 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Waxing Gibbous Moon. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VRII telephoto lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/11, 1/100 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Waxing Gibbous Moon and Mars (tiny disk near the bottom of the image). Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 500 mm f/4 VRII telephoto lens (ISO 64, 500 mm, f/11, 1/125 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Waxing Gibbous Moon and Mars (tiny disk near the bottom of the image). Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 500 mm f/4 VRII telephoto lens (ISO 64, 500 mm, f/11, 1/125 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Waxing Gibbous Moon. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 500 mm f/4 VRII telephoto lens (ISO 64, 500 mm, f/11, 1/125 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Waxing Gibbous Moon. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 500 mm f/4 VRII telephoto lens (ISO 64, 500 mm, f/11, 1/125 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Mars. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 500 mm f/4 VRII telephoto lens (ISO 64, 500 mm, f/11, 1/125 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Mars. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 500 mm f/4 VRII telephoto lens (ISO 64, 500 mm, f/11, 1/125 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)