One of the most common of natures phenomena is the sunrise, watched by millions of people throughout history, always pretty and never boring. The Bible mentions sunrise many times and I included several appropriate verses throughout the article.
Ecclesiastes 1:5 The sun still rises, and it still goes down, going wearily back to where it must start all over again.
During this time of year there is a small gap in the buildings surrounding me, which enables a clear view of the sunrise in the east. I cannot see the exact sunrise, as the Samaria mountains block the horizon, but I do manage to see a few minutes after it. The series of photos show how each day the sun moves southward (the movement is actually the Earth movement in its orbit).
Sunday 25-Sep-2016. There were plenty of clouds so seeing the sunrise location was impossible, however, the photos are still nice.
Sunrise 25/9/2016
Sunrise 25/9/2016
Genesis 32:31 (ASV)And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Penuel
Monday, September 26th. The hill's name is "Jabel Taruja" where an ancient tomb is located. The hill is about 36km from my location.
Sunrise 26/9/2016
The palm tree, however, is just 400m from the camera
Sunrise 26/9/2016
Jonah 4:8 (CEB)Then as the sun rose God provided a dry east wind
Birds are very active in the morning, so at some point they are likely to fly in front of the sun, making a nice photo.
Sunrise 26/9/2016
Sunrise and a crow
Deuteronomy 33:2 (GNT)The Lord came from Mount Sinai; he rose like the sun over Edom
Tuesday 27/9/2016 - Notice the change in the sun's location.
Sunrise 27/9/2016
Here is a video of the sunrise at six times speed:
and here are the last photos as the clouds "swallows" the sun.
Sunrise 27/9/2016
Judges 9:33 (KJV)And it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early,
2 Kings 3:22 (CJB)They rose early in the morning when the sun was shining on the water.
On Wednesday the sunrise is just to the left of the palm tree
Sunrise 28/9/2016
2 Samuel 23:4 (NKJV)And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds
But on Thursday 29/9 it is on the tree's right
Sunrise 29/9/2016
And more birds
Sunrise 29/9/2016
Malachi 4:2 (CJB)But to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings
Friday 30/9/2016 and the sun continues moving further south.
Sunrise 30/9/2016
Sunrise 30/9/2016
Psalm 104:22 (NKJV)When the sun rises, they gather together And lie down in their dens.
Sunday 2-Oct-2016 marked the last day of the Hebrew year 5776, and what a beautiful sunrise on this day
Sunrise 2/10/2016
Malachi 1:11 (NKJV)For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles;
To summarize the article, here is a wider photo from 29/9/2016 with added arrows to mark the sunrise locations some days before and after. The changes are considerable.
Sunrise 29/9 with location on nearby dates marked
The apparent movement of the sun in the sky is a combination of two movements: the Earth revolving around its axis is the daily motion of the sun in the sky from sunrise to sunset, and the yearly movement of Earth in its orbit around the sun causing small changes in the sun's location during the seasons. That small change is shown in the series above as every day the sunrise is in a slightly different place.
Next time you have a free hour just see what you can photograph in it (everything in the post title). I went with my daughter to a nearby park (Shoam park) mainly to photograph the sunset and we discovered many more things
A herd of sheep
sheep
Not ideal conditions for sunsets. Lots of clouds and haze so we didn't see the actual sunset but it was still nice and we even saw some large sunspots.
While we are looking west to the sun, two curious foxes sneaked from the east. I think they looked for food and were disappointed not finding any. Please do not feed foxes or any other wild animals, and don't leave food behind you.
fox
a fox asking for food
a fox
If you like the foxes enjoy the vidoe
After the foxes gone I was happy to see Venus in the clouds. I was not able to see Mercury but the camera did (at the top of the photo)
Venus and Mercury in clouds
Airplanes are coming to land from the west. The airport is 8km and I estimate the airplane to be double that distance when I start to take the video. It was already dark and hot air influence the sharpness. Need to try that again
Oops, I did that again! After almost 19 months I was able to take again a video of the ISS passing the moon! (Here is the story of the first time I caught the ISS and the moon).
I am receiving alerts from calsky site about satellites crossing the moon, but I usually ignore them since most of the time it is a very small satellite which requires telescopes and to find the exact place, but this alert was different.
What are the chances to see an ISS pass? Very high, it happens all the time. what are the chances that the ISS will cross the moon? I think that *somewhere* it also happens all the time. But what are the chances that the crossing will happen exactly at your house?? Ohm. Small, rather small.
But improbable things happens all the times and as I got the alert I checked the predictions (see the appendix) and saw that indeed all I need to do is to go outside to my roof.
Even the problematic hour 4:56am did not bother me. I decided for the best configuration for my equipment and made all setups I could the evening before. I set an alarm and went to sleep early.
Getting up at 4:15 the skies are full of clouds, ignored them and continue to setup the system. Clouds come and goes and there is plenty of time, so just hope for the best. I aligned the mount and put my 70mm doublet on it with Canon700d on video mode.
I use a Nikon 900P camera with a mighty zoom on a regular tripod without tracking and an old Canon SX30 for backup. Ten minutes before the pass and everything was entirely cloudy. Five minutes before the pass the sky was clear.
Waiting. Here it is! Above the moon and going down so quick. Fast. Press record here, here and here! make a last alignment for the non-tracked Nikon camera and wait.
I took a look at the eyefinder to see if it catches the ISS but saw nothing. I looked at the ISS and saw that it already passed the moon. Well maybe the predictions were no that accurate and it missed the moon in a degree that is possible, nothing to do about that. Turn off all recordings, take apart everything I can without making too much noise (5am in the morning) and check what happened on the computer.
Happily, I found out that all three cameras captured the ISS. Most of the pass was on the dark side of the moon and only a fraction of it on the lit side. Here are the results combined into a single view. Please look at it on full screen with HD resolution
I tried to extract a single image from the video but the ISS was too smudged. I think that The Nikon camera went back to its default 30fps and not to the 60fps I set it up before. Always check your setup again, even if you are too tired at 4am! The ISS is the white little line on the dark side of the moon.
The ISS flies over the moon
Some hints and tips for the next time
One problem of such videos/photos is that it is hard to practice. The duration of the pass is one second or less. My recommendations for the next time are:
Take the highest FPS you can: 60 120 or even 240 (with iPhone aligned to the eyepiece)
Practice on a regular moon without the ISS
To freeze the ISS use 1/1600 shutter speed
If you have a DSLR with a high zoom lens, use burst mode and don't take video.
Have fun doing all of that!
Appendix: Check predictions in Heavens-Above Heavens-Above is a great site to get information about ISS and other passes. Try it out, it is simple and intuitive.
When selecting a pass you see a general map of it. Vawalla! The pass is on the moon!
Heavens-Above prediction of the pass - regular
This is not certain tough and you must press the map to get t magnify. If in the magnified map the pass is on the moon, you can start preparing your gear, but take into account that as it implies, these maps are predictions only.
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, a gas giant of Hydrogen and Helium with some Ammonia in the upper beautiful clouds layer (and small amounts of other things). Juno spacecraft will arrive to Jupiter on the symbolic day of the 240th independence day of the USA and enter into an orbit around it. Here are some interesting facts about Jupiter.
Jupiter - Hubble telescope - NASA
Jupiter is massive
Jupiter is not only big, it is massive as well. You can say that the entire mass of the solar system is divided in the following way. 99% of the mass is the Sun, 2/3% of the mass belongs to Jupiter and all the rest is just 1/3% (This division is not scientifically accurate but is suitable enough for our needs). Jupiter mass is two times the mass of everything else in the solar system except the sun, and this mass influences the sun and cause it to wobble a little in its orbit. The barycenter of the sun-Jupiter system is well OUTSIDE the sun.
Jupiter can't become a star
Although Jupiter is huge it is still far too little to become a star and it requires to add at least twenty times its own mass or even more to become so. Adding just little more mass, two-three times as its current mass, will not make Jupiter bigger but will make it denser, but not dense enough to start nuclear fission.
You can see Jupiter in daylight
Jupiter is seen clearly from Earth. It is the brightest object in the sky after the sun, moon and Venus. Under best conditions, Jupiter can be seen during the day. It requires some practice but possible.
Jupiter has lots of visitors
The first spacecrafts to visit Jupiter were the Pioneer missions in the early seventies followed by both Voyagers missions in 1979. It took some time for the next visitor, Ulysses in 1992 which was on her way to explore the sun poles and got to Jupiter in order to use its gravity to change orbit. Galileo in 1995 was the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter for a long period and ended in a brave crash into its atmosphere. Cassini just said a quick hello in 2000 on her way to Saturn and New-Horizons also "stopped by" for a cup of coffee on her way to Pluto. Juno mission will be an interesting long mission around Jupiter.
Jupiter protects us
The great mass of Jupiter helps to keep the solar system clean and remove hazards such as asteroids and comets from the inner solar system. Sometimes Jupiter fell asleep during his watch and the dinosaurs are still angry about him, but without Jupiter, things will be worse. Jupiter also gets the bullet for us from time to time. In 1994 Shoemaker-Levy comet crashed into Jupiter and left some scars on it for about a year. Not long ago an amateur astronomer got another small crash on video:
Jupiter is not alone
Jupiter has lots of company. 67 moons so far and probably plenty of smaller ones. Its four largest moons were discovered in 1609 by Galileo. The largest moons - Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto - are bright enough to be seen by the naked eye, but Jupiter is too close to them and prevents that. Even a small binoculars will show the moons.
It is best to keep some distance from Jupiter
Ask Io. A small moon and one that its planet has enormous influenza on its structure. Io is smaller than our moon and the distance from Jupiter's center to Io is around 400,000 km. To be so close to Jupiter is not a good idea. Strong gravitational forces cause earthquakes and volcanic activity and made Io look like... Like what actually?
Io - Nasa JPL
Jupiter helped to measure the speed of light
The Danish astronomer Ole Romer noticed a difference between the predicted time and actual time of Io's (The cheese ball from above) eclipses behind Jupiter. His idea was that these difference derived from the changes in Earth-Jupiter distance and that the light has a speed. He gave a value of 220,000km/sec which is around 76% of the actual value, a really good approximation!
Jupiter can suddenly Vanish from our view
Well, not that suddenly but the moon can occult Jupiter (just like any other planet). It is a rare event and here is a short video I took several years ago.
