Uranus Opposition and Gegenschein
Taken by project nightflight on October 31, 2019 @
La Palma, Spain
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Camera Used: Canon Canon EOS 1100D
Exposure Time: 239/1
Aperture: f/inf
ISO: 3200
Date Taken: 2019:10:31 00:00:53
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Details:
Last night we imaged Uranus around opposition date and surrounded by the gegenschein. We were really lucky we could, because weather conditions on La Palma island were less than favourable. During the past several days we had Calima, which is a desert sand storm from Africa, carried up to higher atmospheric layers. It did not carry that much sand, but it still considerably reduced transparency.
Last night, the Calima stopped, but only due to increasingly strong winds. The heavy gusts nearly squashed our photography attempt, but at last we found a calm spot, protected by the volcano Tajuya. By the time we were finally able to start shooting it was already October 31, the night before Halloween and shortly after Uranus' opposition.
The gegenschein, or counterglow, is a large but elusive object only visible from the darkest locations and fully dark adapted. It is sunlight backscattered by interplanetary dust particles in the ecliptic plane. Therefore, it is positioned opposite to the sun. Uranus, in our image, is visible as one of the brighter dots slightly to the right (preceding) of the counterglow's center.
We imaged on Oct 31, 2019, with very lightweight and portable equipment, including a purely mechanical tracker and a travel tripod. The image is 3x4 min on an APS-C DSLR with 16mm @f/5.6 with ISO 3200.
Happy Halloween!
Photographer's website:
https://www.project-nightflight.net
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