Astronomy pic of the evening.

[swamidog]

the very small red dot indicates the location of my house... notice the giant expanses of no development.

I know this, I know this..... YOU'RE A TRAVELING BLACK HOLE!! ..haha, just kid'n I know whatcha mean... AZ is quite 'sparkletacular' at nite.. And, rad shot of Lady Venus..

[planters]

I really think there should be a thread, no better yet a new category dedicated to ...me. Ya, that's the ticket and even though it's a little embarrassing (only a very little) that hasn't stopped me from printing out dozens of copies of these posts for distribution.

Years ago, a group I work with was looking for a site to locate an observatory and I made a few trips out to California. There is a quality called "seeing" which is a loose term that describes the steadiness of the air column that you observe through. When there is little wind to mix the layers of air and an inversion exists with the cold layers lying below warmer ones then the air produces little distortion, the stars don't twinkle and the resolution of a telescope improves toward the diffraction limit. Almost all telescopes are limited (on Earth) to a resolution far below their optical capability which is linearly related to their diameter. This limit is 1-2 inches at average sites and maybe 16 inches at the very best sites in the world and even then only occasionally. At ESO down in Chile and along the California coast these conditions occur more frequently due to the cold ocean currents. Mount Wilson has some extraordinary "seeing" and 100 years ago was also quite dark. And even now when low level clouds blanket LA the observing conditions there can be very good. You might want to check this out.

We also looked well up north near Monterrey and investigated Chews Ridge that is run by MIRA a group of unemployed astronomy post docs. The conditions there are both steady and dark and they have a large (by amateur standards) telescope in an off the grid observatory (by necessity) that they occasionally open to the public. Regarding the politics, there is a reason why some people refer to the area as Bezerkeley.

http://www.mira.org/

[kecked]

If you had not seen it moving I would have said it is a dust speck on the lens. Here is why I still am not sure that is not dust.
See the diffraction ring around the blob. The means the light was diffracted different then the background. That could be an artifact of the camera too though.
Either that was a very close object like in the atmosphere or an extremely huge object. I vote hot air balloon or dust.

[absolom7691]

I would have thought the same except that it moved like a satellite. Constant and steady speed. It took about 1 ~ 1.5 seconds to transit, maybe longer. It could have been a high altitude balloon. I don't know how those move as I have never seen one before.

[tribble]

Light halos around dark objects are also consistent with strong sharpening filters, so it's hard to know what the original image at the focal plane was just by looking at the jpeg. Dust on the lens typically would not resolve so sharply. Dust on the sensor would resolve that sharply only at a very tiny aperture, which would not have been in use when shooting the moon.

[kecked]

it might be that the object was soo bright that it bleed to multiple pixels

[DZ]

Wow, whatever it is, what a great catch! Nice shot absolom!

[Photonbeam]

Amazing pictures, thanks for sharing.

Isn't these days that there will be the "super moon"? When it's at its closest point from earth.

Moonrise last night over Ft. Worth, TX.

[swamidog]

Moonrise last night over Ft. Worth, TX.

that's no moon... that's a space station.

[absolom7691]

Wow, whatever it is, what a great catch! Nice shot absolom!

Thanks! I have to admit, this has got me looking at a 16" dob. I would opt for a catadioptric but the price per inch is so expensive. Lasers and astronomy.... each a very effective way to clean out my bank account. I shudder to think of those two forces combined!!!

Moonrise last night over Ft. Worth, TX.

Gorgeous shot, Steve!