Skywatch Friday: The Moon, Jupiter & Saturn

This alignment of Jupiter (the biggest twinkle), Saturn (the smaller twinkle) and the moon (low in the center) happened in August of 2020. It was taken by my iPhone from my bedroom window and through the screen looking west. I'm still very proud of this one-off shot.

Click the Skywatch link below for more great photos:

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A Waning Gibbous Moon

I took this photograph at 8 AM on July 31, 2010. The full moon had been on July 26. The July full moon is the Full Buck Moon because "Bucks begin to grow new antlers at this time. This full Moon was also known as the Thunder Moon, because thunderstorms are so frequent during this month." (Source: http://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-names) I really like how this photograph turned out. The details of the surface are pretty clear.

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Our Smoky Dawn — The Canadian Forest Fires

The sun rose in a smoky, yellow sky.

I woke up at 4:30 AM this morning because of a strong smell of smoke and kerosene. I tried to wake up my new husband by saying, "Smoke! Honey, there is a fire somewhere!" But there was no response. So I got up and checked everywhere inside the house, including the furnace and wood stove. I went outside in the cold dawn and checked the forest, the wood pile, I checked everything. The kerosene smell came and went. But the wood fire smell, as if an entire campground started their fires in order to cook breakfast all at once, continued and at times intensified. Finally at 5:45 AM, John got up and reminded me of the forest fires in Quebec. "Ohhhh," I said. "Thank goodness." That was an unfortunate choice of words, because many people in Quebec are suffering and working hard to stop the fires. But I was relieved to have confirmed that there was no fire here. In Portland, Maine the fire department is getting an unprecedented number of calls because of people fearing a fire nearby.

Conditions in Montreal are much worse than here.

Here is a map I made from the resources at https://nofc1.cfsnet.nfis.org/mapserver/cwfis/index.phtml. The red states are New England. The yellow star is where we live in Vermont.

The moon this morning in the western, hazy sky.
Waning gibbous moon, 88% of full

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Tripod Interruption

In reverse chronological order:
above: Canon XSi manual settings, f10, 1/400 sec

I finally got a very good tripod for the Canon! It was well worth the cost. Especially considering that I broke the Kodak tripod with the Canon because the camera was too heavy for it. So one expensive tripod makes up for many cheap Kodak tripods.

I have no idea what setting the above photo is on but I like the effect.

I haven't completed blogging about New Haven or Vermont but I have to interrupt the flow: I have been obsessed with getting good moon photos again. As good as I got with the Kodak. I can't do that well with the Canon because the Kodak had optical zoom. I need a long lens for the Canon to get close. I need at least 400mm and hopefully can get 800mm lens soon. But you can see that as I practiced and read, I got better and better. However, you will experience it as worse and worse because blogs go backward through time.

Two nights ago: shutter priority

A week ago: I don't know the settings on this either.

I'm glad I got these shots in because the skies will probably be cloudy every night this week. Have a great week!

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STS-119 Shuttle Discovery With Moon (200903110001HQ)

STS-119 Shuttle Discovery With Moon (200903110001HQ), originally uploaded by nasa hq photo.

NASA is now on Flickr. Go now and add them as one of your contacts.

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