Milky Way from Karpata

 We had a couple of pretty clear starry nights this past week. I took a bunch of photos, and will post some as I process them over the next week or two. 

Here is one taken from where the snack shop at Karpata used to be.

 

Moon, Mars and Venus

Venus and Mars were close together tonight, about the one Moon diameter apart. Mars was pretty impossible to see with the naked eye, but easy in binoculars. Here is a picture of the moon and of Mars and Venus. Both pix are full frame and the same scale. They are pretty dark, but if i make them any brighter, Mars loses its color and the craters on the moon disappear.  Looks like you'll need to view them full size in order to see Mars.

 

Stars are still good.

 

The night sky has been quite nice the last few evenings. We did some Summer Milky Way gazing on Monday. While I was waiting for others to arrive, i snapped off six ten second exposures of the Southern Cross setting behind some of the slave huts. I then combined them with StarryLandscapeStacker.

If it is clear again tonight, I'm planning to try to go deep on the Rho Ophiuchus region and see if i can improve on an image i made a number of years ago.

 

 

More starry nights

 

Here is a shot of the TWR towers from last week. I drew in the basic shapes for Scorpius and Sagittarius. 

There was some haze and cloud action that night.

 

Saturday and Sunday nights were much clearer, so we went further south in order to see the summer Milky Way in all its glory.

 

 

First Starry Night in Months

It is sunny and hot today. It started clearing up late yesterday, and last night was the first night that i could see a lot of stars in quite some time.

I zoomed out to the TWR antenna field to get the Southern Cross behind the towers. I tried a few different things but what worked best was to have the stars a teeny tiny bit out of focus, which made the bright ones easier to see on a small image.

The circles on the image below show, from left to right, Alpha and Beta Centaurus, the Omega cluster, and the Southern Cross.

 

Early Bird Photos

 Here are a couple views from a before-work bike ride this week. The recent very heavy rains triggered some Kibrahacha trees to pop. I hadn't noticed them until i saw a picture on Facebook. I think it was too dark when i was riding my bike North and I must have been suffering from tunnel vision when I passed by on the way home.

 

Wardrobe Malfunction

 It hasn't been very windy this week, which is great for bike riding.  There are still some "puddles" stretching completely across the dirt roads in places, from the heavy rains earlier in the week.  I suffered a wardrobe malfunction as I eeked my way around one of them.

 

Planets on Parade Update

 The morning sky, here on Bonaire, was pretty clear on Wednesday morning.  So i got to see the cool lineup (from lower left to upper right) of Mercury, Jupiter - Moon, and Saturn.

Planets on Parade

 

I saw (from bottom left to top right) Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon this morning on my bike ride. I took a picture with my phone but only Jupiter and the Moon showed up on it. Here on Bonaire, by about 06:15, the sky is getting too bright to see Mercury and Saturn. Jupiter is quite bright. By tomorrow morning, the Moon will be next to Jupiter, with Saturn to their upper right and Mercury to their lower left. The computer simulation below shows what it will look like here on Bonaire. (if it is clear) 

 

In other planet news, I took another picture, Monday evening, of Mars moving between the Hyades and the Pleiades. Mars has almost moved to the spot where it was when i took a picture of them in 2006. If it is clear tonight, I'll take another picture to see if i get a better match.

 

 

Mars on the Move update

 Here's where Mars was Sunday night. It's not quite where it was back in 2006, but its getting closer. I'll shoot it again Monday night if the skies are clear. There were fast moving clouds Sunday evening, but i was able to get a couple shots in.

 

Full Moon Bike Ride

 The Moon was a little less than two hours past full when i set out on my bike at 6am on Saturday morning.  It looked great hanging there in the West, as I pedaled NW to Bopec, here on Bonaire.  The sky brightens very quickly here in the tropics.

I lost sight of the moon when i headed East to Rincon, but there were lots of birds chowing down on Shimarukus to keep me company.

March Mars Madness

 Mars is on the move. During the next week or so, it will drift between the Pleiades star cluster and the "horns of the bull." (what we call the Hyades cluster in Taurus) Mars is bright orange in color, as is Aldebaran, which forms one of the pointy ends of the horns of the bull. Now that they moon is waning, you should be able to spot the Pleiades overhead in the evening sky. The horns of the bull need a slightly darker location.

 Interestingly enough, i noticed that Mars will be in pretty much the same spot in the sky, relative to the Hyades and the Pleiades, as it was back on Feb. 25, 2006 when I snapped a picture of them.

Above, you can see the shot from 2006 as well as a computer simulation of what you will see on March 8. The simulation is how it will look on Bonaire. Other locations will be slightly different, but close enough that you'll be able to identify the Pleiades, Mars and Aldebaran. Now that i look at it again, March 7 might even be closer to what i saw in 2006.

Jan 28 Sunset - Moonrise

 The Moon was full at 3:16 on Thursday afternoon, here on Bonaire. So Thursday evening was perfect for a Sunset/Moonrise excursion. The Sun set at 6:33 and the Moon rose at 6:39. There were some low clouds in the East so we didn't see the Moon rise up off of the horizon, but it was fun to watch none the less. Here are a few pictures. Click on them to see the whole images.

 

 

 

Wednesday Night Uranus update

 The sky is quite clear here on Bonaire tonight (Wed.) and the mud frogs are singing again after last night's rain.

When one is facing to the West, Mars is easy to spot to the upper right of the moon. Uranus is easy to spot (in binoculars) to the left of Mars. I'd say that Uranus is about a third as far away from Mars as the Moon is, more or less. There is a star to the lower right of Mars, that's not Uranus. Uranus has a distinctive pale robin egg blue coloration.

I'm not going to try taking a picture because the moon glare will drown out the planets, especially Uranus. (probably more because I'm feeling lazy)

Moon, Mars, and Uranus on the 20th

 The Moon will be quite near Mars Wednesday night. Makes it easy to find Mars in the sky. Mars will be to the Northeast of the Moon. As a special treat, Uranus will be to the Southeast of Mars. I'd say that the distance between Mars and Uranus will be about 1/5 the distance between Mars and the Moon.

We've seen Uranus with the naked eye in the past, but you'll need binoculars to spot it with the Moon nearby. On Thursday night, the Moon will have moved away, and Uranus will be more or less due South of Mars, at least as seen here on Bonaire.

TWR TX Site

 I drove out to the TWR transmitter site today to do some work on the computers. When i got there i noticed that it was raining in town, which made the towers and TX hall pop nicely. So i grabbed my trusty i-Phone 6s and snapped away. Gotta love always having a camera in one's pocket.

 

Double Rainbow

 We have rain off and on every day, with sun in between.  I guess you could call it rainbow season.  We had a nice double rainbow on the morning of the 19th. Just got around to pulling it off of the camera this evening.

 

Jupiter and Saturn on Tuesday

 Here's what Jupiter and Saturn looked like Tuesday evening, more or less. They were a lot closer together on Monday. You'll probably need to look at this full size to split the planets, located in the conveniently placed notch in the tree.

 

Monday Rainbow

 I kept my telescope set up all week with a barbecue grill cover on it for rain protection. That way i could be good to go as soon as the Sun set each night. Last night had patches of clear sky with periodic rain clouds passing by. As soon as the sun got low enough, i took the covers off of the scope so that it could cool off. But i also ate my supper (veggie burgers) outside so that i could zoom over and cover it if a rain cloud came by. Sure enough, a cloud came along and dumped rain for maybe 10 minutes. In this picture you can see the covered scope in the foreground, and a nice rainbow as the rain approached our back yard. Check out the "grass" too. I'm mowing it every about other week.

 

SAturn and Jupiter Monday

 There were some rain clouds passing through, but we were able to observe Jupiter and Saturn with our naked eye. Saturn is more or less exactly to the right of Jupiter. Tomorrow, it will be to the lower right of Jupiter.