Astronomy

Do you want your photographs to be more eye catching, but don’t know where to begin? For starters, you can try a few of these simple composition tips to get you started on the path to compelling photographs. They are appropriate for all skill levels of photographers and can be adapted to just about any style of photography, too. Shoot What You Love - One of the easiest, least technical ways to create fascinating photos is to simply shoot what you love. Perhaps you love to go birding, or enjoy a good game of football, maybe you love people watch in bustling locations. Find what it is you love to do in your spare time and start photographing it. Since you love doing it, chances are you all ready look at it differently than others, which only means you are naturally inclined to photograph it in a different way. Forever In Dog Years by Tiffany Mueller, on Flickr Pay Attention To The Background - Many times the background of photograph is more of an afterthought, if it was ever a thought at all. If you are not shooting in a studio which generally offers us the convenience of hand selecting our backdrops, make sure you are looking past your subject to see whats behind it. Avoid shooting a subject against a similarly colored background so the subject doesn’t become “lost” by blending in too much. Try to avoid any distractions that will take away from the story you are trying to tell with your image. If you can’t move to a new location, consider using a more shallow depth of field to help blur out the background and eliminate any eyes wandering to what are essentially unimportant details in the image. Old Men Swimming by Jonathan Kos-Read, on Flickr Symmetry - Try incorporating symmetry into your images to give the photo a natural balance that is easy for the eye to take in. Alternatively, creatively interrupting the symmetry is a great way to add intrest and create a clear focal point which the eye is automatically drawn to. When you are out shooting, look for interesting patterns and lines in both man made and natural elements. They are all over, think brick walls, perfectly placed windows on a building, rows of crops, telephone and electricity poles. Symmetry is all around us, we just have to be willing to look for it at times. Under A Blood Red Sky by Ian Sane, on Flickr Perspective - If you have an interesting subject all your images are coming out uninteresting, it won’t hurt to switch up your perspective. Move around your subject and photograph it from multiple points of view. Sometimes a simple change such as taking a single step to the side can turn a snapshot into a portfolio worthy image. Don’t be afraid to kneel down, stand on a chair, stretch you camera hand far to the side, just work the scene until your subject magically pops from the setting. wishbone spiral by paul bica, on Flickr Avoid The Middle - As a rule, placing your subject in the middle of a photograph isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing composition. Instead, try adjusting your framing so that the subject is off to one side. The rule of thirds is a fundamental part of photography and is one of the more adamantly followed rules in art. Of course, that is not to say the rule of thirds should adhered to for every composition; however, if you have taken multiple shots of your subject and they all happen to have the subject dead center in the frame, try recomposing by sticking your subject to either the right or left 1/3 of the frame. Still Life by ?ick Harris, on Flickr One last piece of advice: slow down. If you feel like photographs are just missing the target, despite correct exposure and other technicalities, by all means, don’t rush yourself. Take your time to fully evaluate the setting and the subject. Do all of your “cropping” in camera, by moving in closer to your subject, if possible. Take every little element of the photograph, right down to the most minute detail, into conside

Images are added to the database prior to being cataloged for metadata. This makes them available for viewing while the catalog process is in work.

<p><a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130520.html"><img src="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_130520.jpg" align="left" alt="Our Sun is not a giant blueberry." border="0" /></a> Our Sun is not a giant blueberry.</p><br clear="all"/>

The evening sky facing north-east in Darwin on May 22 at 19:00 pm ACST showing the waxing Moon just about to cover Spica (alpha Virginis). (similar views will be seen from other locations north of Bundaberg at a similar local time eg 20:05 AEST Cairns). The inset shows a telescopic view of the Moon at 19:00 ACST, with Spica about to go behind the Moon. The waxing Moon passes in front of the bright star Spica in the constellation of Virgo on the evening of May 22. Spica is a bright white star visible to the unaided eye (magnitude 1).The occultation will only be seen from north-eastern Australia, anywhere north of a line running just below Darwin to Bundaderg.Every where else will see Spica dramatically close to the Moon, it is well worth watching even if you don't have an occultation. In Adelaide and Alice Springs the Moon is less than half a lunar diameter from Spica, and in Brisbane it floats just above the surface, almost grazing. Nambour sees a graze starting at 20:01 AEST.From Darwin the star disappears behind the dark limb of the Moon at 19:17 ACST, and reapppears at 19:43 ACST. From Rockhampton the star disappears behind the dark limb of the Moon at 20:35 AEST, and reapppears at 21:11 AEST. From Cairns and Townsville the star disappears behind the dark limb of the Moon at 20:05 AEST, and reapppears at 21:07 AEST.With the Moon nearly Full, this event is really best seen with binoculars or a small telescope (especially for the reappearance of the star on the bright limb of the Moon). If you have a tripod or other stand for your binoculars, it will be much easier to observe. Otherwise try and stabilise your binoculars on the back of a chair, or a car roof or something similarly solid. Set up about half an hour before the occultation to watch the star dissapear (so you are not mucking around with equiment at the last moment).

The Full Moon is Saturday May 25. Mercury returns to the evening sky. Venus, Jupiter and Mercury meet in the evening twilight. This will be the closest bright planet grouping until 2026. Saturn is high in the evening skies with the Moon close to Saturn on the 23rd. See an Emu in the sky.Sky on Wednesday May 23 looking north-east as seen from Adelaide at 21:00 local time in South Australia. The left inset shows a telescopic view of Saturn at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen). The Full Moon is Saturday May 25. Saturn is now easily visible above the eastern horizon before midnight in the constellation of Libra. Saturn climbs higher in the evening sky during the week, becoming easier to see. On Thursday the 23rd the Moon is close to Saturn.Saturn, Arcturus and Aldebaran from a broad triangle above the eastern horizon.Opposition (when Saturn is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth) was on April 28. However, Saturn will be a worthwhile evening target for telescopes of any size for several months. The sight of this ringed world is always amazing.Mars is lost in the twilight.Evening sky looking west as seen from Adelaide at 17:45 pm local time on Thursday May 23. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local times indicated here. Click to embiggen.There will be a beautiful meeting of three bright planets in the twilight this evening, the closest meeting of three bright planets until 2026.Mercury returns to the evening skies this week week, but is very low in the twilight. You will need a level, unobscured horizon to see it (see below).Venus climbs higher in the evening twilight. It is still quite close to the horizon, and you need a clear, level horizon like the ocean to see it at its best. As the week progresses it climbs towards a meeting with Jupiter, making a fine sight in the twilight (see below).Jupiter is visible low in the early evening and rapidly descends into the twilight, heading towards a rendezvous with Venus and Mercury this week. Jupiter is setting progressively earlier, by 6:40 pm local time, so the giant world is now not really possible to follow in a telescope (see below).On Friday 24 May Venus and Mercury are closest. On 26 and 27 May (Sunday and Monday), these three bright planets will be inside a circle 3 degrees wide (that's three finger-widths wide). On the 27th, Mercury and Jupiter will be at their closest. On the 28th, Venus and Jupiter will be at their closest. On 31 May the planets from a straight line.You don't need a telescope to see this fine display, just your eyes. For more charts and observing hints (and an animation) see my Planet Dance page. The south-eastern horizon, around 9:00 pm local time in Australia. Can you see the Emu? Click to embiggen.Now that the Moon is past full and the evening sky is dark it is a great time to find the constellation of the Emu. Now you are saying: ‘Emu – but there is no Emu!’ However, the Emu is one of the indigenous Australian constellations. And interestingly, it is a "dark" constellation, one that is made up entirely of dark dust lanes!"Dark" constellations are unique to the Southern hemisphere. In South America they had the constellations of the Tinamou (and Emu relative) and two llamas making up the constellation the Indigenous Australians called the Emu*.See the Emu now?The Emu consists of the Coal Sack, the dark dust cloud that nestles in the crook of the Southern Cross (the head of the Emu), and a dark dust lane that stars near the Pointers (alpha and beta Centauri) and runs down to the curl of stars that forms the body of Scorpio. This is the neck and wings of the Emu. A second dark dust lane forms the lower body and legs.Being made of dark dust lanes, it is almost impossible to see in any city. However, here in the suburbs, if I let my eyes adapt for several minutes I can make it out. And of course in the country it is almost im

Perspective control lenses are as vital to the architectural photographer as their cameras, the ability to control converging verticals in this particular field of photography is a given. For most of us, however, a PC lens is way beyond what we can justify paying for a lens that may not see much action. There is however, a software solution, using plugins for programs like Aperture or Lightroom or using Photoshop’s own built in perspective control abilities, namely the Lens Correction filter. As with all software based techniques, it should be stated that the effect will never quite match that of using the “real deal” however for the most part it is a very useable alternative. Before we go any further, lets explain why we need perspective control. As you will know, very often, in order to get an entire structure in frame, you will need to tilt your camera upwards. This causes, what we call “converging parallels” or the effect that the two sides of the building you are photographing are coming together like railway tracks in the distance. Whilst this can be used for creative good, often we are trying to get a more natural feel to the image, as our eyes would see it. For this we can use perspective correction. Ugly converging parallels in the original image. Photo by the Odessa Files So lets open an image in Photoshop and get started. The image you wish to correct must have some space around it, top bottom and sides. This is because we are going to use that space to straighten the verticals. We also need an images that does not have too steep a converging vertical. So with the image open, from the Photoshop menu select Filter – Lens Correction. The image will open in a new window with a number of tools around it. Get Your Horizon Straight! The first thing we will do is make sure that the horizon is straight, there is no point in correcting the image if you have a wonky horizon. To do this we will use the straighten image tool, which is the second tool down on the top left of the window. What we do, is find a horizontal part of the image at around eye level and click and drag a line along it. This will bring the horizon straight. To aid us with this, make sure you have a Grid overlay switched on. This can be done from the bottom of the window by checking Show Grid. Straightening the image. Photo by the Odessa Files  Next from the tools on the right, click on the first tab called, Auto Correction. Underneath you can select your camera model and lens model. This will apply corrections for any distortion you lens may have. Auto-correcting lens distortion. Photo by the Odessa Files Now Move Onto the Verticals Now click on the second tab, Custom. Ignore the controls at the top, we are looking for the Transform controls at the bottom. The most important of these is the Vertical Perspective control. To use the tool click and drag it left or right. For the most part you will have verticals that are converging upwards, to correct this, slide the slider to the left until the main verticals in your image are upright. You may also have Horizontal Perspective issue, these occur when the camera is not parallel to the subject. Use the horizontal slider to correct this. Correcting the vertical perspective. Photo by the Odessa Files   You may now have found that important elements of your image have been cropped out. In our case the cross on the first dome. In the image we have spare space at the bottom, so to bring the cross back we will use the Scale tool. Sliding this left will zoom the image out returning our cross but as you can see there are now problems at the bottom. These we will simply crop out. So lets finish with the Lens Correction tool by clicking OK. This returns us to the main Photoshop window, where we can see, the canvas showing through at the bottom. To remove this, select the crop tool and resize the image as required. Image now needs cropping. Photo by the Odessa Files The final result is a perspective correcte

Western horizon as seen from Adelaide at 5:45 pm ACST on 24 May, when Venus and Mercury are closest. Similar views will be seen from the rest of the southern hemisphere at the equivalent local time. Click on any image to embiggenWestern horizon as seen from Adelaide at 5:45 pm ACST on 26 May, when all 3 planets are within a circle 3° across.Western horizon as seen from Adelaide at 5:45 pm ACST on 28 May, when Venus and Jupiter are closest.Western horizon as seen from Adelaide at 5:45 pm ACST on 31 May, when all the planets are in a straight line.Over the next week there will be a beautiful sight as the three planets Mercury, Venus and Jupiter dance around each other in the twilight.You don't need a telescope to see this, just your eyes. The conjunction is quite close to the western horizon though, you will need a level, clear horizon to see it at its best. Ocean or desert is best, or somewhere high.The planets will be between 4 finger-widths (4 degrees) and a bit over a hand span (7 degrees) above the horizon half an hour after Sunset. A hand-span is the with of your hand making a "stop" sign when your arm is held out straight in front of you.Although half an hour after Sunset is the best trade-off between visibility and hight above the horizon, I found I could see Venus and Jupiter at least 25 minutes after Sunset, you might like to try looking earlier too. Successful photography will have to wait until the sky is somewhat darker so the planets are not washed outMercury and Venus are closest on 24 May All 3 planets are within 3 degrees of each other on 26 and 27 May, then Jupiter and Mercury are closest on 27 May, Jupiter and Venus are closest on 28 May. Finally all 3 form a straight line on 31 May.The simulations exaggerate the size of the planets. This photo is more like what you will see only the planets are brighter and clearer with the unaided eye.Venus and Jupiter as seen from Adelaide on 17 May, 2013. Imaged with a Canon IXUS, 1/4 sec exposure, ASA 400 3x Zoom at 5:55 pm ACST. Jupiter is the dot at the top right, Venus is bottom left, indicated by the yellow lines. You will need to click on the image to embiggen to see Venus clearly.A video of the encounter is below:

After images are added to the database they are cataloged to provide metadata. Note that the number of records returned by the link will be less than the number of newly cataloged photographs if some of those cataloged photographs have no digital image available.

Images are added to the database prior to being cataloged for metadata. This makes them available for viewing while the catalog process is in work.

<p><a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130519.html"><img src="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_130519.jpg" align="left" alt="What on Earth is that? " border="0" /></a> What on Earth is that? </p><br clear="all"/>