The Lunar Eclipse Over South Africa on 15 June 2011 captured as never before by South African Photographer Mitchell Krog

South African Photographer Mitchell Krog, based in the beautiful Magaliesburg region has once again pulled something magical out of his photographic hat. Mitchell, a multi award winning photographer, is no stranger to the night skies and has spent much of the last 5 years photographing them. On Wednesday evening the 15th June 2011 a lunar eclipse event occured over much of the Southern Hemisphere and had sky watchers all over the world outside to witness this magical event.

In South Africa it is currently winter and up on the highveld in the Magaliesburg region it gets especially cold at night.  Braving the cold weather, Mitchell headed out to capture his 4th lunar eclipse and decided to try something different. Instead of just focusing on close up images of the moon, Mitchell decided to go much wider and set up one of his camera’s with an extreme wide angle lens.

What came out of his camera was nothing short of amazing and has certainly trumped a plethora of lunar eclipse images all over the web. Mitchell describes this effect, “A combination of heavy dew fall and misting from the very cold weather is probably what caused the camera to capture this, it is an amazing optical effect like I’ve never seen before and I’ve spent hundreds of nights out photographing the night skies. What I find amazing about this image is that, optical effect or not, it clearly shows the moon sitting in shadow surrounded by the blue glow of Earth’s light. It’s easy for people to jump out and say it’s manipulated but it most certainly is not, this is direct from camera to screen but I’m so accustomed to critics and competitors trying any avenue to demoralize or discredit.”

All we can say is we’re amazed with this image and it already seems to be circulating all over the web and being very much WOW’d.

See more of Mitchell’s incredible award winning photography at his web site http://mitchellkrog.com or on Facebook

The strange craft which fleeted across South Africa's night skies on Sunday the 18th of October 2009 causing UFO reports to flood observatories and Radio 702. Most people in South Africa thought they had seen a UFO but this object turned out to be a Centaur rocket carrying out tests when they passed over South Africa. From Mitchell Krog's Astrophotography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Information from http://www.planetarium.co.za/ thanks to Claire from the Planetarium for doing so much research into this event.

Hundreds of South Africans saw a star-like point moving across the sky while emitting “haloes” or “bubbles” of light just before 9pm on Sunday evening October 18th. This strange sight turns out to have been a Centaur rocket carrying out tests as it passed over South Africa nearly three hours after launch. The mission (AV-017) is a project of United Launch Alliance – see ulalaunch.com for a nice video of the launch and a 23-page “mission overview”. The purpose was to launch a US Defence Force weather satellite (DMSP F18) into orbit.

Event timeline (all times are South African time)

6:12pm – Atlas V rocket launches from Vandenberg Airforce Base

6:16pm – booster rocket shuts down and is jettisoned over the Pacific

– Centaur main engine starts

– payload fairing jettisoned

6:27pm – Centaur main engine shuts down

6:30pm – satellite released

– Collision and Contamination Avoidance Maneuver

6:46pm – testing begins

8:57pm – testing ends

9:10pm – Centaur main engine fires for 4min to send the rocket away from Earth (into an Earth-escape trajectory)

9:17pm – “blowdown” of the fuel tanks

9:56pm – burn off of residual hydrazine

What caused the bubbles?

Possibly venting of fuel during the tests, or firing of “reaction control” motors used to change the orientation or spin of the vehicle.

Tests carried out on the Centaur

Since the DMSP satellite was relatively light, the Centaur rocket had fuel left over after completing its mission of putting the satellite into orbit.  The collision and contamination avoidance manoeuvre gets the rocket a safe distance from the satellite.

After this, the Centaur is in free-fall – a (almost) zero-gravity state that can be created on Earth for a short time by dropping something from e.g. a tall tower, or in a plane for a few minutes (e.g. NASA’s “Vomit Comet“).  The test phase of the Centaur lasted about two hours.

The tests carried out during this time were described by ULA as:

“zero-g, long-coast propellant management . . . we do zero-g settling by very reduced motion of the settling thrusters . . . [and then] settle the propellants against the wall of the tank by spinning the stage with no settling thrusters . . . [and] some venting during zero-g.”

Before re-starting the engine, the engineers also planned “a pulsed chilldown demo . . . then some experiments related to the depletion of [the engine]“

One interesting use for these tests is to see how feasible orbiting “filling stations” are.  These would be useful for future manned spacecraft missions to the Moon or Mars, that would have to carry large (heavy) amounts of equipment into space.  Some of the experiments that would be useful for the design of these orbiting “propellant depots” include spinning the spacecraft to settle the fuel against the sides of the container, and firing small rockets or venting small amounts of fuel to push the fuel against one end of the container.  A large fuel tanker in zero-gravity has problems that include leakage of the hydrogen fuel (hydrogen molecules are very small and eventually leak through the walls of containers), and keeping the fuel cool.

United Launch Alliance has a great collection of (fairly technical) publications related to the future development of space exploration – see their publications page, especially this one which mentions using the DMSP-18 mission for zero-g propellant tests.

"The mothership is watching us". What many would love to believe was a UFO turns out to be something actually from this world. A centaur rocket is captured dumping excess propellant into the atmosphere as part of a testing phase of this rocket launch. From Mitchell Krog's Astrophotography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to order prints

of Mitchell Krog’s images above please visit www.livingcanvas.co.za and send an enquiry form through and someone will get back to you with pricing and shipping info. Details on the front page of the web site.

More articles at: http://selenianboondocks.com/2009/10/av-017-bubbling-ufos-and-centrifugal-settling/

Radio stations were flooded with calls on Sunday Evening the 18th of October 2009 with people reporting they had seen a unidentified flying object (UFO) in the sky, it has also been referred to as a Bubbling UFO or Spacecraft too. Actually according to reports from official sources what was seen in the night skies over South Africa on Sunday was a Centaur Rocket dumping excess propellant as some form of testing from the rocket manufacturer. Some experts who have seen fuel dumping excercises dispute this as the answer to exactly what “test” were being performed while over South Africa.

The strange craft which fleeted across South Africa's night skies on Sunday the 18th of October 2009. Most people in South Africa thought they had seen a UFO but this object turned out to be a Centaur rocket dumping excess propellant. From Mitchell Krog's Astrophotography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

The Centaur rocket was launched from VanderBergh Airforce base in California earlier that day with a payload of a US military weather satellite named DMSP F-18. When the rocket and satellite were over South African skies they apparently dumped excess fuel which resulted in large halos surrounding the two objects which were a short distance from each other. Later in the evening when they were over Europe they dumped the rest of the fuel which also caused a minor sensation in Europe.

South African photographer Mitchell Krog was out and about shooting a lightning storm and happened to notice this anomoly in the sky and captured some superb images of the event. He explains his story.

A scene from a sci-fi movie? What many South Africans and Europeans thought was a UFO on Sunday the 18th of October turned out to be a testing phase of a Centaur rocket launched earlier that day from VanDerBergh Airforce base in California. From Mitchell Krog's Astrophotography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

“I was out chasing a lightning storm which circulated through our area, at around 8:47pm I noticed a strange shape in the sky, at first I thought it was some cloud formation but quickly ruled that out and immediately swung my camera around and started cpaturing images of this object in the sky. It started off relatively small and as it moved across the sky the rings grew in size. I photographed from 8:48 to 8:52 and by then it was too faint and almost out of sight. I knew I had captured something unusual because I have spent my entire life watching the night skies and the last 4 years photographing them. Deep down inside me I kinda hoped it was a UFO but I have learned in life not to jump to conclusions and rather investigate before causing sensationalism as the mass media always does. On Monday morning I sent my images off to a number of astronomy friends of mine and quite quickly got a reply about the Centaur Rocket. Some people who have been in contact with me since yesterday are still questioning exactly what “tests” were being done up there and they have contacted the owners of that rocket who said they will be giving a press release. As soon as I hear anything I will update this info but for now the mass consensus is the centaur rocket dumping fuel. This is certainly not something you see every day in the night skies and as a photographer I had one minute to decide what settings  I would use and 4 minutes to shoot it, I did not even have a moment to scratch my head. It was a great thing to witness and even more rewarding to come home with images.”

"The mothership is watching us". What many would love to believe was a UFO turns out to be something actually from this world. A centaur rocket is captured dumping excess propellant into the atmosphere as part of a testing phase of this rocket launch. From Mitchell Krog's Astrophotography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Images featured on News24.com at this link
Images featured on Astronomical Gallery at this link

The International Space Station Fleeted Across the South African Night Skies on The 30th of August 2009 at 6:51pm. From Mitchell Krog's AstroPhotography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

More photos here.
ISS Discussion on SARL Web site.

The International Space Station Fleeted Across the South African Night Skies on The 30th of August 2009 at 6:51pm. From Mitchell Krog's AstroPhotography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

More photos from other astro-photographers here.

A discussion on the SARL web site here.