It was quite a moving sight; not only is it a rare event that two such prominent celestial bodies meet in the night sky (or day sky), but it is a rare event that the moon is in the waxing phase. The stellar images of observed astronomy that permeate the internet and textbooks usually deal with full moons or new moons (ok, the 'lack' of moon during the new moon) but this event, which can still be sort of witnessed, brought together a 'fingernail' waxing moon, giving quite a lot of texture and emotion to the sight. Further, because it was just passed new moon and thus the bulk of the rocky orbital satellite was darkened, it gave an eerie sight - Earthshine (the reflection of light off Earth and incident on the moon) gave an glowing red hue to the remainder of the moon. So, not only was the moon and Venus in close proximity, and not only was the moon in a very uncommon phase, but the rest of the moon was a beautiful red glowing beacon of astronomical wonder. I enjoyed it immensely. We tried to take a gander again last night but the clouds had other plans. Maybe god was angry because I don't believe in him, so he negated my viewing for the evening. I will pray today and see if that helps the seeing tonight.
What if I pray to Allah? That'll piss of Jesus and the crew, no doubt.
So, on Thursday, I took out my camera and got to work. I thought they would turn out horrible as I was in the city with significant light-pollution and only had the normal camera (non-astrophotographical equipment).
Alas, I came in and checked out my attempts and found that they turned out quite fine. I share them here with you.
LINK: www.greatturtlerace.com This is a site that is dedicated to following a researched group of 11 Leatherback sea turtles as they move from their nesting sites in Costa Rica to the Galapagos. There is a significant amount of research here, but the main intent is for school education. Nonetheless, there is a really neat tracking map and animations to follow.
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