Outermost planets Uranus and Neptune over the Delicate Arch, in Arches National Park
Taken by Jack Jewell on November 18, 2017 @
Arches National Park, Utah, USA
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Camera Used: SONY ILCE-7RM2
Exposure Time: 6/1
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 10000
Date Taken: 2017:11:19 20:51:51
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Details:
Despite the publicity of Uranus reaching opposition last month, both Uranus and Neptune are still well-positioned for observation, and are overhead before midnight.
After volunteering at a footrace outside of Moab, UT, crystal clear skies compelled me to drive+hike out to the Delicate Arch (Arches NP, in the USA) w/ photogear and warm layers. The camera shows many more stars than the eye can see, but to the eye, the stars were much more brilliant - magical. About a dozen other crazies were there, including one with a “warm-color” LED array that illuminated the Arch nicely. Just on this side of the Arch is a deep basin, shaped much like a gravitational well (roughly circular, and gets steeper as you get lower). To get this angle on the Arch, I went lower/steeper and set up on a precarious slope of the sandstone (being careful to prevent gear from tumbling down), which also improved the angle of the illumination. No one crowded me there.
Uranus is in the 1st photo; I used star finder charts from Sky+Telescope to locate Uranus. For the photo, I’d have much preferred a brilliant Leonid meteor over Uranus. No more 11-year-old humor. In this photo, Neptune is unfortunately behind part of the Arch. I later “backed” away, and got both remote planets in a single photo, but without illumination, so the Arch is a silhouette. For both, you need to zoom into the region quite a bit, and brightening your screen helps.
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