Celebrating Earth Day 2013

Return on the Swans

Tagish Lake, Yukon

Today is a day to celebrate the fabulous diversity of life, cultures, languages, music, landscapes and the history of our Planet.  Happy Earth Day all!

Cheers,

Claus 

Heavenly Encounter

Heavenly Encounter - Comet PanSTARRS (Right) sails 

past the Andromeda Galaxy on April 4, 2013

A once-in-a-life time opportunity to photograph two famous heavenly bodies in the same frame occurred on late in the evening on April 4th when, to the delight of stargazers across the northern hemisphere,  Comet PanSTARRS sailed by the Andromeda Galaxy.  Stunning!!!  I used the Nikor 300mm lens at f/3.5, 15 sec exposure at 1600 ISO to capture the heavenly encounter.

Even though the pair seem relatively close together, Andromeda is in actual fact 2.5 million light years away.  Tonight, Comet PanSTARRS continues to sail back into the outer reaches of our solar system.  It is due back to grace our evening skies in 106,000 years!!!

It was wonderful to have spotted and photographed the comet during the past few weeks.  Comet PanSTARRS provided us all with a taste of better things to come.  In November, if all predictions come true, a much more dramatic comet, Comet ISON, will grace the evening sky with its presence.  Astronomers believe that it is related to the Great Comet of 1680.  If all predictions come true, this comet will be the comet of the Century as it may very well be seen during daylight hours too.  Fabulous days to come!!!  Stay tuned for updates.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Cheers
Claus



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