The Names of the Moon!

I happened upon this link and thought I'd share it. It's from the Farmer's Almanac.

Full Moon Names and Their Meanings

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is the Farmers Almanac’s list of the full Moon names.

• Full Wolf Moon – January Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.

• Full Snow Moon – February Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February’s full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.

• Full Worm Moon – March As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.

• Full Pink Moon – April This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.

• Full Flower Moon – May In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.

• Full Strawberry Moon – June This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!

• The Full Buck Moon – July July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason thatthunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.

• Full Sturgeon Moon – August The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.

• Full Corn Moon – September This full moon’s name is attributed to Native Americans because it marked when corn was supposed to be harvested. Most often, the September full moon is actually the Harvest Moon.

• Full Harvest Moon – October This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.

• Full Beaver Moon – November This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.

• The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon – December During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.

400mm f/6.2 lens and 500mm f/8 mirror lens

After knowing that my wife has had a 500mm f/8 Kalimar lens ever since we met, I never thought about using it until recently!

You see, she and I were both Nikon SLR folks so the lens had a Nikon mount. Since going digital, I now use Canon dSLRs so didn't think that the lens would work. One day, I happened across a Nikon to EOS lens adapter on the web and bought one to use with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4. That actually works very well. The Nikkor 50mm is a manual focus lens that's built like a tank and looks weird, but works well on my Canon 30D. However, it refused to work with the Kalimar 500mm lens.

Switch to near history and I bought a very inexpensive, but irresistible 400mm refractor lens from my favorite astronomy equipment site: astromart.com. It is a 400mm f/6.3 Vemar lens. I know, I know... what the heck is a Vemar lens? Well, it's a fairly well built, but so far as I can tell, medium to low optical quality lens at a price that I couldn't refuse. $30! It looks quite nice on the 30D.

The Vemar 400mm is a T-thread or T-mount lens and so needed a T-mount adapter. I thought I had one from one of my telescope adapter/lens combinations, but it didn't work. When I went online to look for one, I thought about the Kalimar 500mm f/8! It also seemed to have an interchangeable mount so I ordered two T-mount to Canon lens adapters. When they arrived, one went on the Vemar and one went on the Kalimar. The Kalimar is very compact and also looks good mounted to my 30D.

I've only had them out one night to shoot the moon and the results are mixed so far. I need to pixel-peep and tweak the photos that I took with these lenses.

More soon and clear skies!
Ambrose

Craigslist Pickup... Celestron Astromaster 114EQ

I was checking out Criagslist in my area and saw a used Celestron Astromaster 114EQ scope for sale. This is a relatively inexpensive scope ~$150 new and with all of the original contents intact except for the box. I looked it over and it was indeed very clean. I grabbed it for a song and look forward to using it soon.

The CAM114EQ is a solidly built (although mostly plastic OTA) and basic scope. The key things that drew me to it were the very solid legs of the tripod. It uses solid stainless steel tubes for the legs instead of the much more common hollow aluminum extrusion legs on most cheaper scopes. It also has a focal length of 1000mm which is good since it doesn't duplicate my Coulter Odyssey's focal length of 1,500mm. The shorter focal length should give me a wider view of the sky and include some peripheral stars to the moon if I so wish. When used with my APS-C sized sensor in my Canon 30D, it should give me a nice 1,600mm focal length. With my Coulter Odyssey, the combination yields 2,400mm.

The much smaller size of this scope should allow me to use it as a grab and go scope as well as a nice vacation scope. The Coulter is just too large to take on vacation!

Anyway, here's the link to the Celestron site with information on the Astromaster 114EQ.

http://goo.gl/6JD1q
or
http://www.telescopes.com/telescopes/reflecting-telescopes/celestronastromaster114eqreflector.cfm

Full Lunar Eclipse of 12-21-10

I was able to get out that night and luckily, the skies were clear for us here in the DC area. It was indeed cold though. I am a bit out of practice but I did get this nice shot of the moon during the total eclipse portion.

It wasn't as bright red as the last full lunar eclipse, but it certainly looked gorgeous!

More later,
Ambrose

Haunting moon!

We were out on the Eastern shore last weekend and we happened upon a beautiful full moon with wispy feathery clouds surrounding it. I took this very quck show hand-held. I did lean against a tree for some extra support.

Ambrose

Another Perseid Meteor

Just got back from my vacation in Maine near Biddeford Pool and had 2 wonderful nights of perfectly clear skies in a very dark spot to see the Perseid Meteor Shower. I didn't bring any of my equipment, but I did have my Canon 30D and my 17-85mm zoom lens. I turned off the autofocus and the image stabilization, flipped the camera so that it pointed straight up, set it down on a relatively flat rock with a paper towel to protect the LCD screen and set the exposure for 30 seconds, F5.6. This is the best shot of the 150 or so shots I took that night. I wish I had a wider angle lens since so many of the meteors were just out of frame. I also wished that I had my remote control and tripod and Canon angle finder to help me focus. Ah well, it was fun, "roughing it."

Here's the shot.

I'm back!

After many months of non-activity, I've decided to get back into lunar photography in a big (or littler) way. I've just jumped on the Astro-Tech 6" f/9 Ritchey-Chrétien astrograph deal over at Astronomics.com.


Normally, this little jewel goes for $795 and is worth every penny since it has beautiful optics. However, Astronomics.com has them on a special deal (perhaps they are phasing them out) for only $299! At this price, it's an absolute steal. I need to resurrect my old Bogen tripod to try and use that for a while until I can buy a suitable mount for it.

I'm also purchasing another Canon 30D. The previous one I owned had an issue with camera shake when used in continuous shooting mode, only the first shot would be sharp. I sold it to a regular photographer who didn't need the rapid fire capability. I have found another 30D at a great price so will be mating this scope with that camera.


More later,
Ambrose