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
Sunset last night.
Clear dawn this morning.
Sunflowers are blooming.
Supermoon on a clear night last night.
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
NE view of the Rio Grande on Wednesday evening. NE view of the Rio Grande this morning.
SE view of the Rio Grande on Wednesday evening. SE view of the Rio Grande this morning.
A beaver up and out at dawn.
Bunning through the fence.
Shots of the Bunny
pTerodactyl at dawn.
Spunk is a Cat Tree hugger.
We got a really violent thunderstorm this afternoon. The wind was strong, driving the rain sideways, and the visibility was low. The weather station recorded the event as producing 0.95 inches of rain. The wind-driven rain got almost everything on the deck wet.
The clouds right after the thunderstorm. Views looking east and west.
The clouds at 7:30 pm. Views looking east and west.
8:11 pm (official sunset). Views looking east and west.
Dawn
Dusk
Dawn
A hard heart in sun-baked clay
Low flow with Sandias in the background. The river normally flows at the top of the bank I’m standing on. The bank is about four feet higher than the water right now.
A rare view looking north from the middle of the Rio Grande. The river is low enough that I walked around the corner in the top left of the above photo. Normally, the only way to get this view would be from a floatation device or to swim out to the middle of the river because the water is normally from bank to bank at this point.
Sunset last night.
Spunk Rock!
Stormclouds building up threatening to rain. I hope it’s more than just a threat.
I irrigated at dawn this morning.
Off Center & Not Even 