Cracked Sky

The moon and Jupiter in a cracked sky

Amy Rose at Heaven On Earth commented: “So it seems you are becoming one who is hooked on astronomy.” I answered: “I’m always photographing the sky these days. That’s one of the most interesting things in my limited travels…” Since we moved out of downtown that was a longer commute and there were always photo opportunities, and since we presented papers at conferences remotely because of covid restrictions, almost all of my photography is from our property, the bosque, and the river. That includes a lot of sky photos day and night. Fortunately, we have interesting skies that are rarely the same, and the moon, planets, and stars are always changing positions and providing interesting challenges.

Dawn

The moon and Jupiter with close together this morning.

Prickly Pear

Oxymorons: Spunk being sweet. The pTerodactyl stared me down on the levee.

The Rio Grande reflecting once again

Storm over the Sandias

More Moon Madness

A clear dawn

The Rio Grande and Sandias at sunset last night.

The Rio Grande reflecting

Odd flower out. Echinacea in Brown-Eyed Susans

The moon on the left was taken with my iPhone through a telescope* at 11:00 pm last night. The moon on the right was taken with the Bazooka at 6:00 am this morning. Click on the photos to see the details.

An attempt to get Jupiter and its moons through a telescope with the iPhone*. It came out nicely abstract.

On the left are Jupiter and its moons taken at 11:30 pm last night. On the right are Jupiter and its moons taken at 6:00 am this morning. Both photos were taken with the Bazooka.

Jupiter taken with the Bazooka at 11:30 pm last night. You can almost see the patterns in Jupiter’s clouds.

Jupiter and the moon at 6:00 am this morning.

Saturn is at its peak opposition to the sun tonight. However, a storm rolled in, and the sky is overcast, so I am going to have to strike photographing Saturn tonight.

*I held my iPhone lenses to the eyepiece on the telescope. It’s difficult to align the correct lens and get a really good photo with three lenses on the iPhone. The moon came out pretty well. Jupiter was another matter.

Tourist

Pre-dawn

Dawn

Misty, a Mississippi Kite, is staying in Corrales for the summer.

We interrupt this post for a news flash. Søren has Tail Feathers! Yes! You heard it here first. Søren has tail feathers. For those of you who don’t know, Søren is our neurotic African Grey Parrot. Tristan and David got him around 2007. When Tristan and David divorced in 2014, Søren went crazy and pulled out all his feathers. We took Søren so he could live with a couple. He let all his feathers grow back, but he had been pulling out his tail feathers until a few weeks ago. Why he stopped pulling them out all of a sudden I can’t say, but he has figured out that he might be able to fly having all his feathers grown out. He finally looks like a whole African Grey Parrot.

Søren with his red tail feathers

The moon finally broke through the clouds for a bit last night.

Frog Art

Dawn’s pinks and purples
Wait for Sun to show its face
Daybreak colors pale

What happened to eggs
Ditch is dry brutal drought’s woes
We will never know

From flatulent frogs
Bubbles rise ripple water
Laughing in the lake

Bullfrog watches me
From a puddle drying up
Ditch has done gone dry

It is so like men
Breaking wind water bubbles
pulled a frog’s finger

Trees form a green crown
Against the sunset’s orange grays
Another day gone

Green Eggs No Ham

Dawn

What looked like moss in the shallow water running at the bottom of the irrigation ditch turned out to look like tiny eggs, but I have no idea what laid them if they are eggs. It looks like thousands upon thousands of eggs and it’s hard to imagine what could lay so many eggs.

A closer view of what looks like eggs on the bottom of the ditch.

Sliver moon through the slats in the miniblinds

The clouds cleared after sunset and we were able to see the sliver moon through the window in Beaker’s and Søren’s room.

The moon through the window.

The Rio Grande was still running higher this afternoon from the rains up north.