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.

Moon, Planets and Stars

Here is a shot of Venus, Mars and the Moon, from later in the evening.  You can see a number of stars now.  And the lights from the traffic circle are lighting up the foreground trees nicely.

Moon and Planets

Venus, Mars and the Moon  were awesome this evening.  The further west you are, compared to Bonaire, the closer the Moon will be to the two planets.

Star Trails Creation

Here is a short video clip that show my recent star trails picture being built frame by frame.
Actually this is an un-cropped version of the images.
You can follow the link to YouTube to see it full screen in HD.

twr360 Update

"twr360" is TWR's online media portal.  One can browse, in 31 languages,  for stuff (mostly audio) by topic, by Scripture reference, or by ministry name.  You can also read the Bible, watch the JESUS film and listen to worship music.  The site will pop up in whatever language you have your browser set to, or so I'm told.  I browse in English, so that isn't much of a test.

One can also access all this content from both Apple and Android apps.  There have been about 15,000 app downloads so far, and there were about 9,000 mobile sessions on twr360 in January.  All told, there were 364,024 visitors to twr360 from 223 countries or territories last month.  The top five countries visiting the site, in descending order, were:  Indonesia, Brazil, India, Ukraine and the USA. Rounding out the top 10 were Russia, South Korea, Bangladesh, Romania and Turkey.

More to see in the Bonaire Sky Park

There's lots going on in the Bonaire Sky Park right now.  (I think George DeSalvo coined that term.  I like it.)


Anyway, if you head outside after sunset each evening and look to the West, you can watch Venus and Mars getting closer and closer together.  They'll be closest on February 21.  BUT, the real show will be on February 20, when Venus, Mars and a teeny tiny crescent Moon will be clustered together.  I hope we have clear skies that evening, because I really want to see that.


Also, now that the moon is rising later each night, we can get some good views of comet Lovejoy again.  It seems to be dimming more slowly than predicted, which is good.  But you'll probably need binoculars to spot it.  You can find a detailed finder chart online at Sky and Telescope.  There is a link on that page to a printable black and white chart that you can take outside with you.

Moon and Jupiter

The Moon and Jupiter were pretty close together Tuesday night.  They were even closer on Wednesday morning.  Here is a shot from "White Slave."

It was a striking pairing as seen from our house in Hato around 6am.  But by the time we got to White Slave, clouds had rolled in with the result that when Jupiter was visible, the Moon was hidden, and vice versa.  So this is a composite of two shots.

Jupiter is to the right of the moon and a teeny bit higher in the sky. 

And a cruise ship can be seen heading towards Kralendijk for the day.

Star Trails

The Bonaire skies were very clear last night, so I went to a "secret spot" that I'd scouted out and shot a load of wide field images of the sky.

This picture uses the first 80 of the 177 exposures I made between 8pm and 11:30pm.  It will probably help to click on it to see it in a larger size.

I actually kept shooting 'till midnight, but clouds started rolling in, so I didn't keep the last batch of images.

As I type this, my computer is churning out a version with all 177 exposures in it.  And I'll try making a time lapse movie from these images as well.

Moon and Planets

The Moon and Venus were STUNNING in the sky this evening, Jan. 21.
And, if you knew where to look, you could see Mercury too. 

This picture was taken where Hotel Bonaire used to be at Playa Lechi.  Venus is the brightest object towards the upper left, with some stars of Capricornus visible as well.  The Moon is pretty obvious on the right side.  Mercury is at the middle of the bottom edge.  The trio just barely fit in the field of view of my lens at 70mm.  Phew!

Because Mercury was so close to the edge of the frame, it isn't that round, which makes it easier to see in the image, which is cool by me.

Comet Lovejoy on Jan. 12

Comet Lovejoy formed a nice equilateral triangle with the Pleiades and the Hyades (the horns of Taurus the bull) on Monday evening. 

Here is a picture that is a combination of 26 two minute long exposures from our back yard, here on Bonaire.  The stars came out nice and round, but the comet is a bit blurry, because it moved during the course of the imaging run.
the Pleiades are 2/3 of the way up on the left side of the picture.  The blue glow around the Pleiades is a reflection nebula.  The Hyades are an upside V shape centered near the bottom of the frame, and the comet is the greenish thing 3/4 of the way up on the right side.
The X shows where the comet was due to be on Tuesday evening.  I'm happy to report that it did not disappoint.









Here are the same 26 frames, but combined by indexing on the comet and not the stars.  So the stars show up as streaks, but there is more detail in the comet.  Click through to the larger image and check out the cool tail on the comet.

Spot Comet Lovejoy Monday evening

Comet Lovejoy will be easy to spot Monday evening, because the V shaped horns of
Taurus the Bull will point right at it.  You'll need binoculars though.

Here is an image from the other night.  Be sure to click on it to make it bigger. The lower arrow shows where Lovejoy was, and the upper arrow shows where it will be tonight, Jan. 12.
I drew lines around Orion and over the stars that make the horns of Taurus.
You can spot the Pleiades to the upper left of Taurus.  It looks to me like the comet will make an equilateral triangle with the point of the horns, and the Pleiades.

Comet Lovejoy

It was super clear tonight, and dark too, until the moon came up.  I could easily spot comet Lovejoy with the naked eye.
Here is a picture of the comet.  It is the whole frame as taken with an 85mm lens on a Canon T1i.