of the moon rising over the Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand. People had gathered up there this night to get the best view possible of the moon rising. I captured the video from 2.1km away on the other side of the city. It’s something that I’ve been wanting to photograph for a long time now, and a lot of planning and failed attempts had taken place. Finally, during moon rise on the 28th January 2013, everything fell into place and I got my footage.
The video is as it came off the memory card and there has been no manipulation whatsoever. Technically it was quite a challenge to get the final result. I shot it on a Canon ID MkIV in video mode with a Canon EF 500mm f/4L and a Canon 2x extender II, giving me the equivalent focal length of 1300mm.
“NASA Public Affairs Officer Brandi Dean conducts an interview with Lead Scientist For Planetary Small Bodies Paul Abell about the meteorite that hit Russia and the asteroid flyby that took place on Feb. 15.”
Dr. Showalter recently discovered the fourth and fifth moons of Pluto. His recent discoveries of two small moons orbiting Pluto raise interesting new questions about how the dwarf planet formed. We now know that a total of four outer moons circle around a central “double-planet” comprising Pluto and its large, nearby moon Charon.
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will arrive at Pluto in July 2015, and the new discoveries come just in time for the science planners to target closeup views of the tiny bodies during the flyby. However, the discoveries also come as a mixed blessing–small moons often raise clouds of dust, prompting concerns about a possible hazard to the spacecraft when it flies through the system at more then 10 km per second.
The Planetary Society offers a variety of videos including a couple of videos from an introductory astronomy course taught by Bruce Betts at Cal State Dominguez Hills.