Category Archives: Astronomy

iPhone 17 Moonrise

Among all of the multiple overlapping crises of the last couple of weeks, my ancient iPhone 13 died. Something broke in the connecting/charging port so that I couldn’t plug it in to charge. Which was inconvenient at first, then critical when I realized that all of the 2FA codes I need to access accounts at work (like, payroll) go to that phone. I got a short term solution to survive the next day (and get payroll entered and paid) but the long term solution was to upgrade my phone to an iPhone 17.

I sort of wanted to do that for a couple of reasons, one of which was the much-improved cameras on the iPhone 17. You might notice that I tend to take a lot of pictures.

Tonight The Long-Suffering Wife called me to look out to the back yard, where the 99% full Moon was rising.

Okay, that’s pretty, a normal picture. What about wide angle views?

Again, very nice, similar to the iPhone 13. But I hear that the telephoto capabilities are where it really shines. The iPhone 13 went to 3x zoom and was a bit on the grainy and pixelated side when blown up that big. The iPhone 17 goes to 10x zoom and it’s supposed to be pretty good quality.

Oh, my, that’s spectacular. A little bit of color swimming up through the haze near the horizon. But when it rises just a bit to get above that?

Very nice, and I even caught a plane, what is probably a cargo jet just taking off from KVCV, SoCal Logistics over in Victorville.

I’m impressed!

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iOS Phone Night Mode Upgrade

Apparently in Apple’s iOS 26 upgrade there’s some new capabilities for a “Night Mode,” even on an older iPhone 13 like mine. I stumbled on it when I was out looking for non-existant aurora the other night.

There were a few clouds, but this isn’t bad at all for an older iPhone being held by hand. Jupiter’s the bright spot in the mid-upper left, with Orion in the upper right, and Sirius being the bright star in the mid-lower right.

The big change when you find and use “Night Mode” is apparently the 10 second exposure. In normal mode, the maximum exposure is 3 seconds.

This even works with the telephoto lens in use, as seen here by a closeup of Orion. You can even see a fair bit of the luminosity around the Orion Nebula, the “middle star” in the “sword.”

It’s not a razor-sharp image, but it’s not bad! As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you, so even with a telescope and some high-powered DSLRs in the house, being able to take these with the iPhone in your pocket is pretty cool.

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No Aurora For SoCal, Again

And again, that’s probably for the best.

I did go out to check (temps in the mid 40’s, a few thin clouds) but the view to the north was lacking in color.

Check out social media for a ton of incredible images from Europe, Scandanavia, Canada, and the northern tier of US states. I saw some images from Northern California, Oregon, northern Nevada, the Virginia/North Carolina border, and northern Arizona, but nothing any further south. We’re probably at least 400 to 500 miles too far south.

That’s okay. As noted in the past, as uber cool as it would be to see to see aurora from SoCal, doing so probably involves an event at least as powerful as the 1859 Carrington Event, which would have massive side effects that would be catastrophic to our society and infrastructure. Being without an electric grid, the Internet, airline travel, and all of the related distruptions to our economic structure, food supplies, and trade would not be my idea of a good time. It was highly disruptive in 1859 – it would be a nightmare today.

So, no aurora for SoCal, again.

As it should be!

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2005 Was Like Sirius

To be clear, 2005 for me was like Sirius the star, the astronomical object, not Sirius the satellite music service.

Sirius (the star) is the brightest star (other than the Sun) as seen from Earth, over twice as bright as the second brightest (Canopus). It’s been known for thousands and thousands of years since it’s so prominent. It’s the “Dog Star” and when it appears as the morning star it’s the beginning of summer and the “dog days.” Lots of interesting facts about Sirius and it’s history.

Despite being known and prominent for centuries, it wasn’t until 1844 that astronomers noted that it’s part of a binary star system. The huge, bright star we see is now known as “Sirius A” – there’s a much smaller, much dimmer white dwarf which can only be seen with a good sized telescope that’s known now as “Sirius B.”

This is where I make the comparison to 2025.

“Sirius A” = all of the pain and bullshit that was the world (Russia vs Ukraine, etm…) and US politics (the rigged and stolen Presidential election that no one seems to care about, the Mango Manchurian Candidate and all of his disgusting actions and idiotic, psychotic rantings and misinformation, the billionaires who bought Congress and the Supreme Court, the Epstein files, the National Guard in our cities, ICE, Brain-Worm Bobby and his [literally] insane health policies, and on and on and on and one, etm…)

“Sirius B” = our Forever Home, finding it after years of searching, getting the purchase done, getting the move (more or less) done, and still being amazed on a daily basis that we own and live in such a COOL place!

Given the enormous difference in magnitude between the two, it almost seems inappropriate or embarrassing to be so pleased about the house, given the enormity of the suffering and death around the world and in our country. Yet, on an individual level, it really shouldn’t be ignored or lost in the chaos. Yes, big picture, it’s a tiny thing compared to the potential end of US democracy or the start of the Second US Civil War, but it’s a HUGE freakin’ thing in our personal lives.

So, it reminded me of Sirius.

What about 2026? Well, as I might have hinted at, I think Trump should be in jail for the rest of his life, or tried and executed for high treason, and then we need to find a way to sweep the GOP and our illegitimate Supreme Court out of power and change the rules so this can never happen again. I suspect there might be more than enough bribery, perjury, embezzlement, and other crimes in there to put a LOT of the GOP into cells next to Trump’s. Time to clean house and take our country back. (I wish I knew how to do that, but that’s above my pay grade. I’m open to suggestions.)

That’s the biggest day in, day out, universal objective for the new year, but there’s the usual on a personal level as well. There are always things that I can and want to do better, and since I’ll be hitting one of those “red-letter” birthdays in March, as always I need to do a better job of taking care of myself physically.

We’ll see. The intentions are good. The spirit is strong, but the body is weak.

Stupid body. (And holy guacamole, Batman! That’s a metric shit ton of grey hair. 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯)

I hope all y’all get through the New Years’ celebrations safely and in one piece. I’m sure you all have your own list of things to be aware of and improve on where possible – best of luck to you all and may the odds be ever in your favor.

If nothing else, “Project Hail Mary” hits theaters in March. How bad can a year be with that coming out to look forward to? (He asks innocently, fully understanding that he’s probably tempting the Fates with such a statement.)

I’ll see all y’all on the other side.

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Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Paul, Photography, Politics

Winter Solstice 2025

As the light dies at the end of the shortest day of the year, we try to supplement the remaining light in the beautiful sunset with those of our own celebrations.

You can think and believe what you want about the Bible and the story of Jesus’ birth, but I’ll guarantee you that he wasn’t born in late December or the middle of winter. Too many things point to a spring birth. But the reason the early Christians celebrated around the winter solstice was so that they would blend in, not stand out, and not be targets for persecution.

The winter solstice was known and celebrated a thousand year or more before the Roman Empire. Pre-historic peoples needed to know the seasons in order to know when to plant crops, when to hunt, how to survive. The days gettting shorter and colder had to be terrifying with no knowledge of what was causing it (Earth’s axial tilt) and whether or not longer, warmer days would return. So when the solstice came and the days started to lengthen again, it was a cause for celebration, often with symbols of light being prominent.

Millenia later, I put up a gazillion Christmas lights. Slightly different reasoning and knowledge bases perhaps, same celebration.

Welcome back to the light!

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Filed under Astronomy, Christmas Lights, Photography, Sunsets

Supermoon Over Christmas Lights

At the Forever Home, Friday is trash pickup day. So Thursday night is take-out-the-trash-bins night. Last night I was out shortly after sunset when, from the viewpoint at the curb, the Cold supermoon was just rising above the house.

Not bad, eh?

Every single day there’s still a moment when I stop, look around, and say, “DAMN! We live here!!!”

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Filed under Astronomy, Christmas Lights, Forever Home, Photography

Cold Supermoon Rising

That’s “cold” as in “Cold Moon” is the name of the December full Moon, so while it was nippy in SoCal, it wasn’t really cold.

With the Moon rising to the northeast, it came up right behind these power line towers as seen from the kitchen. It looked bitchin’!

To get the shot from the back yard, however, I was on a small ladder way off at the side of the yard. No problemo!

A couple of minutes later, from my usual spot on the pergola, the Moon was starting to get into a thin layer of clouds at almost the EXACT moment of being full. The Moon was 100.00% full at 17:00 PST – this picture was taken at 16:49, just eleven minutes away from being full.

Near perigee (the closest point to Earth in its eliptical orbit) the Moon was something like 30% brighter than it would be at apogee (the furthest point from Earth). Thus the “super” Moon.

It was stunning to see!

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39ºF + 99% Full Moon + Clouds

Quite the recipe for a bracing and brisk and beautiful night!

But wait, there’s more!

Blow up the image to full size and you’ll see Orion just to the right and below the center. And the “V” (pointed to the right) of Taurus just under the Moon, in that notch in the clouds.

And of course, even if you didn’t blow the image up to full size, that really bright object just off of the left edge is Jupiter.

Wouldn’t it be neat to just lay out on a lawn chair and watch for a couple of hours? Preferably in a thick, down-filled sleeping bag. 39ºF now, headed toward 32ºF before dawn.

Nippy!

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Clear In The East Tonight

More cloudy, cool, windy, drizzly, with another larger storm coming on Thursday and Friday, but tonight when I went out it had gotten crystal clear in the east. Orion was high, along with all of the other bright winter constellations.

A simple iPhone shot, setting it down on a garden hose box and getting a 30-second exposure. The brightest object, in the lower left, is Jupiter, with Castor and Pollux in Gemini above and to the left of it. Orion’s in the center right and you can clearly see the nebula that’s the center “star” in the “sword.” The “V” shape of Taurus is just to the right of center at the top edge, and the bright star in the lower right, just above the pergola and clouds, is Sirius.

With the chill (it’s down into the upper 30’s right now) it’s not surprising to smell wood smoke on the breeze as a lot of folks are using their fireplaces.

And of course, off in this direction, are the sounds of freight train whistles.

Yep, we done picked a good one for a Forever Home!

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Proof Of Life – November 11th

Happy Veteran’s Day!

In addition to Orion in the evening sky, my simple iPhone pictures will also show Taurus nearby.

It’s the “V”-shaped group of stars on the right here. You should be able to spot it pretty easily a bit “above” and to the left of Orion.  Assuming, of course, that you’re north of the Equator on Earth – if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, it will all look upside down. I understand the details of why that is but I’ve never been down there to see it, nor have I ever seen the Southern Cross, Magellenic Clouds, and other southern sky constellations.

One of these days…

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