PDA

View Full Version here: : [newsletter] Get Snapped by Cassini, Super Moon Super Pictures and 4 more stories!


iceman
01-07-2013, 07:07 AM
Updates in this Newsletter

Get Snapped by Cassini!
Supermoon Super Pictures
Calendar Competition voting closed with a record number of voters
An Eclipse Chasing Time-Lapse Journal
Aurora Outburst last Saturday night
Astro goodies at the IceInSpace Shop


* Get Snapped by Cassini!

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20130701-saturn.jpg

On July 19th (July 20th AEST), the Cassini spacecraft will take a picture of Saturn while the Sun is blocked by the disc of the planet. What will normally be a spectacular picture on its own, will be made even better because Earth will be in the picture too!

While our whole civilisation will only be ~2 pixels across, it'll no doubt be a spectacular image and will make waves across the social media world.

A similar image was captured by Cassini in 2006 (image below), with the Earth just a tiny dot to the left of the planet, just outside the brightest rings. More info on Slate by the Bad Astronomer: http://slate.me/11oQIzw


* Supermoon Super Pictures

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20130701-supermoon-stefano.jpg

The largest Full Moon of the year, aka the "Super Moon", happens when the Full Moon occurs at Perigee - the closest point to Earth on the Moon's elliptical orbit. It's only 14% bigger, and isn't noticeable to the naked eye, but it gets social media and sometimes the mainstream media pretty excited every year as you see mockups of Moons that take up half the sky. It does get people outside looking at the Moon though, and that's always a good thing. I just hope they weren't disappointed when it didn't meet their lofty expectations!

It also gets the photographers outside too - trying to recreate in a real image, what the photoshop artists create as fake images. The trick is to use a very long telephoto lens (400mm or more), with the Moon low on the horizon, and have a foreground subject a long way away from you - either in silhouette or with enough light so that the Moon appears big next to it.

Here's some fantastic examples captured by the IceInSpace Community:

2013 Super Moon over the Basilica of Superga (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151699757161203&set=a.443095681202.235512.114571796 202&type=1&theater), by Stefano De Rosa (http://stefanoderosa.com/)
Super Moon looking Super (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151698850501203&set=a.443095681202.235512.114571796 202&type=1&theater), by Paul Russell
Super Moon over coal carriers at Mackay (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151697288316203&set=a.443095681202.235512.114571796 202&type=1&theater) by Rick (doppler)
Super Moon over Country Victoria (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151697756156203&set=a.443095681202.235512.114571796 202&type=1&theater), by Mandy.



* Calendar Competition voting closed with a record number of voters

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/scripts/calendar-competition/voting/2014-voting-selection-300px.jpg

Voting for the IceInSpace Calendar Competition 2014 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=73,723,0,0,1,0) has now closed, and we had a record-breaking 1100 people vote for their favourite images.

David (Astrovisuals) and I are now contacting the winning photographers, and they will be announced around mid-July.

The winner of the Voting competition is Patti Barrett from the USA. Her vote was one of the 1100, and she was pulled randomly from the virtual barrel and wins 5 free calendars. Congrats!

The calendar will be on-sale from mid-August from the IceInSpace Shop (http://shop.iceinspace.com.au). Stay tuned!


* An Eclipse Chasing Time-Lapse Journal

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20130701-eclipsesequence.jpg

Jia Hao, a Malaysian amateur astronomer, visited Australia with 4 friends to capture and Annular Solar Eclipse. This amazing video (http://vimeo.com/68951197) is the story of his journey. He says:

"An annular solar eclipse swept across Australia on May 10, 2013. Together with 4 other fellow Malaysian astronomy hobbyists, we embarked on a road trip in Western Australia to chase the eclipse at it's best - a sunrise "ring of fire".

16 days, 4000km+ of road travel, the trip covered some of the most deserted and most beautiful places of Western Australia. Despite the unstable weather, we were blessed with an unforgettably jaw-dropping "ring of fire", mesmerisingly colourful moments when the sun dipped to the vast, flat Indian Ocean, and joyful nights when the milky way shined at its full glory far away from city lights."

Read more on IceInSpace (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=108997), and watch in HD on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/68951197).


* Aurora Outburst last Saturday night

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20130701-aurora.jpg

A KP7 Aurora outburst took place on Saturday night, and photographers living far enough South headed out to capture the sometimes elusive Aurora Australis. They weren't disappointed!

Some images from our IceInSpace community:

From Mount Buffalo (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=109135), by Greg Gibbs
From Tasmania (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=109137), by Northgirb
From Sugars Beach, SA (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=109115), by Paul Haese
From Flinders, VIC (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=109112) by carl37
From Cape Naturaliste, WA (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=492069540873385&set=a.340233492723658.80635.3402293 99390734&type=1&theater) by Colin Legg

Keep an eye out in the Nightscapes Forum (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=49) for more!


* Astro goodies at the IceInSpace Shop

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20130701-shop.jpg

The IceInSpace Shop (http://shop.iceinspace.com.au) has stuff for space enthusiasts, beginners and more. Take a look at some of this:

Nightscape (http://shop.iceinspace.com.au/shop/shooting-stars-ebook/) and Timelapse (http://shop.iceinspace.com.au/shop/time-lapse-photography-a-complete-introduction-ebook/) e-books
5 different DVD's (http://shop.iceinspace.com.au/product-category/dvd/) including Space Flight, the Solar System, Hubble Telescope and more
Australian Sky&Telescope subscription (http://shop.iceinspace.com.au/shop/australian-skytelescope-subscription/)
The Star Disc Planisphere (http://shop.iceinspace.com.au/shop/star-disc-planisphere/) and a set of Star Charts (http://shop.iceinspace.com.au/shop/star-charts-with-cd/) to use as your hand-held, take anywhere celestial map of the sky!
Moon Phase Maps (http://shop.iceinspace.com.au/shop/moon-phase-maps/) for identifying lunar features
Limited stock of IceInSpace T-shirts
and more!


The shop site will be familiar to anyone who's purchased online; you can simply add the products to your cart, view and modify your cart, and checkout when you're ready to place your order. At checkout, you will need to create a new IceInSpace Shop account, which is separate to your IceInSpace Forum registration.

The IceInSpace Shop can be found here: http://shop.iceinspace.com.au


Thanks for reading! Keep looking up!