Photographing the northern lights with the Sony A7R V

Armed with my Sony A7R V camera and the FE 12-24mm f/4 G lens, I set off in search of the northern lights in Abisko National Park. Located in the heart of Swedish Lapland, 121 miles (195 kilometers) within the Arctic Circle, Abisko National Park is the perfect place to photograph the northern lights. All you need are the right conditions, a lot of patience and of course a little bit of luck.  Before I left I had never photographed the northern lights on anything other than a smartphone and…

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January’s Full Wolf Moon looks stunning in 1st full moon photos of 2024 (photos)

The first full moon of 2024 rose over Earth on Thursday (Jan. 25), in the form of January’s Wolf Moon.  The January full moon takes its name from packs of hungry wolves that would howl outside native American villages amid the cold and deep snows of winter, according to NASA.  Wolves weren’t the only ones who braved the frigid weather on Thursday to observe the moon, as skywatchers across the globe bundled up and went hunting for incredible images of Earth’s lunar companion.Related: Full moon calendar 2024: When to see…

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See a bright half moon meet up with Jupiter in the night sky tonight

Two skywatching favorites will meet up in the clear winter night sky tonight. The moon and Jupiter will appear close together in the Aries constellation, offering the chance to see five moons at once through the right binoculars. Jupiter’s four largest satellites, called the Galilean moons, will appear in pairs on either side of the largest planet in our solar system.  The moon, meanwhile, will be just seven days past new moon in a bright waxing gibbous phase, appearing 59% illuminated as it heads toward the first full moon of…

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Welcome to the next step in smart telescope astronomy: Unistellar Odyssey

On January 7 2024 Unistellar proudly unveiled the new Odyssey range of smart telescopes at the world’s biggest tech show, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024, held in Las Vegas. Smart telescopes are here, and they are here to stay — with numerous optics brands battling it out to come up with the very best smart telescope or intelligent home observation station. Unistellar boasts that the Odyssey stands out as the first smart telescope that can observe both nearby planets and objects situated tens of millions of lightyears away at…

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See a thin crescent moon meet up with Saturn tonight

The thin crescent moon will meet up with the solar system’s second-largest planet, Saturn for the first time in 2024 on Sunday (Jan. 14), during a close approach between the two celestial bodies.  At the same time, the 3-day-old moon will move into an astronomical arrangement with Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, called a conjunction  —  which refers to the fact that the two bodies will have the same right ascension, or celestial equivalent of longitude.  During the close approach, the moon, which is just leaving its totally…

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