Category Archives: Astronomy

September 20, 2026 · 22:54

Hiding White On White

Spectacular sky this afternoon with tons of puffy white clouds on a deep blue background.

The object hidden in the gaps was immediately obvious to my eye.

Maybe it’s human nature, maybe it’s just me.

See it?

Just rising, white, airless, cratered face peeking through the white puffy clouds.

Amazingly, there are folks who think that seeing the moon in the sunlit mid-day sky is some sort of weird occurrance or magic spell or conspiracy or SIGN.

It’s not anything weird at all, perfectly normal. People just don’t bother to pay attention to the world around them.

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Filed under Astronomy, Weather

August 27, 2026 · 23:16

ACC & The Partial Lunar Eclipse

The ACC is the Anaheim Convention Center, which, along with the next-door Hilton and Marriott hotels, are the site of this year’s World Science Fiction Convention.

It’s a massive venue. We’re all getting our steps in, and then some.

Just when you think you’ve seen how big it is, you go around a corner and it’s huge-r.

A good first day of activities. Three panels (all space & science related), a first run through of the dealers’ room and art show, and the first open filk of the con.

And then, tonight, there was the moon and the partial (96%) lunar eclipse.

We had mostly cloudy conditions all day and I didn’t expect to see anything, but when I came up to our room after dinner, there it was, just after maximum coverage! It was a healthy shade of brownish-orange, particularly orange-ish along the top edge of the Earth’s shadow. All of the recent forest fires worldwide might be helping with that.

It was very pretty, but the picture is just a handheld, 10-second iPhone exposure, braced against the hotel window for stability. The blurry lights below are Anaheim, looking off toward Anaheim Stadium.

Did you get to see it?

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Filed under Astronomy, Fandom, Photography

August 25, 2026 · 23:31

Partial Lunar Eclipse On Thursday Night

In slightly less than 48 hours, the Full Moon will pass into the Earth’s shadow and we’ll have a partial lunar eclipse over most of the Western Hemisphere.

Tonight it was only 95% full.

And the world moves on. Despite everything.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets

July 28, 2026 · 23:37

The Pergola Illuminated

Since we bought the place and moved in there have always been lights on the pergola. I’ve just never bothered to plug them in more than once or twice, because when I go out in back I generally want it to be as dark as possible so that I can see the stars better. But tonight I forgot to refill the birdseed feeders until it was dark, so on they went!

With the Full Moon rising above it all, it looked lovely! If/when we have a party (our big Super Bowl bash will be GREAT out here!) and BBQ, this is going to be spectacular!

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Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography

June 29, 2026 · 23:47

99%(Minus) Full

Last night we were about twenty hours before Full Moon – tonight we were about four hours after it. No chance at all here to see the Moon 100% illuminated, but this was about as close as we were going to get, 99.9% full and shrinking toward New Moon in two weeks (and a full solar eclipse across Spain and Northern Africa in six weeks.)

It took a few minutes to get up above those mountains and water tanks (no flat horizons here!) and the cloudbanks piling up from the ocean against the Cajon Pass.

It looked spectacular!

Enough smoke in the air from local brush fires to give it some color. Wonderful!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

June 28, 2026 · 22:19

99%+ Full

We’re within 24 hours now, with the exact time of the full Moon being 16:57 PDT tomorrow. The Moon will still be down below the horizon then for me, but those of you in Europe and on the East Coast can catch it.

For now, this is the closest it will get, rising at 99.4%+ full.

Having the foreground mountains on the horizon contribute to the “moonrise illusion,” making the moon look much larger than it is when it’s high overhead.

Also FYI, if you ever wonder why I hate AI and things like Copilot, when I first asked just now what the exact time for the next full Moon was, it told me “March 14, 2026.” Um… No! Then I asked for the exact percentage illuminated as of the time I took these pictures about two hours ago – CoPilot told me “The moon is currently about 76% illuminated.” There’s not a lot of subtlety or nuance in those questions, but CoPilot got them 100% WRONG, like, not even order of magnitude wrong. In this case I knew instantly that the answers had to be 100% bullshit and untrustworthy, but what about folks who might not be as in touch with the current status of our planetary neighbors, or me if I’m asking a question about something that I’m not as familiar with?

Go look at the Moon tomorrow night at sunset. It will be lovely. And never, EVER believe anything that AI tells you.

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Filed under AI, Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets

June 26, 2026 · 23:33

Faux Full

The Moon tends to look full when it’s still two or three days short – yet another lunar optical illusion.

Tonight we’re still 69-hours (three days) from the full phase, which will occur at about 16:57 PDT on Monday evening, June 29th.

Until then? Close enough for government work!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets

June 17, 2026 · 23:39

Sunset Conjunction 2026 – Big Finale

Mind you, the key players (Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury) will all be up there for at least another week or more, but tomorrow the Moon will have moved up beyond Venus, Jupiter will have dimmed a bit more and moved down toward Mercury. I don’t know if there’s a “technical” definition of what constitutes an astronomical conjunction (X number of bodies withing Y degrees?) but gut feeling is that it’s almost over.

But tonight, still…

It was looking pretty nice up there in a clear, desert sky. Three-day old Moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury (just above the tree at the lower right).

And even with the (carefully) hand-held iPhone, I can zoom in on the crescent Moon and Venus and see some details on the portion of the Moon illuminated by Earthshine.

I was also shooting photos with the good DSLR and lenses. I still haven’t downloaded and reviewed them. We’ll see later if there’s anything there that’s special and worth sharing.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

June 16, 2026 · 23:24

Four-Body Conjunction

From top left to bottom right, Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, Mercury.

It was beautiful! And clear, fortunately. My daughter who lives down in LA had nothing but that coastal low cloud layer to look at.

Mercury got left out of the close-up, but the two-day old crescent Moon was a diamond!

Mercury is always elusive, and it’s nearing the furthest away from the Sun that it ever gets, but it’s been surprisingly easy to see this trip around into the evening sky.

Keep watching, they’ll be playing this dance for a few more days. If you don’t have clouds!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets

June 15, 2026 · 23:33

Less Than 25 Hours

The Moon was New at 19:54 PDT on Sunday. I wasn’t going to go out looking for the barely one-day old Moon tonight, because I ***NEVER*** see the crescent Moon before at least a day and a half to two days after New.

Surprise! At 20:47 tonight, less than 25 hours after New Moon, there it was, a fingernail of light, just barely above the horizon and the neighbor’s roof.

I don’t know that I’ve ever gone back inside, grabbed the camera and tripod, and got back outside and ready to shoot so fast.

Of course, Venus and Jupiter are still up there, separating now that they’re past last week’s conjunction, as Jupiter dives toward it’s passage behind the Sun. (If Jupiter ever goes between us and the Sun, we’re in deep shit.)

And if you click on this picture and blow it up nice and big on your screen and look just a bit above the peak of the roof and just a smidgen to the right, about halfway between Jupiter and the Moon, there’s Mercury.

Three planets, the Moon, and a great sunset! What more could you ask for?

Go look tomorrow night just after sunset – the Moon will be a little more illuminated and up there about halfway between Mercury and Jupiter. IT SHOULD LOOK SPECTACULAR!!!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets