They’ll be more separated tomorrow night, and a bit more the night after, and so on, and the Moon will be a bit more full every night, but they’ll still be beautiful.
If your western sky is clear at sunset later this week, go take a look. You might also check to see if there’s an ISS pass about sunset, we’re in a period when they’re happening almost every day.
Filed under Astronomy, Critters, Photography
Out for a brief, brisk walk (it’s down to about 47ºF at the moment) and I see that Orion is high. The owls are hooting and singing.
Not bad for a handheld picture with an iPhone 13, Los Angeles’ normal light pollution, and a freakishly bright streetlight just off to the right.
Orion is on its side just to the right of center, between the power lines. The really bright star near the top just left of center is Jupiter, and at the very top edge just right of center, that “V” shape pointing to the upper right is Taurus. The bright object in the lower left, just above the bottom wire, is Mars.
The biggest disappointment in this image is how everything looks so WHITE. Mars actually looks quite red, and there is also a lot of color in the stars of Orion and Taurus. Betelgeuse and Aldebaran are red giants and you can see that color with the naked eye.
Go look!
Filed under Astronomy, Critters, Photography
I came out of the office after work today (yes, I’m still working in-office, training new staff, more new staff coming just before Thanksgiving, so this may last through the end of the year) and found the final “supermoon” of the year rising over my well-decorated vehicle.
Filed under ALS Network, Astronomy, KC Chiefs, Photography
There’s been a fair amount of stress due to three large deadlines all coming due in the last week. The good news is that the final two were met today, somehow.
The bad news is that – A) there’s another one in 48 hours, so I get to hit that one hard tomorrow, and B) I’m so exhausted from everything and all of the hours that have gone into this that I can’t really celebrate or feel a lot of satisfaction. Yeah, it’s far better to have hit all three deadlines than to have blown them, but that’s my head talking, not my heart or gut.
Meanwhile, there’s a really bright moon out there and it’s clear and cool.
You can still see Vega over on the right – I’m surprised that the cell phone camera can pick out any stars at all with the bright moon.
And I’m still not back in sync after the switch out of Daylight Saving Time last week.
Filed under Astronomy, Paul, Photography
It’s a lot dimmer than it was a week or ten days ago. No longer naked-eye visible, especially in the light-polluted and hazy suburbs of Los Angeles.
But the iPhone can still see it, these photos being 5.3 second exposures on a tripod mounted iPhone 13. From my front porch, about 19:30, still visible with binoculars, just look to the left of the top of the palm trees and then up a bit. (Again, the big swoopy arcs of light on the far right and left sides are lens flares and reflections from the street light at the left and the bright lights on the neighbor’s house on the right.)
It’s like a little dandilion seed aflutter across the cosmos, although this one has a tail of ice and dust that’s millions of miles long.
It has been a joy to see. If you haven’t seen it yet and your sky is clear tomorrow or Wednesday, give it a shot, it’s not too late!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
Wandering into the kitchen just before 21:00 tonight I looked out of the windows into the back yard and saw the honkin’ huge Moon, orange as a pumpking, rising in the northeast.
It’s a couple of days past full moon, but still really bright, and being so close to the horizon and shining through Los Angeles’ haze and light pollution, it was far, FAR from white.
Further out in the yard the color became more prominent.
I stood out here for a while, the owls hooting in the trees, the orange moon rising, and some occasional fireworks going off in the distance, presumably in celebration of the Dodgers’ win over the Mets that sends them to the World Series against the Yankees next weekend.
If the weekend has to end (and it really SUCKS that it has to!), this (and the Chiefs’ win to put them at 7-0 and the Kings’ win over the Ducks) isn’t a bad way to enjoy it.
Filed under Astronomy, KC Chiefs, Los Angeles, Photography, Sports
After two nights of clouds and fog (and the constant heat waves of the summer are long gone, it’s getting chilly out there at night!), tonight was mostly clear, so it was back to the comet hunt.
I could see it with binoculars from my front porch, but took the cameras down the hill for a good view of the western horizon.
It’s up there, just to the left of that wire, and you can see that it’s dimmer than it was just three days ago.
It’s also gotten much higher. So now it can be full dark (or at least, as dark as an urban site like Los Angeles can be) with the comet still fairly high and away from any clouds or lingering sunlight immediately after sunset.
As for those wide bands of light in this image and the “X-shaped” light beams below? Internal reflections in the iPhone lens from the ton of lights in my neighbor’s yard. Why does he have to have it lit up like that every single night? There’s nothing going on there, no parties or anything in that back yard…
With the haze and light pollution and the one-day-after-full-supermoon rising behind us, it’s tough to get a lot of definition in the tail, but you can see it there. I may have to play with Photoshop to see if I can tease out more details.
All of these pictures were taken with the iPhone 13 on a tripod, which was necessary as the wind was kicking up again.
Not the same picture twice, but close.
I was trying to increase the exposure time on the iPhone to get it to overexpose the neighbors’ houses and landscape instead of underexposing the comet. Marginal results, at best.
I shot a lot of images with the DSLR and the zoom lens, but with it zoomed in I couldn’t tell if I was pointed at the comet or at some empty piece of sky near the comet. 96 pictures and just one of them scored. I need to work on that.
If you have a clear sky this weekend, take your shot and go looking for the comet about an hour after sunset. It will be above the western horizon, to the right and above the very bright planet Venus. It will help a lot if you can get away from city lights and out to someplace with a dark sky. Binoculars will help a LOT. Happy hunting!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets
First, a couple of comet notes:
I was getting the mail the other day when I heard a familiar LOUD buzzing sound. Right in front of me, arm’s length away, attacking the purple flowers that surround the mailbox, was a vibrant, green hummingbird.
I didn’t have much time to get my phone out of my pocket and on to snap a couple of quick photos, but I got something.
I think it was so close to me (and fearless) because it was trying to remind me (in a bitchy, very passive-aggressive way) that the feeders were empty and had been that way for a couple of days. I apologized and promised to get them re-filled (which I did) and it zipped off, message (or threat) delivered.
Filed under Astronomy, Birds, Photography
With the hazy skies we’re having it’s a little tougher to see the comet with the naked eye, but it’s still there once you know where to look.
Finding it with a camera or binoculars however is a piece of cake starting about an hour after sundown.
These first two pictures are from my tripod-mounted iPhone 13.
Bringing out the big guns, the view from my Canon Rebel Xt with the 70mm zoom lens is amazing.
If I went out to a dark sky location the tail would be much more pronounced against a black sky, instead of being washed out by the low-contrast haze and light pollution of the LA metro area. (That red horizontal line is a jet headed toward LAX.)
(Yet another jet just before the comet set.) One thing I worked on tonight was getting the focus done correctly with the big lens, and I think that I did a lot better.
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets
Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, first visible to me above the western horizon at sunset yesterday, was visible again tonight with another night of clear-ish skies. There was a bit of haze (outright fog this morning) which didn’t clear until after noon, with enough hanging around so that I didn’t see the comet tonight until about 15 minutes after I did last night. But it was also higher above the horizon than last night, so it was a fair trade off.
Low-resolution screen capture from the video below. The comet starts to appear out of the twilight & haze on the right-hand side, then I shifted the camera once I could see where the comet actually was.
The little white things zipping by are jet aircraft heading down the coast off of Ventura toward LAX.
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets, Video
 | Jemima Pett on Proof Of Life – May… |
 | Tiffany Tasting Food on Chinese Proverb |
 | Ronnie Willett on Fine Feathered Friends –… |
 | berich56 on Wispy With A Chance Of Straigh… |
| Jemima Pett on War Board Review |
 | momdude on Above Average Sunset & Cre… |
 | Frederic Paulussen on Above Average Sunset & Cre… |
| Jemima Pett on Proof Of Life – Febrary… |
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 