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!!!”
Filed under Astronomy, Christmas Lights, Forever Home, Photography
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!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
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!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Weather
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!
Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography, Weather
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…
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
I do so dearly love the Northern Hemisphere winter sky. Tons of bright stars and easy-to-identify constellations, not to mention naked eye nebula and clusters. The King of them all is Orion.
(Click on it to blow it up – it’s a nice picture.)
Now rising to by 10:00 PM or so to hover above the water tanks and power lines to our east, Orion is easily identified by the four bright stars making up the shoulders and legs, the three stars in the belt, the three objects (two stars and a bright nebula) making up the sword. It doesn’t take much of a dark sky or even a cheap pair of old Sears binoculars to see the bright blue color of Rigel and the orange-ish red of Betelgeuse. (We’re still waiting for Betelgeuse to go supernova and be as bright as the moon for a while – any day in the next 5,000 year or so…)
Even an older generation iPhone camera held still on top of a cinder block wall and fighting with the glow of a Moon just past full can easily pull out Orion’s details.
Welcome back Old Friend, the constellation and stars that I first remember learning to recognize when I couldn’t have been more than four or five. Another trip around the Sun for us all, another opportunity to greet you in the chilly evening sky and discuss the nature of things.
Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography
…and I still think I’m losing ground.
(If you don’t know what “SCE to AUX” thing means, check here or just Google it.)
But the full “beaver” supermoon was stunning. And when I went out into the back yard and the security light snapped on, the owl that was sitting out took off right over me and was STUNNING!!!
(Ignore the bright blue dot just above the power lines, it’s not “real,” just an internal reflection of the super bright moon in the iPhone’s compound lens.)
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
Still messed up from the Daylight Saving Time shift. Need a good night’s sleep, unlikely to get it.
The odd hours do have me saying hello to Venus and the sunrise – not getting old yet!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets
The only good thing about getting up early enough to meet the movers at 7AM is getting to see brilliant Venus in the morning sky.
Well, that and finally getting that last loose end paritally tied up. (“Partially” because everything’s at the house now and out of storage, but I still have to put stuff away at the house. Progress is progress, I’ll take it!)
Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography
If you’re expecting one of those great, professional pictures that shows the bright comet trail stretching across half the sky, taken from a superior dark-sky location – Google it, move on, I’ll see you tomorrow.
But if you want to see how it really works for the amateur astronomer with decades-old, marginal equipment in the suburbs after four days of hunting – here you go!
See it? Click on the image to blow it way up, bigger than full screen sized! It’s right there!
Need some help? No worries. Let’s start over on the far right, where just over those trees you can see five of the seven brightest stars in the Big Dipper. The two left-hand stars in the bowl of the dipper are right next to the right edge of the image, with the three bright stars of the handle arcing up toward the lower center. Got them?
Now, just barely visible over the house, to the left of that tree in its back yard, is a bright star. That’s Arcturus, in the constellation Bootes.
Next, look straight up from Arcturus to right about the middle of the image. Do you see a “C”-shaped circle of six brighter stars, the open part of the “C” pointing to the upper right at bit? That’s the Corona Borealis constellation.
Finally, look between Arcturus and Corona Borealis for an elongated diamond of four bright-ish objects. Here’s a cropped image of that region, with Corona Borealis at the top and the “elongated diamond” in the lower left:
Using binoculars, I could see the comet pretty clearly, at least the fuzzy head (coma) and the tiniest bit of bulge of the tail. Not spectacular, not overwhelming, not mind-blowing, but also definitely not my imagination. I saw it to the left and slightly below two bright stars in a tilted, vertical orientation, with a much dimmer third star just above and to the right of the upper one. Here’s an even further crop of that “elongated diamond.”
Blow it up as large as you can on your screen. It will be grainy, that’s okay. See those two brighter stars in a tilted, vertical orientation with the much dimmer third star just above and to the right of the upper one? See the object to their lower left that’s a bit fuzzy, with sort of a dim, baseball diamond shaped bit of light off the top side?
That’s Comet Lemmon.
It’s not going to be the Astronomy Photo Of The Day any time soon, but it’s my capture. These days, you have to take the Teeny TEENY Tiny Bits Of Joy wherever you can get them.
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
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We Love The Stars Too Fondly 