It pays to be in the right place at the right time.
Sun
Analemma Project
In late December, the Sun was low in the southern sky for those of us in the northern hemisphere. As the weeks and months passed, the Sun crossed the sky at higher altitudes. By late June, it reached its highest arc before starting downward again. The low point in December is the Winter Solstice while the high point in June is the Summer Solstice.
Imagine placing a south pointing camera with a very accurate clock timer in a permanent location to record the Sun’s altitude in the sky every week or so at noon for an entire year. The series of photos would record the vertical change of the Sun as you would expect. But, another thing would be obvious in the photos. The Sun would also show changes in horizontal position in the photos. Here is a good example made by Giuseppe Petricca from Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy. This figure is called an Analemma.
Lunar Pi-clipse | 14 Mar 2025
Many people were able to see the recent lunar eclipse. I am certain many slept through it. I’ve seen many of them and decided that a view through the living room window was good enough this time. I went back to bed. Later in the day I was curious about the other more unique views that others enjoyed. I will share three of them here.
Space Weather Image Gallery
I frequently visit Spaceweather to look at user-submitted images from around the world. I found this composite of a sequence of images taken by Tom Laskowski of Indiana.
Goodbye Comet C/2023 A3
The night of 27 Oct 2024 was my last sighting of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Others with high-end telescopes and equipment will continue to image it for a few weeks. But, it is going beyond the reach of my cameras. I used desktop software that predicted where to look. I tried to see it using 15x binoculars with no success. I put my phone on a tripod with the camera in PRO mode of 3200 ISO and an 8 sec exposure. Only then could I see it…..just barely. This image looks southwest.
It has been fun following the progress of this comet. It was discovered early in 2023 hence the A3 designation. Astronomers soon plotted the orbit and found it would pass very close to the Sun. It was going to rapidly move between Earth and the Sun. After that, no one knew whether it would survive the close encounter or be a brilliant display.
My first view was in late September. I wrote about it in this blog post. It was barely visible to me then. For a few days in the second week of October, the comet passed between Earth and the Sun. It was not visible to us due to the glare of the Sun. But a spacecraft was positioned so it did record the passage. I wrote about that in this blog post.
The comet emerged and has put on a wonderful display to amateur and professional astronomers. Pictures have been posted from all over the world. A blogger friend Bob in British Columbia shared this photo as well as several others.
Rarely does a comet put on a lengthy display like this one. If you missed this one, it will return in 80,000 years. I wonder if any humans will see it.
Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
This much anticipated comet finally became visible here in the central US at 42˚ north latitude. Very clear skies the morning of 26 September allowed my wife and I an opportunity to see it. We knew it would be a challenge as we headed for a site with a clear view to the east. We brought binoculars and my camera with tripod. The comet rose a few minutes before 6 AM local time. The sky was just beginning to brighten some. We scanned the horizon back and forth hoping to spot it but to no avail. I set up my camera assuming it would probably capture something better than my 77 yr old eyes. It did. The comet is near the center of the yellow box in this unaltered image.
How I See It 