The moon, Venus and Sirius

'We are a way for the cosmos to know itself ' - Carl Sagan

The Moon

The night sky at NITK, Surathkal on December 19th, 2015 turned to be perfect for star gazers. With the technology that we were equipped with, below are a few breath-taking clicks taken from the main building terrace of our institute. 

Figure 1: 60% visible at 11 pm IST, December 19th, 2015, Telescope: BKP2001EQ-5 (Skywatcher), Camera: Sony HX100V, ISO 400, Aperture 200, Shutterspeed F4.0

 

 

 

HX100V, ISO 640, Aperture 160, Shutterspeed F4.5

Venus

Brightest object in the night sky after moon. It can be seen just before sunrise or just after sunset as a bright morning or evening star. At these times, Venus is up to 15 times brighter than the brightest star, Sirius.

 

Taken on December 20th, 2015 - 4:53:14 am IST
Telescope: BKP2001EQ-5 (Skywatcher)
Camera : Lenovo B6000-HV Tablet, ISO 353, Exposure time 1/10, Aperture 2.8, Focal length 3.5 mm

Sirius

The brightest star visible from any part of Earth is Sirius in the constellation Canis Major the Greater Dog. Sirius is sometimes called the Dog Star. The heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "dog days" of summer for the ancient Greeks. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek Σείριος (Seirios), meaning "glowing" or "scorcher". What the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system, consisting of a white main-sequence star termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion called Sirius B.

Sirius rises late in the dark, liquid sky
On summer nights, star of stars,
Orion's Dog they call it, brightest
Of all, but an evil portent, bringing heat
And fevers to suffering humanity
- Homer (Illiad)

Taken on 19^th December, 2015 - 11 PM IST
BKP2001EQ-5 (SKY WATCHER)
Camera : Sony HX100V, ISO 3200, Aperture 4, Shutterspeed F2.8

Jupiter

 Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, has 67 moons at least out of which the four Galilean moons are visible in the picture. In 1610, Galileo Galilei discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter (now known as the Galilean moons) using a telescope; thought to be the first telescopic observation of moons other than Earth's, the moons being Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (From left to right in the images below).

With over 400 active volcanoes, Io is also the most geologically active object in the Solar System. 

Europa is a large, dense, icy moon of Jupiter and the smoothest object in our Solar System. Its surface is covered with long, crisscrossing track ways (but few craters) on water ice.

Ganymede is the largest moon of Jupiter, a large, icy, outer moon that is scarred with impact craters and many parallel faults. It is also the only satellite in the Solar System known to possess a magnetosphere. 
 Callisto is the fourth and farthest Galilean moon. It is also one of the most heavily cratered satellites in the Solar System.

  TAKEN ON DECEMBER 20th, 2015 - 4:30 AM IST
TELESCOPE : BKP2001EQ-5 (SKYWATCHER)
Camera : SM-J100H, ISO 400, Exposure time 1/8, Aperture 2.2, Focal length 3.31 mm