Rare Aurora Borealis Seen in CA

Lake Siskiyou & Mt. Shasta in Background, Siskiyou County, CA, 2004-05-11.

Autumnal Sky - 20 October 2014

Autumn mornings before sunrise the splendor of the heavens can be seen very clearly. Below is a picture I took this morning of the moon and Jupiter together.

iPhone 5s camera
20 October 2014
0553 hours facing east before sunrise
"Eastward was my glance directed,
Watching for the sun's first rays;
In the south—oh, sight of wonder!
Rose the bright orb's sudden blaze.
Thither was my eye attracted;
Vanished bay and mountain height,
Earth and heaven unseen and all things,
All but that enchanted light." - Goethe, "Faust"

A Cosmic Bat Unveiled!

The Veil Nebula, a large supernova remnant, is in the constellation Cygnus.
Its estimated distance from our plant Earth is about 1,400 light-years.

First Day of Summer, 2013

June 21, 2013
1700 Hours PDT Log
Current Temperature and Condition:
91° F | 33° C
Clear

Astronomy:

June 21, 2013          Rise:        Set:
Actual Time            5:42 AM PDT  8:29 PM PDT
Civil Twilight         5:11 AM PDT  9:00 PM PDT
Nautical Twilight      4:32 AM PDT  9:39 PM PDT
Astronomical Twilight  3:47 AM PDT 10:23 PM PDT
Moon                   6:46 PM PDT  4:01 AM PDT

Length of Visible Light 15h 48m
Length of Day 14h 46m
Tomorrow will be 0m 3s shorter.

Waxing Gibbous, 97% of the Moon is Illuminated.

Moon Flying Towards Jupiter Tonight

Photo: Planet Jupiter, lower left corner;
the moon with its two plumes of cloud near upper right

Canon PowerShot SD780 IS
Date and Time - 2012:11:27 20:57:05 PST
Shutter Speed - 1/8 seconds
Aperture - F 5.78
Direction - Eastern Sky
The planet Jupiter (lower left corner of this picture)is nearing its opposition to the sun. It will happen on 2-3 December. As a matter of course (pun), we have our November full moon tonight, 27 November. Keep your eyes peeled between tonight through 3 December. You can see Jupiter, by jove, in the eastern sky and will not mistaken it as a bright star.

Blue Moon, You Know What I Am Here For

The Last Blue Moon* of 2012 Until 2015
Date and Time of Picture: 31 August 2012; 20:38:38 PDT
... to take your picture as an object of affection for the Rodgers & Hart ballad.

*A rare two full moons in a month.

Planet Venus Does a Solar Transit Today

I had fun watching and doing some simple photography of the venus transit. Using just an inexpensive pair of binoculars, a tripod, a piece of paper, and my Canon compact digital camera with no filters, I took pictures of this rare and extraordinary celestial event. - The next time the planet Venus does it thing again crossing the sun it will be in another 105 years in 2117.

The set up: A binocular taped on tripod. The white circle on the sheet of paper was a tranferred image of the sun. The planet Venus should appear as a dot moving across the white circle (sun) beginning at 1506 hours Pacific Time.

2012-06-05 1612 hours. The planet Venus was seen as a smudge (lower left) on the sun.

2012-06-05 1709 hours. The planet Venus was now moving almost half-way across the sun.

20 May 2012 - Annular Solar Eclipse

Hyatt Regency Tamaya
Bernalillo, New Mexico

Partial solar eclipse began: 6:28 p.m. MDT
Annular solar eclipse began: 7:33:36 p.m.
Annular solar eclipse ended: 7:38:00 p.m.



- a L'envoi iPad 3 post

Until the Stars Sighed Out

10 November 2011, 1943 Hours PST; Eastern Sky
Full moon (lower left); Jupiter (upper right)
Canon PowerShot SD780 IS

"And leave the moon-path free for all my thoughts
To wander peacefully
Away and still away
Until the stars sighed out in dawn's great pallor,
Just as the lands of my desire appeared.
What memories ... have I of it!"
    - Cale Young Rice (1921)

Harvest Moon Autumn Equinox 2010

Harvest Moon and Jupiter
Autumn Equinox
22 September 2010, 2134 Hours PDT.

The Heart of the Scorpion

Another clear night. Another opportunity to marvel at God's creation on this June night. His celestial diamonds shimmering against the black velvet night.

Brightly visble tonight are: the moon, binary Spica, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Antares. The latter is the brightest star of Scorpion Constellation; the heart of the Scorpion. Tonight, it is very near the moon, perspective wise.

The Crescent Moon, Venus, and Saturn, Oh, My!

It's one of the rare and clear evenings of summer. There they are, as of this post on this 17 June, the crescent moon, the bright Venus, and Saturn, all lit up in a row at twilight on the western sky.


The LORD'S Glory and Man's Dignity.
Psalm 8, New American Standard Bible

O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!

From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?

Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!

You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,

All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,

The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!