Astrophotos and Sketches

All images and sketches on this site were taken by Clint Parrish and are copyright Clint Parrish. Click on any image to enlarge.
Index by Year: 2003 2004 2005

Beginning October 1, 2005, all astronomy images will be given a file number. The key to this number is shown below.

Back to Astronomy Headquarters

2003

My first capture of the Red Planet on 8/17. This frame was blown up considerably to show detail but the image is still blurry.	Mars circa 1 a.m. CDT on 8/18. Again, I blew this one up from a webcam frame. Not very good, but you can see some surface detail.	This is an explanation of the features in the previous photo. A: Mare Sirenum and Mare Cimmerium. B: Southern Ice Cap. C: Syrtis Major. D: Tharsis Region. Note, Hellas Basin (the lowest elevation on Mars) is just below the C area.

I was looking back through the August 18 Mars webcam video and found this frame that I believe I have used before. It's the best frame that I've seen so far. I got rid of some of the blur and sharpened it in Adobe Photoshop. You can see the southern ice cap. You can also see what appear to be clouds and haze along the right side of the planet.	This is what Mars looks like at low magnification. Mars is small...only about twice the size of the moon. Even when Mars and Earth are very close together, the planet still appears small in a backyard scope.	Another view of Mars. This picture was specially processed to show the rusty color of the planet.

One of the best frames pulled from the webcam. This was taken between midnight and 1 a.m. on August 24.	More of Mars. This picture was blown up and resolution was increased giving it a pixelated look.	This is another great frame from a webcam capture. I blew up the frame and got rid of some of the blur. Surface features are very visible. The ice cap is not very distinct. It is located in the south south-eastern portion of the globe of Mars in this image.
Mars Video (may take awhile to download; must have a video player installed on your computer): Video25.avi
Short video clip of Mars through my refractor taken August 23.	August 19: Visible are Aonis Sinus on the left and Mare Sirenum just above the ice cap. See map for details.	August 23: Lacus Solis, also know as the eye of Mars is the big blob in the middle. Mare Erythraeum is along the left side. Aonis Sinus is just south of the eye of Mars.

August 24: This is pretty much the same view as the previous night only the features have rotated slightly to the right.	September 5: This view shows Syrtis Major at the upper left, Mare Tyrrhenum just below that, and at the right Mare Serpentus. Hellas is in the bottom center, just above the ice cap.	September 20: This view shows Mare Cimmerium and Mare Sirenum along the southern hemisphere. A bit of Idaeus Fons is visible in the upper left corner.

October 4: Another great view of Mare Erythraeum right in the center of this sketch. It also looks like a bit of Niliacus Lacus is coming in on the upper left.	October 17: Looks like this view shows Syrtis on the right edge and Mare Cimmerium in the middle.	October 18: Almost the same view as the previous night with features labeled on the sketch.
2004

This is a close-up with blur reduction of Venus taken circa 2:00 p.m. on 3/14/04. Telescope was a Meade 5" refractor.	Another view of Venus in the daytime though my eyepiece.	Venus transit. Before I headed out to view the transit of Venus, I snapped this picture of the Moon. Time: 4:54 a.m. CDT 6/8/2004

Sunrise. Can you see the jet contrail in the upper left portion of the image? Time: 5:32 a.m. CDT 6/8/04	This is a close-up of my first good image of Venus through my 5" refractor. Time: 5:54 a.m. CDT 6/8/04.	This is a black and white version of the previous picture.

This is a view that I rotated and mirrored to show how Venus would appear w/o a refracting telescope. The left edge is the edge of my eyepiece and the right edge is the edge of the sun. Time: 5:55 a.m. CDT 6/8/04.	A black and white close-up version of the previous picture.	Venus Transit. Time: 5:55 a.m. CDT 6/8/04.

B and W version of the previous photo.	Venus transit. Time: 6:00 a.m. 6/8/04. Image saturation and brightness adjusted.	Venus transit. Time: 6:01 a.m. 6/8/04. Lens: 9.7 mm (more power than previous images)

B and W version of the previous photo.	One of the best images of the outing. Little blur. Time: 6:02 a.m. 6/8/04	B and W version of the previous photo.

Another great frame from the transit. Time: 6:03 a.m. 6/8/04	Venus transit. Time: 6:03 a.m. 6/8/04	Venus transit. Time: 6:06 a.m. 6/8/04.

Venus transit. Time: 6:10 a.m. 6/8/04.	Venus exits the sun. Time: 6:19 a.m. 6/8/04.	Finally, I took this picture of the Moon at the end of the transit. Time: 6:30 a.m. 6/8/04. The transit ended just before 6:26 a.m. on my watch.

First quarter moon at 9:30 p.m. on August 21. Taken through 5" refractor.	Another view of the first quarter moon.	Yet another view of the same moon.

This is an image of the night sky overhead at 9:41 p.m. on August 21. Click on the image to see numerous stars.	This image shows the constellations and major stars visible in the previous image. Click on the image to see the constellation lines. Blue = Lyra; Yellow = Vulpecula; Green = Cygnus; Red = Hercules.	This is the sun at 2:35 p.m. on August 22 taken through my 5" refractor. Click on the image to enlarge and see how many sunspots you can count.

This is an image of the Moon overlayed an image of the Sun to show that from Earth both bodies appear nearly the same size. Moon image was taken on 8/21 and the Sun image was taken on 8/22.	The night sky at 9:44 p.m. August 22. Similar to the night sky image taken on August 21.	This image shows what appear to be two man-made satellites as streaks in the night sky at 9:07 p.m. on September 1. One of the streaks is probably Cosmos Rocket 1862.

This is the sun at 10:46 a.m. on September 2. Only one sunspot (located near the Sun's south pole) can be seen clearly.	Venus in daylight part 2. This is an image of Venus taken at 11:32 a.m. on September 7. The planet is on the other side of the Sun compared to where it was on March 14. The planet was also visible to the unaided eye.	Another view of Venus at 11:35 a.m. on September 7.

Close-up of Venus at 11:40 a.m. on September 7. This is a 11X digital zoom close-up.	The Moon at 11:45 a.m. on September 7. The darkness at the corners is the edge of my eyepiece.	Saturn in daylight! This is Saturn at 12:56 p.m. on September 9. Saturn is much more difficult to see in the daytime and this image shows how hard it is to see. There were some clouds and haze in the atmosphere that added to the reduced contrast of Saturn in this image.

In order to see the previous image better, I enhanced the image to show Saturn and its rings. Again, Saturn appeared very weak in my telescope and is difficult to see in daylight.	This is a nice view of Seasat as it glided overhead on September 17 around 8 p.m. CDT.	This is an image of the night sky overhead on September 26 at 8:48 p.m. CDT. Okean Rocket can be seen in the upper left corner.

Here's a close-up of Okean Rocket from the previous image.	The night sky and the ISS (streak located in lower left corner) at 8:10 p.m. CDT on September 28.	This is a panoramic image of the vivid aurora seen on the evening of November 7. The image was featured on spaceweather.com .

The Moon at 5:45 p.m. on December 14 with Earthshine. Earthshine is the faint part of the Moon seen to the right of the cresent. It is the reflection of light from the dayside part of the Earth.	The same Moon without the contrast enhancements of the previous image.	This is Saturn on December 14 circa 10 p.m. Remember Saturn on September 9 in the daytime?

The final image of the year -- a video of an Iridium flare taken on December 31. The flare is visible in the upper portion of the video and moves from right to left. The video is 5 seconds long and 270 KB large.
2005

This is a picture of a halo that formed around the Moon on February 16. Halos form when light reflects off ice crystal clouds high in the atmosphere. This picture is also featured in my weather photos.	The sun at 12:32 p.m. on March 6.	The night sky overhead on March 13.

The Moon on March 13.	The same Moon on March 13 with contrast enhance to show Earthshine.	Saturn on April 4.

The constellation Orion on April 4.	The photographer with the night sky in the background on April 4. Saturn is toward the top of the image.	Partial eclipse of the Sun on April 8. The Moon is taking a bite out of the right side of the Sun. 5:14 p.m.

Eclipse close-up at 5:15 p.m.	Eclipse close-up at 5:16 p.m.	Eclipse at 5:17 p.m.

Eclipse at 5:19 p.m.	Eclipse at 5:20 p.m.	Eclipse at 5:21 p.m.

Eclipse at 5:22 p.m.	Eclipse at 5:26 p.m.	Eclipse at 5:28 p.m.

April 4 Eclipse movie.	A two day old moon on April 10 almost two days to the hour after the partial eclipse.	Same moon after the sun sank below the horizon.

The same moon as twilight passed.	Earthshine (not moonshine) in all its glory. If you look closely, you can see a couple of the stars from the constellation Aries which is the constellation the moon was in at this time.	Another image of earthshine on the two day old moon.

On May 6 I photographed Jupiter and Saturn. This is Jupiter. Visible are the northern and southern cloud bands.	Jupiter and three of its moons.	Saturn in all its glory!

Venus returns to the evening sky! In this photo, taken at 9:07 p.m. on May 30, Venus is visible just above the clouds. This is the first time I've photographed Venus since it was visible in daylight back in September.	The photographer with background stars on June 18. Saturn is the bright spot above my head.	On June 26, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn appeared very close together as seen from Earth. This is a picture of Venus on the right and Mercury on the left. The red color of these planets is due to their position low on the horizon. Light has to pass through more of the atmosphere so they appear red.

This is a picture of Jupiter and its moons on July 24. This was the first good image taken with my new Meade DSI camera.	This is the first decent deep sky picture that I've taken. It's a picture of star cluster M13 taken on August 27.	Mars returns! I snapped this picture of Mars on October 1 around 11:24 p.m.