I've been a bit slack with serious astronomy recently, due to so many scheduled observing nights being cancelled by inclement weather and more recently by ill-health, so I motivated myself to take some images from the front verandah, which has a fairly reasonable Westerly aspect. These images were taken by camera on a tripod, no telescope involved.
Many of my best astro-images have come without the aid of my telescope and below are the ones I took last night. The images are of our Moon, Jupiter and it's moons.
I particularly like the two images of Jupiter & the moon in the clouds. If you can't get clear skies, then start taking pictures of clouds!
The first one shows clouds that look like some kind of water bird. It reminds me of a story in one of the local newspapers last year (God Cloud in the Picton Sky: The Chronicle - 17th Feb 2011) where a man took a photograph of a cloud formation that vaguely resembled a human. He was convinced it was his god up there, keeping an eye on us all. A local pastor said the image was "uplifting and inspirational".
I reckon my cloud looks like "The Great Holy Sky Grebe" but even though it consisted of water vapour - just like the "Picton God Cloud" - I wouldn't be so foolish as to describe it as uplifting and inspirational!
The Great Sky Grebe - a cloud formation - with the Moon over-exposed on the right and Jupiter top left.
Jupiter (top left) and the Moon emerging from the clouds.
The Moon.
Jupiter (top left) and the Moon in a clear patch of sky.
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The planet Jupiter with it's retinue of moons.
These images can also be found on my
Panoramio Page.