There was an alignment of the moon, Mars, and the Pleiades this morning, but the thin cloud cover almost blocked out Mars and the Pleiades in the shots where the moon has details. Click on the photos to see more details.
Dawn
Jupiter with four moons and deep space
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
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.
Sunset last night.
Clear dawn this morning.
Sunflowers are blooming.
Supermoon on a clear night last night.
The full August Sturgeon Supermoon rose through the clouds again last night.
Jupiter and moons
Jupiter in the pre-dawn clouds
Dragon wakes with a flaming yawn
Burning the heavens, scorching stars
Its fire lights the pre-dawn sky
Jet pierces the fiery phalanx
The last supermoon moon of summer covered in clouds like lavender lace.
A huge wasp buzzing around near the ground.
Nighthawks
Dawn
A teenage toad frowning with a frog face.
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.
Sunrise
These flowers are in the flower bed where the rattlesnake was hanging out.
This might be the same Goldfinch that was sitting on Tristan’s thumb.
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
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.
Off Center & Not Even 