Jupiter and Saturn have come back out from the far side of the Sun and, in early March, started becoming doable again. I'd started noticing Saturn appearing out the front / East facing window and through the gap in the tree canopy some months back in early morning insomnia hours some weeks ago but hadn't been motivated to pursue things beyond binocular shots from indoors. And under those conditions you'd only know it was Saturn by checking the schedule. (Well, the color...)
On 2021/05/06 around 04:00 EDT I grabbed the scope gear for first planet mission since 2021/02/03 and first successful planet mission since 2021/01/28. I'd previously been checking for good East options but a hundred yards up from the driveway... Last house on the right, single level, no problematic trees, ESE... Pretty good option - I discovered on that outing.
Spectacular view. Very low and just clearing the left edge of the frame a crescent Moon five days shy of new. Then a little up and a lot to the right - Jupiter. Got three moons. Missed Europa - which was just to the right - I didn't know where things were supposed to be and didn't look carefully enough. Then Saturn fairly evenly spaced farther along the line to the upper right.
A week or so later I couldn't remember the date on that one. But I COULD remember the pattern of the moons. Sky Walk 2 - on the Pad or Phone - I discovered, lets you change the time for your sky down to the minute. So I set the time for 04:30 and the date to a bit earlier than it could have been, blew up Jupiter on the display, added days until I hit my bull's-eye.
I was still pissed off about my 2021/01/30 car battery disaster which had cost me my last viable shot at Mercury before it orbited (counterclockwise - as we all do) to between us and the Sun. By late February it had passed to the right of the Sun and I suspect was becoming doable for morning shots - although In-The-Sky.org says otherwise - but I never chased and on 2021/04/19 it was lined up on the far side of the Sun (superior conjunction).
With it again back in evening mode - for the first period since I was doing my Pastures missions - I decided to do another Pastures run for 2021/05/13. Local sunset - 20:11 EDT at 295 degrees (way the hell later and north from where it had been on my winter runs (duh)).
All the planets orbit the Sun in something close to the same plane and thus will rise and set at close to the same two positions on the horizon. Mercury is by far the oddball out with a plane cocked seven degrees off of ours but... Close enough for the purpose of our exercise.
I get on site at maybe 20:30 and start trying to get my shit together. I figure Mercury's gotta be pretty low I don't have a lot of time to spare. And while the sky is mostly clear, to north there's a low projection of cloud with dark streaks of rain pouring down below it and it's advancing toward where I'd prefer it didn't.
There's a spectacular two day old crescent Moon up pretty high and I get Venus in fairly short order.
I'm using Star Walk 2 on my iPhone 5 but I find it difficult to hold the phone towards and perpendicular to the target zone. Just slight adjustments seem to throw things way off.
Plan B... Aim the phone at something known and brain-dead easy - the Moon would work nicely for this situation - and find your target off of that orientation. Bingo, I've got Mercury. (Rather lucky to have had a reference point like that.)
But it's WAY HIGHER than I thought it would and could be. Really blew me away. Later I find that I was four days shy of it maxing out. (That'll be this evening but the forecast isn't very promising.)
Mars was supposed to be above and closing on the Moon. Pretty high up and difficult for a birding scope, also some cloud issues - but I was able to get it with a bit of effort.
My problem cloud dialed down pretty substantially and I was able to track Venus down into a tree on the horizon and stayed until Mercury had followed it.
Then the idea of bagging two more planets started becoming appealing. Wasn't in bad shape when 04:00 rolled around, hauled my gear up to the top of the street and they were blazing away.
Locked onto Saturn fairly easily - maybe 'cause it was up at a comfortable altitude - but it was a major BITCH for me to lock onto Jupiter using my empty-handle-cylinder-as-finderscope trick. It's kinda tough to get your self and equipment lined up properly with your target in zilch light.
I think with recent practice I've gotten my technique a lot more refined and effective but it still really pisses me off that Swarovski eliminated their proper and highly effective finderscope feature to make way for their digiscoping gear and haven't bothered to provide a properly engineered replacement option - which they could easily and cheaply do. And I suspect they never will 'cause that would open them up to attack for providing a junk alternative while NOT bothering to provide the properly engineered replacement option.
birds
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Tad Eareckson
- Posts: 9149
- Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC
Re: birds
Well, that was kinda fun - and it's nice this time of year not finishing up half dead from hypothermia. Let's try it again the next evening - 2021/05/14.
The Moon's a day fuller and a lot higher, Mercury and Venus are a little higher. Get on station with lotsa light left, know where to find things and do pretty quickly. And it doesn't need to be very dark to get even Mercury naked eye.
Add Mars to the collection and I'm pretty sure I had a quick glimpse of a bat coming in close to my right.
Watch Venus set into a tree to my WNW. Then I think that if I just reposition twenty yards up the drive I can watch it set again on a clean pasture horizon. Pretty cool. Also position to watch Mercury set clean a fair bit later.
I think it was while I was breaking down and facing the other way there was something blindingly bright white starting to go by towards the ENE. Had to be the Space Station. And I'm sure that this was the first time I'd just blundered into it without knowing a schedule beforehand.
Got back home, verified, was astonished to see that that was the first of FIVE viewing opportunities for my position for the night. Time and minutes of duration (horizons permitting):
- 21:25 - 6
- 23:02 - 6
- 00:42 - 1
- 02:19 - 3
- 03:55 - 6
Hadn't thought that was possible.
The path for the second one would be pretty good for the farm at the top end of my road and I geared for doing it on foot with the binocular. Trespassed in very quietly and everything was fine until the faint click of my stabilized glasses being switched on set off a Whitetail in the wooded strip between the farm and neighborhood. Totally exploded away through the undergrowth.
Got my first ever second pass but wasn't up for the other three.
The Moon's a day fuller and a lot higher, Mercury and Venus are a little higher. Get on station with lotsa light left, know where to find things and do pretty quickly. And it doesn't need to be very dark to get even Mercury naked eye.
Add Mars to the collection and I'm pretty sure I had a quick glimpse of a bat coming in close to my right.
Watch Venus set into a tree to my WNW. Then I think that if I just reposition twenty yards up the drive I can watch it set again on a clean pasture horizon. Pretty cool. Also position to watch Mercury set clean a fair bit later.
I think it was while I was breaking down and facing the other way there was something blindingly bright white starting to go by towards the ENE. Had to be the Space Station. And I'm sure that this was the first time I'd just blundered into it without knowing a schedule beforehand.
Got back home, verified, was astonished to see that that was the first of FIVE viewing opportunities for my position for the night. Time and minutes of duration (horizons permitting):
- 21:25 - 6
- 23:02 - 6
- 00:42 - 1
- 02:19 - 3
- 03:55 - 6
Hadn't thought that was possible.
The path for the second one would be pretty good for the farm at the top end of my road and I geared for doing it on foot with the binocular. Trespassed in very quietly and everything was fine until the faint click of my stabilized glasses being switched on set off a Whitetail in the wooded strip between the farm and neighborhood. Totally exploded away through the undergrowth.
Got my first ever second pass but wasn't up for the other three.
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Tad Eareckson
- Posts: 9149
- Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC
Re: birds
2021/05/15 - third night in a row.
Back on station, get all my boxes checked. There's a stable/stationary low cloud mass running a few degrees above the horizon to the NW so I won't be getting proper sets. Venus gets eaten.
A car pulls in and parks behind mine. Young female driver emerges, says she's noticed me here a couple nights taking pictures...
Nope. And explain to her what the deal is and she's all in. Good news... She's totally thrilled to see the little dot of Mercury - quite high up as it still is. Bad news... The top of her head comes up to about the bottom of my sternum - and I stupidly haven't been throwing the step stool into the car for these outings. So I've had to do an inelegant but adequate job of partially collapsing the tripod to get her her shots.
We compare birth years. I have half a century on her and she's just getting out of high school. We click on all the issues... piece o' shit we recently got pried outta the White House, mass extinction, destruction of the planet upon which we're standing...
Got her the then four day old and fairly high up Moon and Mars less than one and a half degrees above it (which was a moderately BFD in the geek world).
She pointed out to me the Big Dipper near straight up. Oh yeah, hadn't even thought about that one since I-can't-remember-when. Ursa Major gets me Polaris and that can be a big help in getting oriented.
Then she had to roll and I had nothing left to stick around for. And there was a six minute, 36 max altitude, West to NorthEast ISS flyover starting at 22:14 I was gonna do on foot and binocular only back at my top-of-the-road farm field back home.
Rolled for home, unloaded the car, did a little R&R, started gearing up for the Space Station. Where the fuck are my Canon glasses? I'm still wearing the harness, they're not in the backpack, scope case, car... There's no way in hell I'd have set them on the ground while stowing the scope assembly - but I had to make that assumption.
Burned rubber for the mile back to Pastures station and came up totally empty. OK, nothing more I can do that's time critical so I just waited a few minutes for the flyover and followed it with my Leitz 7x42 backup glasses, returned home at a sane speed. Almost immediately saw the 42 millimeter objective lenses staring straight at me.
I'd plopped myself down in the armchair facing the television, unclipped the glasses (black), set them down on the closed tenor ukulele case (black) next to the chair, hadn't turned on extra lights... Really well camouflaged.
Oh well... Pastures had been the better observation platform and I'd been half tempted to return anyway. But it sure was a lot of unpleasant stress.
And we were gonna get the Space Station on its next orbit an hour forty later. And the home field WOULD work probably equally well for that one. Saw a bright satellite disappear into the trees to the south just as I was getting myself positioned, thought I'd screwed the pooch, checked my watch and memory... Nah. Got another nice flyover on schedule.
Back on station, get all my boxes checked. There's a stable/stationary low cloud mass running a few degrees above the horizon to the NW so I won't be getting proper sets. Venus gets eaten.
A car pulls in and parks behind mine. Young female driver emerges, says she's noticed me here a couple nights taking pictures...
Nope. And explain to her what the deal is and she's all in. Good news... She's totally thrilled to see the little dot of Mercury - quite high up as it still is. Bad news... The top of her head comes up to about the bottom of my sternum - and I stupidly haven't been throwing the step stool into the car for these outings. So I've had to do an inelegant but adequate job of partially collapsing the tripod to get her her shots.
We compare birth years. I have half a century on her and she's just getting out of high school. We click on all the issues... piece o' shit we recently got pried outta the White House, mass extinction, destruction of the planet upon which we're standing...
Got her the then four day old and fairly high up Moon and Mars less than one and a half degrees above it (which was a moderately BFD in the geek world).
She pointed out to me the Big Dipper near straight up. Oh yeah, hadn't even thought about that one since I-can't-remember-when. Ursa Major gets me Polaris and that can be a big help in getting oriented.
Then she had to roll and I had nothing left to stick around for. And there was a six minute, 36 max altitude, West to NorthEast ISS flyover starting at 22:14 I was gonna do on foot and binocular only back at my top-of-the-road farm field back home.
Rolled for home, unloaded the car, did a little R&R, started gearing up for the Space Station. Where the fuck are my Canon glasses? I'm still wearing the harness, they're not in the backpack, scope case, car... There's no way in hell I'd have set them on the ground while stowing the scope assembly - but I had to make that assumption.
Burned rubber for the mile back to Pastures station and came up totally empty. OK, nothing more I can do that's time critical so I just waited a few minutes for the flyover and followed it with my Leitz 7x42 backup glasses, returned home at a sane speed. Almost immediately saw the 42 millimeter objective lenses staring straight at me.
I'd plopped myself down in the armchair facing the television, unclipped the glasses (black), set them down on the closed tenor ukulele case (black) next to the chair, hadn't turned on extra lights... Really well camouflaged.
Oh well... Pastures had been the better observation platform and I'd been half tempted to return anyway. But it sure was a lot of unpleasant stress.
And we were gonna get the Space Station on its next orbit an hour forty later. And the home field WOULD work probably equally well for that one. Saw a bright satellite disappear into the trees to the south just as I was getting myself positioned, thought I'd screwed the pooch, checked my watch and memory... Nah. Got another nice flyover on schedule.
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Tad Eareckson
- Posts: 9149
- Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC
Re: birds
The 23:54 EDT three minute flyover calendar day was over, the night wasn't. Wanted to do another Jupiter-Saturn from my East Spot so back out on foot with four layers at probably a bit after 04:00.
Got my targets no problem, some little wisps of high clouds would dim and fuzz them from time to time, went back and forth to vary the view and practice zilch light acquisition. (Yeah, it helps. One DOES get better.)
At this point we're five weeks shy of the summer solstice, sunrise for my position was 04:52, the sky well to the north of my targets was lightening before I started, it wasn't long before things started getting real noisy with the "dawn chorus" of the feathered stuff. Also had a Great Horned Owl maybe a third of a mile to the SE.
I was still enjoying my planets and the four moons of the bigger closer one and thought it would be interesting to see how long into daylight my targets would remain visible. Jupiter (much lower an much to the left) was a zillion times brighter than Saturn so as soon as the latter started getting iffy I'd stay on it until it was totally vaporized. Then I'd go to Jupiter for the rest of its appearance.
At one point while Saturn was still easily doable and Jupiter was still BLAZING I stayed on Saturn for no more than a couple minutes. Checked back for Jupiter... TOTALLY GONE! Tried scanning with the binocular... Zilch.
I could not understand why/how that happened. My best guess is that it was a lot lower and angled a lot closer to the Sun and had a lot more well lit atmosphere between us at my end of the line.
Saturn... Goddam Energizer Bunny. The Sun had cracked the horizon (behind the trees where I couldn't see it)... No problem. Totally cleared the horizon, top third of the nearby Tulip Trees were fully lit. Still no problem. At min zoom I was still clearly seeing sharp disk and rings and separation.
At I believe 06:22 I decided to risk a center column height adjustment for comfort. That introduces some slop while the adjustment is effected but once you're reclamped you should be good to reacquire just panning a wee bit left/right. Totally lost it though. While the features had still been distinct and sharp the sky was so bright and the contrast so marginal that I'd known it would be hopeless. But it had still been pretty cool to be able to track such a distant planet that far into the day using amateur/birding equipment.
Got my targets no problem, some little wisps of high clouds would dim and fuzz them from time to time, went back and forth to vary the view and practice zilch light acquisition. (Yeah, it helps. One DOES get better.)
At this point we're five weeks shy of the summer solstice, sunrise for my position was 04:52, the sky well to the north of my targets was lightening before I started, it wasn't long before things started getting real noisy with the "dawn chorus" of the feathered stuff. Also had a Great Horned Owl maybe a third of a mile to the SE.
I was still enjoying my planets and the four moons of the bigger closer one and thought it would be interesting to see how long into daylight my targets would remain visible. Jupiter (much lower an much to the left) was a zillion times brighter than Saturn so as soon as the latter started getting iffy I'd stay on it until it was totally vaporized. Then I'd go to Jupiter for the rest of its appearance.
At one point while Saturn was still easily doable and Jupiter was still BLAZING I stayed on Saturn for no more than a couple minutes. Checked back for Jupiter... TOTALLY GONE! Tried scanning with the binocular... Zilch.
I could not understand why/how that happened. My best guess is that it was a lot lower and angled a lot closer to the Sun and had a lot more well lit atmosphere between us at my end of the line.
Saturn... Goddam Energizer Bunny. The Sun had cracked the horizon (behind the trees where I couldn't see it)... No problem. Totally cleared the horizon, top third of the nearby Tulip Trees were fully lit. Still no problem. At min zoom I was still clearly seeing sharp disk and rings and separation.
At I believe 06:22 I decided to risk a center column height adjustment for comfort. That introduces some slop while the adjustment is effected but once you're reclamped you should be good to reacquire just panning a wee bit left/right. Totally lost it though. While the features had still been distinct and sharp the sky was so bright and the contrast so marginal that I'd known it would be hopeless. But it had still been pretty cool to be able to track such a distant planet that far into the day using amateur/birding equipment.
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Tad Eareckson
- Posts: 9149
- Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC
Re: birds
Speaking of pretty cool... While the temperature had been pretty benign I hadn't planned on being out anywhere near that long and had gotten a bit chilled.
Packed up my gear, started walking home, got about twenty-five yards, stopped and picked up a Cicada from the middle of the street. Also chilled and slow but alive and well. Took it home to check it out a little more thoroughly while we warmed up and one of us got something to eat. A couple hours later - when we were both in better shape - took it back to the original vicinity, put it on the trunk of Sweet Gum sapling.
I was pretty excited 'cause it had been unseasonably cold for the past week or so, Brood X emergence had been delayed, and I had just discovered the first emerged individual in the region.
Last house on the right there's a single empty exoskeleton on the trunk of a small tree just off the edge of the road - possibly the one from which my bug had emerged. I point it out to adult female human coming out to walk the Elk Hound. Yeah, try going around the corner. There are ZILLIONS of them. (Crap.)
She and the other had wanted to go down the street for my Conjunction action but had never made it. They own an astronomy scope but it hadn't been out in a while. Tuned her in to what was currently going on with Jupiter and Saturn and thanked her for providing that great gap for the East stuff.
I went around the corner a bit later. There are ZILLIONS of them. But the emergence was just getting underway. A third of them were molting out, the rest were firming up. I picked up a new emergent - red eyes, white body and wings, wings expanded but limp. Also a couple more full colored with stiffened wings.
Put the three on a potted six foot ficus on the front porch. The firmed climbed and must've flown off after maybe twenty minutes, the new emergent stayed put low and I monitored the progress of the transformation for a few hours until that one also disappeared. Started hearing buzzing but faint and distant.
I think what we're getting here is Magicicada cassinii - Cassin's or Dwarf.
No astronomy missions subsequent to yesterday morning. Last evening Mercury was at its greatest elongation but the sky was pretty clouded and I was pretty fried.
Packed up my gear, started walking home, got about twenty-five yards, stopped and picked up a Cicada from the middle of the street. Also chilled and slow but alive and well. Took it home to check it out a little more thoroughly while we warmed up and one of us got something to eat. A couple hours later - when we were both in better shape - took it back to the original vicinity, put it on the trunk of Sweet Gum sapling.
I was pretty excited 'cause it had been unseasonably cold for the past week or so, Brood X emergence had been delayed, and I had just discovered the first emerged individual in the region.
Last house on the right there's a single empty exoskeleton on the trunk of a small tree just off the edge of the road - possibly the one from which my bug had emerged. I point it out to adult female human coming out to walk the Elk Hound. Yeah, try going around the corner. There are ZILLIONS of them. (Crap.)
She and the other had wanted to go down the street for my Conjunction action but had never made it. They own an astronomy scope but it hadn't been out in a while. Tuned her in to what was currently going on with Jupiter and Saturn and thanked her for providing that great gap for the East stuff.
I went around the corner a bit later. There are ZILLIONS of them. But the emergence was just getting underway. A third of them were molting out, the rest were firming up. I picked up a new emergent - red eyes, white body and wings, wings expanded but limp. Also a couple more full colored with stiffened wings.
Put the three on a potted six foot ficus on the front porch. The firmed climbed and must've flown off after maybe twenty minutes, the new emergent stayed put low and I monitored the progress of the transformation for a few hours until that one also disappeared. Started hearing buzzing but faint and distant.
I think what we're getting here is Magicicada cassinii - Cassin's or Dwarf.
No astronomy missions subsequent to yesterday morning. Last evening Mercury was at its greatest elongation but the sky was pretty clouded and I was pretty fried.
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Tad Eareckson
- Posts: 9149
- Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC
Re: birds
Went around the corner again Monday afternoon to monitor the Cicada action. Started seeing scores of them smashed on the asphalt - along with a small Garter Snake. Rescued a few of the insects until I was out of steam and had to turn back. I tossed one rescue back towards a tree and it would be the first I'd see fly - but just enough to stretch its glide and slow its descent.
Pockets of them were becoming audible but nothing particularly close.
Maybe last brood I'd brought home one working on getting into adult mode. But the molt failed, the bug died, and I felt guilty 'cause I thought the disaster was due to my interference. But now I'm seeing tons of failed transitions - dying partially trapped in the exoskeletons; wandering around with wings that had failed to fully deploy, expand, stiffen. No, that one wasn't my fault. I wonder if this stuff happens much / at all with the annuals. Can't recall any instances.
Yesterday it was clear, dry, warmed up rapidly. Saw lotsa new adults low on tree trunks. Nobody was calling nearby but the distant clusters were getting louder.
Rolled to Pastures maybe 20:15, set up, started scanning for my evening two planets. A bright one a fair bit up in the still light sky area - gotta be Venus. So where the hell is Mercury? Supposed to be well up from it.
Eventually figured out that WAS Mercury when the light had faded enough for Venus to be able to burn through the band of red haze on the horizon. A fairly blazing Mercury and a dim Venus - quite a switch.
Locked onto Mercury for a minute or two and before I checked back for Venus it was history - combination of the haze and sky brightness left that early in the evening. Reminded me of the way I'd abruptly lost Jupiter while locked onto Saturn Monday morning.
Hit the Moon - way high now - and Mars. My first mosquitos (I won that round) and fireflies of the year. Confirmed a small bat, think I was hearing American Toads.
Mercury was able to punch through the haze just fine all the way down - with the advantage of a sky 47 minutes darker than the one with which Venus was working.
The Space Station was scheduled for a six minute possible appearance up to 25 degrees starting at 21:29. Couldn't find it until about the first third was gone.
Wasn't intent upon pursuing Saturn and Jupiter but snapped awake at 03:45, clear sky, pretty warm, what the hell, took my walk with the bag to the top of the street. Blundered upon four satellites while targeting Saturn. A Red Fox silently bounding across the road to my side as I was packing back out at about 04:30 ended the show for me.
Cicadas are already pretty load as I post.
Pockets of them were becoming audible but nothing particularly close.
Maybe last brood I'd brought home one working on getting into adult mode. But the molt failed, the bug died, and I felt guilty 'cause I thought the disaster was due to my interference. But now I'm seeing tons of failed transitions - dying partially trapped in the exoskeletons; wandering around with wings that had failed to fully deploy, expand, stiffen. No, that one wasn't my fault. I wonder if this stuff happens much / at all with the annuals. Can't recall any instances.
Yesterday it was clear, dry, warmed up rapidly. Saw lotsa new adults low on tree trunks. Nobody was calling nearby but the distant clusters were getting louder.
Rolled to Pastures maybe 20:15, set up, started scanning for my evening two planets. A bright one a fair bit up in the still light sky area - gotta be Venus. So where the hell is Mercury? Supposed to be well up from it.
Eventually figured out that WAS Mercury when the light had faded enough for Venus to be able to burn through the band of red haze on the horizon. A fairly blazing Mercury and a dim Venus - quite a switch.
Locked onto Mercury for a minute or two and before I checked back for Venus it was history - combination of the haze and sky brightness left that early in the evening. Reminded me of the way I'd abruptly lost Jupiter while locked onto Saturn Monday morning.
Hit the Moon - way high now - and Mars. My first mosquitos (I won that round) and fireflies of the year. Confirmed a small bat, think I was hearing American Toads.
Mercury was able to punch through the haze just fine all the way down - with the advantage of a sky 47 minutes darker than the one with which Venus was working.
The Space Station was scheduled for a six minute possible appearance up to 25 degrees starting at 21:29. Couldn't find it until about the first third was gone.
Wasn't intent upon pursuing Saturn and Jupiter but snapped awake at 03:45, clear sky, pretty warm, what the hell, took my walk with the bag to the top of the street. Blundered upon four satellites while targeting Saturn. A Red Fox silently bounding across the road to my side as I was packing back out at about 04:30 ended the show for me.
Cicadas are already pretty load as I post.
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Tad Eareckson
- Posts: 9149
- Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC
Re: birds
On Friday morning got my first solar eclipse action since 2017/08/21. Not:
- a total
- the full annular one could've gotten in some godforsaken patches of the Northern Hemisphere
- mostly obstructed
- cloud free
but a pretty astounding experience nevertheless.
I hadn't known anything was gonna be happening before it hit the mainstream media a week and a half or so prior and in this neck of the woods the show was gonna be mostly over by the time the Sun climbed to the horizon at 05:58 EDT and totally over about 29 minutes later - weather permitting.
I scouted three reasonably local locations with fair shots to the NE but wasn't thrilled with the treelines at any of them. Started gravitating towards the end of the pier at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation - 38°55'55.23" N 076°27'41.58" W.
Errands had taken me to Annapolis both days of the prior weekend and on that Saturday afternoon I ran things by a staffer. He said the gate would be locked at that time of "day" but suggested parking just outside of it and hiking in - 0.27 miles.
Scoped from the dock hoping to score Dolphins. Hot and windy and the turbulence neutralized me pretty well. After about a third of the way straight across the Bay everything was garbage.
Next afternoon was back, air was a lot more civilized but nothing particularly interesting for the glass. Sun (and Moon) would be cracking the horizon at an azimuth of about 62 degrees - from my position pretty much precisely at the far end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
As the hour approached late in the week the forecast and weather were fairly crappy. Thursday afternoon hauled my scope out onto and up the street for a practice run as the Sun was making a showing, nearly drowned in an abrupt downpour.
Was able to make a second effort shortly thereafter, went down the street and around the corner to my old Jupiter/Saturn conjunction post. After a little effort I was able to get some reasonably clean disk time. (And had to redirect a Cicada who'd mistaken me for a tree.)
Evening sky looked crappy for my regular evening planets station and I happily bailed on that mission and worked on getting organized. Lotsa prep, very little sleep, sky looking good at 03:00, took a scope up the street to nail Jupiter and Saturn - both well in the clear and brilliant.
Was planning on going in with just the 95 and broke everything down for backpack configuration. Had the alarm set for 04:30 just in case, was organized, loaded, and rolling shortly thereafter. Nice look at a Red Fox shortly before goal.
Was starting to maneuver for the little patch outside the gate when I noticed that the gate was wide freakin' open. That sure made things a lot easier and better. I was out on the pier by about 05:00.
The overhead sky had gotten fairly light but Jupiter was still blazing naked eye. Hit it with the binocular, got the 95 up and on it pretty quick for the moons, no sign of Saturn.
Still lotsa time so back to the car for the 85 assembly.
Two scopes, stabilized binocular, filters for everything, step stool, Walkstool, folding lawn chair, packing gear organized and safely stowed and secured. There was a low thick cloud layer over the relevant horizon but it obviously wouldn't be a problem for very long.
You could see things starting to glow where you knew the Sun was coming up and you knew it wouldn't be long. Fairly abruptly a deep red parallelogram punched through and you could see some of the left area had a black disk cut into it.
In no time a lot of the eclipse had emerged still deep dark cool red - and black - and I hit it with the 95 - unfiltered - for a few seconds. Then I chickened out, put filters on everything, gave it another shot.
Doable but real dark for a short bit. Continued to climb, clear, brighten, emerge. Looked like really great effects from a quality sci-fi movie. Didn't look like anything you'd expect to see from this planet.
This:
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/photos-ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-seen-in-dc-maryland-virginia/2697726/
Photos: 'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse Over DC, Maryland, Virginia - NBC4 Washington
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51242082767_0912068330_o.jpg
is a wee bit under thirty miles west from where I was set up and very close to what I was seeing.
It soon fully cleared (as it has above) and climbed through I think two more cloud layers - alternating between full and zero visibility with a fair bit less Moon disk each time.
One more cloud layer, disappeared, waited, reemerging, kept watching and praying for a little fragment of remaining black disk... Nope. Over. Xavier...
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/
...says it quit at 06:28:59.2 EDT.
During cloud-outs I scanned 2.3 miles of the shoreline - just off of which I was parked - between the mouths of the Severn and South Rivers and I feel safe in saying there wasn't one single motherfucker with the slightest interest in what was going on in the sky.
Several guys upstream were strolling towards me within easy view of my setup. Zero interest.
Downstream on the beach within easy hailing distance there was a female person with a fairly serious looking camera aiming towards the Sun but it was obvious she just taking artsy shots of the morning Sun reflecting off the water - probably with zero awareness and virtually certainly zero interest in this global news event. And there was no way in hell I was gonna call out an invite.
Tons of Cicadas washed up on the beach. At one point one of the nearby clusters of Canada Geese took a break from floating and grazed on them for a bit.
Did a counterclockwise scan of all the water surface in range. Pretty good visibility but nothing unusual showed up. Broke down, packed up, hauled out - totally fried physically.
Night skies were wiped out that and the next and the situation wasn't looking great last evening but I gave it a go anyway.
I think it was Wednesday evening that I realized that what I'd been seeing and reporting as Mercury for some time was actually Venus. Need to go back and figure out when, how, why I started making the substitution.
Most of yesterday the sky was mostly clear but crudded up in the West in the evening. Thought I'd be able to do something with it anyway and headed out to my Observatory station. Heavy clouding in the action area but their were breaks through which I thought I'd be able to score.
Soon got a two and a half day old sliver of the Moon high and mostly clear of the crud and kept checking small open patches for Venus. Scored that one after a bit. Then the clouding drifted off to the left and left my horizon wide open. Clear and rather cool, nice view but that also translated to condensation and dampness.
Watched Venus and the Moon get eaten by the horizon, had never done that with the latter before. Distance between us and Mars is currently increasing and it's getting a bit tough to hit but got it in the bag before breaking down at about 22:45.
- a total
- the full annular one could've gotten in some godforsaken patches of the Northern Hemisphere
- mostly obstructed
- cloud free
but a pretty astounding experience nevertheless.
I hadn't known anything was gonna be happening before it hit the mainstream media a week and a half or so prior and in this neck of the woods the show was gonna be mostly over by the time the Sun climbed to the horizon at 05:58 EDT and totally over about 29 minutes later - weather permitting.
I scouted three reasonably local locations with fair shots to the NE but wasn't thrilled with the treelines at any of them. Started gravitating towards the end of the pier at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation - 38°55'55.23" N 076°27'41.58" W.
Errands had taken me to Annapolis both days of the prior weekend and on that Saturday afternoon I ran things by a staffer. He said the gate would be locked at that time of "day" but suggested parking just outside of it and hiking in - 0.27 miles.
Scoped from the dock hoping to score Dolphins. Hot and windy and the turbulence neutralized me pretty well. After about a third of the way straight across the Bay everything was garbage.
Next afternoon was back, air was a lot more civilized but nothing particularly interesting for the glass. Sun (and Moon) would be cracking the horizon at an azimuth of about 62 degrees - from my position pretty much precisely at the far end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
As the hour approached late in the week the forecast and weather were fairly crappy. Thursday afternoon hauled my scope out onto and up the street for a practice run as the Sun was making a showing, nearly drowned in an abrupt downpour.
Was able to make a second effort shortly thereafter, went down the street and around the corner to my old Jupiter/Saturn conjunction post. After a little effort I was able to get some reasonably clean disk time. (And had to redirect a Cicada who'd mistaken me for a tree.)
Evening sky looked crappy for my regular evening planets station and I happily bailed on that mission and worked on getting organized. Lotsa prep, very little sleep, sky looking good at 03:00, took a scope up the street to nail Jupiter and Saturn - both well in the clear and brilliant.
Was planning on going in with just the 95 and broke everything down for backpack configuration. Had the alarm set for 04:30 just in case, was organized, loaded, and rolling shortly thereafter. Nice look at a Red Fox shortly before goal.
Was starting to maneuver for the little patch outside the gate when I noticed that the gate was wide freakin' open. That sure made things a lot easier and better. I was out on the pier by about 05:00.
The overhead sky had gotten fairly light but Jupiter was still blazing naked eye. Hit it with the binocular, got the 95 up and on it pretty quick for the moons, no sign of Saturn.
Still lotsa time so back to the car for the 85 assembly.
Two scopes, stabilized binocular, filters for everything, step stool, Walkstool, folding lawn chair, packing gear organized and safely stowed and secured. There was a low thick cloud layer over the relevant horizon but it obviously wouldn't be a problem for very long.
You could see things starting to glow where you knew the Sun was coming up and you knew it wouldn't be long. Fairly abruptly a deep red parallelogram punched through and you could see some of the left area had a black disk cut into it.
In no time a lot of the eclipse had emerged still deep dark cool red - and black - and I hit it with the 95 - unfiltered - for a few seconds. Then I chickened out, put filters on everything, gave it another shot.
Doable but real dark for a short bit. Continued to climb, clear, brighten, emerge. Looked like really great effects from a quality sci-fi movie. Didn't look like anything you'd expect to see from this planet.
This:
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/photos-ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-seen-in-dc-maryland-virginia/2697726/
Photos: 'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse Over DC, Maryland, Virginia - NBC4 Washington
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51242082767_0912068330_o.jpg
is a wee bit under thirty miles west from where I was set up and very close to what I was seeing.
It soon fully cleared (as it has above) and climbed through I think two more cloud layers - alternating between full and zero visibility with a fair bit less Moon disk each time.
One more cloud layer, disappeared, waited, reemerging, kept watching and praying for a little fragment of remaining black disk... Nope. Over. Xavier...
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/
...says it quit at 06:28:59.2 EDT.
During cloud-outs I scanned 2.3 miles of the shoreline - just off of which I was parked - between the mouths of the Severn and South Rivers and I feel safe in saying there wasn't one single motherfucker with the slightest interest in what was going on in the sky.
Several guys upstream were strolling towards me within easy view of my setup. Zero interest.
Downstream on the beach within easy hailing distance there was a female person with a fairly serious looking camera aiming towards the Sun but it was obvious she just taking artsy shots of the morning Sun reflecting off the water - probably with zero awareness and virtually certainly zero interest in this global news event. And there was no way in hell I was gonna call out an invite.
Tons of Cicadas washed up on the beach. At one point one of the nearby clusters of Canada Geese took a break from floating and grazed on them for a bit.
Did a counterclockwise scan of all the water surface in range. Pretty good visibility but nothing unusual showed up. Broke down, packed up, hauled out - totally fried physically.
Night skies were wiped out that and the next and the situation wasn't looking great last evening but I gave it a go anyway.
I think it was Wednesday evening that I realized that what I'd been seeing and reporting as Mercury for some time was actually Venus. Need to go back and figure out when, how, why I started making the substitution.
Most of yesterday the sky was mostly clear but crudded up in the West in the evening. Thought I'd be able to do something with it anyway and headed out to my Observatory station. Heavy clouding in the action area but their were breaks through which I thought I'd be able to score.
Soon got a two and a half day old sliver of the Moon high and mostly clear of the crud and kept checking small open patches for Venus. Scored that one after a bit. Then the clouding drifted off to the left and left my horizon wide open. Clear and rather cool, nice view but that also translated to condensation and dampness.
Watched Venus and the Moon get eaten by the horizon, had never done that with the latter before. Distance between us and Mars is currently increasing and it's getting a bit tough to hit but got it in the bag before breaking down at about 22:45.