Holiday Break

The winter holiday is upon me!  I've taken a large swathe of time off with the vague notion that I will write and do various projects.  The first thing that I've discovered is that I'm going to be writing in the morning, I really need to wake up about two hours beforehand to get things like exercising, showering, eating, and generally waking up out of the way.  I also need to maintain a list of tasks to do besides writing.

Aoife has figured out what Postal, FedEx and UPS trucks sound like—apparently, it's pure evil.  Whenever one pulls up anywhere on our street, she goes into high alert, determined to kill whomever it is out there who is obviously a homicidal fiend in human form bent on deeds of depravity and trespass.  She's pulled the brass hood off of our door's mail slot twice since the holiday delivery season began, prompting Mark to replace it with a tasteful wood cover.  

Saturday was the last day of clear skies, and the grey overcast has returned.  I was able to take some photographs of Mars near Aldebaran and the Pleiades, and later the next morning the waning moon.  To my surprise, as I was crunching around on the frosty deck, one of the local hummingbirds came and visited the fountain.  Mark had been raking, and when he realized I was photographing them, he thoughtfully froze.  All I can say is that I am glad I'm not a little hummingbird sticking my bare bird feet into running water on a 30F morning. I don't know how the little things stay warm. 

The first weekend of vacation was taken up with holiday preparations.  We attended an in-person gathering of the cousins on the Burridge side of the family—out-of-state family stayed out of state, and various folks with children cancelled with child ailments; so while it was sad not being able to see everyone, the gathering was less boisterously overwhelming.   The Zoom Gathering was stereotypically Zoom, with a little bit of lag, odd camera angles, muting issues, thrown in to keep things hilarious.  We will have to host a outdoor gathering some time in the spring or summer when more folks can attend in person.

Sunday I went shopping at the local Holiday Market.  I enjoy shopping, much more so than Mark or The Child, and when I go alone, I'm able to do the reconnoiter-commando-raid style of shopping.   In addition to visiting with some of my vendor friends, I made several new best friends by wrapping myself up in a storybook glamour of the green and grey wool cloak, the Assassin's Creed hooded vest (with green shimmery paisley), a pewter Green Man pendent, extra rings, black KN95 mask, and my unbound hair.   Everyone seemed more interactive than I recall from previous years; I'm going to guess that the last two years of COVID has the extroverts overcompensating, myself included.  

The only downside of shopping at the Holiday Market is that I have to remind myself that I'm shopping for others and not myself.  And that I'm a solitary practitioner and not someone in a jewelry coven.  And I'm sure that I have enough ritual jewelry.   

Full Moon Conjunct Mars in Opposition

Happy Full Moon Before Yule in Conjunction with Opposition Mars.

We thought the sky would be too overcast and cloudy to see anything, but around 8 PM, there was a large enough hole in the clouds to take a few pictures.  

Of course I was fiddling around with the tripod and the camera focus to get too many photos before new clouds swarmed overhead, but I did manage to get some shots that weren't too artsy.

The moon was already a little to the east of Mars when we saw it, so I think we missed the actual occultation of Mars.  Still the two were about a fingers-width apart, and while the clouds may have blurred Mars a little, they also cut down on the Moon's glare.

Day of Producing Art

It's been a while since I photographed the planets.  Saturday, we had a break in the weather:  the morning sky was clear and cold, which meant that Venus, the Moon and Mars were visible in the pre-dawn sky.  Venus is approaching its greatest brilliance, in a few days it should be visible during the day.  The Moon was three days before being new, and rose something like 5 AM.   Mars was dim compared to the Moon and Venus.

All three objects were fairly low in the sky, which necessitated crossing the street with camera and tripod. After contending with some awkwardly placed power lines, I managed to frame the sky over the eaves of neighbors' houses.  It would have been nice to have a tree's silhouette in the photo, but the rooflines looked like mountains or possibly pyramids.  

After a quick jaunt to the store for tea, I set up the camera and tripod in the backyard against the arbor vita trees, focused on the fountain, and waited for the hummingbirds to appear.  Of course, the first hummingbird to appear came while I was futzing with the tripod and I only managed a blurry photo of it flying off.  I finished set-up.  I felt a little like some early twentieth century British Naturalist, as I had set up a small end table, chair and cushion, and had wrapped myself in faux leopard skin fleecy blanket.  

As I was sipping my rapidly cooling tea, a fierce humming signaled the sudden arrival of a bright red hummingbird.  It peered at me down its long and pointy beak, and, as I Tweeted later, I was pretty sure it was challenging me to a duel over ownership of the fountain ("Hello.  I am a hummingbird.  This is my fountain.  Prepare to die.")  

The light meter on the camera helped me to gauge the sun's progress, as I would have to adjust the shutter speed to compensate for the increase in light.   When the hummingbirds came to the fountain I was mostly ready.  I took many photos, fiddled with fine-tuning the camera's focus, and managed a number of good shots and one excellent one (the first one).  

By the time my tea had defrosted the glass top of the end table, it was too cold to drink.  

I spent the rest of the morning processing photos, and then it was time to go to my folks for a socially distanced celebration of my Dad's birthday.  We brought gluten-free cupcakes as a alternative to a socially closer birthday cake with candles.  Mark and I (okay, mostly Mark) had painted a sign for his garage, which he's converted into a combination wood shop, gym, and indoor dog play area.  It looked a little like a medieval manuscript, with the H in his name outlined and a medieval dog at the bottom.  I'm pretty sure he liked it, or at least appreciated it.  His ginormous German Shepherd and Aoife played together; we played "Apples to Apples."  

Then it was time to run home and feed the cats.  

The evening wound up with the finishing touches on a the latest geometric Math Art.  

If Saturday was the Day of Producing Art, Sunday was the day of Relative Sloth.  

Two Marses, Two Moons

I should have posted this a while ago.

Here's a photo of Mars and the Moon from September 5th (three days past full), the Saturday before Labor Day (and all those wretched fires).  

And here's a photo of Mars and the Moon from October 2nd (one day past full).   In this photo, the Moon was still fairly low in the sky, and smoke from fires in California stained it burnt orange.   Mars will be in opposition on October 13th.  

I'd forgotten that I'd taken the September photo -- which really says something about when exposure to ten day's worth of hazardous smoke particulate levels will do to a person.  I was going to say something about how the Earth has moved approximately twenty-six degrees along its orbit and that you can see that in how the Moon's position has changed in relationship with Mars'... but Mars went retrograde September 10, so I'm not sure how much one can really say about the Earth/Moon orbit and its effect on the Moon's phases from these photos.   

Moon, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter

This morning at 5:20 I managed to pull myself out of bed and photograph the morning sky.  The Moon, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter were lined up east to west.  At first I wasn't going to.  I really would have preferred to photograph the morning before, when the moon would have been about thirteen degrees to the west, underneath Saturn, and I could have composed a picture about a quarter of the size (and with greater resolution).  And I would have, if yesterday morning hadn't been completely overcast (the day before had been clear!).  But, this morning, the planets shone bright.

I trooped out in my slippers and PJ's and set up the tripod on the other side of the street.  I supposed I must look like Arthur Dent, the kids from Narnia, or possibly an absent-minded professor.    Smokey and Cicero joined me -- between the advent of the dog and the clear weather, they've been spending a lot of time out of the house.  I think they weren't expecting food.

Yesterday I did some marketing and got discouraged over one very short story that hasn't found a home; it's been through the usual professional markets, none of the semi-pro markets seem right for it (wrong theme or they only want reprints or they're closed), and I found myself thinking about self-publishing it..... and on one hand it seems like a cop-out, and on the other hand I'd have to call myself "Fit-Of-Pique Publishing," and on another hand do I really want to put stories out there that might not have been picked up for a reason (although I suppose I could call myself "Glowing Rejection Press")?

On the gym front, I did my power-walk Wednesday evening...and I'm wondering if I might try the jogging path again to see if my knee joints have beefed up enough to not bother me jogging.  The power-walks are fun and all, but I feel like I'm not getting enough of a workout.

Sheltering in place is going well all things considered, but it is wearing on my nerves.  We're very lucky: no one in the house is sick, we are able to work remotely, on nice days we can escape to the backyard, and so far our immediate families are healthy.   Occasionally the cabin fever does strike me and I have to resist the shriek trying to climb up my throat and the urge to run berserk into the street.  As soon as it's safe to do so -- which probably means next October -- I want to dance in a drum circle or go clubbing or something.

When Jupiter Aligns with Mars

 I've had the conjunction of the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter on my calendar for about a month.  I suppose I should add Saturn and Mercury to the list of planets, because all four of them are in the eastern sky before dawn.

The moon was scheduled to approach them starting Tuesday, March 17, and swing under or through Jupiter and Mars on the 18th.  I was amused, because right now, any time the Moon is just about to set, it's in the Seventh House and we can all channel our inner Fifth Dimension and start singing "Aquarius."

Tuesday morning was cold and clear.

And the Moon was farther away from Jupiter and Mars than I realized.  This makes it difficult to compose a nice looking photo:  in order for the planets to show up, one has to increase the time the camera shutter is open, which means the Moon washes everything out and/or becomes a brilliant and featureless object.

Also the ecliptic is pretty close to 45 degrees this time of year--as opposed to 68 degrees three months ago at the Winter Solstice--which means I have to go across the street to photograph solar system objects so that I'm not taking artsy photos of my neighbor's rooflines (I still have to deal with utility lines).  

I took a bunch of blurry shots, about eight passible ones, and vowed that I would take more photos on Wednesday (3/18), when the Moon and the planets would be closer to each other and in a more managable field of view.

Of course, that night the clouds rolled in.  I woke up early to a patchwork sky.  It seemed like the clouds were teasing me with a peep show of pre-dawn luminaries.  But I got the camera and tripod ready and checked the skies between brewing tea and eating breakfast, and about an hour later, there were enough rents in the clouds to warrant traipsing across the street and seeing what I could see.

Focusing through the clouds was a little tricky, but I figured I was doing well when I was able to resolve the Galilean moons from Jupiter.  I think the clouds helped some, because they toned down the glare of the moon; also the limb of the moon was thinner than it had been the day before.

I like the color on Wednesday's photos, and I like the features of the Moon on Tuesday's photos.

Moon and Mars

My alarm interrupted a dream where I was attempting to photograph the Moon and Mars and the timetables were wrong and then a big black cloud came up....

I stumbled around the house, and managed to get up and see the Moon slide away from Mars (although I didn't manage to get any before and after shots).  

The first few photographs were blurry for some reason, I'm not sure if the tripod was slipping, or if the cold was affecting the camera, or if I hadn't used the remote.   Some later photographs came out okay.  The difficulty photographing the Moon is that if it is too low, it's difficult to get a clear and focused image.  It probably doesn't help that I'm near-sighted. 

The next few mornings may be interesting to photograph:  the Moon will be sliding close to Jupiter and Saturn over the next few days.  Jupiter will be the easiest, although the dawn glare could be interesting.  Typically, a fog comes up just before dawn, so that could add an additional challenge. 

Lunar Album with Mars and Venus

Wednesday night's (10/18/2018) conjunction of the Moon and Mars.

Moon conjunct Mars, Sept 19,2018



















Full moon near Mars, July 26, 2018

















New moon near Venus, July 19, 2018

Dec 7, 2013 (shot through a telescope) 

















Feb 20, 2015 (also shot through a telescope)




















 Feb 26, 2009.  The moon is next to Venus.  

Moon Conjunct Mars

Wednesday night the Moon and Mars were conjunct.

I ran out and took several photographs. 

The camera has a pretty good pre-setting for the moon, but when you try to use it to take photos of the moon and anything else, the moon washes everything out.

So... to get a more balanced photo, I have to manually set the camera for infinity focus, the F-stop to F8, and play with the shutter speed.  Usually 1/5 to about 1/20 of a second will come out with an interesting shot... although the moon will still wash everything out. 

At the moment, the moon's above the ecliptic... which seems odd, because I thought it was pretty close to its north ascending node -- I guess I'll have to look up where that is.  Or... maybe Mars is below the ecliptic and the Moon is on it.   In any case, they're about three finger-widths apart.

Early Friday Morning

I've been researching cameras in preparation for purchasing a superzoom lens camera.  My current camera is fine, but it's going on fifteen years old and the shutter button is beginning to fail.  I love its macro lens, and I've taken quite a few picutres of bugs and slugs and stamens -- and I'm ready for a camera that can take a descent photograph of the moon or of a gargoyle five stories up.   Of course, the camera I wanted to get (recommended by The Wirecutter) was discontinued two months ago, and isn't in stock anywhere (unless I get it used or refurbished).

Last night the full moon was next to a brilliant Mars. I tried to take a picture of it.  I' m not sure if there was a bit of a haze, or if there's something going on with my lens, because I got a lot of flare off of the moon.  I'd been hoping to get a good Mars and Moon shot to contrast the Venus and Moon shot I took a fortnight ago. 

A hummingbird has just visited our gladiolas while I was writing this morning.  I'd been waiting a while, and I'm going to hazard a guess that until the sun's been shining on them for about a half-hour, the flowers don't generate enough interest for the darting birds.  

We're in between heat advisories.  Today is supposed to be the coolest day since last Saturday, and a new advisory starts Sunday (on the overmorrow).   I'm very thankful for the air conditioner in our bedroom.  

Moon, Venus and Mars Conjunct

Last night I watched the conjunction of the Moon, Mars and Venus.

I tried to take a photograph of them through Mark's telescope, but I couldn't get the lens of my camera close enough to the eyepiece of the telescope (somewhere I've got some cool pictures of Pacific birds and sea-lions taken through a telescopic viewer).

I ended up taking a photo of them with the regular lens, which doesn't do astronomy pictures so well (you can sort of see the moon to the left of the tree).   It was too bright to see Mars without a telescope, and by the time it got darker, Mars wasn't visible.

I had better luck with the lens on my tablet, which was able to get closer to the eyepiece.  By this time the trio had set a little, and trees and wires were getting in the way.  Also, some clouds were rolling in.  If you look at the second shot, you can make out a dot (Venus) about 8 o'clock from the moon and below the wires.