Monday, May 16, 2022

Lunar Eclipse 5/15-16/2022


  There is a school of thought when it comes to eclipses that 'it's solar or nothing', but a lunar eclipse has many advantages.  

  Most importantly, a lunar eclipse is visible everywhere that is the moon is above the horizon, as opposed to a solar eclipse's path of totality that typically has a width of around 100 miles or less. 


  Secondly the totality of a solar eclipse can last only 7.5 minutes for a particular location while a lunar eclipse can be up to 1 hour and 45 minutes in duration. 

  Last night's lunar eclipse lasted nearly an hour and a half which was fortunate for me since clouds blocked the whole moon for the first half hour of totality.  But patience paid off as the clouds parted somewhat and the rest of the show could be leisurely viewed through varying degrees of wispy clouds.
 


Sunday, May 1, 2022

Morning Planets 4/25 and 4/28/2022


    A couple of weeks ago I received a cryptic text from my friend Kevin Welsh, that read

"Lots going on in the sky". Not sure what he was referring to, I sent him a photo of the Sun that I had taken that day with the caption "Lots going on on the Sun today"


   He responded by clarifying that he was referring to the morning planets lined up in the eastern predawn sky. The next clear morning on Monday the 25th. I hopped in the car and drove down the road to get a view of the eastern horizon.

  After receiving constructive criticism from my friend, Tim Bresnahan about the glow of the chemical plant in the foreground, I went out on Thursday the 28th to try again.


 
....and the answer is.