12.05- Celestial alignment - Skywatch Friday

The Moon, Venus and Jupiter in alignment

My "Skywatch Friday" photo this week comes from the night of December 1, 2008.

The waxing crescent Moon flew past Venus and Jupiter tonight (in the picture, Venus and Jupiter are seen through the tree... Venus is the second brightest object in the sky, with Jupiter the third)

This is apparently an astronomical rarity.

The steeple in the foreground belongs to the new Bethany Christian Church in the nearby burg of Arapahoe, NC.

The new church replaces one that burned down on June 25 of 2007.

You can see the story of Bethany Church's corporeal destruction and inspiring rebirth at their blog site.

I had a hard time balancing between the very bright moon and the relatively dimmer (but still bright to the naked eye) Venus and Jupiter... Some pictures showed the moon better, more like the crisp crescent it was, but Venus and Jupiter were just too dim in those shots. I picked this picture because the planets show up well, even though the moon as a consequence is overexposed.

It was an awesome sight, particularly out in the country away from the few towns around here.

HAPPY SWF EVERYONE!
I look forward to seeing the other Skywatch pictures from around the world on the other SWF sites listed at:


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10.16- "Skywatch Friday" - Sunrise and Moonrise

Sunrise over the Neuse River

Yesterday I was out boating before dawn... then again out boating after sunset. Two different trips.

The sunrise series above was taken from Captain Keith Bruno's Carolina Skiff as we headed down river to pull Capt. Bruno's gill-nets for fish.

You can meet Capt. Bruno, a really interesting guy, in Part One of my feature essay on Bruno, posted October 14 (scroll down to posting, or click here)... more of the essay is coming soon in Part Two...and maybe even Three.



Later on yesterday, I rowed across the glassy windless waters of river, in the Bauer 10, out to Oriental Marker No. 1, where the "Coriolanus" was drifting around for a Hunter's Moon watching party (see right). There was so little wind that even without an anchor, Coriolanus stayed within 50 yards of the same spot for about two hours.



Before I rowed out, I got the below picture of the moon rising over the river from the end of the Lou-Mac Fishing Pier.

Another dinghy-rower appears in the lower left, going into Whittaker Creek (you can tell it's Capt. Jesse by the bent oars!!)... the familiar Whittaker Point on the left... and a lone sailor trying to find wind on the right side of the picture:

(Click on picture or here for full size)

While I was happy with the picture I got of the Oct. 14th Hunter's Moon, I was disapointed to have missed it coming up over the horizon... Then I learned from University of Texas' "Earth and Sky" that the Hunter's Moon was on the 14th AND the 15th, so I went out yesterday before moonrise and got the following series of the second night of the Hunter's Moon rising:



HAPPY SWF EVERYONE!
I look forward to seeing the other Skywatch pictures from around the world on the other SWF sites listed at:
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