There are parties going on, one next door to us and probably another at the end of the cul-de-sac. Nothing raucous or disruptive, judging from the folks parking down the block and walking past earlier it’s families & the dress code is “evening pool party.”
My favorite sound while I was out in front was the train whistle from the BNSF tracks to the southeast, down by where the Virtual Railfans camera is located. Just something about that sound, makes me want to a Steve Goodman song or something country-western.
And WOW!!! Click on that photo and blow it up to full-screen size. LOOK AT THE STARS UP THERE!!!
I had no idea they were there since I just had looked at the photo on my phone before now. You can clearly see the tail of Scorpius on the right above the street light – the two stars close together are Shaula & Lesath, with the “tail” curving down and then up to the right-top corner. To the left of Scorpius, at the top above the pink-lit house, you can clearly see the entire “teapot” of Capricorn. HOLY GUACAMOLE, BATMAN!!! Looking at the full-sized image, there’s a light spot in between the left of the tail of Scorpius and the right side of the “teapot”, and it’s right where (see that tail of Scorpius link a couple lines up, it will take you to a map!) the M7 star cluster is! Did I somehow manage to capture that in this image?!
I’m loving these dark desert skies!
I didn’t even use a tripod for this picture (handheld only, tripods & other camera gear still buried deep in a PODS unit in the driveway) nor did I use one of the good cameras, just my iPhone! I’m gobsmacked!
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 