Fly Me To The Moons (Now with animated GIF)

[CapturingTheNight]

Hi all,

No matter how much you plan and prepare, sometimes you just have to be very lucky.

I had my camera imaging The Moon and Jupiter occultation through my telescope at about 10 second intervals when I noticed the lights from a plane close to the moon. I realised that there was a chance that it would pass in front of the moon, so I quickly canceled the remote timer I was using to take the shots and instead started shooting high speed continuous frames. I managed to get this plane crossing the moon in five individual frames just as Jupiter was about to be occulted by The Moon.

This is a two image composite. The Moon, Jupiter and the plane are all one single image. I then took an overexposed image to bring up the Galilean Moons of (from left to right) Io, Callisto and Europa. Ganymede had already been occulted by The Moon.

18/02/2013
Canon 60D (Prime Focus)
10inch F/4 Newtonian Telescope
NEQ6 Pro Goto Telescope Mount set on Lunar Tracking
ISO 100
Single 1/200th of a second exposure for The Moon, Plane and Jupiter
Single 1/10th of a second exposure for the moons of Jupiter

132906

I have added an animated GIF sequence showing 12 frames of the plane transit. I have to admit that I did get some help from Adobe and Photoshop guru Russell Preston Brown with this. He made a tutorial featuring it which can be viewed here if you wish: http://youtu.be/fQzp-fEeqY0

133334

Cheers

Greg

___________________________________ ____________
My Website http://www.capturingthenight.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CapturingTheNight
Google+ https://plus.google.com/103660764564513310100/posts
500px http://500px.com/CapturingTheNight

[iceman]

Seriously!??
Incredible shot Greg!

[CapturingTheNight]

Yep, Seriously Mike. Thank you. :D I'm still shaking with excitement from capturing the moment. I have now been awake for 25 hours straight and I have not yawned once yet. Going to be an interesting day at work......

[Harley]

What was the cause of the moon going bright red ??
When Jupiter went behind it
People in melbourne are saying it was due to the fires

[iceman]

Sometimes, when you're always out there, you can make your own luck.

You've done it this time!

[Astroman]

Thats an awesome capture, congratulations. I saw planes crossing where the moon was meant to be lastnight and thought of this. Lucky for me my moon was clouded out... :/

Well done!

Hi Gilbert, not knowing where the fires were, but the moon would have appeared to have turned red for several reasons. The Sun being at a low altitude, you would have been looking through more atmosphere, if the atmosphere was dusty or smoky then it would appear to make the moon turn a more red colour in the sky. It would have made for an interesting photograph.

[Dennis]

Excellent shot Greg. All that is missing from this incredible scene is an ISS transit!

Cheers

Dennis

[Saturn%5]

Excellent shot Greg :thumbsup:

[Kunama]

Nicely caught, Greg !!! Around 10.30pm I watched from Isaacs, ACT, through binoculars as another plane from the opposite direction did the same, bisected the moon and skimmed below Jove.

[Larryp]

Great capture, Greg!

[RB]

Perfectly timed shot Greg, well done on a unique capture.

:thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Well done Greg! That's a great shot.

Cheers,
Stephen

[h0ughy]

well we now know the winner of the solar section of the Malins eh!!

[04Stefan07]

That's a fantastic shot!!

[Peter Ward]

Very cool :thumbsup:

[lacad01]

Incredible shot, nice work :thumbsup:

[colinmlegg]

So cool, Greg! Agree with Mike, the more you're out there the more luck goes your way... or at least the beacons of good luck outshine all the bad luck. :)

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much for the great feedback everyone :D Still buzzing with excitement from it even though I have had no sleep in the last 36 hours or so. Going to sleep well tonight

[Nikolas]

There was lots of bushfire smoke in Melbourne, from the Grassfires in Craigieburn, Sun was even red at one stage.

[ChrisM]

Greg, very well spotted and then captured.

All you need to do now is identify the flight.

Chris

[CapturingTheNight]

Thanks Chris :D Been thinking about doing that. Any idea where to start?

[anthony.tony]

Amazing shot -- Tony.

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you very much Tony :D

It has just been featured on Universe Today :eyepop: :D
http://www.universetoday.com/100097/luckiest-photo-ever-the-moon-jupiter-and-more/

[andyc]

That's ridiculous! Superbly lucky, yes, but a really good shot too. Well done :thumbsup:

[peeb61]

I take my hat of to you Greg! great capture.

Paul

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much Andy and Paul :D

[Matt Wastell]

That looks great - congratulations!

[ourkind]

Also noticed it in Universe Today. Well done Greg!! Very proud of you, now for APOD and beyond!! :)

[Derek Klepp]

Great pic

[alexch]

Wow! Congrats with the lucky catch! The details of the Moon, Jupiter and the plane are superb.

Cheers,
Alex

[Craige]

Amazing!

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much Matt, Carlos, Derek, Alex and Craig :D Really appreciate the great feedback.

[fubar]

great shot

Havent been on this sight long and am seriously impressed.

[Retrograde]

Just love the idea of three objects at such different distances in the same shot. Very nice!

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you very much Dennis and Pete :D

[Davros]

Beautiful capture

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you very much Lauren :D


I have added an animated GIF sequence showing 12 frames of the plane transit. I have to admit that I did get some help from Adobe and Photoshop guru Russell Preston Brown with this. He made a tutorial featuring it which can be viewed here if you wish: http://youtu.be/fQzp-fEeqY0

[Octane]

Congratulations, on your APOD. :)

You've got one now, the rest will follow easily.

H

[ourkind]

+1

[strongmanmike]

Have to say Greg, that's a rather incredible Anthony Wesley, well done on having the skill and patience...the luck creates itself then.


"Doing an Anthony Wesley" deff: If you do something well regularly enough and the gods just smile on you briefly, then you are bound to capture something rare.

...although :question: two impacts on Jupiter will be very hard to beat, probably about as hard as any test cricketer ever surpassing Don Bradmans batting stats! :P

[WingnutR32]

Outstanding and well done on APOD

[StephenM]

Congratulations on the APOD Greg!

Cheers,
Stephen

[jjjnettie]

:) Congratulations Greg.
It's one awesome shot.
I just knew you would get APOD with it. :)

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much H, Carlos, Mike, Sam, Stephen and Jeanette :D

[ZeroID]

Too darn cool !! Well done to have the presence of mind ...amazing capture.

[Paddy]

Congratulations Greg on a well deserved APOD!

[Quark]

A very impressive result Greg, guess the plane was a bonus, love the vapor trail.

Cheers
Trevor

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much Brent, Patrick and Trevor :D

[multiweb]

Congrats on the APOD. Cracker shot. :thumbsup:

[stardust steve]

congrats on APOD. What a beauty!
Everyone loves a transit :)
I got my hopes up the other night, i watched a high alt plane go across the moon through the viewfinder of the camera, i hit the shutter only to find it was still set to the 10 sec delay option. ARRGGH haha you win some, you lose some.
This one's a winner:thumbsup:

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you very much Marc and Steve :D



Yeah, I have done that many times too. Because I primarily only photograph at night all my cameras are generally set on either a ten or two second delay.