Sunrise

I went for a short walk and enjoyed nice views in every direction.

southeast

east

northeast

north

west

south

H a v e  a  g o o d  d a y !

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

September

Hello! Here are a variety of snapshots from the desert, around the garden and of the sky.

I've been noticing new needles sprouting on the tops of some young saguaros. It seems that the new spines start out reddish in color before turning light grey. Most of the saguaros around here are too tall to see their tops.

The barrel cacti are blooming!

Hard to see, but there's a metallic green bee crawling out of the red flower.

The two pictures below look almost monochromatic except for the dove's pinkish legs and feet.

A tiny toad on my patio:

Indian Mallows pop up all around the garden. I planted one from the nursery many years ago and now there are about a dozen. I like their soft velvety leaves.

An Albert's towhee has been visiting the backyard this month, usually hopping around in the shadows, but for a second it posed on a chair in the sunlight.

Jupiter and the Moon 9/20/14  5:56am

Orion, Sirius and Jupiter 9/27/14  4:43am

Clouds over Tucson 9/20/14  7:11am

H a p p y  W e e k e n d !

September Skies

On Monday the sky was cloudy but the rising Harvest moon did make a brief appearance.

9/8/14 7:03 pm

A change of lighting with Photoshop made this image look eerie.

9/8/14 7:06 pm

This "break" in the clouds was happening next to the sunset, crepuscular rays maybe?

9/8/14 sunset

I took my camera with me to the market the next morning in case there was a good moonset photo op, which there wasn't, but I ended up taking a sunrise picture.

9/9/14 sunrise

Wednesday night from my street I was able to glimpse the glowing nearly full moon rising from behind a hill. Those little stick-like things are saguaro cacti.

9/10/14 8:17 pm

See more skies from around the world at Skywatch Friday.

H a v e  a  g r e a t  w e e k e n d !

Skywatch Night and Day

Here are a few sky snapshots from the past two weeks. The nighttime scenes didn't show up in my photos nearly as well as seeing them in person. Maybe I should have used a tripod.

Recently there were two conjunctions about a week apart where the moon and planets appeared close together in the sky.  The first trio had Venus, Jupiter and the crescent moon:

Venus - Jupiter - moon 8/23/14 5:32 am

The next conjunction was Mars, Saturn and the moon. It almost looked like a smiley face in the sky. It's hard to see but there was even a star for the nose named Zubinelgenubi.

Mars - Saturn - moon 8/30/14 8:59 pm

The next night the moon appeared  above Mars and Saturn forming a tighter triangle than the previous evening.

Mars - Saturn - moon  8/31/14 9:03 pm

This is what the Mars, Saturn, moon conjunction looked like from the neighborhood except the moon was more like a crescent instead of a large white dot:

Mars - Saturn - moon  8/31/14 9:03 pm

Here I zoomed in just on the moon:

waxing crescent 8/31/14 7:54 pm

The appearance of the constellation Orion in the eastern predawn sky marks the change of seasons. In the photo below, Orion is at the right and the three stars of his belt point down to Sirius, the dog star of Canis Major, the brightest star of the night sky.

Orion and Sirius 8/24/14 4:42 am

Even though it was getting light out I could still see Orion. Notice the reddish star on the left side of the constellation, that is Betelgeuse standing in for the hunter's right shoulder. If you are up before sunrise this month look southeast for Orion and the dog star, Sirius.

Orion and Sirius 8/24/14 5:23 am

Now for some clouds:

Linking to Skywatch Friday.

H a p p y   S k y w a t c h i n g !

August Skies

Sunrise

Clouds

Moon

Rainbow

rainbow at sunset

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Have a great weekend!

Early Morning Skywatching

View more skies from around the world at Skywatch Friday.

Have a great weekend!