Stargazing

Moon-gazing, actually, with a few planets tossed in.




Last night's "blue moon" photo. The blue arrow is pointing to Jupiter. The next blue moon is December 31, 2009, according to NASA's website.

Apparently the definition of "blue moon" has changed over the years. Since the 1940s, a blue moon has been the second full moon in a calendar month, thanks to a misprint in a magazine article. Before that, a blue moon was the third blue moon in a season with four moons instead of the usual three (based on a tropical year, not a calendar year). Yeah, complicated - page 2 of the Sky & Telescope article at that link explains it better. No wonder someone came up with the new definition.

These next three are of the new moon and Venus, taken about two weeks ago. They were taken at my parents' place, out in the country, where I get better sky photos. Here in town, there are always lights of some sort to deal with, and buildings that block part of the sky (usually the part I want to see, like Venus & Gemini last night).







This one had a longer exposure. I'm not sure where the moon-flare at the left came from, but I kind of like it.