Vern’s Weblog

Asteroid 2006-VV-2 is a mile wide rock which past closest to Earth on March 30, 2007 around 9 pm MDT at a distance of about 2.1 million miles. Below is a video taken with Celestron Nexstar 11 telescope, F3.3 focal reducer and Stellacam II video camera.

Unfortunately, I was unable to see it visually despite repeated tries. The moon was quite close by and there was a thin haze which brightened the background. Temperature was 32 degrees F, mostly clear sky, turbulence around 6/10, no wind, and 95% humidity. Location was Louisville, CO.

Moon from Sunday evening, lunation 7.01 days. A very pleasant evening with mostly clear skies, thin haze, moderate temperatures (56 °F), and only fair (5/10) turbulence.

Images acquired with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon Xti camera. Stacked 10/50 with Registax4. Lunar features were moving around a lot while registering and optimizing, I was fortunate to get anything usable.

The crescent moon was a pretty sight last night, lunation 2 days. Unfortunately, by the time I got around to taken the image at 8:34 pm mdt last evening it was quite low and mostly covered by thin clouds in the area.

Equipment used, Celestron Nexstar11, F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon Xti camera. Temperature 68°F, no wind, turbulence 5/10, mostly cloudy.

Here is an image of the moon from this evening at 7:41 pm MDT. Lunation is 0.96 days. I was able to spot the moon through thin clouds and got off a few shots before the clouds covered it a couple minutes later. Exposures are not correct, I have lots to learn about photographing young moons and sunsets (such as it is not a good idea when its cloudy).

Sky was mostly cloudy, 10 mph wind, temperature around 65 °F. Canon Xti camera with 18-55 EFS lens at 50mm, ASA 400, and 0.8 sec exposure.

A fellow astro imager, Cheyenne Wills, was driving to the mountains for a day of skiing and was just north of Golden, CO when he spotted the moon just before sunrise at 6:45am MDT. He stopped and took this great image.

Cheyenne was out with us all night at Crow Valley as well– he had a long day for sure. Thanks Cheyenne for the ok to publish this great image!