summer planets

jupiter and venus, in the west, after sunset. brilliant. 

june moon

this evening, the moon set in the west shortly after the sun. in my eagerness to photograph it, i went off about an hour too early and was disappointed to find it still very light. but i took a lot of shots anyway and cropped the ones of the moon. this is my best shot of the evening. i think i can see a crater!

orionids

up and out early this morning to see if i could view these meteor showers. although i was a little late, i think, i managed to see five faint ones in the predawn sky. bundled cozily in an adirondack chair in the still morning air, drinking coffee, watching the heavens resplendent with stars - not a bad way to start the day.

shell moon

amazing the colors of the full moon in the evening sky over the ocean. the full buck moon is what the july moon is called in new england, named for the time when the new velvety antlers of deer begin to push through their foreheads. but deer and woods are so far removed from this place tonight. the rising moon i see is the pale pink of the inside of a slipper shell and i am renaming it after that. just for tonight.

venus & jupiter...

...shining in the evening twilight through the trees.
this will happen again in may of 2013, but won't be quite as spectacular as it's been this month.

looking up, looking within

in the evening sky tonight, planet jupiter, the waxing crescent moon, and planet venus. i stayed in all day today, kept quiet, but happened to glance this scene out my window at twilight, and ran to a clearing so i could better see. historically, this is a reflective day for me, an anniversary of a life event that has gotten so much better with time, but never really leaves entirely. i am glad of the fact that this celestial event made a pensive day so spectacular, if only for a little while.

waxing & waning

as a kid a long, long time ago, i remember a fascination with the moon. how did it change shape. why was it not consistently orange or yellow, large or small. and how could it follow us at night on rides home from my grandparents.

the fascination continues still. on full moon nights, i stand in the window, mesmerized, reluctant to give up the luminosity and go to bed. i check the moon phases on calendars and in almanacs. i sometimes watch and wait for moonrise.

but with all this attention to the moon, i still get confused with the terminology. i know that gibbous is the opposite phase of crescent - but when is the moon waning? when is it waxing? this part i just can't seem to keep straight, no matter how hard i try. but recently i found this little rhyme written by blogger susan branch:

when the moon is a sliver...

horns to the east, soon to be increased

horns to the west, soon to rest

so using this saying as a guide, i'm going to start paying more attention to the names of the phases the moon goes through each month. i really want to understand and get it right. now all i have to do is remember which way is east and which way's west. 

missed opportunities of the galactic kind

tonight, the waxing gibbous moon shines directly overhead 

with jupiter bright below it. 

wednesday early, the quadrantid meteor showers in the east.

this month, saturn, venus, mars visible in the night sky...

i really need to get my telescope fixed!

week end

i leave work as color in the western sky fades. opposite, where the sun had risen, now shines venus, brightly splendid in a tangle of black branches and jagged limbs. the air is cold in my nostrils. my fingers grow numb as i take this shot. my heart is light knowing i'll see the little girl tonight. tgif.

score!

exciting news in sports this weekend (yay bruins! go red sox!) but this is my big score - a telescope purchased at a yard sale to benefit a town organization. it was priced high for a used telescope with no manual, and i passed on it at first. but as i meandered around looking at other things, someone announced that every thing was being discounted to 50%. i scuttled back and picked this up for $25. now, i just need to figure out how to use it! my summer project... look out, jupiter - here i come!

obviously NASA's, not mine!

perigee

the moon tonight, the much touted perigee "super moon". perigee in that it's as close in its orbit to earth as it can be, "super" because this happens at its moment of fullness. it was not the spectacle that i had hoped for but then i don't know how it coud have lived up to my expectation after reading so much about it. or maybe i was just in the wrong spot. super or not, it's always good to stand out in the cold after dark, scanning the horizon for the first sign of orange light, then watching in amazement as the moon gradually appears and ascends into the sky before your very eyes. 

through the trees

good morning, moon.

and good night, stars.

a new year's wish on a planet

since i was a little kid, i've wished on first stars, birthday candles, hay trucks, turkey wishbones and all manner of traditional and not-so-traditional objects. and although i know this is jupiter, not the-first-star-i-see-tonight, i instinctively began a wish on it when i spotted it bright and shiny in the sky this new year's evening.

my wish for you this new year is days of wonder and awe, of laughter and joy, and of just enough of what you need to keep life as good as it is. happy new year!

love, chris

moon rise with contrails

tonight with moonrise, there were numerous contrails from one airplane after another flying from the eastern horizon high in the air to almost directly over my head. the moonlight illuminated these condensation trails and made them look so magical and futuristic. it was difficult to capture them in the dark with no tripod, the camera resting on the hood of the car. so this is one time i'm going to suggest that you be content with this smaller picture than click for the larger, less focused one.

full moon november

late last night, i spent far too much time trying to photograph the moonlight from the almost-full moon. it was mesmerizing, the magical way it flooded the yard and the now-stark woods, seemingly turning night into day. as i grew more and more frustrated with my inability to the capture the scene on film, it occurred to me that i was missing out on the moment. so i packed up my camera gear and went to bed, eyes wide open on the pillow, watching as the moonlight spilled through the windows and across the room and finally, into my dream.

shine on, harvest moon

the full september moon, risen just after dusk. the harvest moon, it was called, since its radiance gave farmers extended hours of light to harvest their crops at the end of the growing season. moonlight floods the yard hours later as i type this. i swear i could see from my window anything that happened to be out there.

since it was dark from photography standards, this was a long exposure. and serendipity prevailed as a car happened to pass by while the shutter was open.

maine moon

my final summertime hurrah, visiting a friend who lives on the coast in a northernmost part of new england. this is the view from her porch on this warm august night, with the crescent moon and venus both setting in the evening sky over the reach.

innovation & failure

above: the january full moon is about to rise and i can't find the doohickey that attaches my camera to my tripod. so i fashioned a tripod with what was handy. see my camera at the ready?
below: although last night the full moon was astonishingly huge and clear, tonight it rose in a shroud of cloud. too bad.

night shoot

still trying unsuccessfully to photograph the night sky. clear nights like this one are perfect for star-gazing, but even using the timer tonight did not ensure a good photo. this is orion's belt, part of the constellation orion, which is high in the sky in winter in the north. the belt is an asterism, or a well-known cluster of stars, easily recognized as part of the constellation.

i would dearly love to photograph the big dipper, standing on end these winter months, but it's located in the sky directly above a neighbor's brightly illuminated barn so it's just not dark enough in that direction. light filters into my yard as well, ample enough to capture the frozen photographer and her tripod, shadowed on the january snow, which glitters like the stars above.

evening "star"

on my way home these cold dark nights, venus shines brilliantly in the west. as i drive, i consider our system of planets, the stars beyond, and the galaxies farther still, unfathomable distances from our own huge milky way. i wonder about space travel and light years and try to rationalize the ways such great distances affect time. i imagine the possibilities of other worlds. on nights such a these, i just can't help but wonder what's out there.