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Top rated - Astronomy
young_moon.jpg
A Young Moon2033 viewsThe Moon was merely 63 Hours Old. Setting in the West, here at about 19:00 hrs PDT. Still 78 Degrees with mild Santa Ana conditions with winds from the North, after a high of 94.5 Degrees earlier today. View looking West from my backyard in Altadena, CA
(16 votes)
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Comet Holmes2128 viewsComet Holmes 11-5-2007.

Comet Holmes has been known for more than a century. But a recent change has brought much attention. The comet’s brightness has increased dramatically.

This is a photo taken with a 75-300 Zoom Lens on my Canon Digital Rebel. Comet Holmes can be seen in the Constellation Perseus.

The bright star near the top of the frame is Mirfak, also called Alpha Persei. Comet Holmes is below and to the left. It appears as a fuzzy circle with a bright center.

There is some speculation that Comet Holmes may have been struck by a meteor, producing this large dust cloud which is being illuminated by the Sun.


(10 votes)
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Full Moon At Triunfo Pass2183 viewsI've been spending some time at the AT&T Satellite Earth Station nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, CA.
Since it was clear, warm, and there was a Full Moon, I thought I'd try some more night shots of the Earth Station.
The Full Moon was illuminating the huge 32 Meter Dish on Antenna #3.
This is a 30 second exposure at f6.3 ISO400.
An airplane happened to be by passing by during the exposure.
It makes it look like a shooting star.

(6 votes)
moonpass2.jpg
Moon Passing2005 viewsI was up at the crack of dawn 2/22/06 to get a few shots of the Sunrise over the Sea Of Cortez. The Last Quarter Moon was setting as the sky was beginning to brighten. I heard a jet high overhead and turned just in time to catch this shot of the jet and it's contrail passing the Moon. Taken with a Canon Digital Rebel using a 100-300 Zoom Lens. ISO 400, 1/640 second at f8.0

(11 votes)
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ISS 4-12-082331 viewsNice pass of the International Space Station (ISS) tonight.
It was magnitude -2.1 brightness and passed from Northwest to the East.
This was taken with my new Canon 5D Digital SLR e/w 24-105MM lens.
138 Second Exposure, f4.5, ISO 100.

(7 votes)
ISS_Pass.jpg
ISS Pass1944 viewsTaken 5/14/04
Taken just after sunset, looking North. This Time Exposure captured one of the rare visible passes of the International Space Station. The white line is the Space Station as it passes in front of the stars. This was a 74 Second Exposure at f4.5, ISO 400.

(11 votes)
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Taurid Meteor2100 viewsTaurid Meteor shower. The Taurids are linked to debris from comet 2P/Enke, and roughly every 3 years there is an outburst as Earths orbit intersects the debris cloud. My WeatherCam captured this very bright Taurid Meteor.
(4 votes)
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Lunar Eclipse August 28, 20071975 viewsThe Moon is just beginning to emerge from the Umbra. The red glow of the eclipsed Moon can be seen as usual but I was also looking for the "Turquoise" that I had been reading about lately.

I saw it in person. It was beautiful.

I had a hard time focusing though (as you can tell).

(10 votes)
Comet_Holmes.jpg
Comet Holmes1910 viewsComet Holmes, normally only visible with the aid of telescopes has suddenly become brighter after emitting a large dust cloud. Now usually somewhat visible with the naked eye, it is definitely visible with binoculars.


(4 votes)
alignment.jpg
In Alignment1866 viewsTaken 5/14/04
A beautiful warm evening here in the Los Angeles area. 95 degrees at my station in Altadena today. I spent the evening in the back yard to watch a visible pass of the International Space Station (ISS) and took some photos of the evening sky. The brightest object is Venus, the "Evening Star". Moving 45 degrees from Venus to the upper left you see Mars and then Saturn. A beautiful alignment of three of the visible planets.

(10 votes)
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Geminids 12-13-061976 viewsI had the WebCam set up to capture an image every minute in an attempt to catch a meteor. This was in the evening and the radiant was still near the Eastern horizon. The meteor can be seen in the upper left quadrant of the photo. It's trajectory is near horizontal to the horizon.
These images also appear in the WeatherCam Favorites section.

Click on the medium size image above to view a 1024x768 version.

(8 votes)
la_moonset.jpg
L.A. Moonset1866 viewsTaken 6/13/06
Cooler temperatures aloft and lack of a Coastal Eddy prohibited formation of the Marine Layer last night. Warmer temperatures and clear skies are forecast for the rest of the week. This is a welcome change from our traditional “June Gloom” here in Los Angeles. This shot was taken at 6:15 a.m. from approximately 2.5 miles Northeast of Downtown Los Angeles. Check the local Weather and High Resolution WebCam image from my Weather Station in Altadena at http://www.westphalfamily.com/wxdata2.html

(10 votes)
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