Just before 20:00 local time, about fifteen minutes after sunset, there were some high, thin clouds overhead that were tinged pink.
Also up high, just at the right here, was the first quarter, seven-day old moon.
Across the street to the right, the juvenile great horned owl was just starting to squawk. We’ll all be happy when it gets some experience and a couple of good meals under its belt. Well, all of us except for whatever rabbit, rat, gopher, or feral cat ends up being dinner.
Filed under Birds, Photography, Sunsets
Is everyone else’s head spinning? Like, even more than usual, and “usual” has been quite the trip for the last several years?
Taking time to breathe & watch the sunset is important. Good thing we had one of the good sunsets.
Stability is out there somewhere, but I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for it to arrive. Enjoy the ride!
Filed under Photography, Sunsets
Two days ago I had cloudy “skyscape” photos and noted that by sunset they were gone and “we just got a nice gradient effect. Nice, but not spectacular.”
This is what I was talking about.
Lots of color, but very subtle hues. Pastels, not “Holy crap!” reds and oranges painted on dramatic cloud shapes.
Trees and human infrastructure silhouetted against the fading light. It’s a refined taste.
One of the things our Forever Home will have will be a nice, comfy bench or swing facing west so, gradient or clouds or anything in between, I can go out and chill and relax and breathe and watch the sunset.
Filed under Forever Home, Sunsets
It’s been a while since we’ve had a really pretty sunset.
For weeks now it’s been “clear and a million.” Sometimes we’ve had some smoke in the air to give things an orange hue, but for the most part it’s been unspectacular.
Today we have some moisture and humidity coming in, so there are clouds and some variation to the sky.
It was very nice. If only we could get some rain out of these clouds, or better yet, rain and a thunderstorm.
Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Weather
There was another Falcon 9 Starlink launch out of Florida right around sunset here, which meant I was out looking at the sky about 80 minutes later. (Just shy of the end of the first 90-minute orbit.)
Nada!
Which is not to say that there wasn’t anything pleasant or wonderful to see, I just didn’t spot any second stages passing overhead venting fuel.
There was a very pleasant and beautiful, if somewhat subdued, sunset to watch. None of the flaming golds and oranges and reds that we can occasionally get, and not a cloud in the sky to give it “texture.”
But the Moon is just barely two days past new, so it’s just a silver sliver popping into view and hanging there once it started to get dark.
If your skies are clear, go take a look tomorrow night. It will be just as stunning then. And the night after. And on, and on, and on…
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space, Sunsets
My head is either too full or too empty tonight. Or both. Simultaneously.
It’s odd, and not necessarily comfortable. “Comfortable” might be overrated.
Or not.
Blow this one up. Just look at it. I barely remember taking it, but I’m finding that I really, REALLY like it.
The gradient. The silhouttes. The composition.
Blind squirrel. Broken clock. Paul’s photography.
Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Travel
Look at this gorgeous sunset from San Antonio tonight!
It’s not quite “clear and a million,” but it would do for tomorrow.
Totality in Kerrville starts at 13:32 CDT. There’s mow a 77% chance of “clouds” then, but that could mean something like this (which would be FINE) to heavy, thick, low rain clouds (which would NOT be).
It will be what it will be. But if any of the gods are listening and could deign to cut us some slack, we’ll take it.
“Some days it’s better to be lucky than good!” I’ve been good – now I’ll graciously accept some good luck.
Clear skies, eclipse buckaroos!!
And the sprint is on!
Okay, it started days ago, but we’re now less than seven days out from the eclipse and las than thirty-six hours from when I’m supposed to hit the road, so I guess it’s more accurate to say, “The panic is on!”
Which is not to say that a few minutes couldn’t be spared to watch tonight’s sunset launch out of Vandenberg of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Look closely and you can see a bright dot that’s Jupiter, just to the left of the palm tree tops. This exhaust plume was drifting in the high altitude, sunset skies as I was waiting to hear the sonic boom about nine minutes after launch, a couple minutes after the second stage had disappeared over the southern horizon. That sonic boom was very noticeable – not like it was going to shatter windows, but it was a pretty good “thump.”
You might be able to hear it just a few seconds before the end of this video, just before I said, “There it is!”
Filed under Photography, Space, Sunsets
When I went out to get the Sunday morning groceries and pick up breakfast it was clear as a bell. I didn’t even take a picture (imagine that!) because it was just…blue. Lots and lots of blue.
15:54 – I was squirreled away in my office for several hours after that until all of a sudden the cable signal on all channel got interrupted with one of those emergency weather alerts for a dangerous thunderstorm with potential hail, wind, lightning, and local flooding. It was off in the San Gabriel Valley, sixty miles to our east, but a quick check of the radar showed that the one sparking the alert was just the worst of four or five thunderstorm cells drifting about, and one of them was close to us.
16:59 – One of the cells was very close to Dodger Stadium and Downtown LA, with the Angels playing the Dodgers in the first of the Freeway Series spring training games. Here I could hear occasional thunder and there were a couple of quick, moderate showers, but no real rain – yet.
17:37 – Now it’s raining, and raining pretty good. More thunder, but out in the front yard, looking west, there’s the sun shining through the broken edge of the the thunderstorm cell. It’s quite the spectacle with the heavy rain being backlit by the bright Sun. I ran out to the back yard to see if we might get a spectacular rainbow, but we struck out on that. A couple of miles away there were reports of medium-sized hail and heavier showers, but we just got grazed by the edge of the cell.
19:11 – We get more alerts about “our” thunderstorm cell being a danger to mariners out over Santa Monica Bay to our south where it’s drifted, but off to the north we’ve just got a lot of broken clouds and a highly unstable atmosphere. This however is great for getting a spectacular sunset. With more rain directly west of us, the normal view we have of the pink and golden clouds behind the grove of silhouetted palm trees is grey and gloomy and dark, but looking to the side from the back yard it’s bright and colorful.
19:14 – Behind us to the east, peeking in and out of all of the broken clouds and scattered thunderstorm cells, the 99.9% full moon is rising. Fourteen days to the eclipse. Ready or not…
Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Weather
When a rocket launches it leaves behind it a trail of exhaust. From the rocket itself there’s a V-shaped plume of exhaust that grows bigger and wider as the rocket ascends and the air pressure drops. This can sometimes be tough to see during daylight unless you’re close to the launch site. At night it’s much easier to see the rocket and V-shaped plume since the rocket is so bright, but you often can’t see the long plume behind it because there’s nothing illuminating it.
But there’s a sweet spot, for a little while after sunset (or before sunrise, but getting up that early? who needs that sort of negativity in their lives?!) when it’s dark enough overhead to see the rocket, but the Sun’s still shining over the horizon to illuminate the plume…
I didn’t figure it would matter at all. We again had several pop-up thunderstorms that weren’t in the forecast at all (what IS up with that?) and late this afternoon we were getting light showers and we weren’t watching anything in the sky except the bottoms of some thick, black clouds.
But I checked again just before the SpaceX launch, and it was surprisingly clear. I kicked the “LIVE!” button in Facebook.
It was AMAZING!!
The plume had gone from horizon to (almost) horizon (there’s a tree there to the southeast) and the lighting and timing were perfect.
In the video you can see the first stage come up from behind the mountains (0:56), shut down and separate from the upper stage (1:42), the second stage light (1:49), the first stage falling behind with occasional white flashes from the cold nitrogen gas thrusters it uses for maneurvering (2:37 & 2:39), and the two fairing halves separating and falling away (2:46). If you listen carefully (or are using headphones) you can hear neighbors from a couple of spots through the neighborhood hooting & hollering.
Even fifteen minutes after the launch, the plume was still illuminated as the upper level winds twisted and dissapated the exahust, still lit from the Sun far over the western horizon.
Online on social media you’ll see videos and pictures from all up and down the California coast, from Pismo Beach to San Diego, down into Baja, and inland in as far as Palm Springs, Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas. There’s even one picture from a guy somewhere over the Rockies at 34,000 feet, hundreds and hundreds of miles away.
It was quite the show!
Filed under Photography, Space, Sunsets, Video
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 