I've finally managed to find - and photograph - Neptune, the outermost planet of the Solar System. It lies above the southern horizon, quite close to Saturn, making it easy to take a longish, high ISO image. Jupiter and Venus are still brilliant objects, but I couldn't find Mercury in the dawn glare: the Moon was spectacular, however, and the lack of haze allowed amazing images of various craters and other features.
I can't resist photographing these delightful insects: today there were two together, one smaller than the other. I find their bird-like eyes so appealing and most 'un-insect-like'! Believe it or not, these are different flower heads: the moths seem to need the correct 'angle of dangle'!
The Jupiter/Venus conjunction was still pretty impressive at 05.00, even through a veil of thin cloud. A bit later an F-35 spent five minutes beating up the skies overhead: it seemed to have flares of some kind on its wingtips
Stuck indoors with Covid and the after effects of my blackout, my opportunities for photography have been somewhat limited! Still: the night sky has been pretty spectacular, with all the planetary action visible from my office window, from where I can also enjoy the daily visits of several gorgeous little Hummers!
During the night I got up to visit the bathroom, fainted and landed face-first on the floor: several deep cuts, bruises and a 'minor' broken nose. Once I'd finished patching myself up, cleaning up the floor etc, I noticed the conjunction through a tiny gap in the clouds: there was just time for these images. I do suffer for my art, don't I?
I thought we'd seen the back of all this! Woke up feeling a bit groggy: when I felt progressively worse during the day I did a test (we always keep 'fresh' ones in the house.) Fingers crossed I'll be negative by Saturday in time for our next gig...
The pre-dawn sky was so clear today that the four Galilean Moons of Jupiter were plainly visible in the viewfinder as I photographed the Venus-Jupiter conjunction.
Last night was the month's full Moon, whimsically named after the traditional start date of the 'run' of Pacific sturgeon.. As the Moon rose it lost the orange tones caused by atmospheric refraction and was a beautiful sight in the eastern sky.
A few hours later, just before dawn, Jupiter and Venus rose, even closer together: several of Jupiter's moons can just be made out in enlarged views...
Sad to hear of the death of Jim Lovell, the engaging and friendly commander of Apollo X111. Veteran of three other space missions, I had the pleasure of meeting Capt. Lovell on three occasions, spending several memorable hours chatting with him about spaceflight, meteorites and the restaurant business!
At the moment - and for the next few days - there's lots to see in the night sky. Tonight (9th) is the so-called 'Sturgeon Moon' - very low in the southern sky. Just before dawn Jupiter and Venus are getting ever closer, while Saturn and Neptune are snuggling up in Pisces!
