Niagara

Always amazing and always different.

Got no mountain, got no dome. Still I love what I can see from home - I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night!

from Annie Get Your Telescope… of course.

Clair de Lune

Happy New Year, my friends.

Sweet Pitatus

I love the diversity of lunar surface in this field surrounding the large flooded crater Pitatus… the strange little concentric rimmed crater Hesiodus A, ancient eroded Gauricus and its neighbor, even more ancient and eroded Wurzelbauer. I also love the name of this picture… one of my best (or worst) lunar puns. 8^)

Astronomers Three

Seen at their best near first and last quarter, Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel are stunning in any telescope. There is so much lunar history packed into this rugged landscape. The intriguing little chain of craterlets called Catena Davy gives us clues to the fact that the moon is not standing still. Click here for a closer look. 

Moon Babies

Lunar craters don’t change much. There is no atmosphere or weather to disrupt them… only the solar wind and debris from subsequent impacts. I am guessing Aristarchus looks much as it did shortly after it was formed 450 million years ago. Click on the image to see the full sized version and wider field field of view. 

Moonrise at 30,000 feet

…one of the reasons why I always ask for a window seat.

moonrise and sunset

Opposites attract. From the rooftop of the Buffalo Museum of Science, a full moon rising. The sun paints the sky 180 degrees away and equidistant beneath the western horizon. 

Losing It

The eclipse of August 28, 2007 happened as planned. Even the clouds cooperated, parting to allow us a clear view from the rooftop of the Buffalo Museum of Science. But this was a pre-dawn transit of the moon through earth’s shadow. Just as totality began in the west, the rising sun in the east quickly brightened the sky. The shades of blue mixed with the rusty tint of the shadowed moon made for a very neat display of color and contrast as the moon set behind the city.

Waiting…

… for an eclipse of the moon to start, August 28, 2007… and for the clouds to pass. Sometimes, in Buffalo, it can be a long wait.