This morning, I decided to search for the 嫦娥 5 (Cháng’é 5) landing site. The 嫦娥 5 landed at Mons Rümker in Oceanus Procellarum or Ocean of Storms. I marked the location with a white box. The USGS prepared a map of the moon for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) based on data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The key was locating the Plato crater along Mare Imbrium and then following down the L-shaped boot until reaching Mons Rümker right under the sole. You can use the excerpt from the USGS/NASA map for reference.
The full moon in November is called the Beaver Moon or the Frost Moon. I’ve been searching for a location to observe the moon rise over Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton. From Foothills Park, the moon rose over Sunnyvale. I tried again from Mount Umunhum, but the moon was far to the south. This time, I came the closest. For the first time, I was happy enough to capture the moon and Lick Observatory in the same frame. Next time, I’ll try to adjust the location to get an even better alignment.
38.8% waxing crescent moon. The moon had been setting early so I went out in the late afternoon while the sky was still blue. However, exposing for the moon darkened the skies.
Another view of the crescent moon, but from later at night. I found a perspective where the moon was traveling over Stanford Stadium.
Mont Saint-Michel was an unbelievable experience. Once the tourists emptied out, the town quieted down for the night. This was a 15 second exposure that was timed around the shuttle bus that travels back-and-forth along (and vibrates) the bridge.
The Moon (99% waxing gibbous), accompanied by Saturn and Jupiter, rises above Memorial Church at Stanford University. In terms of lining up the moon with a building, visit Photo Ephemeris, which is pretty accurate. In retrospect, I should have consulted it beforehand. Instead, I used the augmented reality feature in PhotoPills, which was not as precise.
Comet NEOWISE rising above the San Francisco bay. I love the soft pastels of the morning light, as well as the clear delineation between the night sky and the coming morning sun.
One of the cooler buildings on the Stanford campus, the Clark Center is home to Bio-X, a multi-disciplinary lab that pulls from researchers from the departments of biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and medicine.
When I searched up NEOWISE on Starry Night, I discovered that there were multiple sky objects named after NEOWISE, the project searching for “near-Earth objects and comets that could pose an impact hazard to the Earth.” The one that we are all excited about right now is C/2020 F3, which currently is visible in the hour or so before sunrise.
This photo was taken at ISO 100, 200mm, f/2.8 and 8.0s. At 200mm, I should have limited the shutter to 2.5 seconds to avoid star trails.
Finally found the Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on my third attempt. I couldn’t find it when I was scanning the horizon, but it showed up in a wide angle photo I took.
