Venus and Jupiter, Jan 22, 23, 24

For all you early birds out there.  If one looks to the Southeast while it is still somewhat dark-ish in the morning... 

On Tuesday morning, Jan 22, Venus is going to be slightly above and to the left of Jupiter. 

On Wednesday morning, Venus will be directly to the left of Jupiter (as seen from Bonaire.) 

On Thursday morning, Venus will be slightly to the lower left of Jupiter.

Both planets are quite bright and will definitely look more spectacular in person that they do in photos. I'm hoping for clear skies.

Moonrise

I was hoping to get the full moon rising over Seru Largu on Sunday evening. But the moon was a bit too far to the East, as opposed to Northeast. There were huge bushes blocking my line of site in the location that I should have been shooting from. 

Here is a two second long time lapse of the moon rise. I shot six pictures per minute for ten minutes. While I was shooting these images to the East, the sun set in the West with a slight green flash.

Christmas Eve Rainbow

The intense rainy season seems to have ended, but we're still getting showers most every day.

Here is a Christmas Eve. rainbow I spotted at the office.

Bike Ride Bust

I slashed by rear bike tire the other morning, while riding through a rock filled gully out in the middle of nowhere.

 I walked out to the Lagoon Road and shot this picture while I was waiting for Jonas Fischer to pick me up. Thanks Jonas!

It was a beautiful morning and I was glad to be outside to enjoy it, even if I wasn't on my bike as planned.

Bonaire Transmitter Pictures

Here are some pictures of the "new" Shine 800AM transmitter, here on Bonaire.

Wednesday AM Moon and Planets

The Moon is located between Venus and Jupiter this morning.

Scorpius is to the right. 

It was a beautiful sight here on Bonaire at 6am.

Comet Wirtanen II

Sandra and I observed Comet Wirtanen last night from our back yard in Hato. There was a about a 15 minute period of clear dark skies after sunset and before the moon rise. The comet was very close to the bright star Capella. As seen from Bonaire, the comet was a teeny bit to the lower right of Capella last night. When I had Capella centered in my 10x50 binoculars, the comet was half way to the edge of the field of view. 

Capella is super helpful in knowing where to look for the comet right now. The comet should be a bit to the lower left of Capella tonight. It looks like a pretty large dim fuzzy spot in the sky. If the sky is dark and clear enough that you can see M38, M36 and M37, also located in the constellation Auriga you'll be able to spot Comet Wirtanen. The surface brightness of the comet was more like that of M38 than the slightly brighter M36, and it covers a much larger area than these Messier objects.

Here is a screen shot from the free software, Stellarium. The red X shows where the comet will be tonight. The red dot shows where it was last night.

Sun set Moon rise

The Sun set at 6:14 and the Moon rose at 6:24, Saturday evening.

I was hoping for some cool sunset/moonrise action, but there were clouds along both horizons.

Here is the sun about to drop behind the clouds.

Morning Planets

Venus is up quite high in the East in the morning now. Jupiter and Mercury are low in the East, where Venus used to be, not too long ago.

In this picture Mercury is on the left and will be getting lower and lower each morning, relative to Jupiter.

Mars and Neptune

We saw Neptune and Mars in my 10x50 binoculars on Wednesday evening and checked out where Mars would move to on Thursday and Friday evenings.  Thursday got cloudy, but Friday was clear, whoo whoo!

It was clear last night so we observed Mars and Neptune in my telescope. Neptune had a pale robin egg blue tint, compared to the stars. Here's a photo. Mars is at the middle left. Neptune is at the lower right. A star, 81 Aquarius, is near the top.

Spot the planet Neptune this week.

There is a golden opportunity to see Neptune on Thursday or Friday evening.


Mars is zooming East, relative to the stars, at the moment.


As seen from Bonaire, Mars is a tiny bit west of Neptune on the evening of Dec. 6 and moves to a tiny bit east of Neptune on Dec. 7.


My experience has been that Neptune is visible in binoculars, (at least in my 10x50s) if you know where to look.


So having Mars point the way to Neptune is really cool. The two planets are close enough on these nights that I should be able to see them both at one time in a telescope. If it is clear here on Bonaire, I'll be sure to check it out.

Comet Wirtanen

Comet Wirtanen is visible (with binoculars) in the evening sky. It will be passing through some well known winter constellations this month and may brighten quite a bit. Moonlight will be an issue at that time however.

The skies are dark right now, and it instantly popped into view when I swung my binoculars to the Eridanus/Cetis border. It looked like a big pale fuzz in my 10x50 binoculars. Because it passing close by and appears large, the light is spread out a bit and it doesn't necessarily look as bright at the numbers might lead one to believe. 

There is a great finder chart here: https://s22380.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Comet_46P_Dec18-Jan19_BW.pdf 

I was out by Lagoon last night and could see pretty much all the stars on this chart. The green blob in my picture is comet Wirtanen. It has a small tail, but you can't see it in this picture, and I couldn't see it in my binoculars either.

Moon, Venus and Spica Part 2

The Moon, Venus and Spica made a nice diagonal line in the morning sky today. (from lower left to upper right) 

One can use the Moon to try to spot Venus, even after the Sun is up.

Moon Venus Spica Monday AM

The Moon, Venus and Spica made an equilateral triangle early Monday morning. Venus is bottom right and Spica is top right. If it is still dark our when you read this, take a look to the East.

If you are further to the west than Bonaire, the Moon will gradually become lower in the sky compared to Venus and Spica. So the shape of the triangle will change. 

On Tuesday morning, they will make a straight line with the Moon on the bottom left, then Venus and then Spica at the top right.

Alimento Para el Alma

Every year our Spanish speaking TWR partners get together and produce a daily devotional book titled: Alimento Para El Alma. For 2018, we also produced a Papiamentu language version of the book for the ABC islands. We still have a few left, by the way.

The 2019 edition of APA is now available. We won't be doing a Papiamentu version for 2019, but Bonaire is still represented. The front cover features one of my Bonaire flamingo photos and the back cover tells about the new 800AM transmitter here on Bonaire. You can learn about APA and even order a copy at: www.twr.org/alimento. In the USA, they cost $7.50.

Audio and print versions of the Spanish APA devotionals are also available each day online at https://www.twr360.org/ministry/13/alimento-para-el-alma/lang,2  (the Papiamentu version is also available at twr360.org)

If you don't speak Spanish, you can still enjoy the book. You can download each day's devotional and then translate it online. Here is how my favorite translator, www.deepl.com/translate

 renders the back cover of the book.

"From Bonaire Netherlands Antilles, the island of the flamingos, broadcasts Trans World Radio."
That's how RTM transmissions started in Bonaire.  Since the 1960s and from this Caribbean island, the message of Faith and Hope has been transmitted continuously.  We dedicate the presentation of this 17th edition of Alimento Para El Alma to celebrate the new power of this station that will now reach thousands of kilometers to the countries of the Caribbean and the continent of Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond.  Millions of people are being reached daily with Bible messages.
One of the attractions of Bonaire are the flamingos so beautiful in their color and majestic in their bearing.  They extract their food from the water contained in some parts of the island.  In the water is life.  Also the high salinity water in that region allows the message to spread further.  "The water of Life is Jesus and whoever drinks it will no longer have spiritual thirst.   The human soul feeds on the water of life that is born in the heart of Jesus for salvation.

That is RTM mission and from the book you now hold in your hands.  Thank you for preferring to use it this year.

 

Milky Way over Bonaire

The moon is waning and I'm hoping for some clear skies so we can enjoy the bright winter stars. This morning was clear and Venus was really bright in the East.

Back in September I made this image of the summer Milky Way setting over Kralendijk. You can also see the four TWR towers on the horizon. You'll probably need to look at this full size to see all the stars.

Then and Now

 Here is a photo of the first TWR Bonaire office, back in the early 1960s.  When the current Hato offices and studios were finished in the late 60's, the original office and studio buildings were converted into housing.

Below is a photo of what it looks like today, complete with freshly mowed "lawn."

By the way, there is still a nice old style VW Beetle running around here on Bonaire.

October "showers" bring November weeds.

It continues to be pretty rainy here on Bonaire. But the last couple days have been dry enough to do some grass cutting.


Kevin Baker and i mowed at the TWR houses in Playa Pariba, Jonas and I mowed in Hato, and here are a couple shots of Lionel mowing in our satellite antenna paddock.


I had thought about washing the car on Saturday, but was glad i hadn't when Saturday night found me again driving on wet roads. What i did do was wash the headlight lenses, so that i could see where i was going at night.

Heavy Rains = Clean Air

The rains yesterday seemed to have washed all the dust out of the skies. There was a super awesome green flash (like 10 on a scale of 1-10) yesterday evening.

This photo was taken shortly before the green flash while I was on my way to try to get a picture of Scorpius, Jupiter and Mercury hanging over the Slave Huts. 

When I got to White Slave, the mosquitoes were scary fierce (like 11 on a scale of 1-10) and I got out of there as fast as I could.

I did get Scorpius, Jupiter and Mercury from the downtown waterfront. Jupiter was down really near the horizon by the time I got there.  You'll need to look at the photos full size to see the planets and stars.

Rainy Rainy Day

We have rain!  Kind of reminded me of the movie, Twister, where a Cow comes sailing across the road and they say, "we have debris!"

Some weather came through a bit after noon, with heavy rain, lightning, and a reported water spout to the west. The streets downtown are completely flooded. I couldn't even see the speed bumps on Kaya P. Silie. Had to downshift to second as I plowed through the water that flooded the length of the street. This picture is by the yacht harbor, where the water from the stink pond sometimes comes across.

The radar map is from the Curacao weather center, www.meteo.cw