I Saw the Nova, Whoo Whoo

The Bonaire sky was super clear last night, so when I happened to awaken at 05:30 this morning, I went outside to look for "Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2."

It was super clear this morning too.  I could just see the nova with my naked eye.  Nova hunter John Seach discovered it on March 15, and it is still brightening.

Here are two pictures from my back yard this morning.  I've highlighted the Teapot asterism in Sagittarius in this shot and also drawn an arrow pointing to the nova.

The second picture is a 30 second exposure that shows some more of the Milky Way and background stars in the area.  One can also see a couple open clusters, globular clusters, the Lagoon Nebula, etc. in the second photo.  Can you still see the teapot?  Alternating between the larger versions of the two pictures will help.

Moon and Mars

The super skinny Moon was right next to Mars tonight.  Mars is just to the upper right of the Moon.  As you can see, earth-shine was lighting up the whole moon quite nicely, even though the crescent was only one day past new.

The Moon will be near Venus Sunday night.  Venus is visible towards the upper right corner of the image.

Spring has Sprung

Happy Spring everybody.  When Bill Early sent us the English news headlines today, he mentioned that is is snowing in eastern Pennsylvania today.  But Spring really does start at 6:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

Tomorrow, Saturday, will find a super slender crescent Moon slightly to the left of Mars.  You might need binoculars for this one.

And Sunday night, the moon will be to the left of Venus.  That pairing should be easy to spot.

Oh Noooo... another Planetary Pairing

Yup, Uranus, which not too long ago, was right next to Venus, in the evening sky, has dropped down in the sky and is right next to Mars tonight.
In the first shot, which is cropped to the actual pixels, you can see the light blue color of Uranus and the red color of Mars.  You might also be able to just tell that you are seeing a planetary disk, as opposed to a star, especially if you click on these images to look at the larger versions of the images.

Below is the same shot, but not cropped as much.  Take note of the location of the planets relative to the palm tree in the bottom right corner of the frame.  You'll need this information to find Uranus and Mars in the final shot.

Here is a wide angle shot showing Venus, as well as Uranus and Mars.  I'm not going to label the planets this time.  Look just to the left of the top of the lower palm tree to find Mars and Uranus.

A Couple of Kibrahachas

We had quite a bit of rain last week here on Bonaire. A lot of the Brazilwood trees are blooming and I even spotted a few Kibrahacha trees with flowers on my bike ride this afternoon.

Volunteers are Here

We had a full house at the TWR - Bonaire morning devotions today.  There are eight visitors helping us with a couple projects this week.

Planetary Pairing

Venus and Uranus are quite close together tonight.  It was hard to see Uranus, because of the full moon and because Venus is so bright.  I could see it in my 10x50 binoculars, but it helped to know right where to look.  Higher magnification would darken the sky and would have helped tonight.
Venus has been moving up each evening, relative to Uranus and the stars.

Venus approaches Uranus

We got to observe Mars, Venus and Uranus in between some large clouds this evening.  Venus appears to be zooming upwards, compared to Uranus and the various stars in the area.  See if you can recognize any of the star patterns, once you realize that Venus has moved up compared to the picture from last night.

More Planetary Action

Mars has moved below Venus in the evening sky.  And Uranus is closing in on Venus from the top.

Mars and Venus are pretty easy to see here on Bonaire, around 7:30 or so, but one needs binoculars to spot Uranus.

Tomorrow night Uranus will be much closer to Venus than it was tonight, and the word is that

Uranus will actually be a teeny tiny bit below Venus on Wednesday.

Here is where the planets were tonight. When i zoom in on my computer, i can see the aqua blueish tint of Uranus.  It might or might not show up here.