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I was hoping to photograph the Eclipse on August 27th, but we’d had rain, and clouds for a couple of days and on Eclipse day it wasn’t looking promising out here. I set up anyway hoping for a pocket or a hole in the clouds.
No luck. Skunked again. We did have a beautiful pink sunset that evening though so, it kind of made up for missing the Eclipse.
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With the all the intense Solar activity in the way of flares, and CME’s there have been Auroras are as low as Northern Nevada! I got an alert telling me the aurora was in my town and the KP rating was 8. Nine is the highest rating so I looked out the back door and I could see it so, I grabbed my camera, tripod, and cellphone, slipped into my shoes without tightening up my laces and dashed out the door. I didn’t grab a jacket, or my headlamp I was so excited. Here’s one of the many images I made.
I’ve wanted to see the northern lights since I first learned about them as a kid. I always thought I’d have to travel way up north in the winter to have the best chance of seeing them.
Why is it pink? What causes the colors? I had to look it up because the Northern Lights (aurora borealis), here have been bright pink with some blues and purples, and very little green.
They are created when energized particles from the sun slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds up to 45 million mph (72 million kph). Our planets magnetic field protects us from the onslaught.
Earth’s magnetic field redirects those particles towards the poles transforming that energy into the dazzling display we call the Northern Lights or in the Southern Hemisphere the Southern Lights (aurora australis).
Most Northern Lights are green but when there’s been intense solar activity the color can be red, pink, blue, or purple.
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January 8th just at dawn I photographed my first celestial event of the year. The Occultation of the crescent moon and Antares the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius.
The tiny dot of light on the Earthshine side of the crescent moon is Antares right before it slipped behind the Moon. Venus the morning star shines brightly above and to the left of the Moon.
I give you three views, one with my star filter on my lens, one with my ultra wide angle lens, and one deeply cropped to show Antares slipping behind the Moon.
20mm view of the Crescent Moon, Venus, and Antares.
Crescent Moon, Antares, Venus dawn January 8, 2024
Venus above and left of the Crescent Moon, Antares a tiny dot of light on the Earthshine side of the Crescent Moon just before it disappeared behind the Moon.
I was in a bit of a rush putting on my star filter so it went on askew so some of the star lines aren’t clean, and worse it’s now stuck. It’s on too tight for me to unscrew it, and I broke my filter wrench some time ago removing a ND (neutral density) filter, and failed to replace it. DOH! I have ordered a new one…and not a plastic one this time. It should arrive today.
We had our first big snow drop that stuck on Sat/Sun. It required shoveling. My neighbor bought a new cordless snow-blower and did our driveway twice! I just shoveled the clean up and the road below our driveway. She’s a jewel! She said it took just 12 minutes to do the driveway. We’ve made a deal. She’ll do the snow-blower and I do the clean up shoveling on 3 driveways and sidewalks. I told her I’d spring for the Hot Cocoa with marshmallows!
We have another big storm coming this weekend which is going to mess up my plans to meet friends, and do some birding at one of our favorite California refuges. It’s going to snow here, and in the mountains I’d need to cross, and it’s got rain on the forecast for there. It’s always a risk in the winter though isn’t it. Looks like I’ll be cancelling my plans.
Hopefully, we can meetup in February.
That’s me all caught up. How’s it going for you? Were any of you up and notice the tiny reddish star right beside the moon Monday morning?
Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm & Nikkor 20mmG| PS CC 25.3.1
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Venus shines bright in the eastern morning sky. The star cluster near the top of the image is the Beehive Cluster. This cluster is in the constellation of Cancer and contains 1000 stars. You can find more information about this cluster and how to see it here.
Venus and the Beehive Cluster over the Pinenut Mountains
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We’ve been having thunderstorms with lightening almost every day lately so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see or photograph this month’s full Moon. The day before the full Moon we had storm clouds rolling in all afternoon, but then it cleared up about an hour before Moonrise so, I thought I’d photograph it in case the following night was too overcast to photograph it.
While waiting for the moon to rise enough to get past the mountains I saw a couple of people in Motorized-gliders flying around the mountain where the moon would rise. I hoped they were going to stay long enough for the moon to rise, and fingers crossed one or both would do a moon fly-by. One did!!
Waxing Gibbous 98.5%
It looks like a big bug doesn’t it? The sun was still up so the moon is really faded/washed out.
The following night there were enough breaks in the clouds that I was able to photograph the Full Moon. This is a two frame composite image.
One frame exposed for the sky and foreground and the other exposed for the Moon. I blended the frames in Photoshop.
Strawberry Moon
June’s full moon gets one of its names from the wild strawberries that begin to ripen during the early summer and be gathered by Native American tribes.
Other names for June’s Full Moon are:
Rose Moon, Hot Moon, and Mead Moon.
Yesterday the wind really picked up tossing two patio chairs across the patio, one cushion was blow across the entire patio, and a planter tipped over. The Zephyr wind wins again!😂 We also had some thunder and a little lightening, but both were several miles away.
Saturday #1 Grandson is coming to visit for a week or two for summer. We have plans to hit the grocery store and library straight-away. We hope the weather improves so we can go to the lake and take him paddling.
That’s all from here. I hope you’re having a good week!
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