Sun Dogs or Phantom Sun Photos
Sun Dogs
I took this picture of some Sun Dogs a couple of months ago. Sun Dogs or Phantom Suns are bright spots in the sky often seen beside the sun, usually when the sun is low in the sky. As you can see in the photo, the sun was close to setting. The scientific name for Sun Dogs is parahelia.
Mercury The First Planet
The Planet Mercury
Mercury is the first planet and I would say the planet that is most often ignored. Is this because it looks like the Moon? Are we only interested in planets with atmospheres (like Venus or Saturn) rather than rocky objects littered with hundreds of thousands of craters? Take a look at the picture above. This photo of Mercury was taken by Nasa’s Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974.
Crepuscular Rays Photo
I took this photo of some fantastic crepuscular rays back in August. The sun had just set and the evening sky was filled with beautiful orange beams of light. I was using my Nikon D300 at ISO 250, f/2.6 at 1/60 of a second.
Zodiacal Light: Reflection From The Interplanetary Dust Cloud
The Zodiacal Light
Have you ever been out on a very dark, moonless night after all the remnants of sunlight have faded away and noticed a faint triangular shaped glow extending upwards into the sky? This relatively rare phenomenon is called the Zodiacal Light. Why is it rare? Conditions have to be good to see it because moonlight and light pollution can easily hide it.
Can You Identify This Constellation?
Photo By David - Chandler, AZ
David from Chandler, Arizona sent us this picture the other day. He was wondering if our readers could identify this constellation. David says that he took this picture using his Canon EOS 7D. It was around 10pm local time on 1/1/2011. He was facing south and said that the stars were moving from east to west.